{"id":2192,"date":"2026-05-31T07:34:32","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T07:34:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=2192"},"modified":"2026-05-31T07:34:32","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T07:34:32","slug":"with-a-six-run-seventh-nationals-take-down-padres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=2192","title":{"rendered":"With a six-run seventh, Nationals take down Padres"},"content":{"rendered":"

Washington struck late against San Diego ace Michael King in a 9-4 win.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n
Luis Garcia Jr.’s single brought in two of the Nationals’ runs during their big seventh inning. (Samuel Corum\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

The Washington Nationals played a patient game Saturday. For six innings, they waited out San Diego Padres ace Michael King, and in the seventh, they finally pounced.<\/p>

Read more Mexican designer blends soccer and pre-Hispanic culture ahead of the World Cup<\/a><\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t flashy. Only two balls left the infield as a combination of singles, walks, hit batters and fielder\u2019s choices put six runs across. The Nationals ran hard, put their bodies on the line by sliding headfirst and kept the line moving en route to a 9-4 victory. If they take the rubber match Sunday, it will be the sixth series in a row they have won or split.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it rains, it pours with our offense,\u201d catcher Drew Millas said. \u201cIt\u2019s contagious. We did a great job of that tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Washington Manager Blake Butera knew King would be tough to crack. He saw it firsthand when they were teammates at Boston College in 2014 and 2015. Even back then, Butera had a feeling King\u2019s talent and athleticism would allow him to go far in the sport.<\/p>\n

And King showed just why in the first five innings, needing just 47 pitches to get the first 15 outs. His only blemish was in the third inning, when Millas hit a solo home run.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a really good pitcher in this game for a reason,\u201d Butera said. \u201cI thought he did a really good job mixing speeds, throwing strikes. It was just hard to get into a rhythm against him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Nationals starter Foster Griffin allowed three homers in five innings. In the second inning, Xander Bogaerts sent a cutter 417 feet into center field. Two innings later, Manny Machado crushed a sweeper off the netting on the left field foul pole. And in the fifth, Fernando Tatis Jr. finally hit his first home run of the season, a 451-foot no-doubter that landed deep in the seats behind left field. He threw his arms up as soon as he made contact.<\/p>\n

But that was all the damage San Diego would do against Griffin, who scattered two other hits and three walks. The left-hander used two double plays and five strikeouts to keep the Padres in check.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say I had my best stuff, but I competed, tried to get through five and keep the team in it,\u201d Griffin said.<\/p>

Read more Athletics get wrong end of an apparent ABS mistake against the Yankees<\/a><\/p>\n

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Padres shortstop Xander Bogaerts missed the bag in front of a sliding Dylan Crews on a groundball that could have been a double play in the seventh. (Geoff Burke\/Imagn Images\/Reuters Connect)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

King started to crack in the sixth, with Nasim Nu\u00f1ez and Luis Garc\u00eda Jr. lining singles. The next inning, the real crusade began. CJ Abrams led off with a single, then Jos\u00e9 Tena reached safely after Tatis made a diving snag on his grounder but couldn\u2019t make an accurate throw to second. Jorbit Vivas walked to load the bases, and King drilled Dylan Crews\u2019s hand on the first pitch to bring in a run.<\/p>\n

That was the end of the line for King, who gave way to Bradgley Rodriguez. Millas hit a tailor-made double-play ball to Tatis, who threw to Bogaerts, but the shortstop didn\u2019t touch the bag in time, and Crews collided with him to prevent a relay to first. Tena scored to tie the game, and the Nationals had no outs when they could have had two. San Diego Manager Craig Stammen, who pitched seven seasons for Washington, received his first career ejection for arguing after an unsuccessful challenge.<\/p>\n

Once play resumed, pinch hitter Curtis Mead then walked, sending in another run to take a 4-3 lead, and Garc\u00eda brought two more runs in on a single. Daylen Lile ended the scoring spree by beating out another potential double-play ball to make it 7-3.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe put together a bunch of good at-bats and ran the bases really well. We have a lot of confidence in this group,\u201d Millas said. \u201cIt\u2019s very contagious when somebody gets going, and this group just feeds off one another, and we did that today.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Brad Lord pitched two scoreless innings in relief of Griffin, Gus Varland got two quick outs in the eighth before the next four Padres reached. Clayton Beeter got Ty France to ground out to leave the bases loaded, and the Nationals added two more runs in the bottom of the eighth off a Mead double before Beeter closed it out.<\/p>\n

It was another scrappy, come-from-behind win, showcasing just what this team thinks it\u2019s capable of accomplishing this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur guys played for each other and played hard,\u201d Butera said. \u201cThey\u2019re not doing it for themselves, they\u2019re doing it for the team. And I think when you talk about the identity and the culture we are trying to build here, hopefully fans enjoy watching that baseball because whether we win or lose, they\u2019re giving it everything they have to help us win that game.\u201d<\/p>

Read more Athletics hit 3 homers to beat Yankees 6-4 and snap a 4-game losing streak<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Washington struck late against San Diego ace Michael King in a 9-4 win.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2189,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nWith a six-run seventh, Nationals take down Padres - Moving Insider USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=2192\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"With a six-run seventh, Nationals take down Padres - Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Washington struck late against San Diego ace Michael King in a 9-4 win.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=2192\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-31T07:34:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/d860fa56e3a24d7b1ef066ec567a281a-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2192#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2192\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/22d40ab81790f6a361021763bb56ef03\"},\"headline\":\"With a six-run seventh, Nationals take down Padres\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-31T07:34:32+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2192\"},\"wordCount\":900,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2192#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/c10e52de9e02b387292ad0874afbc57d-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Interesting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2192#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2192\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2192\",\"name\":\"With a six-run seventh, Nationals take down Padres - Moving Insider USA\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2192#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2192#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/c10e52de9e02b387292ad0874afbc57d-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-31T07:34:32+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/22d40ab81790f6a361021763bb56ef03\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2192#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2192\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2192#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/c10e52de9e02b387292ad0874afbc57d-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/c10e52de9e02b387292ad0874afbc57d-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1707,\"caption\":\"WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 30: First baseman Luis Garcia Jr. #2 of the Washington Nationals reacts while running to first base after hitting a ground ball to center field bringing in two runs in the seventh inning against the San Diego Padres at Nationals Park on May 30, 2026 in Washington, DC. 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