If you’ve got a ticket to watch the local nine, though, you might want to start budgeting some extra commuting time to make sure you’re in your seats well before the first pitch of the bottom of the first.
Not that what happened next – Juan Soto’s first home run in D.C.
Schwarber has been the talk of the baseball world for more than two weeks now, and the attention and accolades only grow with each passing day.
Jumping all over Hill’s 83 mph sinker up in the zone – not exactly a difficult pitch to hit – Schwarber launched the ball to right field and clanked it off the façade of the third deck, some 434 feet away.
“Just keying on your pitch, and not trying to hit a homer,” Schwarber said of his mindset for the first pitch he sees in a game.
As thrilling as the latest Schwarbomb was, there’s a good case to be made the two homers that followed by Soto and Robles were more important for the Nationals in the big picture.
Robles’ leadoff blast in the second also came on Hill’s first pitch, this one landing in the visitors’ bullpen.
“To be honest, you go out there and you try not to think about it,” Robles said, via interpreter Octavio Martinez, of his homerless streak that lasted nearly three months.
And yet, in a pattern not unfamiliar here this year, they did nothing else against the opposing starter the rest of the night.
With Tanner Rainey joining Daniel Hudson, Kyle Finnegan and Will Harris on the injured list earlier today, Martinez’s reliable options for the late innings are running thin.
And though the lefty surrendered a leadoff homer to Mike Zunino off the left field foul pole, he got the job done after that, recording his 18th save in 20 attempts and sealing yet another win for the resurgent Nationals.
“I had a conversation with him and he said he was good,” Martinez said of his workhorse closer.