With CJ Abrams struggling with back spasms and Nasim Nunez suffering from leg cramps, General Manager Mike Rizzo had to make a change to the roster and called up Jose Tena, whom he had acquired less than two weeks ago as part of the Lane Thomas trade with the Cleveland Guardians.
Tena’s skills as a shortstop made him the right choice at the time, even though Andres Chaparro was destroying balls for the same Triple-A Rochester team that Tena had just been acquired from. Chaparro was acquired in a deal with Arizona for Dylan Floro just minutes before the trade deadline. As it turned out, Nunez was fine and didn’t have an injury to his leg muscles – it was just cramping. However, Abrams was again out of the lineup due to back spasms, and Tena moved to third base while Nunez played shortstop.
For the third consecutive night, the Washington Nationals were headed to overtime with a chance at back-to-back walk-off wins. The hero on Friday night was Alex Call with a walk-off hit. Who would be the hero on Saturday night?
This time the heroes were Derek Law, who held the Angels without runs in the 9th and 10th innings and thus kept the game tied, and Tena, who stepped into the batter’s box with his manager Dave Martinez and gave him a message:
“The manager had told me that I would win the game for us,” Tena told the media through an interpreter. “When I realized that the shot was game-winning, I winked at him.”
Manager? Did Tena forget Martinez’s name? That’s the weird part. Tena actually didn’t get to know his teammates, and Law admitted after the game that he didn’t get to know him until the walk-off celebration.
Tena, 23, a native of the Dominican Republic, had only a brief 21-game MLB history before last night. He finished his time with Cleveland with a Mendoza batting average of .200 and an OPS of just .520. He played no role in Cleveland’s future, so they made him part of the Thomas trade along with Rafael Ramirez Jr. and LHP Alex Clemmey, who was the headliner of the trade.
Tena was on the big league stage that day when fans watched Clemmey make his home debut at Single-A Fredericksburg. Yes, Clemmey made a great home debut, and we had Sol Tucker covering that game.
It looks like Rizzo may have ripped off the Guardians in the Thomas trade, but only time will tell. Guardians fans quickly understood to what Clemmey and Tena have done, and Thomas is in a major crisis with Cleveland.
You never know in baseball. New heroes are born all the time. Tena is the Nats’ new hero. They say there are few opportunities in baseball and that was evident with Cleveland after they parted ways with Tena.
While Tena was only credited with a walk-off single, he was just a few feet away from an opposing walk-off home run. The fastball he hit had an exit velocity of 102.2 mph and traveled 384 feet. The baseball bounced off the wall in front of the visiting bullpen, literally just feet away from his first MLB home run.
“I think his teammates know who he is now,” Martinez said.
Tena had two RBI hits that night and will forever be remembered in Nationals history for singled on his first walk-off hit. That’s how you imagine your teammate.
