Dukes’ late-game heroics win it for Nats

Say whatever you will about Elijah Dukes and everything that encompasses this 23-year-old’s baseball career. Right now, Dukes is quite simply one of the Washington Nationals‘ most productive players.

And with another news-making performance last night in the Nationals’ 4-3, 14-inning victory over the Texas Rangers, he once again drew attention for what he did on the field and not off of it.

With a game-tying homer in the eighth and then the game-winning single in the 14th, Dukes gave Washington a much-needed victory that took four hours and 10 minutes to be completed.

“I can’t say anything bad about the guy,” pitcher Tim Redding said. “Everybody knows the baggage he had coming into this season, but he is by far, unquestionably, one of the best ballplayers we have in this clubhouse.”

An exhausting game that featured eight scoreless innings of one-hit ball from the Nationals bullpen finally ended in the 14th.

The game-winning rally began with Felipe Lopez taking a 3-2 pitch from reliever Jamey Wright off his foot. Then Wright never could find his control. He walked pinch hitter Paul Lo Duca before doing the same to Ryan Langerhans, loading the bases.

Cristian Guzman struck out, but Dukes responded by grounding the first pitch he saw from Wright through the drawn-in infield, scoring Lopez and setting off a mad celebration along the first-base line.

That was Dukes’ fifth hit of the night, a new career best but only the latest big-time performance for the young outfielder. Over his last 24 games, he’s hitting .344 (31-for-90). On top of that, he has drawn 15 walks, showing the kind of plate discipline the Nationals coaching staff has preached all season with little to show for it.

“He’s been a constant guy for the last month,” manager Manny Acta said. “It’s meant a lot because we need every hit we can get. For a guy like him to get hot, it means a lot to our club.”

Dukes’ performance Friday night provided the latest evidence of his emergence as a ballplayer. He went 5-for-6, drew another walk, stole a pair of bases and delivered the clutch hits that both tied and won this game.

“He was a one-man show tonight,” Acta said.

All this from a man who opened the season with one hit in his first 28 at-bats.

“I knew I was a better hitter,” Dukes said. “It was just a matter of time for me to wake up and start hitting the ball.”

With Washington trailing 3-2 in the eighth and offering up little resistance to Texas starter Kevin Millwood, Dukes connected on a hanging breaking ball and lofted a high fly ball to left. David Murphy drifted back to the wall but could only watch as the ball landed in the visitors’ bullpen, drawing a roar from the crowd of 30,359 and knotting the game 3-3.

It then turned into a battle of bullpens, with the Nationals’ fivesome of Charlie Manning, Luis Ayala, Jon Rauch, Saul Rivera and Joel Hanrahan combining to churn out eight scoreless innings, allowing only one hit in the process.

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