It had been 10 days since Amed Rosario, Nasim Nu\u00f1ez and Alex Call last found themselves in the Nationals\u2019 starting lineup. That\u2019s an eternity for big leaguers who were on the active roster that entire time but were confined to the bench, keeping themselves ready in case the call came but never actually participating (aside from one token inning in the field for Nu\u00f1ez at the end of a blowout win in Seattle).<\/p>\n
So when the opportunity finally presented itself Wednesday night, with all three reserves finding themselves in Davey Martinez\u2019s lineup against Cubs left-hander Matthew Boyd, it admittedly took a little while to get back into the swing of things.<\/p>\n
Once they did, all three contributed in meaningful ways, making the Nats\u2019 2-0 victory possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re mentally strong,\u201d Nu\u00f1ez said. \u201cWe understand the situation that we haven\u2019t played in a while, so we do what we have to do to stay ready and help the team win some type of way.\u201d<\/p>\n
It began in the field with Call chasing down Seiya Suzuki\u2019s fifth-inning blooper in shallow right, making a diving stab at the ball and immediately jogging off the field confident he had recorded the third out. The Cubs did challenge, believing Call trapped the ball in his glove after it touched grass, but there wasn\u2019t enough conclusive evidence to overturn, so the initial call stood.<\/p>\n
Then it was Rosario\u2019s turn at the plate. With the game still scoreless and Boyd having only allowed his first baserunner in the sixth (on Nu\u00f1ez\u2019s walk), Rosario came up to bat to lead off the seventh and went after the left-hander\u2019s first-pitch fastball. The pitch, as it turns out, was well off the plate. But Rosario found a way to reach out and still make solid contact, the ball sailing on a line toward the right field wall.<\/p>\n
Did he think it would clear the wall?<\/p>\n
\u201cNot really,\u201d Rosario said, via interpreter Mauricio Ortiz. \u201cThat\u2019s why I kind of sprinted toward first.\u201d<\/p>\n
The veteran infielder was able to slow down once he reached first base and coast the rest of the way around, because it did clear the wall and landed in the glove of Nats bullpen catcher Jarrett Gonzales for the solo homer that gave the Nationals a 1-0 lead.<\/p>\n
Rosario said he was \u201cready for anything\u201d from Boyd. Nu\u00f1ez told a slightly different version of the story.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe told me he wasn\u2019t going to get a fastball. And he got a fastball, and then he hit a home run,\u201d the young infielder said. \u201cI was like: \u2018You\u2019re a liar!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Nu\u00f1ez would have his moment the following inning. With one out and Call (who singled to lead off the eighth) at first base, he battled through a 10-pitch at-bat against Boyd, fouling off everything the Cubs starter offered up. And then he finally got something he could handle and turned on the 10th pitch, ripping a double down the third base line, the ball reaching the left field corner as Call raced all the way around to score a huge insurance run.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was kind of fun,\u201d Nu\u00f1ez said. \u201cAs that at-bat was going, I was just competing at that point. Who was going to let up first, and I didn\u2019t want it to be me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a heck of an at-bat against a guy who\u2019s throwing the ball really well,\u201d manager Davey Martinez said. \u201cIt was awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n
With those contributions, the Nationals might well have wasted MacKenzie Gore\u2019s seven scoreless inning gem against one of the best lineups in baseball. Thanks to those contributions from three guys who hadn\u2019t seen the field in quite some time but made sure they remained ready through it all, this turned into one of the Nats\u2019 better wins of the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s my mentality,\u201d Rosario said. \u201cThat\u2019s a big influence I always try to come and get prepared as if I\u2019m in the lineup.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It had been 10 days since Amed Rosario, Nasim Nu\u00f1ez and Alex Call last found themselves in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81569,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2398],"tags":[909,1348,5,908,4,11193,415,568,414,71,4222],"class_list":{"0":"post-81568","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-washington-nationals","8":"tag-alex-call","9":"tag-amed-rosario","10":"tag-baseball","11":"tag-mark-zuckerman","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-nasim-nunez","14":"tag-nationals","15":"tag-nationals-featured","16":"tag-washington","17":"tag-washington-nationals","18":"tag-washingtonnationals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114631697050199160","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}