Entering today, the Nationals were in a pretty bad offensive slump. How bad, you ask? Try two shutouts in three games and three runs in the other, good for an 0-3 record. They had one home run in their last four games. Another metric:
nats today:
— nats squid (@NatsSquid) June 30, 2018
11 runs in 4 innings
nats previous:
11 runs in 36 innings
Eventually, though, the team had to break out; there are too many good bats in the lineup for the Nationals to remain scoreless for long.
On Friday night, it finally happened, to the tune of seven homers in nine innings. It started off with a Trea Turner two-run homer, which Juan Soto quickly followed with his own two-run shot. The next inning, Anthony Rendon got in on the action with a three-run blast.
1. Anthony Rendon's favorite player homered
— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) June 30, 2018
2. Trea Turner's favorite player homered
3. You remembered to go to https://t.co/94Tjblm7Np and #VoteNats pic.twitter.com/2u8cBCaFUV
Another day, another Juan Soto opposite-field homer. pic.twitter.com/Hh6Axzn3bm
— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) June 29, 2018
Next, Bryce Harper teed off on his 20th of the year, a three-run opposite field shot to left.
Most 20 HR seasons in Nats/Expos history:
— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) June 30, 2018
Ryan Zimmerman - 7
Andre Dawson - 7
Bryce Harper - 6
Vladimir Guerrero - 6
Gary Carter - 6 pic.twitter.com/99gxxBSqWB
Normally, one would assume that would end the onslaught, but one would be incorrect to assume such a thing — because in the top of the ninth, Brian Goodwin knocked a solo shot to put the Nats up 13-5. Unfortunately, no embeddable video of this homer exists, but you can watch it on MLB.com here.
Then, Juan Soto knocked a moonshot to deep center field (419 feet), adding another three runs to the lead, and making him only the fourth teenager to have multiple multi-homer games in a season.
Juan Soto is the first teenager in @MLB history with a four-hit, two-homer game. #ChildishBambino pic.twitter.com/CvFnN8nWXs
— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) June 30, 2018
Finally, Mark Reynolds finished off the party with a monstrous 449 foot upper-deck solo shot of his own, which is viewable here.
#Nats hit 2,852 ft of home runs tonight
— F.P. Santangelo (@FightinHydrant) June 30, 2018
Complete list of players with multiple multi-HR games before turning 20:
— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) June 30, 2018
Mel Ott
Ken Griffey Jr.
Bryce Harper
Juan Soto pic.twitter.com/uKRVqh8Vdr
Many around the ballclub had been expecting this for a while; Max Scherzer talked earlier this week about the how the team just needed one big hit to get things rolling:
“Hitting is contagious so once we get some hits they’ll start going,” Scherzer said. “It’s going to come.”
Seven homers seems like a good start.