SAN FRANCISCO – Under no circumstances would a major league manager ever openly admit he’d rather hit the road for a week and a half and leave the comforts of home behind. And let’s be clear, Davey Martinez did no such thing this afternoon when asked (somewhat sarcastically, for the record) if he was actually glad the Nationals got out of D.C. and could now embark on a nine-game West Coast stretch against the Giants, Rockies and Angels.
“Hey, believe me, I love playing at home, I really do. And I know the guys do, too,” said Martinez, whose team had just lost eight consecutive games at home. “We like playing in front of our fans. The week there wasn’t good, but like I said, we saw some good things, and I think we’re really close. We’ve got to hit, though. We all know that, right?”
Yes, it’s tough to win when you don’t hit. But when you do? Oh, man, is it a breath of fresh air. And boy were the Nationals able to breathe in all the cool Bay Area air tonight while beating up on the Giants 14-4 to put an emphatic end to the losing streak and begin this daunting trip in as encouraging a fashion as they could’ve conjured up.
"We showed off what we have in the lineup," said Juan Soto, who homered, singled home another run and drew a walk. "At the end of the day, we're even missing two hitters and we still scored 14 runs. That means we have a lot in our lineup. I think we can do a lot more damage."
That’s right, the same Nationals lineup that totaled 16 runs and 52 hits during those eight consecutive losses while playing on South Capitol Street busted out for a season-high 14 runs and 22 hits tonight at Oracle Park. They didn’t do it by launching the ball into warm, humid air that helped carry it over the fence. No, they did it the old-fashioned way, delivering clutch RBI singles and doubles in sustained fashion for the first time in weeks, just as their manager hoped they would all along.