August 21, 2014: Nationals walk off Diamondbacks to extend winning streak to 10 games

walk-off 1. adj. Said of a game-ending event, such as a “walk-off single” that drives in the winning run in the bottom of the ninth or a “walk-off pitch” that results in a game winning home run. 2. n. The long walk off the mound taken by the pitcher who gives up a game-winning run, esp. a home run. 3. n. A game-winning home run.

walk off v. To end the game with a home run.  

– The Dickson Baseball Dictionary Third Edition1

There should be little doubt that the language of baseball, slang or otherwise, is as vital to our enjoyment of the game as the game itself. We may be sitting at the ballpark, watching on TV, or listening to a radio broadcast. Perhaps it is a newspaper account that catches our attention. Consider how the etymology associated with one of baseball’s most dramatic and emphatic events, the walk-off, has evolved since first use.  

The term walk-off  entered the baseball lexicon in 1988, as noted by author Paul Dickson: “The term was coined by Oakland Athletics pitcher Dennis Eckersley for that lonely stroll from the mound after a pitcher gives up the winning run.”2

Eckersley was a victim, pitching against Seattle at the Kingdome on July 29, 1988. He came into the game in the 10th inning, seeking his 31st save of the season with the A’s leading, 3-2. Instead, Steve Balboni hit a three-run game-winning home run for the Mariners and Eckersley’s walk off the mound commenced immediately.

William Safire mused in The New York Times Magazine on how baseball terminology might evolve into everyday language. “Will the meaning of walk-off extend from baseball’s ‘game-ending pitch or hit’ to an adjective in the trope-hungry worlds of politics and business: ‘a career-ending gaffe’ or ‘an event ending all hope of the competition’s victory’?”3

Of course, Safire shared what Eckersley said about Kirk Gibson’s home run in Game One of the 1988 World Series.4 “The walk-off is a disaster for the pitcher. … That walk off the mound was brutal. I was devastated.”5 Sometimes it takes various nouns, verbs, adjectives, and an occasional hyphen to describe the drama of a ballgame’s conclusion.

As the Washington Nationals continued their relentless push through baseball’s dog days of summer in 2014,6 “walk-offs” were very much a part of their vocabulary. On August 21 the National League East Division leaders, seven games ahead of the Atlanta Braves, looked to complete a four-game sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks and extend a winning streak of nine games – three-game sweeps of the Mets in New York and the Pittsburgh Pirates at Nationals Park, and three more wins against the Diamondbacks. The Nationals had walked off four of the previous five games, with an array of game-winning swings of the bat – Wilson Ramos’s ground-rule double, Scott Hairston’s sacrifice fly, Adam LaRoche’s home run, Anthony Rendon’s single.7

A Washington win would tie the franchise-record 10-game winning streak, achieved three times by the Montreal Expos (1979, 1980, and 1997) and most recently by the Nationals in 2005.8 The irony of the hot streak was that all of the walk-off wins were happening without the services of their own Mr. Walk-Off, third baseman Ryan Zimmerman, who was on the disabled list with a severe hamstring strain in a season in which he was limited to 61 games.9

That same Kirk Gibson was now managing the Diamondbacks, and he sent lefty Wade Miley (7-9, 4.46 ERA) to the mound as his starter, hoping to avoid the sweep. Arizona was in fourth place in the NL West Division, well behind the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers. Matt Williams – part of Arizona’s coaching staff in Arizona for the previous four seasons – chose lefty Gio González (6-9, 4.06 ERA) to start for the Nationals.

González was determined to reverse his season’s course – no wins in his last seven starting assignments. He retired the side in order in the first inning and induced a weak grounder to third by Jordan Pacheco for an inning-ending double play in the second. When challenged in the third inning with runners on second and third with one out, González retired Ender Inciarte on a lineout to short and Cliff Pennington on a fly ball to right.

Meanwhile, Miley was in constant trouble, thanks to six walks and leadoff batters on base in six of seven innings. How could he possibly manage to leave the game with the score tied at 0-0? Miley kept it scoreless by frustrating LaRoche, who led the Nationals with 26 home runs and 92 RBIs in 2014.

In the first inning, a walk following a single put Jayson Werth and Denard Span on first and second respectively with one out, but LaRoche grounded into a double play to end the inning. In the third inning, Miley walked Span, the first batter. Rendon – whose 111 runs scored led the NL in 2014 – followed with a single to left. One out later, LaRoche hit into another double play to end that threat.

In the fifth inning, after González survived a bases-loaded threat from the Diamondbacks, Miley was again in trouble in the bottom half. Danny Espinosa opened with a pop-fly single to center and González advanced him to second on a sacrifice. Miley struck out Span swinging, but proceeded to walk the next two batters, bringing LaRoche to the plate. Full-count, bases loaded, two outs, runners off! LaRoche struck out swinging and the score remained 0-0.

González’s day was over after seven scoreless innings and 97 pitches, but Miley wasn’t quite as fortunate. Pinch-hitter Kevin Frandsen singled to center and advanced on Span’s sacrifice. Werth walked, bringing LaRoche to the plate for a fourth time. Another full count, two outs, runners off! Ball four and now Miley’s day was over.10 Rookie right-hander Matt Stites replaced him with the bases loaded and retired Ramos on a fly ball to short right. No score after seven!

Nationals relievers Matt Thornton and Rafael Soriano each retired three Diamondbacks in the eighth and ninth innings respectively, and Arizona’s Óliver Pérez needed only eight pitches to retire Washington in order in the eighth, so he was ready to open the fateful bottom of the ninth.

Pinch-hitter Hairston was first-pitch-swinging against Pérez and flied out to left. When Span singled to center, Gibson decided to play percentage baseball, bringing in righty Evan Marshall to face the right-handed-swinging Rendon.11

On Marshall’s 1-and-1 breaking ball to Rendon, Span was safe at second for his 27th steal of the season.12 Two pitches later, Pacheco fielded Rendon’s grounder down the third-base line, but his one-hop throw got past first baseman Mark Trumbo and dribbled into the camera well next to the dugout.13 Span, running toward third on the play, trotted home with the game’s only run. A single, a throwing error, and a “rule book” walk-off.14

In the Washington Post, Thomas Boswell commented on the rarity of five walk-off wins in six games, noting it had happened only seven times in baseball history.15 When it had last occurred, in 1986, the Houston Astros won five straight games in that fashion.16

How did it feel for the Diamondbacks to lose five games by walk-offs during a disastrous 2-8 road trip? “(Last year) we were on the winning side like Washington is and walked off people for like a week in a row,” Miley said. “It’s kind of crappy to be on the other side of it.”17

Given the drama surrounding their road trip, this game’s conclusion, and the series sweep, Miley could be excused an exaggeration. After all, his gritty performance, despite six walks and 114 pitches, kept the Diamondbacks in the game. Miley did not yield a single hit in 11 official at-bats by Nationals hitters with runners in scoring position.

Of course, Miley was remembering the 2013 season. The Diamondbacks won 13 games in walk-off fashion, including six in August. In fact, they swept the Baltimore Orioles in a mid-August three-game series, each concluded with the drama of a walk-off, and Miley had pitched seven innings in the opener to a no-decision.

The Nationals’ streak was snapped a night later with a 10-3 loss to the San Francisco Giants. They went on to win their second NL East title in three seasons before dropping a closely contested but frustrating NL Division Series to the eventual World Series champion Giants. It would take five more years before they made it “over the hump”18 in beating the Dodgers in the 2019 NLDS on their way to a World Series title.

Since first use by Dennis Eckersley, the terminology to describe the most dramatic and emphatic of baseball events, only possible at game’s end, has certainly evolved to include all the possibilities. What has not changed is that every home-team fan thinks of nothing less when its possibility arises – the walk-off!

Author’s note

For this author, the opportunity to be at the ballpark for the Nationals’ 2005 and 2014 10-game winning streaks is a priceless memory.

Games Project authors know that baseball’s rich statistical history always has a story to reveal. During their respective major-league careers, Anthony Rendon hit three singles in five at-bats facing Evan Marshall, two of those hits coming in walk-off situations in successive games.

Óliver Pérez, the losing pitcher in this game, signed a free-agent contract with the Nationals for the 2016 and 2017 seasons, appearing in 114 games as a relief pitcher. Pérez made six appearances in two postseasons for the Nationals without yielding a run – the 2016 NL Division Series vs. the Dodgers and the 2017 NLDS vs. the Chicago Cubs. Pérez was the winning pitcher in 2017 NLDS Game Two, a 6-3 victory over the Cubs.

Acknowledgments

This essay was fact-checked by Larry DeFillipo and copy-edited by Len Levin. A thank-you to Stew Thornley, an MLB official scorer, for providing the applicable reference for the “rule book” walk-off.

Sources

The author accessed Baseball-Reference.com for box scores/play-by-play information (baseball-reference.com/boxes/WAS/WAS201408210.shtml) and other data, as well as Retrosheet.org (retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2014/B08210WAS2014.htm). Anthony Rendon’s 2014 Topps baseball card (#521) was obtained from the Trading Card Database.

Notes

1 Paul Dickson, The Dickson Baseball Dictionary Third Edition (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2009), 919.

2 Dickson.

3 William Safire, “The Way We Live Now: On Language,” The New York Times Magazine, May 8, 2005, 15.

4 Darren Gibson, “October 15, 1988: Kirk Gibson’s ‘impossible’ home run wins World Series opener for Dodgers,”       SABR Baseball Games Project. Accessed May 2025.

5 Safire.

6 Dickson, 262. dog days – “The late summer of a baseball season. The time of the year when the weather is hot, the body tired. …”

7 Walk-off events: August 16, 2014, Nationals 4, Pirates 3, Wilson Ramos’s ground-rule double; August 17, 2014, Nationals 6, Pirates 5, Scott Hairston’s sacrifice fly; August 18, 2014, Nationals 5, Diamondbacks 4, Adam LaRoche’s home run (11th inning); August 20, 2014, Nationals 3, Diamondbacks 2, Anthony Rendon’s single.

8 Steven C. Weiner, “June 12, 2005: Nationals edge Mariners 3-2 for 10-game winning streak,” SABR Baseball Games Project.

9 Steven C. Weiner, “Ryan Zimmerman and the Walk-Off Home Run,” Baseball Research Journal, Vol. 50, No. 2 (2021): 7-12.

10 Adam LaRoche’s career batting line vs. Wade Miley in 10 plate appearances: two walks, one strikeout, and no hits!

11 Dickson, 630. percentage baseball – “A strategy in which the game is played using conventional beliefs about the odds that various strategies will work to the team’s advantage.”

12 Nick Piecoro, “Rookie Inciarte Finally Making the Most of His Opportunity in Outfield,” Arizona Republic (Phoenix), August 22, 2014: C9.

13 Thomas Boswell, “For Streaking Washington Nationals, Runs Like This Don’t Come Around Very Often,” WashingtonPost.com, August 21, 2014, washingtonpost.com/sports/nationals/for-streaking-washington-nationals-runs-like-this-dont-come-around-very-often/2014/08/21/358cc25c-292e-11e4-8593-da634b334390_story.html.

14 MLB Joint Competition Committee, Official Baseball Rules 2025 Edition, Rule 5.06(b)(4)(G), 30-32.

15 Boswell.

16 A Games Project essay captures one of those five consecutive walk-off wins: John Fredland, “July 20, 1986: Astros outlast Mets’ rallies, win in 15 innings on controversial call,” SABR Baseball Games Project. Accessed May 2025.

17 Nick Piecoro, “Another Walkoff Finishes Bad Trip,” Arizona Republic, August 22, 2014: C9.

18 Laura H. Peebles, October 9, 2019: Kendrick’s grand slam gets Nationals over the hump, SABR Baseball Games Project.