Dickerson's 1,000th hit ignites Nats' comeback

KANSAS CITY -- Corey Dickerson’s milestone hit was meaningful in a lot of different ways.

If Dickerson had been writing the script, he couldn’t have asked for his 1,000th career hit to jump off his bat at a better time. The Nationals were down by two in the sixth inning on Saturday when the 34-year-old's booming double to center drove in a run, knocked Royals starter Brady Singer out of the game and kicked off a four-run rally that resulted in a 4-2 victory over Kansas City at Kauffman Stadium.

“Big hit by Corey there to get everything going and break the ice,” Nationals manager Dave Martinez said. “He stayed on the ball and drove it to center. In other parks, that’s probably a home run. He’s a professional hitter.”

Dickerson became the 12th player in Nationals history (since 2005) to record his 1,000th hit in a Washington uniform, per Elias Sports Bureau. The last to do it was Brian Dozier in 2019.

Dickerson had a flair for the dramatic when he picked up hit No. 999, too. On Friday, he snapped a 2-2 tie in the sixth inning with a three-run homer, but that blow got buried in the avalanche of runs that scored thereafter in the Nats’ 12-10 victory.

This time, Dickerson's RBI double was clearly the catalyst for a victory, as the next four hitters after him reached off reliever Josh Taylor to complete the four-run comeback.

Dickerson, who stuck around for hit No. 1,001 -- a single -- before departing for a pinch-runner in the seventh, will have plenty of time to reflect a baseball journey that took him to eight organizations as he climbed the mountain toward 1,000 Major League hits.

“With how much failure there is in this game, 1,000 hits is cool,” Dickerson said.

Through the ups and downs, Dickerson stayed with it and kept grinding away in the Majors.

“You can look [at] yourself in the mirror if you put in the work,” Dickerson said.

The Nationals couldn’t get much done against Singer, and they appeared on the ropes in the fourth inning when the Royals had a 2-0 lead and runners on first and third with nobody out against starter Josiah Gray.

But Gray worked out of that jam without more scoreboard damage thanks to two consecutive strikeouts and a lineout to center. Given how hard Gray had to work in the 34-pitch fourth, Martinez went to his bullpen for the fifth and was rewarded with five shutout innings.

“I always look at the positives,” said Gray, who struck out four and allowed two runs on Saturday. “Limiting the damage was probably the first thing. I felt like I kept us in the game, and then [my teammates] picked me up later in the game.”

After Dickerson’s RBI double brought the Nats within 2-1, Keibert Ruiz added an RBI single and CJ Abrams put Washington ahead with a two-run double. After the Nationals scored eight runs in the sixth on Friday, their four-spot in the sixth on Saturday proved to be enough thanks to excellent relief work.

“The third time through [the order] is key,” Martinez said. “We’ve been really good at it. But we also need to put up runs early in the game. These guys are playing hard right now. They are playing with a lot of passion, which I love. The at-bats got better from the sixth inning on, and we were able to score some runs."