_ The situation: Things were looking good for the Cubs when they entered the bottom of the eighth inning holding a 3-1 lead and the Nationals in search of their offense. Carl Edwards Jr. took the mound in relief of Pedro Strop, who had come on in the seventh to replace starter Jon Lester. Nationals manager Dusty Baker sent Adam Lind to the plate to pinch hit for Oliver Perez and the veteran dropped a single into left field to start the inning. Edwards struck out Trea Turner for the first out of the inning and up stepped Bryce Harper.
_ What happened next: Cubs manager Joe Maddon stuck with the right-hander Edwards against the left-handed-hitting Harper and the count moved to 3-1. Then Edwards hung a curveball that Harper drove deep into the stands in right field to tie the game and send the crowd at Nationals Park into a frenzy. Following his first home run in two months, Harper executed a textbook bat flip and followed it with a momentous flip of his hair while teammates celebrated.
_ The aftermath: With new life, the Nationals kept coming as Anthony Rendon walked to put the lead run on first base. Maddon replaced Edwards with Mike Montgomery and Daniel Murphy greeted the left-hander with a single. Montgomery then faced Ryan Zimmerman and the veteran lofted a 1-0 changeup over the wall in left for a three-run homer to give the Nationals the winning 6-3 margin and a 1-1 tie in the best-of-five series.
_ The reaction: "I thought he was going to throw a curveball back down in the dirt. I thought about taking it the whole way, and then I saw the loop in the curveball and said, 'Why not swing as hard as you can?' I got (the) barrel on it and (it was) a pretty good moment." _ Harper
