From Thursday to Friday, the Washington Nationals got a second chance of sorts. After a 2-2 tie at the start of the 9th inning at Nationals Park, the disastrous 9th and 10th innings on Thursday turned 180 degrees on Friday and produced a walk-off winner.

Thursday was supposed to be Luis Garcia Jr.’s hero, and Garcia hit an oppo single to send Friday’s hero, Alex Call, from first to third base with one out, allowing Juan Yepez to hit the game-tying sac fly in the bottom of the 8th inning to tie the game at 2-2.

In a battle of young starters featuring Mitchell Parker for the Nationals and Jose Soriano for the Angels, runs were hard to come by. Parker went 6.5 innings with no earned runs or walks, but scored two unearned runs on a throwing error by Parker. Soriano allowed just one run in his 6.0 innings.

The game was in the hands of their respective bullpens, and the Nats’ bullpens were simply better — and led by Kyle Finnegan in a revenge game with 2.0 shutout innings. Ben Joyce, the reliever with the 104.7 mph fastball, was outclassed by the call for the walk-off single that scored Jacob Young.

That 3-2 win in that extra inning was a real fluke as the boys showered Call with a Gatorade bath. With three hits in that game, Call has a .415 batting average and a 1.082 OPS this season.

When Anthony Rendon returned to Nationals Park for the first time since 2019, he was showered with love from the crowd and received a pregame video tribute. Call made a Rendon-like play to lead his team to victory.