Jose Lobaton wakes up Nationals from NLDS slumber

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

The Washington Nationals were slowly sinking into their offseason early in Game 2 of their National League Division Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers Sunday before a sold-out crowd at Nationals Park

And they were doing it artistically — nearly a replica of Friday’s game one 4-3 loss to the Dodgers in game one — another solo home run by Corey Seager, just the second batter of the game, to give Los Angeles a 1-0 lead.

In the bottom of the inning, just like Clayton Kershaw, the Game 1 starter for the Dodgers, Game 2 starter Rich Hill struck out the side.

As the carbon copy game continued, Nationals starter Tanner Roark was in trouble, like Max Scherzer had struggled for Washington two days earlier. Roark loaded the bases in the second and third. Los Angeles only had one run to show for those two innings, an RBI single by Josh Reddick to stake the Dodgers to a 2-0 lead after three.

Still, the game had the feel of a Washington surrender, facing a 2-0 deficit in the best-of-five series, heading out to Los Angeles for Game 3 Monday.

There was one difference, though.

Jose Lobaton was playing in this game.

It was the only difference in the starting lineup from Game 1 Friday night — Lobaton getting the start behind the plate over Pedro Severino, the Game 1 catcher — but it proved to be the only difference that counted, as Lobaton delivered the game-winning three-run home run to change the entire tone of the game and maybe the series, giving the Nationals a 5-2 win and tying the series at 1-1.

“That was like a weight lifted off our shoulders,” said Jayson Werth, who scored one run and ran down a line drive in a windy left field from pinch-hitter Howie Kendrick with the bases loaded in the fifth inning for the third out.

It was as if the Lobaton fourth-inning home run, driving in Daniel Murphy and Danny Espinosa, woke up the team. They scored two more runs on two Murphy RBI singles, while the Nationals bullpen — the scourge of past postseasons — pitched 4 2/3 innings of shutout baseball, with closer Mark Melancon closing it out by getting Reddick to ground out to second to seal the win.

“You need some untimely heroes during these playoffs,” Baker said, referring to Lobaton. “This is how teams win.”

I wrote last week how Lobaton, with starting catcher Wilson Ramos out from torn knee ligaments, could follow the blueprint of another backup catcher, Eddie Perez, who, after Javy Lopez went down in late July, emerged as a postseason hero for the 1999 Atlanta Braves, leading them to an National League Championship Series win with two home runs, five RBI and a .500 average to win MVP series honors.

Lobaton has delivered the big postseason home run before, hitting a ninth-inning walk off home run for Tampa off Boston Red Sox loser Koji Uehara in Game 3 of their 2013 American League Division Series — the only game the Rays would win in the series.

“Right now we don’t have Willy,” Lobaton said after the game, referring to Ramos. “I’ve got to try to do something for the team. And I’m not saying that I’m going to be like Willy and hit a homer and hit .300, but I’m going to do something play my defense all the time and play hard and then see what happened.”

After Lobaton’s home run, it came down to a battle of the managers — Baker’s bullpen against Dodger manager Dave Roberts’ bench.

Baker won. Marc Rzepczynski came in the top of the fifth with one out and runners on first and second, and kept the Dodgers off the board. Sammy Solis followed, then Blake Treinin, Oliver Perez and Melancon.

They face a pinch-hitting crew that consisted of Kendrick, Yasiel Puig, Charlie Culberson and Carlos Ruiz at various key points of the final five innings. No runs and just one hit. In all, the Dodgers — who would also use five relievers — left 12 runners on base.

“Both sides were aggressively going to their bullpens, and this kind of shows you the importance of the bullpen in these playoffs, you know, bullpen and defense,” Baker said. “We got some timely hitting today that we didn’t get the day before.”

The untimely hero wasn’t playing then.

• Thom Loverro hosts his weekly podcast “Cigars & Curveballs” Wednesdays available on iTunes and Google Play.