Ross and five relievers lift Nats closer to postseason, eliminate Phillies

Right-hander Joe Ross and five relievers lifted the Nationals to a crucial 4-1 win over the Phillies in Game 1 of this afternoon's doubleheader at Nats Park.

The Nationals improved to 87-69 and reduced their magic number to clinch a playoff spot to two. They also eliminated the Phillies from postseason contention.

Ross went four innings, wiggling out of a big jam in the first. He allowed a walk to start the game to César Hernández. Then three of the next four batters singled, including a base hit by Bryce Harper. Jean Segura's RBI single made it 1-0 Phillies with only one away.

But Ross battled to strike out Scott Kingery swinging and induced a weak grounder from Adam Haseley to first base to end the rally. The Phillies had wasted a huge opportunity. Ross said he worked on not panicking after the hits started to pile up a bit in the opening frame.

"Just trying to make some quality pitches," said Ross. "Was definitely falling behind there and just kind of (my) first inning back, runners on, right back in the fire. So, just tried to settle down and work my way out. If I give up one or two runs, it's not the end of the world. Obviously, you don't want to leave the first inning with a four spot. So I did a good job and then kind of settled down from there.

Ross said getting passed the "first inning jitters" helped him build confidence for the later innings. The Phillies managed only two more hits in the next three innings against Ross. He struck out four batters on the day.

"Walking the first batter of any inning lead off the game is not really how you want to start it," Ross said. "But I felt good, so it was just kind of bearing down and keeping the ball down in the zone."

Nationals manager Davey Martinez was pleased to see Ross do so well and was happy to see the defense come up big behind him.

"He did an awesome job," Martinez said. "We wanted to keep him under 70 pitches. He threw a lot of pitches the first inning. But to me, that's to be expected when you haven't faced hitters in a while. Your location is going to be off a little bit. But he battled. And he had really good stuff, and he started settling down. Got a big double play. He settled down and pitched really well."

After Ross departed on 64 pitches, the Nats won the bullpen battle with Erick Fedde, Tanner Rainey (2-3) and Fernando Rodney recording zeroes for three innings in a row. The Phillies ended up using seven pitchers on the day, including starter Blake Parker, who pitched the first two shutout innings.

Down 1-0 early, Anthony Rendon drove in a pair of runs with sacrifice flies. Rendon has 124 RBIs, seven away from tying Vladimir Guerrero's franchise record of 131 in 1999.

The Nats posted two runs in the sixth, highlighted by a Ryan Zimmerman RBI single to right field to make it 3-1.

The Nats added a run in the eighth inning on a wild pitch from Phillies reliever Edgar Garcia.

Trea Turner went 3-for-4 with two doubles, a single and two runs. He has five hits in the series.

The biggest deal for the bullpen was Sean Doolittle pitching a clean eighth inning, his first appearance in eight days.

Doolittle tossed a 1-2-3 shutout frame, hovering between 93-95 mph with his fastball. Harper rolled over to first base for the second out. The former Nats star is now 0-for-3 against Doolittle this season.

For Doolittle, it was his first game action since facing the Cardinals last Monday night. He was please to come through in a high-leverage situation, a spot in the game you expect your closer to come through.

"The last time I pitched in St. Louis was a tie game in the seventh. That game was kind of in the balance there as well. But to be honest, the biggest thing was just getting back in a game.

"I've come close to pitching a bunch of times here in the last week. I've been working on some stuff. I'm still trying to regain my form here before the end of the season. I've been feeling good throwing my side sessions warming up and stuff and I really wanted to see how it was going to play after continuing to make some adjustments. That combined with the situation in the eighth inning of a close ballgame, it was a good test."

Daniel Hudson earned the save, his sixth on the season, with a scoreless ninth inning. The Nats bullpen combined for five shutout innings to finish the game.

The Nats can clinch a postseason berth with a win tonight and a Cubs loss to the Pirates.

"We've been having dress-rehearsals for the playoffs since like May," Doolittle said. "No, I'm being serious. We had our backs so far up against the wall so early in the season that I really feel like we've kind of played out every possible scenario that might come up. I'm thinking about the way we sliced up the game in a close game with the bullpen pitching, with really no room for error from the fifth inning on. That's a big confidence boost."