September 9, 2023: Nationals beat Dodgers on walk-off wild pitch in the 11th

Ticketholders to the Washington Nationals-Los Angeles Dodgers game on September 9, 2023, could be forgiven for not sticking around for the first pitch. A significant storm1 blew through Washington, DC, that afternoon, and the Saturday game, scheduled for 4:05 P.M., finally started at 8:15 P.M.2 The grounds crew’s efforts to ready the field were acknowledged – the ballpark announcer had them take a bow before the first pitch. Some diehards returned to Nationals Park3 and were rewarded with an exciting game.

Based on the cheering audible on the game’s television broadcast, there was a substantial contingent of Dodgers fans in attendance. They had plenty to cheer for – their perennially contending team was 86-54, leading the National League West Division by 13 games. The Nationals fans? Not so much. Their team was 63-78, fifth and last in the NL East. Both teams could point to a recent World Series title – the Nationals in 2019, the Dodgers in 2020.

The starting pitchers were both right-handed rookies4 who had debuted in May – Jake Irvin (3-5,5 4.35 ERA) for the Nationals and Bobby Miller (9-3, 3.80) for the Dodgers. Both were averaging over five innings per start and both had pitched twice into the seventh inning. Although they had not faced each other, one of Miller’s wins was over the Nationals on May 29, and one of Irvin’s losses was to the Dodgers on May 30.

The Dodgers took an early lead. After David Peralta singled to lead off the first, Freddie Freeman hit his league-leading 54th double into the right-field corner,6 advancing Peralta to third. Max Muncy’s one-out sacrifice fly gave the Dodgers a 1-0 lead, but Irvin struck out J.D. Martínez to avoid any further damage.

The Nationals answered with a run in their half of the first. CJ Abrams tripled past diving right fielder Jason Heyward, losing his batting helmet as he sped around the bases. Lane Thomas’s sacrifice fly tied the game. Dominic Smith singled, but was left on first.

Irvin faced the minimum in the top of the second – he walked Kiké Hernández on a full count but the Dodger was erased on a double play.

In the bottom of the second, Washington’s Iledmaro Vargas knocked a one-out single up the middle, just under Miller’s glove. Vargas advanced to second on a sacrifice and to third on a wild pitch, but Jacob Young struck out to leave him there.

Neither team reached base in the third. The Dodgers got two baserunners in the top of the fourth on Martínez’s two-out single and Heyward’s walk, but Hernández popped out to end the inning.

There were no baserunners in the bottom of the fourth or the top of the fifth.

The Nationals took the lead in the fifth. Vargas worked a walk, stole second,7 and took third on a bad throw from catcher Will Smith. Luis García Jr.’s single drove in Vargas for a 2-1 Washington lead. Young bunted, but the ball popped up five feet in the air for an easy catch for Will Smith. Abrams’ push bunt to the left of the mound was successful – he was safe at first, again losing his helmet on the way. Miller plunked Thomas in the ribs to load the bases. Dominic Smith’s sacrifice fly made it a 3-1 game, but Keibert Ruiz’s popout stranded the two remaining runners.

Irvin struck out Freeman to start the sixth inning – this was the first time in 2023, after 21 plate appearances, that a Nationals pitcher had struck out Freeman.8 Will Smith hit a fly deep to center. Young caught it, bounced off the center-field wall padding, and hit the warning track – but held on for the out. Irvin struck out Muncy for the final out of his one-run, six-inning quality start.9

After Miller worked a clean bottom of the sixth, Jordan Weems took over from Irvin for the top of the seventh. J.D. Martinez was credited with a double when center fielder Young slipped on the wet grass trying to get to the ball. Martinez took third on a groundout and scored on Kiké Hernández’s sacrifice fly. Hunter Harvey relieved Weems and faced James Outman, who grounded down the first-base line and beat Harvey to the bag for a single – the initial call was “out,” but replay review gave Outman a hit. Kolten Wong struck out, keeping the Nationals in the lead, 3-2.

Miller pitched the seventh. He got two quick outs but walked Abrams. Thomas hit the next pitch over the flower bed edging the left-field stands to push the Nationals’ lead to 5-2. It was Thomas’s 24th homer of the season. As usual after a Nationals home run in 2023, Thomas paraded through the dugout in a “Thomas Jefferson” wig, holding an American flag. Miller struck out Dominic Smith to end his outing at 99 pitches.

The Dodgers got those two runs back in the top of the eighth. With two outs, Harvey plunked Will Smith to put one on for Muncy – who homered well into the center-field stands, his 34th of the season, to pull the Dodgers within one run. Harvey gave up another single to J.D. Martínez (his third hit of the game) but escaped with the lead when Heyward grounded out.

Los Angeles righty Shelby Miller needed only a dozen pitches for three quick outs in the bottom of the eighth.

With a one-run lead to protect, Nationals manager Davey Martinez summoned closer Kyle Finnegan, who had been dependable in 2023 (25 saves and seven wins), but not perfect (seven blown saves and four losses). Alex Call got the first out with a spectacular diving catch while sliding across the right-field line. Outman walked on the 11th pitch of his at-bat, stole second, and took third on catcher Ruiz’s errant throw.

As the volume of the “Let’s Go Dodgers” chants intensified, Dodgers fans were rewarded with Wong’s game-tying single. He stole second, and Peralta walked. Apparently, the mound visit by pitching coach Jim Hickey before facing Freeman worked – Finnegan struck him out on three pitches. The Dodgers pulled off a double steal, giving Smith two runners in scoring position, but a groundout to García preserved the tie.

The Nationals loaded the bases in the bottom of the ninth against Brusdar Graterol – but did not score. After a groundout, an error by third baseman Muncy, and a single, the Dodgers intentionally walked Abrams to load the bases. The strategy worked, as Thomas grounded to shortstop Hernández, who tossed home for the force out. Dominic Smith fared no better – he also grounded back to Graterol, who tossed to first for the inning-ending out.

Lefty Robert Garcia pitched the top of the 10th for the Nationals. Will Smith was the free runner on second, who took third on Muncy’s groundout. That put him in position to score on Kiké Hernández’s two-out single, giving the Dodgers a 6-5 lead, much to the joy of the substantial contingent of Dodgers fans.

The Nationals retied the game in their half of the 10th on Ruiz’s leadoff single off Ryan Brasier, scoring Carter Kieboom,10 but the equalizer was all they could muster.

Robert Garcia returned to the mound for the top of the 11th, but once righty Miguel Rojas was announced as the pinch-hitter for Wong, Martinez went to righty Andrés Machado. Rojas’s bunt successfully advanced the free runner to third, but he was left there when Peralta struck out and Will Smith grounded to third.

Rookie Gus Varland,11 usually a set-up man, pitched the 11th for the Dodgers. Michael Chavis – who had come into the game in the ninth as a pinch-runner for Luis García Jr. and played second base and first base since then – was the automatic runner. Young sacrificed Chavis to third with a perfect bunt to the left of the plate. The Dodgers walked Abrams and deployed a five-man infield, with left fielder Chris Taylor stationed on the infield dirt between short and third. Taylor turned Thomas’s grounder into a force at second – scored 7-4 – while Chavis held at third.

Joey Meneses stepped to the plate as a pinch-hitter but never swung the bat. The first pitch bounced off Smith’s chest protector, sending him scrambling for the ball while Chavis ran down the line. Smith’s throw home was behind Varland, and the ball trickled away as Chavis arrived head-first with Varland sprawled across the plate. Chavis may have missed the plate and hit Varland’s foot instead, as the umpire did not give the “safe” call until Chavis jumped up and emphatically stepped on home. That triggered the Nationals’ celebration of their 7-6 win and the requisite Gatorade baths for Chavis.

The win was a bright spot in an otherwise depressing (8-18 record) September for the Nationals. The Dodgers took two of the three games from the Nationals as part of a 16-12 September on the way to a first-place (100-62) finish in the NL West. Their time in the postseason was short, as they lost the NL Division Series to the eventual pennant-winning Arizona Diamondbacks, three games to none.

Author’s Note

The author had tickets to this game but did not go. She’d waited out enough rain delays on the third-deck concourse to know that it would not be fun in the oncoming storm.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Bruce Slutsky and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Michael Chavis, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org. for box scores/play-by-play information, player, team, and season pages, pitching and batting game logs, and other data. The author also watched the game video available on MLB.tv.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/WAS/WAS202309090.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2023/B09090WAS2023.htm

Notes

1 The storm dropped the temperature from 90 degrees to 70. Weather Underground weather data for September 9, 2023. https://www.wunderground.com/history/daily/KDCA/date/2023-9-9, accessed May 28, 2025.

2 All three games of the Nationals-Dodgers series had featured rain delays. Jack Harris, “Dodgers Weather Nationals, Bumpy Trip,” Los Angeles Times, September 11, 2023: D8.

3 Given the length of the delay and the strength of the storm, the Nationals allowed fans to exit the ballpark, safely enjoy food and beverages in the Navy Yard area, and return to the ballpark on their original tickets. The Nationals also gave each ticketholder a free game ticket for April 2024, which included a series against the Dodgers. That offer applied whether the ticketholder used their game ticket or not.

4 Irvin, 26, had been drafted by the Nationals in 2018, but lost development time due to Tommy John surgery in 2020. Miller, 24, had been drafted by the Dodgers in 2020.

5 Irvin also had 13 no-decisions. The Nationals won seven of those 13 games.

6 Freeman had set a franchise record for doubles (53) the previous day. Field Level Media, “Pepiot’s Strong Start Helps Dodgers Defeat Marlins,” Fresno Bee, September 9, 2023: 5A. Freeman finished the year with 59 doubles to lead the majors.

7 The Dodgers could be forgiven for letting him steal second. This was only the seventh stolen base of his seven-year major-league career. Although always a part-time player, this was his 311th major-league game. He stole more frequently in the minors and foreign leagues: 136 in 1,518 games.

8 Freeman had a nickname among Nationals fans: “Nats killer.” In 2023 his batting average against the Nationals was .500 with a 1.297 OPS. His career average, including his 12 years with division rival Atlanta, was .320 with a .922 OPS.

9 “Quality start:” A starting pitcher records a quality start when he pitches at least six innings and allows three earned runs or fewer. “Quality Start (QS), MLB.com, https://www.mlb.com/glossary/standard-stats/quality-start, accessed May 13, 2025.

10 Kieboom was inserted as a pinch-runner for Dominic Smith, making him the free runner on second to start the 10th inning. Keiboom stayed in to play third base.

11 Varland’s ERA was 6.86 in 15 games in 2023 with the Milwaukee Brewers and the Dodgers. He was placed on the injured list after the game and did not pitch again in the majors in 2023. Associated Press, “Around the Majors,” Napa Valley (California) Register, September 11, 2023: A5.