'This one was for Stone': Nats stage rally for emotional win

NEW YORK -- Outfielder Stone Garrett was on the Nationals’ mind on Thursday afternoon. He fractured his left fibula the night before and the team decided to dedicate the series finale against the Yankees to their injured comrade.

The motivation to win for Garrett paid off in the late innings. Trailing by two entering the seventh inning, Washington came back against reliever Tommy Kahnle to edge New York, 6-5, at Yankee Stadium. The Nats took two out of three games in the series to improve to 23-15 since the All-Star break.

“It’s awesome. Resilient -- that’s what these guys are,” manager Dave Martinez said. “What happened yesterday with Stone, and then to come back the way we did [on Thursday] says a lot about these boys and what they think about their teammates. I know they really wanted to win today for their teammate.”

The Yankees used a bullpen game, and things were going well for them until the seventh. Right-hander Jhony Brito started the inning by allowing a double to Carter Kieboom. After Ildermaro Vargas popped out to third baseman Oswaldo Peraza, Brito was taken out of the game in favor of Kahnle -- and it was an outing he would like to forget.

After striking out Riley Adams for the second out of the inning, Jake Alu singled off the glove of shortstop Anthony Volpe, scoring Kieboom to make it a one-run game. Alex Call followed with a two-run homer to give Washington a 4-3 lead.

“[Call] has been struggling, but the team doesn't give up. They don’t quit. They are going to try to figure out a way,” Martinez said. “We keep surprising a lot of people, and I love it.”

CJ Abrams then came to the plate and showed how much he is enjoying the game. He looked like the second coming of Reggie Jackson, hitting a monster home run into the right-field seats to make it a two-run game. Abrams stood in the batter’s box, watched the ball go over the fence, then looked at his teammates in the dugout before circling the bases.

"I was looking … at the team trying to give everybody positive vibes,” Abrams said. “I fed off Alex’s home run. I just wanted to keep the positive vibes going.”

However, Martinez hinted that he talked to Abrams about lingering to admire his homer.

“We are going to play the game every day the right way, but him coming up in that situation and giving us an extra run was awesome,” Martinez said. “[The Yankees] are a good team, no matter what they say. We don’t want to wake up sleeping giants. We just want to go about our business.”

Giancarlo Stanton made it a one-run game with a solo homer into the Yankees' bullpen in the eighth. But Washington made it a two-run game again when Joey Meneses reached base on an infield single, allowing Call to score in the top of the ninth.

Closer Kyle Finnegan picked up his 23rd save of the season after allowing one run in 1 1/3 innings. It wasn’t easy. It was raining during that final inning and he thought he allowed what would have been a walk-off three-run homer to Harrison Bader, but the ball ended up being caught by Call on the warning track.

“That was a gut-check outing for me," Finnegan said. "Every out you get is momentum into the next one, and the strikeout [to DJ LeMahieu] was huge for me. I thought that was a turning point for me. I was trying to throw the ball over the plate and give us a chance.”

It turned out to be a big victory dedicated to Garrett.

“He was one of the heartbeats of the team,” Finnegan said. “Great person, great player. We have been rallying behind him lately. We are all thinking about him, checking on him. And this one was for Stone.”