Breaking down a 5-4 victory

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - If Andrew Stevenson hadn't come through with a walk-off RBI single to give the Nationals a 5-4 win over the Astros on Sunday, the teams were planning to go to a 10th inning.

Guess there is at least one drawback to sharing a spring training complex with another team after all.

"We were going to go 10 because they had some pitching and we had some pitching," Nationals skipper Dusty Baker said. "We were prepared to go 10."

But extra innings were rendered a moot point after a ninth-inning rally against ex-National Brad Peacock. Pedro Severino led off with a single and was replaced by pinch-runner Wilmer Difo, who swiped second with one out and moved to third on a wild pitch. Emmanuel Burris walked and took second on defensive indifference before Stevenson lined a run-scoring single to center.

Up to that point, there had been some good and some bad in the game.

The good: Adam Eaton, Bryce Harper and Drew Ward went deep, and Joe Ross turned in four scoreless innings.

Eaton led off the fourth with a fly ball off James Hoyt that kept carrying down the left field line until it made it over the wall. An inning later, Harper crushed a 2-2 fastball from Reymin Guduan on to the berm in right-center. The two-run blast was his fifth of spring and marked his third straight game with a home run.

"He just seems more focused, more determined," Baker said of Harper. "He's not missing pitches. Last year, he was fouling off a lot of those pitches. He's now not missing them. That's what it looks like - it looks like the old, young Bryce to me."

Ward socked his second opposite-field homer, a solo shot off Peacock in the eighth that tied the game at 4-4.

"Two of them to the opposite field, which is saying something for a young guy," Baker said. "He's so strong he don't have to pull the ball."

Baker liked the way Ross repeated his delivery and integrated the changeup he's been working to develop into his repertoire.

"He threw some good changeups, and that's a pitch he's been working on," Baker said. "He had good tempo. He didn't get out of whack like he did the last time out when he had to find it again."

The bad was concentrated in one inning. Jacob Turner loaded the bases with one out and A.J. Reed put them ahead with one swing, a grand slam to right field.

Catcher Matt Wieters made his long-awaited Grapefruit League debut for the Nats, going 0-2 and working well with Ross. He only had one chance at a putout, but third baseman Anthony Rendon called him off of Marwin Gonzalez's foul pop near the plate in the third.

"He called a good game back there," Ross said. "Some late-in-the-count off-speed pitches I wanted to throw, he called right away, so I didn't have to shake through to those. Overall, felt good. We're on the same page for the most part."

Baker said Wieters would start Monday's home game against the Tigers and play five innings, then get a break with the scheduled off-day Tuesday. On Wednesday, Wieters is expected to catch again when the Astros host the Nationals at The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches.

"You don't want to sort of promote injury if you play him more. ... He just got here, he got here late," Baker said of Wieters. "Try to program him the same as if the season started today."