ANALYSIS/OPINION:
WEST PALM BEACH, FLA. — Matt Wieters’ strength is his faith. Last February, after the catcher was a last-minute free agent signing engineered by agent Scott Boras with the Washington Nationals, he said he believed God wanted him to play in Washington.
He needed all of that faith this winter to live with what happened in Game 5 of last October’s National League Division Series against the Chicago Cubs.
There was a lot that went wrong for the Nationals in that deciding game. It was a team meltdown. But Wieters’ fifth-inning contribution was a big part of it — with two outs and down 5-4 (after blowing a 4-1 lead), letting strike three on Javier Baez from Max Scherzer get by him and then throwing the ball out to left field to try to get Baez at first, allowing Addison Russell to score.