PHILADELPHIA -- The Nationals finally snapped their seven-game slide Wednesday night at Citizens Bank Park, and they needed every bit of a strange, scrappy 11-inning effort to do it.
The game was tied 3-3 after the 10th, with the NL East foes trading runs to force one more inning. Washington had automatic runner Brady House on second when Jacob Young worked a walk off Caleb Kilian.
Then CJ Abrams nearly put the whole thing away in one swing, blasting a Statcast-projected 407-foot fly ball that came up just short of the center-field wall. It still counted in the biggest way, turning into a two-run triple that pushed the Nationals ahead 6-4.
From there, manager Blake Butera had to get creative. With the bench emptied and no position players left, he turned to scheduled Thursday starter Miles Mikolas, who had not taken an at-bat since 2021. Mikolas came through in the most old-school way possible, deadening a 95.7 mph fastball inside and laying down a sacrifice bunt to bring Abrams home from third.
That RBI was a rare one for a Nationals pitcher. It came nearly five years to the day after the last Washington pitcher drove in a run, when Erick Fedde did it against the Braves on Aug. 6, 2021.
For a club that had been fighting to stop the bleeding, the win carried real weight. Washington had gone from chasing a Wild Card spot to trying to steady itself in the standings, and Wednesday night was a much-needed step in that direction.
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