After Daniel Murphy fouled off Mark Melancon’s cutter and broke his bat, the Washington Nationals’ second baseman was just happy he didn’t ground out. Murphy, who was pinch hitting in the ninth inning, had not had an at-bat since his three in the All-Star Game last Tuesday and missed the first two games against the Pittsburgh Pirates with left hamstring soreness.
Murphy grabbed a new bat, readied himself for the next cutter and slugged a home run.
“I think the nicest thing was [Melancon] made his pitch and I didn’t roll it over to the first baseman,” Murphy said. “It’s always nice to make your move on a pitch and make an adjustment from there. He made a really good pitch and I was able to get rid of it. Next one was a little bit farther down. He wanted to bury it at my back foot and caught the edge of the plate I think. I was just fortunate enough to get one there near the plate.”
Max Scherzer, who pitched seven innings and allowed one run, said he was expecting Murphy to come through. What he didn’t expect was for Murphy’s heroics to set in motion an 18-inning marathon, one the Nationals lost, 2-1, after Pirates left fielder Starling Marte hit a solo home run in the top of the 18th to put Pittsburgh ahead.
“We’re all calling it, we knew it was going to happen,” Scherzer said. “As soon as he hit it, we said we were going to play 16 innings. We were wrong. We played 18.”
Manager Dusty Baker emptied the bullpen, using all seven of his relievers to get through the next 11 innings. Sammy Solis was unavailable because of a knee injury.
There were missed opportunities, such as the Nationals failing to score a run in the bottom of the 10th inning after consecutive walks by right fielder Bryce Harper and catcher Wilson Ramos. First baseman Clint Robinson struck out and infielder Stephen Drew grounding into a double play to end the inning.
There were mistakes, too, such as rookie Trea Turner getting thrown out at second base in the bottom of the 17th inning when he tried to stretch a routine leadoff single into a double. Marte looked as if he was nonchalantly lobbing the ball back to the infield and the speedy Turner tried to take advantage, but Marte’s throw had beat him.
“Just wanted to be aggressive, take a chance,” said Turner. “Looking back, obviously a dumb play because it didn’t work. That’s baseball — learn from it and move on.”
The most costly mistake came in the top of the 18th. With two outs and Marte at bat, pitcher Jonathon Niese was on deck. The Pirates were out of pinch hitters but by the time Baker could signal the intentional walk, Marte blasted Perez’s first pitch for a home run. Niese struck out looking to end the inning.
“That was my fault,” Baker said. “It falls on me. I got a scorecard right next to me. I keep the last outs, double switches…there were so many scratches on my lineup card. I said out loud, ’We have Niese on deck,’ and boom it was a home run. I couldn’t get Willy’s attention. It happened so fast.”
Leading into the All-Star Game, Baker talked about the importance of the team playing through the break, rather than to it, so to come out with momentum on the other side. The Nationals did so and won three of four games against the New York Mets and took two of three games against the Pirates before losing on Sunday.
“It’s a good series win coming out of the break,” Murphy said. “I think it starts with the starting pitching, with [Stephen Strasburg] and Tanner [Roark]. And Max today, it’s a tough-luck loss, he threw the ball great. To get two out of three is a nice way to start the homestand off.”
The Nationals have Monday off and will play six home games — three against the Los Angeles Dodgers and three against the San Diego Padres.
• Anthony Gulizia can be reached at agulizia@washingtontimes.com.
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