Gray, top three relievers combine to shut out Padres (updated)

SAN DIEGO – How’s this for a formula for success on a lovely Saturday evening at Petco Park: Get two early solo homers from your power-starved lineup, then ask your pitching staff to shut out the Padres’ potent bats the rest of the way?

OK, so that may not have been Davey Martinez’s preferred plan entering the day. Given his team's major league worst minus-44 home run differential entering the day, why would it have been? But as this game proceeded, it became clear this would be the only way the Nationals were going to emerge victorious.

And when they pulled it off, topping the Padres 2-0 behind some of the best pitching they’ve seen all year, it felt as sweet as any of their previous 28 victories this season.

"That," Martinez said, "was a good one."

Jeimer Candelario and Lane Thomas provided the early offense, with Candelario homering in the first and Thomas homering in the third to give their team the lead. Josiah Gray turned in 5 1/3 scoreless, if not exactly efficient, innings to maintain that two-run lead. And then Martinez entrusted the game’s final 11 outs to the three remaining healthy relievers he trusts in high-leverage spots: Mason Thompson, Kyle Finnegan and Hunter Harvey.

Thompson wound up notching the first five outs while facing only four batters. He did so by striking out Gary Sanchez looking at a 96 mph sinker, then watching as Keibert Ruiz back-picked an unsuspecting Xander Bogaerts at first base for an inning-ending double play. Thompson, a former Padres prospect himself acquired two summers ago for Daniel Hudson, then retired the side with a pair of strikeouts in the seventh.

"As if you need any more motivation to pitch in the big leagues, especially in a spot like that tonight, there was definitely some emotions and some extra fire out there tonight," said Thompson, who has bounced back from a ragged May with nine consecutive scoreless innings in June. "It felt good to go out there and get the job done for the guys."

Kyle Finnegan was tasked with staring down the heart of the San Diego lineup in the eighth. He proceeded to strike out Fernando Tatis Jr. and Juan Soto (each on 98 mph fastballs) and then got Manny Machado to line out to right for a most impressive, 1-2-3 inning.

Hunter Harvey then came out of the bullpen for the ninth and emerged with his fifth save of the season, this one locking up only the Nats’ fourth win in their last 19 games. All told, the three relievers combined to face 10 batters and retired them all, striking out six.

"Anything you can do to help the team win, and we were really sharp tonight," Finnegan said. "At the end of the game against a really good lineup, it gives us a lot of momentum going into tomorrow trying to win the series. And I think it's just a testament to all the hard work we've been putting in. Mason and Hunter have been throwing great all year. I've been feeling really good lately. We're just trying to keep it rolling."

Gray’s task tonight was simple: Keep a Padres lineup loaded with power threats in the yard, something Patrick Corbin and the bullpen couldn’t do during Friday’s blowout loss. That the young right-hander managed not only to avoid surrendering a homer, but also avoid surrendering any type of run was the cherry on top of the sundae.

Gray kept posting zeroes in spite of the fact he did not enjoy one clean inning. At least one San Diego batter reached base in all six of his frames, but none ever advanced beyond second base. He walked four, but six strikeouts – three of those with runners on base – helped him stay out of serious trouble.

"I limited the damage," he said. "Each walk that I gave up, kind of stranded the guy where they were, didn't let it pile up. They were, I guess you can say, kind of strategic. They got on base, but I was able to strand them."

Through it all, though, Gray’s pitch count soared. He got a big out to end the fifth, inducing a popup from Machado to strand a pair of runners, but walked off the mound with 93 total pitches to his name and leaving Martinez to decide how to proceed.

Martinez’s decision: He let Gray re-take the mound for the sixth but pulled him after a leadoff single and a popup, his final pitch count at 99, and entrusted Thompson to finish the inning.

"The story tonight, to me, is Josiah," Martinez said. "He battled through. His pitch count was a little bit high, but he got through it. Tough lineup, and we were able to get him the win."

The bullpen took over with a 2-0 lead in hand, both runs scoring via a method all too foreign to the Nationals this season: Home runs. They got two solo shots, though, in the game’s first three innings, with Candelario and Thomas each crushing fastballs from Padres starter Matt Waldron and circling the bases in response.

Waldron, a 26-year-old rookie making his major league debut, entered with a reputation for throwing knuckleballs. Turns out only 13 of his 62 total pitches were floaters, allowing Nats hitters to mostly sit on his 90-mph fastball and take some healthy hacks.

"I think I kind of got the knuckleball stuck in my head, and he really didn't throw that many of them," said Thomas, who struck out to open the game with a very late swing on a fastball. "After I got that out of there, I just went back to my normal approach, and it seemed to help."

The Nationals didn’t do much else against Waldon, who was pulled after 62 pitches in 4 2/3 innings, or the parade of San Diego relievers that followed. But on a night when their own pitching staff reigned, those two solo blasts were enough.

"We want to control the game from the first inning to the ninth inning," Candelario said. "That's what we did today. We set the tone, we scored early and we went from there."