Werth's Smart Feet

In yesterday's post, I lamented Ian Desmond's lack of discipline and situational awareness in a key at bat in what ended up as a 6-5 Nats win.

One night later, it was two extraordinarily-savvy base running maneuvers by Jason Werth that allowed the Nats to again beat the Astros by a score of 6-5.

In the third inning, Werth created a highlight-reel play. With Adam LaRoche striking out, and catcher Jason Castro's strong throw waiting for Werth to arrive at the bag on his attempted steal, it looked like a sure strike-him-out/throw-him-out double play. 

But instead of conceding failure, Werth quickly executed a perfect pop-up slide a few feet in front of second base, surprising Jose Altuve by narrowly avoiding his routine swipe tag. Then, after a quick two-step any tap-dancer would envy, Werth found the base with his right foot just before Altuve reversed the direction of his swipe in a second tag attempt. One batter later, Ian Desmond's clutch two-out single cashed in Werth's extraordinary effort.

While Werth's balletic steal received deserved love and attention as a SportsCenter Top Play, it was the crucial extra base he took in the seventh inning that really demonstrated his Mensa baseball IQ. 

On first with no outs after drawing a walk, Werth read LaRoche's bloop to short center perfectly. With Astros shortstop Jonathan  Villar, sprinting into the outfield with his back to home plate, Werth took a few shuffle steps toward second, and then took off in a full sprint well-before the ball hit the ground - even though Villar missed snagging the popup by no more than a few feet. 

Jason Werth's savvy sprint set up the tying score

Werth never hesitated rounding second, daring centerfielder Dexter Fowler to try to nab him at third. While a strong, accurate throw would have made for a very close tag-play, Fowler declined the challenge and simply lobbed the ball back to second base, ensuring that LaRoche, representing the go-ahead run,  didn't advance on the play.

From the read of the ball off of the bat, to daring  Fowler to make a heroic effort, Werth took full advantage of a situation where most runners would have been satisfied to just amble into second safely.

And when Werth scored the game tying run on Ryan Zimmerman's weak grounder to second, his smart gamble was rewarded as a key play in this come-from-behind Nats win.