Howie's heroics headline Nats' top '10s homers

WASHINGTON -- This decade of Nationals baseball saw the team rise from newcomer to perennial postseason contender. And with those October moments came a list of memorable moments and dingers, especially this past year. MLB.com is counting down the top 10 homers of the decade for the Nats, including some huge postseason home runs that propelled the team to their first World Series championship.

1. Kendrick puts Nats ahead in Game 7
Oct. 30, 2019

Not only does this homer easily top the list as the biggest homer of the decade for the Nationals, the one that put them ahead in the seventh inning in the final, winner-take-all game of the World Series, but there’s a strong case for Howie Kendrick's homer as one of the biggest in baseball history. Down by a run in the seventh against the Astros, Kendrick swatted an opposite-field homer off Will Harris that clanked off the foul pole in right field and gave Washington a lead it would not relinquish en route to claiming its first championship.

2. Werth walk-off
Oct. 11, 2012

It’s still one of the most iconic home runs and moments in team history, the crowd at Nationals Park going wild while Jayson Werth circles the bases and points toward the home dugout, which was emptying out and going crazy itself. The Nationals lived to fight another day against after Werth’s walk-off homer in Game 4 of the National League Division Series against the Cardinals in 2012, the ending of a 13-pitch at-bat that lifted the team to victory.

3. Howie's extra-innings grand slam
Oct. 9, 2019

It’s amazing to think about how this is only Kendrick’s second-biggest homer on this list. The words “Game 5” had only brought heartbreak and disappointment to D.C. for years, but with one swing, Kendrick erased it all as he hit a go-ahead grand slam in extra innings to silence the crowd at Dodger Stadium and lead the Nationals past their biggest previous roadblock, finally advancing past the NLDS.

4. Rendon and Soto go back-to-back
Oct. 9, 2019

Yes, technically this is two homers. They came on back-to-back pitches and followed each other in the blink of an eye, so we’re grouping them together. Trailing by two runs against the best pitcher of his generation, Clayton Kershaw, in the eighth inning on the road during Game 5 of the NLDS, Anthony Rendon dropped the head of his bat and launched a homer into the left-field seats. Juan Soto swatted the next pitch into the seats in center, a pair of homers that tied the game and will always be remembered as a pair in team history.

5. Taylor’s grand slam at Wrigley
Oct. 11, 2017

The Nationals needed some breathing room during a tight 1-0 elimination game at Wrigley Field and boy, did Michael A. Taylor give it to them. He slapped an opposite-field grand slam in Game 4 of the NLDS that cut through a biting wind to fall into the basket just above the ivy-covered right field wall. It was an improbable and memorable grand slam to help give the Nationals a win and advance to fight another day in the postseason.

6. Harper vs. Strickland
Oct. 7, 2014

This moonshot home run into McCovey Cove in San Francisco is impressive and stands out for a few reasons, and not only because Hunter Strickland was so mad about it that he started a brawl over it years later. Bryce Harper showed he had Strickland’s number with this game-tying homer in NLDS Game 4 and even though Washington lost this game and the series, this homer stands out for just how far and how clutch it truly was.

7. Welcome to the World Series, Juan Soto
Oct. 22, 2019

With Gerrit Cole on the mound, the Astros had been nearly unbeatable in the 2019 postseason, having not lost a game with their ace on the mound since July. And then Soto stunned the hottest pitcher on the planet, launching an opposite-field homer onto the train tracks in left field, a moonshot to tie the game and prove that Cole and the Astros were vulnerable. It was his first World Series game at just 20 years old, but Soto became the second-youngest player to go deep in his Fall Classic debut.

8. Zimmerman sets franchise home run record
July 17, 2017

When Ryan Zimmerman went deep in the first inning in Cincinnati in July of 2017, he became the all-time home run leader for the only franchise he’s ever known, surpassing Vladimir Guerrero with his 235th career homer. Yes, Guerrero played for the Expos and not the Nats, but it was still a moment to be celebrated, with Zimmerman staking a claim to one of the myriad records he will finish with in his career as Mr. National.

9. Rendon ends Game 7 shutout
Oct. 30, 2019

Zack Greinke had flummoxed the Nationals’ offense for the entirety of Game 7 of the World Series and seemed as he would continue cruising along undeterred. And then Rendon calmly stepped up to the plate and crushed a changeup into the Crawford Boxes in left field, giving the Nats new life when they were just eight outs away from their season ending in disappointment. It set the stage for the rest of the rally, capped by Kendrick’s go-ahead homer to win a championship.

10. Kurt Suzuki completes historic comeback
Sept. 3, 2019

Kurt Suzuki knew right off the bat that he had hit the homer to complete one of the most dramatic endings in Nationals history. Suzuki’s walk-off, three-run homer into the left-field seats against the Mets finished off a comeback from seven runs down in the ninth inning and sent the remaining crowd at Nationals Park into a frenzy for one of the craziest finishes of the decade.