Williams, Gallo lead the way as Nats end Pirates' win streak (updated)

Trevor Williams won the Nationals fifth starter’s job to begin the season not on merit so much as on track record, contract status and the fact his spring training competition (Zach Davies) did nothing to earn the job himself.

The leash on Williams, who statistically ranked as one of the worst starters in baseball last year, is probably short. But Davey Martinez wanted to give the veteran a chance to open the season in the rotation and hope he would provide some sense of stability for his young and developing ballclub.

Who’d have guessed the best outing by any of the team’s five starters the first trip through the rotation would come from the last of them to take the mound?

With 5 1/3 innings of two-run ball, Williams became the first Nationals starter to earn a win in 2024. And thanks to enough offensive support – including Joey Gallo’s first homer of the year – the Nats emerged with a 5-3 victory over the Pirates on a cold, rainy April evening on South Capitol Street.

Williams was far from spectacular, or dominant. But aside from a rough top of the second, he was effective, holding down a Pittsburgh club that was looking to improve to 6-0 for the first time since 1962.

"We're always trying to set the tone. If the starting pitchers do well for this team, then we're going to be in a good spot as a team," Williams said. "Starting pitchers are taking that on each other's shoulders; we know we're going to try and outdo one another. ... I'm looking forward to seeing what we can do the rest of the year."

And he was aided by 3 1/3 scoreless innings from a Nationals bullpen that needed a performance like that after several shaky outings in the season’s opening week. Hunter Harvey turned in yeoman’s work by retiring all five batters he faced across the seventh and eighth innings – four via strikeout – and Kyle Finnegan bounced back from his ninth-inning meltdown in Cincinnati on Sunday to notch his second save in three tries.

"It was kind of cool and wet tonight, so I was just trying to stay as loose as I could in the dugout," Harvey said of his multi-inning appearance. "Just try to get quick outs."

Gallo was the offensive star, going 3-for-4, an elusive triple the only obstacle between the slugger and an unlikely cycle.

Throughout a ragged spring that included only four hits for Gallo in 43 plate appearances, then an abysmal 0-for-12, six-strikeout start to his regular season, Martinez insisted it was only a matter of time before the all-or-nothing slugger found his timing. And once he did, he was likely to go on a prolonged hot streak.

We’ll have to wait and see about the potential hot streak, but there’s no denying the authority with which Gallo made contact on Mitch Keller’s second-inning cutter tonight. The ball shot off his bat at 109 mph, and it didn’t land until it traveled 447 feet into the second deck in right field, an emphatic way to record your first hit of the season if ever there was one.

"Thank god. I did something good," Gallo said with a laugh. "I feel like I helped the team out a little bit."

Gallo’s blast accounted for only one of the four runs the Nationals produced in the inning against Keller. Luis García Jr. drove a pitch the other way to deep left field for the first of his three doubles. And after Victor Robles drew his third walk in five plate appearances the last two games, CJ Abrams drove in two more runs with a single to right.

That hit came at a cost, though, to Robles, who pulled up lame running from first to third and grabbed his left leg. After a brief consultation with a trainer, he walked off the field, his encouraging start to the season after an injury-plagued 2023 suddenly coming to a screeching halt.

Martinez said after the game Robles would be getting an MRI on his left hamstring Thursday. The club won't know for sure the extent of the injury until then, but a trip to the injured list feels more likely than not. (And a phone call to Rochester in search of either Jacob Young or Alex Call is probably forthcoming.)

"I don't want to assume anything, but he said he felt it pretty good," Martinez said. "We'll see what the MRI says tomorrow, and then we'll go from there."

With Jesse Winker still not feeling 100 percent after leaving Monday’s game with a stomach illness, the Nats had no other healthy true outfielders on the bench tonight. So it was Ildemaro Vargas pinch-running for Robles and ultimately taking over in left field, with Eddie Rosario shifting to center in a less-than-ideal defensive alignment.

Fortunately for them, Williams was on top of his game and didn’t need his defense to have to work too hard. The right-hander set a positive tone for the evening with a quick top of the first that included a strikeout of leadoff man Oneil Cruz. And though he had a hiccup in the second, allowing two runs on two walks and two hits (capped by Michael A. Taylor’s two-run single), he bounced back to prevent the Pirates from scoring again the rest of his outing.

Williams would retire 11 of the last 12 batters he faced, finishing his night with his fifth strikeout. Under different circumstances, it would’ve been appropriate to leave him in longer. But on a cold April night with a pitch count of 91, Martinez didn’t want to take any chances.

"He knows 80, 85, 90 pitches for me is perfect for him," the manager said. "And if he can do that in five innings, that's what we need from him: Keep us in ballgames. And he did that today."