Washington Nationals: Lasting impressions of 2017
By Ron Juckett
ROSS SHINBERG
My lasting impression was overshadowed by the events of the following night, but it’s a moment I will never forget.
Its Game 4 of the 2017 NLDS. It’s the top of the eighth with two outs and the bases loaded. Cubs reliever Wade Davis enters the game to keep the game at 1-0. Michael A. Taylor steps into the box.
Taylor rips at a fastball right down Broadway. I jump up from the couch in my dorm floor lounge at the crack of the bat knowing it’s headed for the gap. But the ball keeps going. And going. And it sits down in the basket above the ivy at Wrigley Field.
Nationals radio broadcaster Charlie Slowes says it best: “With the wind blowing in on a day when no one could hit it out, Michael Taylor has hit a grand slam!”
I stand there for a solid 30 seconds, arms in the air. I look over at my friend who was watching with me. She looks back at me, stunned, perhaps confused, but with a huge smile on her face. I sit back down and break the silence with the only word that came to my mind: “Wow.”
Remember that this was a road elimination game? Remember the drama with Stephen Strasburg and his flu six hours prior? And who can forget the constant reminders that the Nationals have never won a playoff series?
Sorry, Jayson Werth. Michael A. Taylor now owns the single greatest play in Nationals history.