Nationals rally, beat Brewers, advance to face Dodgers
WASHINGTON >> Washington’s Juan Soto delivered a bases-loaded single against Josh Hader that scored three runs with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning, and the Nationals rallied to beat the Milwaukee Brewers 4-3 in the National League wild-card game Tuesday night.
After Hader loaded the bases by hitting one batter, walking another and allowing a bloop single, Soto took a 96-mph fastball to right, and the ball skipped under outfielder Trent Grisham’s glove. That error allowed the go-ahead run to cross the plate.
Soto was caught in a rundown to end the inning, but that didn’t matter: He had turned a 3-1 deficit into a lead, and so he clapped his hands, then pounded his chest and high-fived thirdbase coach Bob Henley, shouting “Let’s go!”
Stephen Strasburg threw three scoreless innings to earn the win in the first relief appearance of his major league career, regular season or playoffs. Daniel Hudson pitched the ninth for the save. The Nationals, so familiar with playoff heartache, now will carry a ninegame winning streak into their best-of-5 NL Division Series against the NL West champion Dodgers. Game 1 is Thursday in Los Angeles.
Washington had been 0-3 in winner-take-all postseason games, all NLDS Game 5 losses at home. Things didn’t look good early for Washington.
Yasmani Grandal and Eric Thames homered in the first two innings off Nationals ace Max Scherzer, whose teams had lost each of his most recent seven postseason games.
Washington got one run back on a solo shot from Trea Turner in the third.