Harper and Nationals top Cubs 6-3 to tie NLDS

“[Hendricks] didn’t miss a spot”. “We wanted to help out in any way we can”.

With his game-tying, eighth-inning blast into the second deck at Nationals Park, Harper provided – at least temporarily – a loud record scratch in what to that point sounded like the same ol’ song for a team that tends to hit all the wrong notes when it plays baseball in October.

The Nats entered the bottom of the eighth inning down 3-1, but Bryce Harper tied the game with a two-run dinger followed by a three-run homer from Ryan Zimmerman to put the game away 6-3.

Hendricks was no match for Strasburg in velocity or veracity. It wasn’t Hendricks’ coming-out party – that came last fall – but it was yet another confidence-building moment in a career that has taken off.

“He’s in there because you can see where power really matters this time of the year”, Maddon said of Schwarber. Up came Zimmerman, the longest-tenured member of a team that has never advanced past the first round, a fact they were reminded of constantly in the lead-up to this week. It wasn’t just their inability to get the big hit. “Because I called him in before I got here, and I just said: ‘Hey, man, you’re starting Game 1”.

Hendricks did more than that. But as the heart of the Cubs lineup, they responded.

Cubs manager Joe Maddon had chosen to keep the right-handed Edwards in against the lefty-swinging Harper because Edwards has quality reverse splits, allowing lefties to hit just.119 with a.437 OPS in the regular season. “He’s so smart and figures stuff out. I just hung it”. “That was fun to watch”.

Jose Quintana (0-0, 0.00) makes his postseason debut against Max Scherzer (0-0, 0.00). Lackey isn’t exactly a man of many words, but when it came to Hendricks, the three-time World Series champion was almost verbose. We’re human. It’s definitely tough because Strasburg was pitching his tail off and they happened to get two hits after that. His focus is unbelievable.

Without him, it might have happened again Saturday night. Lester even escaped a bases-loaded jam in the fifth inning to preserve the then 3-1 lead, and there was little reason to doubt the Cubs wouldn’t win. “We’ll be better tomorrow”. And I don’t blame him for being disappointed. “He was so smooth today”. The earlier failures, they said, brought them closer, taught them lessons, showed them mistakes to avoid.

The Cubs had no answers for the fastballs, changeups and curveballs that Strasburg hurled toward the plate. And that doesn’t even include the ninth-inning, pinch-hit homer he clubbed against Minnesota past year to send the game into extras.

Among Saturday’s busy sports schedule were several MLB Playoff games including Game 2 between the Chicago #Cubs and Washington Nationals. His fellow pitchers weren’t the only ones impressed.

The perennial All-Star went to the College of Southern Nevada after attending Las Vegas High School. He used all quadrants tonight. “Who knows?” Zimmerman said. Eastern Time. All three of the upcoming games are scheduled to be televised on the TBS channel. It can’t be far in the future.

While 159 wins and a career 3.51 ERA are good, his career 2.60 ERA in 139 2/3 postseason innings is stellar.