Written by Eddie Matz at ESPN.com
Clear eyes, full beard, can’t lose.
That’s what it read, in faded black letters, on the front of the custom gray T-shirt that Jayson Werth was wearing as he sat in front of his locker and talked about his game-altering, series-shifting, marathon at-bat. Inspired by the movie “Friday Night Lights” (“clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose”), the shirt was a gift from a fan a few years back. Even though this was a Wednesday night, the message couldn’t have been more apt.
A half-hour earlier, the Washington Nationals had walked off against the Baltimore Orioles in a 7-6 win — with Matt Wieters’ two-run single capping a dramatic ninth inning comeback. But it was Werth who started it all.
With the Nats trailing 6-4 and staring down the barrel of a third straight Beltway Series loss, the 37-year-old outfielder stepped in against Baltimore’s Brad Brach to lead things off. An All-Star last year as a setup man, Brach — who recently took over the closer gig for injured teammate Zach Britton and has been good enough to record eight saves already — features three plus-pitches, a rarity for a reliever.
After getting ahead of Brach two balls and a strike, Werth fouled off a 95 mile-an-hour heater that evened the count. Brach then went fastball-slider-fastball, and Werth went foul-foul-foul. The next pitch of the at-bat, the eighth one, was the pivot point. The first splitter of the at-bat, it dove down and away, begging Werth to wave his wand. Instead, he spat on it.
“That was the pitch of the at-bat,” Werth said afterward. “Because now it’s 3-2 and chances are he’s not going to mess around and try to throw something that’s a strikeout pitch. Because if he walks me, now he’s gotta deal with the guys behind me.”
For the record, the guys behind Werth were Bryce Harper, Ryan Zimmerman and Daniel Murphy, a modern-day Murderer’s Row who came in hitting .370, .410 and .333, respectively. Also for the record, Brach did not mess around. Instead of the slider or the splitter, he came with two straight fastballs, both 96 mph, both of which Werth fouled off. By then, 10 pitches into the at-bat, Werth felt like the balance of power had shifted.
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