Ross continues to make his case for final spot in rotation

If the conventional wisdom entering the spring was that the No. 5 spot in the Nationals rotation was Joe Ross' to lose, the right-hander has done nothing to date to suggest he's in serious danger of coughing up the job to someone else.

Ross hasn't necessarily dominated in his two starts, but he's been good enough. He's been healthy. And he's feeling quite comfortable sliding back into the five-day routine of a big league starter after sitting out the 2020 season.

"It's just good to be in those real game-like scenarios now, to try to get a little more comfortable there," he said following a 3 1/3-inning start tonight against the Mets in West Palm Beach, Fla. "Because, like you said, I haven't pitched in a long time in a regular season game. It would be nice to go out and shut out and have a 0.00 ERA in spring training, but it's also it's probably not very realistic."

Ross' 1.80 ERA across five total innings this spring is more than solid. He has allowed only three hits, and one of those tonight was a bloop single to right that was misplayed by Juan Soto. The two walks and two hit batters on his Grapefruit League pitching line are less satisfactory, but that's hardly anything to get too worked up about on March 13.

The Nationals just needed the 27-year-old to come to camp healthy and prove his stuff remains sharp after the long layoff. To that end, he has passed the test so far. His fastball today reached 95 mph, and his slider was good enough to strike out Francisco Lindor twice during a 4-3 victory made possible by Yasmany Tomás' walk-off single with two outs in the bottom of the ninth.

"I would say better than the last outing, for sure," Ross said during his Zoom session with reporters when asked about the state of his slider tonight. "I wouldn't say great, by any means. ... Second, third inning, things came together better: Timing, release point, all that stuff. I'm trying to keep going with that. I would say improved from the first outing, but still not 100 percent where I'd like to be."

Ross' third inning tonight might've been the most important of his start. He opened the frame with an elevated pitch count of 40. But after retiring Lindor, Michael Conforto and J.D. Davis on only seven pitches, he still had enough left in the tank to merit a return trip to the mound for the top of the fourth.

"He looks really good, and it's definitely encouraging," manager Davey Martinez said. "He threw the ball well, stretched him out a little bit. He pitched in some high-leverage situations, and he did fine. Good news is that when I went out there to talk to him, he wanted to keep going. So that only tells me that he felt good."

Martinez wasn't about to let Ross complete the fourth after he plunked James McCann on a 2-2 pitch and gave up a single to Jonathan Villar. But his 59-pitch outing represented a healthy workload and positioned him well to ramp up to regular season totals by the time he completes three more planned spring starts.

"I felt really good today getting up pretty much to 60," he said. "And I would've liked to stay in the game. I know this is a spring training game, but just getting myself into a little bit of trouble, I would like to try and work out of that. ... I feel like I'm on a good path. I'll try to get up to 80 the next game, and hopefully I can get to five innings, or the fifth inning at least, if I'm being real efficient."

As Ross continues to make starts every fifth day, his competitors for the final spot in the Nationals rotation continue to try to get enough work out of the bullpen. Erick Fedde did pitch three innings of relief tonight, allowing one run and striking out four in a performance Martinez called "the best I've seen him throw (this spring)." Austin Voth also is now pitching in relief after starting one game earlier this month.

But the only opportunity to give Fedde starts at this point would need to come in B games, unless a regular member of the rotation is bumped to one of those unofficial games instead.

Martinez isn't going to come out and make any pronouncements yet, not with two-plus weeks still to go in camp. But as each day passes and Ross looks more and more comfortable back in these familiar surroundings, it's tough to envision a scenario where he isn't a member of the Nationals rotation come April.