A look inside the Nationals' wild 16-inning walk-off win over the Twins

The Nationals won a wild game against the Twins in 16 innings Sunday afternoon. Let's look at how all the craziness unfolded.

By Mike Axisa

Apr 24, 2016 at 7:51 pm ET • 5 min read

Sunday afternoon, the Nationals and Twins played the wildest game of the 2016 season to date. Minnesota blew two leads -- including one in the 15th inning -- to fall to 5-14 on the season. The Nationals improved to 14-4 with the 16-inning walk-off win (WAS 6, MIN 5).

To get an idea just how crazy this game actually was, let's look at the win probability graph, via FanGraphs:

Source: FanGraphs

In a nutshell, win probability tells you each team's chances of winning at any point in the game based on historical data. The Twins had a 92.8 percent chance to win in the eighth, an 84.4 percent chance to win in the ninth, a 95.6 percent chance to win in the 15th, and yet they still lost. Incredible. Let's recap the craziness.

1. Harper sits, den Dekker hits.

For the first time this season, Nationals skipper Dusty Baker gave reigning NL MVP Bryce Harper a day off. His replacement in right field, Matt den Dekker, made like Harper with a first inning solo home run against Tyler Duffey. Here's the video:

Pretty good season for Washington's right fielders so far, I'd say. They weren't done following den Dekker's blast either. They were just getting started, in fact.

2. Dozier ruins Strasburg's gem.

Stephen Strasburg has had an incredible start to the 2016 season following his disappointing 2015 campaign. The right-hander came into Sunday's start 3-0 with a 1.25 ERA (348 ERA+) and 21 strikeouts in 21 2/3 innings.

Strasburg was once again excellent Sunday, at least up until the eighth inning. He held the Twins to one run on four hits and no walks in the first seven innings, striking out nine. Things unraveled in the eighth. Here's the play-by-play:

That's rough. A single, an infield single, then a three-run bomb. In the span of three batters, Strasburg went from one run on four hits to four runs on seven hits. Rough.

Here is the video of Brian Dozier's go-ahead three-run home run:

It should be noted that was an eight-pitch at-bat. Both Strasburg and Dozier really battled. Dozier won and gave the Twins a 4-1 lead in the eighth.

Strasburg struck out 10 in 7 1/3 innings and threw 114 pitches overall Sunday. He last threw 114 pitches in May 2014. His season high last year was 113 pitches in June. Otherwise Strasburg never threw over 109 pitches in 2015.

3. Ramos cuts the deficit to one.

The Nationals answered right back following Dozier's home run. Anthony Rendon led off the bottom of the eighth with a single, Jayson Werth followed with a double, then Wilson Ramos shot a two-run double into the left-center field gap. That cut Minnesota's lead to 4-3.

Ramos doubled against right-hander Trevor May, who was ahead in the count 0-2. Coming into Sunday hitters were 1-for-10 with six strikeouts against May after he got ahead 0-2. He didn't even make a bad pitch to Ramos:

Surely May would have liked to bury that breaking ball a little further down, perhaps even bounce it in the dirt, put Ramos still really had to reach out to hook that ball into the gap. Not a terrible mistake pitch. Just a nice piece of protect hitting by the Washington catcher.

4. Harper ties it.

Harper was not in Sunday's starting lineup, but he still managed to make an impact. With the Nats still trailing 4-3, Harper pinch-hit for Michael Taylor leading off the ninth, and he swatted a game-tying solo home run. Check it out:

That kid is pretty, pretty good. Harper currently leads baseball with nine home runs and 23 RBI on the season. Believe it or not, he did not remain in the game after the blast. Baker was committed to giving him the day to rest, so Harper did not take the field after the homer. One at-bat and he was done.

5. Petit goes long out of the bullpen.

Over the last few seasons veteran right-hander Yusmeiro Petit has been one of the sturdiest long relievers in baseball. The Nationals signed him as a free agent over the winter for games just like this one.

Petit took over in the top of the 11th and threw 77 pitches across 4 2/3 innings. He struck out the side in the 11th and stranded runners on the corners in the 12th before retiring the side in order in the 13th and 14th. What more could you ask from the long man?

6. The Twins take the lead, again.

The Twins finally broke through in the 15th inning, when Petit was noticeably fatigued. After two quick outs, Eduardo Nunez singled and Dozier walked to put two on for Miguel Sano, who was 0-for-6 on the afternoon at that point. He managed to yank a seeing eye ground ball single through the infield to give the Twins a 5-4 lead.

That's a tough break. Sano is known for his prodigious home runs, but sometimes all you need is a little ground ball single. After 15 innings of baseball, Minnesota once again had the lead.

7. The Nationals tie the game, again.

The poor Twins couldn't get out of their own way. Left-hander Ryan O'Rourke, who retired 10 of the first 12 men he faced, walked Danny Espinosa on four pitches with two outs in the bottom of the 15th. Espinosa quickly stole second to put himself in scoring position. That opened the door for The Nats.

Because Baker had used up his entire bench, relief pitcher Oliver Perez had to bat for himself with Espinosa on second base. Washington was down to their last out and they had a reliever at the plate. Not ideal! Perez tried a surprise attack and laid down a bunt. Hilarity ensued.

That ... that was not smart, John Ryan Murphy. The young Twins catcher picked up the ball and wildly threw to first even though it sure looked like the bunt was about to roll foul. Murphy made things worse by rushing the throw even though a reliever was running. Yikes.

Like I said, the poor Twins can not get out of their own way. A four-pitch walk kept the Nationals alive, then the error allowed them to tie things up. Washington had two outs and the bases empty, yet Espinosa and Perez managed to tie the game despite hitting the ball roughly 10 feet combined.

8. Heisey wins it in the 16th.

One inning after the Nationals tied the game, Chris Heisey won it with a walk-off dinger. It was a hanging breaking ball from right-hander Michael Tonkin, and it had the good look off the bat, if you know what I mean. Here's the video:

The Nationals got three home runs from three different right fielders Sunday. Den Dekker hit his solo homer in the first inning, Harper tied it in the ninth inning, then Heisey won it in the 15th inning. Well, technically Harper was the center fielder at the time, but he's their usual right fielder, so I'm counting it.

Jonathan Papelbon, what did you think of the game?