It was the bottom of the eighth. The Nationals’ season, even though nobody would’ve cared to say so after the game in the clubhouse, hung in the balance.
Down 1-0 in a best-of-5 NLDS to the Chicago Cubs, Washington was in a 3-1 hole, and had only put up two hits the entire game, and only four in the series. After Oliver Perez had escaped a minor jam, Dusty Baker decided to pinch hit one of the best pinch hitters in Nationals history, 1B/OF Adam Lind.
Lind went down 0-2 against Cubs’ righty Carl Edwards Jr. — who had set the Nats down in order the night before — before slashing a single into left field.