September 16, 2022: Joey Meneses’ inside-the-park home run sparks Nationals’ win over Marlins

As a 30-year-old rookie called up when the Washington Nationals traded away Juan Soto and Josh Bell at the August 2022 trade deadline,1 Joey Meneses didn’t waste any time making a splash. His first major-league hit in his August 2 debut was a home run—followed by four more in his first nine games.2 His seventh homer, a month after his debut, was a walk-off game-winner for the Nationals on September 1.

A native of Mexico, Meneses had spent 11 years in the minors and foreign leagues before making his major-league debut, so his immediate success in the majors was a bright spot in an otherwise dreary season for Nationals fans.3 It didn’t take long for the chants of “Let’s go, new guy!” to turn to “Joey! Joey!” in Nationals Park.4

When they opened a three-game weekend series at Nationals Park on September 16, the Miami Marlins (59-85) and the Nationals (49-94) were holding down the bottom two positions in the National League East—30½ and 40 games behind the first-place New York Mets. Miami’s head-to-head success against the Nationals accounted for the difference in the teams’ records: The Marlins were 12-1 against their NL East rival entering their final visit to Washington in 2022, with another series in Miami on the schedule.

Both teams were young. Each starting lineup on September 16 included three players with 2022 rookie status and two more who were rookies in 2020 or 2021.5

It was Hispanic Heritage night so the pregame ceremonies included players on the field holding their countries’ flags.6 Meneses participated, holding up the Mexican flag with his countrymen.

Nationals starting pitcher Josiah Gray (7-9, 5.06 ERA) hadn’t earned a win since July 6. He had accumulated four losses and five no-decisions since then. Part of the problem was stamina—he was averaging less than five innings per start over that period. Gray started this game on the right foot—the top of the Marlins lineup was out on six pitches in the first.

The top of the Nationals lineup didn’t fare any better against Marlins starter Jesús Luzardo (3-7, 3.81 ERA). Luzardo, originally drafted by the Nationals in 2016,7 needed only 13 pitches for a clean first inning.

Gray ran into trouble immediately in the top of the second. Nick Fortes led off with a single. JJ Bleday bounced a ground-rule double into the Nationals bullpen—Fortes would have scored if he hadn’t been held to two bases by the ground rules. Bryan De La Cruz and Miguel Rojas followed with RBI groundouts to put Miami up 2-0.

With the bases empty, Gray had a chance to get out of the inning with just those two runs, but he walked Jordan Groshans. Lewin Díaz hit the next pitch into the front row of seats over the right-field scoreboard to give Miami a 4-0 lead. That was the 37th home run allowed by Gray, more than anyone else in the majors.8

Luzardo had no such trouble with the heart of the Nationals order in the second. Although each of them fouled off pitches, Luke Voit and Ildemaro Vargas struck out and Luis García lined out.

In the third, Gray’s fielding, as much as his pitching, held Miami scoreless. Joey Wendle bunted just in front of the plate, but Gray scrambled for the ball and threw him out. After Brian Anderson and Fortes walked, Gray struck out Bleday for the second out. De La Cruz grounded toward second—and Gray ran to cover first and leapt to make an acrobatic catch for the third out.

The Nationals got their first hit in the bottom of the third—Victor Robles hit a one-out roller into left. He was immediately erased when CJ Abrams grounded into a double play, so Luzardo had faced the minimum through three innings.

Gray stabilized in the fourth, but only after shaking off Adams’s suggested pitches and allowing a single to Rojas. Apparently deciding to trust his catcher after that, Gray struck out Groshans, Díaz, and Jon Berti.

Lane Thomas singled to open the home half of the fourth, but was erased when Meneses grounded into a one-out double play. Shortstop Rojas dove for the ball and made an accurate toss to second from his knees.

In his final inning of work, Gray allowed only a single and a stolen base. At the end of the inning, the cameras caught manager Davey Martinez in the dugout with his hands on Gray’s shoulders, delivering an earnest pep talk.

“We’re not worried about the outcome right now,” Martinez told Gray. “We’re worried about the process. And you did really well today. I’m proud of you. You could’ve put your head down and went back out there after giving up four runs, but you threw up some zeros, and that’s a plus to me. And come next year, when you’re winning 16-17 games and you’re throwing 180-190 innings, you’ll learn from this.”9

The Nationals finally got a runner past first base in the fifth when Voit and García singled. But Luzardo got out of the inning without allowing them to advance farther.

Neither side-arming Nationals relief pitcher Steve Cishek nor Luzardo allowed a baserunner in the sixth.

Nationals pitcher Paolo Espino had more trouble with the Marlins than Cishek did. Espino allowed two singles in the seventh, but he sandwiched them between three strikeouts for a scoreless frame.

Luzardo had thrown only 97 pitches through six innings, giving him a good shot at equaling—or topping—his season high of seven innings pitched.

But Meneses led off the seventh with a hit off the padded portion of the center-field wall. The ball bounced off the wall and off the leaping Bleday’s leg, and scooted along the warning track paralleling the right-field scoreboard.

Right fielder Anderson had backed up Bleday, apparently expecting the ball to bounce back toward the infield. By the time the ball was tracked down and relayed in, Meneses was sliding across the plate with his first-ever10 inside-the-park home run—with his batting helmet still in place.

Once he made it to the dugout, his teammates fanned him with a towel. He took a curtain call as the first scoring cheer of the night (“N-A-T-S, Nats, Nats, Nats, WOO!”)11 echoed through the park. Meneses said later that he couldn’t believe it when he rounded second and saw third-base coach Gary DiSarcina waving him home.12

Luzardo walked Voit, his first walk of the night, and Marlins manager Don Mattingly replaced him with Tanner Scott. Vargas struck out, but back-to-back walks to García and Adams loaded the bases.

A visit from pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr. didn’t help—Robles’ sacrifice fly scored one and Abrams tied the game with a triple that evaded the diving right fielder Anderson. The Marlins third pitcher of the inning, Huascar Brazoban, struck out Thomas to hold the game tied, 4-4.

The third Nationals pitcher of the game was Carl Edwards Jr. in the top of the eighth. He allowed three singles—but no scoring. Bleday singled and was replaced by pinch-runner Luke Williams—who slipped diving back to first and was picked off.13 After De La Cruz struck out, Rojas and Groshans both singled—but Rojas tried to take third on Groshans’ hit. Right fielder Thomas’s throw beat him to the bag by 10 feet.

Cole Sulser took the mound for the Marlins in the bottom of the eighth, trying to preserve the tie. He issued a one-out walk to Meneses. Voit singled. Vargas’s hit landed close to the visitors’ bullpen and bounced over the fence for a ground-rule double, scoring Meneses for a 5-4 Nationals lead.

Miami then intentionally walked Garcia to load the bases. The strategy worked—Adams again grounded into a double play to end the inning.

Kyle Finnegan, who had been called on in high-leverage situations all year, pitched the ninth. The first out was a bit of an adventure—shortstop Abrams caught the ball between first and second but didn’t have time to field it properly so he flipped the ball from his glove. Meneses lunged for it and caught it just in time for the out. The second out was a more typical groundout to second.

With the crowd standing hoping for the last out, Wendle beat out a slow chopper to García—Meneses came off the bag to snag the offline throw and keep the ball from going out of play. Finnegan sent the Nationals fans home happy with a rare victory over Miami when Anderson grounded out.

Meneses’ inside-the-park home run was the first for the Nationals in almost two years—the previous one had been hit by Andrew Stevenson on September 26, 2020.

The Nationals fans were certainly disappointed with their team’s third consecutive last-place finish14 in 2022, but for one night they could cheer for a victory, and an exciting play by Joey Meneses—someone who might prove to be a part of a brighter Nationals future.15

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Thomas Brown and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org, and watched the MASN broadcast on MLB.com.

Topps Now card from author’s collection.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/WAS/WAS202209160.shtml 

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2022/B09160WAS2022.htm

Notes

1 On August 2 the Nationals traded Bell and Soto to the San Diego Padres. In return, they received six players: infield prospect CJ Abrams, outfield prospects James Wood and Robert Hassell, pitching prospects MacKenzie Gore and Jarlin Susana, and veteran first baseman and designated hitter Luke Voit.

2 That feat put him second only to Trevor Story of the Rockies (with seven) for homers in his first nine games. Jesse Dougherty, “Joey Meneses Keeps Sparking Nats—with Bats Borrowed Along the Way,” washingtonpost.com, August 13, 2022. https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/08/13/joey-meneses-keeps-sparking-nats-with-bats-borrowed-along-way/.

3 There were few players left from their 2019 World Series team after the Soto trade, and some of those who remained were injured or ineffective. For example, pitchers Stephen Strasburg, Tanner Rainey, and Sean Doolittle were injured, and Patrick Corbin had a 6.11 ERA.

4 Andrew Golden, “The Nationals’ Post-Soto Era Opens with a Surprisingly Uplifting Win,” washingtonpost.com, August 2, 2022. https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/08/02/nationals-mets-first-game-juan-soto-trade/.

5 Miami players in 2022 with rookie status were Fortes, Bleday, and Groshans; De La Cruz and Díaz were the recent rookies. Alex Call, Meneses, and Abrams were the 2022 Nationals rookies, with García and Adams as the recent rookies.

6 The Nationals players in this game represented four countries—Meneses was born in Mexico, Vargas in Venezuela, Robles in the Dominican Republic, and Espino in Panama. Manager Martinez, of Puerto Rican heritage although born in the US, helped hold the Puerto Rican flag. Considering the Marlins, they would have added another country—their starting pitcher was born in Peru.

7 He was traded to the A’s in July 2017, along with Sheldon Neuse and Blake Trienen, for Sean Doolittle and Ryan Madson. The A’s traded him in July 2021 to Miami for Starling Marte.

8 He finished the year with 38 home runs allowed, most in the majors.

9 Mark Zuckerman, “Nats Storm Back to Get Gray off Hook, Finally Beat Marlins,” masn.com, September 16, 2022. https://www.masnsports.com/blog/nats-storm-back-to-get-gray-off-hook-finally-beat-marlins.

10 Postgame interview with MASN sideline reporter Dan Kolko.

11 Dan Steinberg, “How a Fan Cheer Became a Part of a Nationals Park Wall,” washingtonpost.com, September 8, 2014. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/dc-sports-bog/wp/2014/09/08/how-a-fan-cheer-became-a-part-of-a-nationals-park-wall-woo/.

12 Mark Zuckerman.

13 This was the only time he was picked off in 23 pinch-running appearances in 2022.

14 The Marlins (69-93) finished in fourth place with the Nationals (55-107) in fifth, 32 and 46 games respectively back of the division-leading Braves and Mets (tied at 101-61). Despite their records, it was the Philadelphia Phillies (87-75) who made it to the World Series from the National League East (where they lost, 4-2, to the Astros).

15 Meneses finished the year with a .324 batting average and a .930 OPS in his 56 games in 2022. Tom Boswell, “Joey Meneses Seems Too Good to Be True. What if He’s for Real?” washingtonpost.com, September 29, 2022. https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/09/29/joey-meneses-washington-nationals/.