Juan Yepez stays hot, Jacob Young delivers late to lift Nats over Cardinals

July 12, 2024

ST. LOUIS — Good things came in threes for the Washington Nationals in a 10-8 come-from-behind win Friday night against the St. Louis Cardinals.

Jacob Young’s three-run 10th-inning triple was the difference on a night Juan Yepez came back to the stadium he first called home and lashed three hits.

His offense helped the Nationals overcome a 6-3 deficit to send the game into extra innings, where Young’s triple proved decisive. Young then scored on a single by CJ Abrams, and the Nationals (48-56) withstood Paul Goldschmidt’s two-run homer in the bottom of the inning to snap a three-game losing streak.

Yepez finished 3 for 4, drove in a pair of runs and scored two more as the Nationals bounced back with 11 hits after going hitless the previous day. Before Yepez scored the game’s first run in the second inning, the Nationals had not scored in 18 innings.

“He’s been awesome since he’s been called up,” Manager Dave Martinez said. “He’s doing his job. He’s not trying to do too much. He’s hitting the ball everywhere, driving in big runs for us. He’s playing really well.”

The Nationals called up Yepez hoping to find some more consistent production in their order after Joey Meneses faltered. And that’s exactly what they have gotten — Yepez has a .375 batting average with a 1.032 OPS and 11 extra base hits in 17 games.

“You go up there thinking he’s going to get a hit, honestly,” Young said. “He’s done a great job coming from AAA to here. It’s not an easy thing to do to get off to a start like this.”

Meneses, the team’s best hitter after the Juan Soto trade two years ago, was unable to recapture his form from 2022. And Yepez, a once-touted prospect who was non-tendered by St. Louis after last season, is proving to be exactly what rebuilding teams desire — productive players with team control that cost them little. He signed a minor league deal with Washington is December.

Washington’s first basemen combined for a .610 OPS before Yepez was called up — 27th in MLB. Yepez has played every game at first since being called up, and entering Friday, his OPS was .992; only the Rockies’ first basemen have a higher OPS in that span.

Yepez’s signature moment as a big leaguer came in 2022 at the same park in which he played in Friday night — a go-ahead two-run homer in Game 1 of the Cardinals’ first-round series against the Philadelphia Phillies. But the moment was forgotten as the Phillies won that game and the series en route to a World Series appearance. Yepez, meanwhile, spent most of the 2023 season in the minors. When he was recalled, he struggled, batting just .183 in 28 games.

“It’s always fun to come here,” Yepez said. “The fans here are great and I think they were very good to me and to my family.”

With Washington, he spent the first three months at Class AAA Rochester waiting again for a chance. But he has seized this opportunity since. Yepez’s three-week hot stretch doesn’t guarantee that he will be long-term answer at first base; the Nationals will need to upgrade that position this offseason if they truly believe they can contend soon. But if Yepez keeps performing well, he could play himself into the conversation to stick around next season in some capacity.

After being no-hit Thursday by the Padres’ Dylan Cease, Yepez delivered the team’s first hit in more than 48 hours with a second-inning single. Three batters later, Luis García Jr. hit a two-run double that put the Nationals ahead 2-0.

That lead wouldn’t last long as MacKenzie Gore allowed five runs in the ensuing frame. Gore fell behind to five straight hitters to open the third. The results of those at-bats: walk, two-run homer, single, single, three-run homer.

The Nationals hoped this year would be a breakout campaign for their 26-year-old left-hander. He started the season strong, pitching to a 3.24 ERA after striking out 10 hitters June 14. But in the seven starts since, Gore has allowed four runs or more in four of those outings. On Friday, he allowed six as his ERA ballooned to 4.51.

But Washington was able to mount a comeback against Cardinals starter Sonny Gray despite Gore’s struggles. Yepez’s fourth-inning single was followed by García’s run-scoring single three batters later to cut Washington’s deficit to 5-3. After the Cardinals scored a run in the fourth off Gore, Yepez produced an RBI double before James Wood added an RBI groundout to cut the lead to 6-5. And in the seventh, Yepez came up with two runners in scoring position and hit a sacrifice fly to tie the game.

It stayed 6-6 into the 10th, with Yepez starting the inning as the automatic runner on second. He would be lifted for the speedier Nasim Nuñez, who came around to score on Young’s two-out triple that carried over the glove of right fielder Dylan Carlson, scoring Garcia and Trey Lipscomb.

“That was a grind,” Martinez said. “The boys hung in there. We had some good at-bats late. From getting no-hit to scoring ten runs, I can say it everyday, 1,000 times a day — these guys have fight in them. They really do.”

Note: The Nationals placed right-handed reliever Jordan Weems on the 15-day injured list with right shin splints, retroactive to July 25, and recalled Eduardo Salazar from Rochester. Weems, who was one of the Nationals best relievers a season ago, allowed five runs Wednesday to raise his ERA to 6.59 in 40 appearances.

Weems, 31, said he has been dealing with shin splints for the past year, but the injury was bothering him more than usual after his previous outing. Weems will still throw but hopes that rest will allow his shin to heal. Salazar, 26, pitched two scoreless frames and struck out four in his only appearance with the Nationals.

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