Sudden impact: Nats strike with big eighth to even series with Cubs

By Gordon Wittenmyer

Ryan Zimmerman celebrates after his game-winning three-run homer cleared the wall in the Nats’ big eighth.

WASHINGTON — Well, that escalated quickly.

The Cubs were five outs away from another bat-breaking victory against the Nationals that would have put them on the brink of a third consecutive appearance in the National League Championship Series.

Sixteen innings into the NL Division Series, the Nationals had a run and four hits and looked ready for the offseason. A few minutes later, they struck for two home runs in a five-run eighth inning that gave them a 6-3 victory that evened the series at a game each as it heads to Wrigley Field for Game 3 on Monday.

‘‘I don’t know if it felt like whiplash,’’ Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant said. ‘‘You kind of figured that they’re due at some point. You just don’t want it all to happen at once.’’

For all the impressive pitching the Cubs did in the first two games, that’s exactly what happened.

With a runner on first and one out in the eighth, Carl Edwards Jr. fell behind Bryce Harper 3-1, then hung a curve that Harper drove to the back of the second deck in right field for the tying homer.

‘‘As soon as it left [my hand], I had an idea that it was going down no time soon until it landed,’’ Edwards said.

A walk, a pitching change and a single later, Ryan Zimmerman homered against left-hander Mike Montgomery for the go-ahead runs.

‘‘I think the train’s coming,’’ Harper said.

Maybe, but the next two stops are at Wrigley Field. And Nationals ace Max Scherzer takes a gimpy hamstring into Game 3. And the Cubs got the split in Washington they sought when the series opened.

‘‘We’ve been in positions and spots in the playoffs that are way worse than this,’’ said Montgomery, who got the final out of the World Series last November to complete a comeback from three-games-to-one deficit against the Indians. ‘‘I don’t think this is going to affect us.’’

Indeed, there seemed to be no lack of confidence after the game.

‘‘You’re not going to knock us down,’’ Rizzo said, recalling a similar eighth-inning jolt in Game 7 of the World Series 11 months ago. ‘‘We gave up a home run to Rajai Davis to tie the game in the eighth inning. It’s part of the journey. You’ve got to embrace it. It’s obviously not a good feeling to lose the way we did, but it’s part of the experience.’’

Experience has been a theme the Cubs have emphasized through their torrid second-half run to the NL Central title and into their series against the Nationals.

Maybe that’s why Rizzo no longer seems to be in the ‘‘glass case of emotion’’ he admitted to being in during the Cubs’ extra-inning victory in Game 7 in Cleveland.

‘‘No, I think I’ll try to keep it all in check this time,’’ said Rizzo, who has driven in four of the Cubs’ six runs in the series.

Starter Jon Lester was almost flawless through the first four innings, giving up an opposite-field homer in the first to Anthony Rendon, then

retiring 10 in a row.

He pitched into a jam in the fifth, then struck out Trea Turner to leave the bases loaded, unleashing a primal scream as he headed off the mound.

“That was a big moment in the game,” said Lester, who shrugged off the sudden awakening of the Nationals’ bats. ‘‘We knew what the task at hand was coming in. We knew it was going to be a battle.’’

Said Bryant: ‘‘I like our chances. I have all the confidence in the world.’’

Follow me on Twitter @GDubCub.

Email: gwittenmyer@suntimes.com