Cleveland Indians at Washington Nationals. September 27th, 2019.

A battle between two wild-card hopefuls was underway in our nation’s capital. Both teams were quick to take zeros off the scoreboard. Center fielder Gerardo Parra scorched a two-out, two-run double to right-center field in the bottom of the second inning to put the Washington on the board first. Cleveland answered in the top half of the third with a single and a run batted in (RBI) from third baseman Ryan Flaherty and a sacrifice fly off the bat of shortstop Francisco Lindor to even it up at two runs apiece.

Veteran infielder Asdrubal Cabrera opened the floodgates for the Nationals with a clutch three-run double and the hammer was thrown down with a massive two-run home run by shortstop Trea Turner. Parra added on with a solo job and the usual chants of “Baby Shark” came raining down on the outfielder as he was rounding the bases. 

As for the visiting Indians, their offense was totally and utterly inept from the fourth inning on. Nationals pitchers held Cleveland to no runs on just one hit, no walks, and six strikeouts in the finals two-thirds of this affair. 

Washington improved to 91 wins and 69 losses and as of now hold a 1 and ½ game lead over the Milwaukee Brewers for home-field advantage in the National League Wild-Card game, which is to be played this Tuesday. Despite the Indians being two games better than the Nationals in their overall win and loss records (93-67), Cleveland has been eliminated from playoff contention with the Tampa Bay Rays defeating the Toronto Blue Jays 6 to 2. Tampa clinched the second of two wild card spots and Cleveland is heading home.

The top performers were Gerardo Parra as he had three hits in three at-bats with one run, a sacrifice fly, four RBI’s, and he came a triple away from the cycle. That is when a player hits a single, double, triple, and a home run in one game. Kurt Suzuki hit once safely in three at bats with a walk and two runs scored. 

The final score in this ballgame was the Washington Nationals 8 and the Cleveland Indians 2.