Espinosa, Roark charge up Nats in 7-5 win

When the season started, Tanner Roark was on the outside looking in on the Nationals starting rotation. After Anthony Rendon finally returned yesterday, Danny Espinosa was presumably the odd man out in the Nats lineup. Tonight, both Roark and Espinosa starred for the Nats in a 7-5 victory over the Cubs that snapped a three-game slide.

The Nationals offense entered tonight sleepwalking through the last 10 days, but Espinosa woke them up in the second inning. After a leadoff single from Wilson Ramos and double from Ian Desmond, Espinosa ripped a changeup off Cubs starter Tsuyoshi Wada that ended up soaring over the bullpen in left-center and into the seats for a three-run homer.

"There's no fear," Roark said of Espinosa's approach.

The blast seemed to provide a jolt for the new look Nats lineup. Nationals manager Matt Williams slotted Ryan Zimmerman in the two-hole for the first time this year and placed Rendon at cleanup with the dangerous Bryce Harper sandwiched in between. The first seven hitters in the order all collected hits with Espinosa leading the way with his momentum swinging bomb.

"Danny gets a homer like that, gets us out to a 3-0 lead, it kind of takes the pressure off everybody," said Dan Uggla, who provided a clutch pinch-hit RBI double in the eighth. "You can just kind of go up there and hit. There's not really anything you've got to do. Just kind of take a deep breath and here you go, you can just hack away if you want. But hitting's contagious, man. You see people getting hits, and the other opposing pitcher can feel that too. So he might be prone to make some more mistakes over the middle. Just got to take advantage of it."

Wada definitely felt it as Cubs manager Joe Maddon yanked him after surrendering five runs in just 3 2/3 innings.

Meanwhile, Roark retired the first 10 batters of the game before Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo took him deep to right in the fourth for the first of his two homers on the night. The long ball bothered Roark, who was tagged for two more bombs in the sixth before Williams went to the bullpen. In all though, it was another solid start for Roark after giving up four runs on six hits with no walks and six strikeouts in 5 2/3 innings. The right-hander has now claimed his second win in three starts since making the transition from a reliever back to a starter.

"It's just a mental, different mental aspect of the game," Roark said. "You have four days to work hard to get to that fifth day and prepare for that fifth day, and then in the bullpen, you've got to be able to go every day. So it's a different mentality. I just think it helped from me being in the bullpen, coming in and attacking early and getting up with my off-speed pitches."

Right-handers Aaron Barrett, Blake Treinen, Casey Janssen and Drew Storen combined to allow just one run over 3 1/3 innings to help their former bullpen mate secure the victory. Treinen's scoreless eighth was aided by an unbelievable leaping catch by Denard Span to rob Rizzo of extra bases.

But, it was Espinosa's homer that charged up the Nats and busted them out of the slump tonight.

"We needed somebody to get us going," Span said. "Bryce has been carrying us all season really. It was just good to have Danny get in there and once again get another opportunity with (Escobar) dealing with the injury. Just huge for him."

"He's done what a lot of guys on this team have done. You can talk about Tanner Roark that same way. And that's what makes a team whole, having guys ready to step in no matter whenever skip calls on them."