Nationals 5, Dodgers 3 / Wait, Zach Lee?

Should have just kept playing with the lights off, probably.

So the resumption of the suspended game started off well enough. Adrian Gonzalez poked an opposite-field homer over the left field wall in the sixth to tie it at three — he’s the first player to homer in both parts of a suspended game since Joe Carter in 1996 — and Chin-hui Tsao looked pretty good in his return to the game.

It should be noted, probably, that Pedro Baez saved everyone’s bacon in the bottom of the seventh by entering a bases-loaded, two outs situation and striking out Wilson Ramos, keeping the scored tied. Of course, four batters into the bottom of the eighth, Matt den Dekker hit a pinch-hit two run homer, and now I think everyone’s going to forget that Baez has generally been really, really good this season. (Though he’s admittedly been pretty ineffective since returning from injury.)

	Dodgers			Nationals
	1:05 p.m. PT			Washington D.C.
CF	Pederson		CF	Taylor
2B	Kendrick		2B	Espinosa
3B	Turner		RF	Harper
1B	Gonzalez		3B	Escobar
LF	Ethier		LF	Robinson
RF	Puig		SS	Desmond
C	Ellis		C	Lobaton
SS	Rollins		1B	Moore
P	Kershaw (L)		P	Fister (R)

The offense showed some life in the ninth, with Yasiel Puig drawing a walk and advancing to second on Andre Ethier‘s single, but Jimmy Rollins and Alberto Callaspo each failed to advance the runners. Joc Pederson missed a go-ahead homer by about three feet down the left field line, and battled back from 0-2 to 3-2 against Drew Storen, but eventually struck out on a questionable check swing in the dirt.

***

Hey, there’s still a regularly-scheduled game today! Clayton Kershaw faces off against Doug Fister, and each team has made a move to add a 26th man for the afternoon. Washington adds righty Taylor Jordan, and the Dodgers called up… wait, Zach Lee? Really? That’s… surprising. Don Mattingly indicated to reporters that Lee will be the long man, and presumably is headed right back down to Triple-A after the game.

I can say with utmost certainty that this is not how I expected Lee to get his first trip to the bigs when he was drafted all those years ago in 2010. After all, the 26th man rule didn’t even exist at the time. Last Sunday, Lee through five innings for Oklahoma City in his first Triple-A appearance since May. I imagine he’s well-rested. I also think that if you see him today, it’s probably bad news given that Kershaw is starting, unless the Dodgers are somehow up by double-digit runs.

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