The Nationals faced off against the St. Louis Cardinals Friday, March 5, at the Ballpark of the Palm Beaches. Max Scherzer made his first start of the year. He allowed 2 earned runs in just under 2 innings of work. The game was back and forth throughout, but with the Nationals in the lead for most of the game. The first lead the Nationals had came in the first inning, when catcher Alex Avila hit a three run home run. The next really big moment came in the bottom half of the ninth inning. The Cardinals tied the game in the top half of the inning, and if the Nationals didn’t score in the bottom half of the inning, the game would end in a tie. With 2 outs in the inning, the Nationals had runners on first and third with two outs in the inning. The runner, Yadiel Hernandez, took off running, and had second base all but stolen. The batter, Luis Garcia, however, barely tipped the ball, so Hernandez had to head back to first. The next pitch, Hernandez runs again. The catcher, Ali Sanchez, gets up and throws to second base. There was an issue though. No one was covering second base. So the runner on third jogged home to give the Nationals their first win of 2021.

Photos courtesy of:

federalbaseball.com