Nats win 5-1 in Ohlendorf's dazzling debut

Even if you had faith that Ross Ohlendorf was going to follow up his last three starts at Triple-A Syracuse - in which he allowed just three earned runs and struck out 27 over 17 1/3 innings - and pitch pretty well tonight, you probably couldn't have imagined this. Pitching in Coors Field against a Rockies team with the third-highest batting average in the majors and third-most home runs of any big league squad, Ohlendorf held the Rockies to just two hits and one run over six fantastic innings. Offensively, the Nationals got three RBIs from Ian Desmond, two of which came in a big three-run sixth inning, and they got back to .500 with a 5-1 win over Colorado. Ohlendorf had spent the first two-plus months of the season at Syracuse, but with the Nats in need of a spot-starter for tonight, he got the call. His Nationals debut was tremendous, and much-needed. The 30-year-old right-hander retired 15-of-16 Rockies during one stretch and didn't allow a run until the sixth. Desmond and Anthony Rendon combined to go 4-for-7 with four RBIs, and the Nats got three scoreless innings of relief from the trio of Ian Krol, Tyler Clippard and Rafael Soriano. It was an impressive team win, but Ohlendorf clearly led the way in his first big league start in nearly 10 months.