On Sunday, the Washington Nationals had a miraculous comeback against the New York Mets, fueled by some careless defensive errors by the team from Queens and some timely hitting. The Nationals, who once trailed 7-1 heading into the bottom of the 7th inning, ended up coming all the way back to win the game 8-7, and they can thank former National Juan Soto for being part of the reason why.
In that bottom of the 7th inning, when the Nationals began to make their furious comeback attempt, Luis Garcia Jr. hit a fly ball into right field that looked like an easy pop fly for baseball's richest man, Juan Soto, to catch. Whether or not he lost the ball in the sun or just gave a feeble effort is not really a major excuse, as his misplay, his 2nd in 3 days that ended up being very costly, helped the Nationals to start their rally.
Garcia Jr. would end up with a double, and would score 2 batters later on an RBI single from Josh Bell. From there, the comeback was in full tilt, as the line kept moving with 2 outs and included an RBI single from Alex Call that scored Bell to make it 7-3, then a 3-run homer by Riley Adams to make it 7-6. The entire complexion of the game changed when Soto failed to field the fly ball, and it gave the Nationals another chance to pull off what was maybe the most exciting game of the season for the club.
Of course, the Nationals would threaten but fail to push a run across in the 8th inning, but would come up huge in the 9th inning. Call led off with a double, and CJ Abrams would score pinch runner Jacob Young on an RBI single to right to knot the game at 7 apiece. The game would be capped off as Luis Garcia Jr. would get up again and hit a grounder to the right side where Pete Alonso would make a throwing error to allow Abrams to score the winning run. It was the 2nd time in just 3 days that the Nationals would walk-off the Mets out of nowhere, and Soto's defense definitely played a part in both games.
The fact that the Nationals were able to get the win despite a subpar outing from lefty starter Mitchell Parker, who has been lights out so far outside of Sunday, AND the fact that the club got competent performances from struggling relievers Colin Poche and Lucas Sims is a major victory.
The Nationals will go for the series victory today, seeking to claim 3 of 4 from the Mets in Juan Soto's first time playing in DC as a member of the Mets. Washington will send righty Trevor Williams to the mound against righty Griffin Canning for the Mets.
Are you thanking Juan Soto for his blunder? As always, please let me know on X, @DCBerk.