Saturday, June 5, 2021

Game 56 - 2019 Topps #581 Travis Jankowski

Nationals 2
, Phillies 1
Game 56 - Friday Night, June 4th in Philadelphia
Record - 26-30, 3rd Place, 4 games behind the Mets

One Sentence Summary:  The Nationals ultimately prevailed, 2-1, in this pitcher's duel between Max Scherzer and Zack Wheeler.

What It Means:  This was an otherwise enjoyable game to watch up until the final inning.

What Happened:  Scherzer went 7 2/3 innings, allowing a fourth inning RBI single to J.T. Realmuto that scored Jean Segura who had singled to lead off the inning, and then stole second.  Wheeler allowed a fourth inning RBI-double to Josh Bell that dropped in between left fielder Andrew McCutchen and shortstop Ronald Torreyes.  Juan Soto hit a long solo home run in the sixth to give the Nationals the lead, and with the score at 2-1, the game entered the ninth inning.

Featured Card:  Rhys Hoskins doubled off Nationals' reliever Daniel Hudson to start the inning and was replaced at second base by pinch-runner Travis Jankowski.  With Realmuto at the plate as the potential winning run, Jankowski wondered too far off second and was inexplicably caught stealing when the Nationals' catcher, Alex Avila, simply ran towards him and tagged him out.  It was awful to watch and it's something that simply can't happen.  Realmuto struck out on the next pitch and suddenly the Phillies had no runners on and two outs.  Brad Hand relieved Hudson and Hand got Brad Miller to fly to center to end the game.

Look, no one feels worse about this than Jankowski, and hopefully the former Phillies fan gets a chance to redeem himself at some point.

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