Nats bounce back with comfortable win over Jays (updated)

If there has been a consistent theme to a mostly disappointing April for the Nationals, it has been the all-or-nothing nature of most ballgames. There have been very few run-of-the-mill, back-and-forth contests. Most have either been comfortable wins or blowout losses. The lineup either explodes for a big night or is completely shut down. The starting pitcher either looks fantastic or gets blasted.

In the long run, that formula isn't going to take the Nats to the place they desire. But in the short term, it does help keep everyone positive even when things aren't going as well as hoped. A couple of lopsided wins a week goes a long way for morale.

Take tonight's 8-2 victory over the Blue Jays in Dunedin, Fla. It was as comfortable a victory as Davey Martinez and company have had all month.

The lineup busted out for eight early runs off Steven Matz, no stranger to such outbursts against his longtime nemesis. Erick Fedde cruised through six innings of one-run ball, the latest (and longest) strong outing of his season. And Martinez could sit back, relax and enjoy the show at tiny TD Ballpark, salvaging a two-game interleague series split.

"It's fun to watch," the manager said during his postgame Zoom session with reporters. "We got out to an early lead like that, and then you see Fedde do what he's doing ... It gives you a sense of ease to work through the game."

It does make you wonder, though: Why can't these guys look like this more often? And perhaps that really is the key to this team's ultimate success in 2021. But until they have an answer, the Nationals will just have to settle for the occasional laugher like this while hoping to string together more nip-and-tuck wins.

"I really don't," Martinez answered when asked if he knows why so many games have played out like this so far. "But I've said this before: It's about getting some consistency. Today, we put it all together. We got good pitching. We hit the ball well. Hopefully, we're trending in that direction and we can do that often."

They cruised to victory tonight thanks to an early outburst from a reconfigured lineup against Matz. Wanting to stack as many right-handed hitters atop his batting order as possible, Martinez penciled in Trea Turner, Josh Harrison, Ryan Zimmerman and Starlin Castro on his card. That quartet proceeded to go 7-for-10 with a walk and six RBIs in a mere 3 2/3 innings versus Matz.

The evening began, as too many evenings have begun for this lineup, with a flurry of singles. The Nationals' first seven hits produced seven total bases, though back-to-back singles by Zimmerman and Castro in the third gave them a 3-0 lead.

The big blow finally came in the fourth courtesy of Harrison, who blasted a changeup from Matz to left-center for his second homer of the season and a 6-0 lead. The former Mets and current Blue Jays lefty lasted only one more batter, and when he departed he was the not-so-proud owner of a 1-8 record and 5.29 ERA in 16 career appearances against Washington.

"It's nice facing somebody you've faced before," said Turner, who went 4-for-5 tonight and is now 14-for-35 in his career vs. Matz. "But he's got good stuff. He's got four pitches, throws them at all points in the count. I feel like we just battle off him and make him come to us, and we seem to have gotten to him over the years."

The Nationals didn't let up against Toronto's bullpen, and saw their most beleaguered slugger finally have reason to smile. Josh Bell has been hitting plenty of balls hard, including a flyout to the warning track in the top of the second tonight, but he finally was rewarded for it when he launched a 94-mph fastball from reliever Ty Tice over the left field wall for his second homer of the year.

"Obviously, I want way more hits than I've gotten," said Bell, who raised his average from .109 to .120 with a 1-for-4 night at the plate. "But I think that adversity is something that's going to make me stronger. I think I've got to work through it. And towards the end of the year, I'm going to be very thankful for it. Knowing who I am, I'm definitely going to grow from this."

Bell's blast extended the lead to 8-0, and it provided more than enough cushion for Fedde, who didn't need much tonight. The right-hander stared down the same lineup that scored seven runs off Max Scherzer on Tuesday and held it to one run and two hits over six strong innings.

Fedde wasn't perfectly sharp; he walked three batters (one intentionally) and needed 60 pitches just to complete his first three innings. But he made pitches when he needed to and was helped by his defense, most notably Turner, who made a nifty barehanded play on Randal Grichuk's bases-loaded grounder to escape a third-inning jam.

"I don't like barehanding with runners in scoring position, because if you miss that ball and the guy on second runs around and scores, I think it's pretty tough," Turner said. "But I felt like it was a big play in the game. We just scored three, and they were kind of fighting back. So I just said: Go for it. I felt confident in it. And he's pretty fast, so I don't think I would've had a chance using my glove. Lucky enough, we got him."

Fedde got some help, but he did plenty on his own. And he again showed an ability to make hitters swing and miss that hasn't previously been there.

Fedde struck out seven over his six innings, giving him 24 over his last 20 2/3 innings. In four starts since his shaky season debut against the Braves, the 28-year-old has posted a 2.61 ERA and 0.968 WHIP, a much-needed development for a club still missing Stephen Strasburg and Jon Lester.

"I think it's consistency of stuff," Fedde said of his strikeout surge. "But I think early in spring training, we talked about my usage of pitches a lot, how I've really been, like, 60 percent fastballs or something ridiculously high compared to league average. So they were talking about maybe mixing things a little more and keeping guys off-balance could be something that's very effective. And I'm reaping the benefits of that conversation."

Equally importantly tonight, Fedde seemed to get stronger as the game progressed. He did serve up a leadoff homer to Lourdes Gurriel Jr. in the fifth, but that was the only one of Toronto's final 11 batters who faced him to reach base.

"We were watching what he was doing, and he looked totally fine," Martinez said. "We wanted to give him about 100 pitches. It worked out that he got six innings for us."

The big lead also gave Martinez the luxury of letting Fedde pitch the sixth before turning it over to his bullpen, which may actually have been too rested. Daniel Hudson, who hadn't pitched in a full week, gave up a quick homer to Bo Bichette in the eighth but settled in to throw a 20-pitch inning. And Brad Hand, who likewise hadn't pitched in a week, got to pitch the ninth and close out another comfortable victory for a 9-12 Nationals club that has had a decent number of those to offset the lopsided losses that have defined this unusual April.

"The overall atmosphere in the clubhouse is awesome," Bell said. "I know we're kind of hanging in there right now, with regards to guys on the IL, but we're fighting through and we're going to push out wins. And when everybody gets back and we get hot, it's going to be a lot of fun baseball."