BRYCE AND EASY
Harper, Zimmerman HRs fuel 5-run 8th as Nats pull even in NLDS
WASHINGTON — For 16 National League Division Series innings, Washington received good, sometimes spectacular pitching. The offense? Well, the Nationals were more Skid Row than Murderers’ Row.
And that was being kind. Shut out with two singles in Game 1, they entered the eighth inning of Game 2 on Saturday at Nationals Park having added just two more hits and one run to their NLDS résumé. Everything changed in a nanosecond.
Which is about how long it took for Bryce Harper to reach the second deck with a man on to tie the game in the eighth. With electricity flowing throughout the joint, three batters later, Ryan Zimmerman added a three-run homer.
“Our pitchers have done their part. We let them down the first game, obviously, and then for seven innings of this game, we didn’t do much to help them, either,” Zimmerman said.
The five-run eighth inning changed all that, as the Nationals forged a rousing 6-3 victory, tying the NLDS at 1-1 and avoiding the very nasty prospect of heading to Wrigley Field for Monday’s Game 3 mired in an 0-2 ditch.
“Tried to get a pitch over the plate and drive it the best I could. Saw a loop in it, and tried to hit it as hard as I could,” said Harper of the hanging curve he blasted to transform the series.
“You felt we were in control of that game pretty much up to that point. You’ve got to tip you cap,” Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant said. “Sure, you want to be a little greedy if you have a chance to be 2-0. So now it’s a best of three with two games at home.”
And for so long it looked like the Cubs would need only to split at Wrigley, starting with Game 3 on Monday when they send Jose Quintana (11-11) against Max Scherzer (16-6). But Harper had so much to say and do about that scenario.
Before the game, Harper shrugged about any potential “pressure” of a Game 2. He had performed on huge stages before.
“I don’t want that to come off bad, but growing up, playing in front of 15,000 people at 10 years old, it’s kind of the same thing to me,” Harper said.
So a sellout crowd of 43,860 knowing the Nationals’ misery of never winning a playoff series likely rode with this game seemed, you know, minor in comparison.
The Nationals had struck first when Anthony Rendon homered in the first off Cubs starter Jon Lester. Chicago answered with Willson Contreras tagging Nationals starter Gio Gonzalez in the second with a foreshadowing shot — the ball got up in the air and carried to left. Anthony Rizzo smacked a two-run homer in the fourth inning. The shot, caught by a Cubs fan at the railing atop the wall in right was subjected to a crew chief review. The homer and the 3-1 stood.
Then it got crazy. Adam Lind, in his first postseason game, pinch-hit a single off Cubs reliever Carl Edwards Jr. One out later, Edwards faced the lefty Harper. Lefties hit .119 against Edwards this year.
“The tension and the frustration builds, and sometimes it takes kind of just one hit for everyone to exhale,” Zimmerman said.
And the crowd was essentially hyperventilating after Harper’s swing.
“Pretty good moment,” Harper understated.
“We all have faith in our ability to play baseball. We’re one of the best teams in the league allaround,” Harper said.