"Ivan Rodriguez made a very good play Saturday afternoon, the kind of play that, 21 years into his major league career, still sends him spinning and fist-pumping and leaping up and down. He made a play that is so simple it basically defines his job, yet so tricky only a handful of others could have done it. He caught a ball and tagged out a runner at home plate.

With two outs in the ninth inning, Logan Forsythe ripped a single through the hole on the left side. Laynce Nix charged the ball in left field as Chase Headley rounded third and headed home. The Nationals trailed by just one, making Headley a crucial run and forcing Nix to forego the cutoff man. He made a strong throw that sailed all the way to the plate.

This is where Rodriguez came in. The idea of blocking the plate – how it's done, whether it should even be part of baseball – has come under intense debate since Giants catcher Buster Posey broke his leg in a collision this week. When Rodriguez was young, he would try to block the plate and hit the runner back, stand his ground. He learned the proper way to make a tag at home is not necessarily the tough way. "Sometimes," he said, "you have to make an adjustment in how to get outs."

So Saturday, as he waited for Nix's throw, he stood in front of the plate. As the ball came closer, he shuffled quickly to his left. He watched the ball, picked up where the was and registered the angle of the throw.

In one motion, with Headley bearing down, Rodriguez slid to the left, scooped the ball an inch from the ground, stuck out his knee to block Headley's hand and made the tag. Out. Rodriguez spun away, pumping his first."