Sweet 16th: Walk-off caps Nats’ comebacks

WASHINGTON — Nearly six hours after first pitch Sunday, Nationals outfielder Chris Heisey smashed a 1-1 pitch over the left-center field fence to send the Nationals to a 6-5 victory and series sweep over the Twins and end a game that had more twists than a season of Game of Thrones.

“This is the craziest. Yeah, this is the craziest,” Nationals manager Dusty Baker said when asked where this game ranked among the wildest he’d been a part of. “We always say: Go to the ballpark, you always see something you’ve never seen before. Well, I certainly hadn’t seen anything like this. This was crazy.”

Heisey’s home run capped one of the craziest games of the season, one that featured a Bryce Harper game-tying homer, a key bunt single by a relief pitcher and several replay reviews. Brian Dozier launched a go-ahead three-run homer in the eighth inning, but Harper tied the game in the ninth with a pinch-hit blast to right-center. The teams traded scoreless frames for five innings before Miguel Sano drove in the go-ahead run in the 15th. But Washington responded with a walk, a stolen base and an Oliver Perez bunt that induced a throwing error, allowing the game-tying run to score. An inning later came Heisey’s homer.

“Just an all-around awesome game to be a part of, and I’m glad we ended up with the W,” Heisey said. “Those are the ones that really sting when you come out of it with a loss after that long period of time.”

Long before the late-inning heroics at the plate, Sunday’s game was a pitchers’ duel. Stephen Strasburg struck out 10 Twins in 7 1/3 innings before allowing the home run to Dozier, while Minnesota’s Tyler Duffey allowed one run in four innings but was forced to exit the game after being hit in the arm by a line drive in the fifth.

MOMENTS THAT MATTERED

Unlikely hero: Heisey didn’t enter Sunday’s game …

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