Anthony Rendon kept the top of the ninth alive with a two-out single, then Juan Soto played hero for the Washington Nationals with a go-ahead, two-run homer off Philadelphia Phillies’ closer Hector Neris, hitting a first-pitch splitter out to left-center for a 4-3 lead that held up.
“I was looking for the split,” Soto said, which he should have been, since Neris is throwing 68% splitters this season and only has one other pitch. “I saw the ball up really high [in the zone],” the 20-year-old Nats’ slugger added, and he flat crushed it.