Adams delivers against Jays, Nats snap losing streak (updated)

The opportunity was too good for Davey Martinez to pass up. Though it was probably Tres Barrera's turn to catch tonight's series opener against the Blue Jays, the Nationals manager wanted to give Riley Adams a chance to face the team that traded him three weeks ago.

Adams, Martinez would reveal in the dugout before the game, was notably excited when his manager told him he'd be starting tonight. And then the 25-year-old took his latest step in making his case to be part of this rebuilding club's long-term plan.

With a leadoff single that ignited a six-run rally in the third, then a leadoff homer one inning later, then a two-run double in the eighth to deliver a final blow, Adams helped pace the Nationals to a 12-6 victory over Toronto that briefly turned more tenuous than it needed to be after the home team opened up a seven-run lead.

It required an escape act from Kyle Finnegan, who inherited a bases-loaded, no-out jam from Mason Thompson in the top of the eighth, then induced two ground balls to second that should've ended the inning but ultimately produced only one run while three runs scored. Finnegan, though, closed out the inning with a two-run lead, then watched his teammates get all three runs back (plus one more) in the bottom of the eighth to make it all moot and snap a seven-game losing streak.

"I've told you guys before, it's going to be a learning process," Martinez said in his postgame Zoom session with reporters. "And we're going to have some bumps and bruises along the way. But I can tell you one thing: They're going to go out there and they're going to compete every night. And you saw that tonight."

With only their second win in two weeks, the Nats gave themselves and a crowd of 20,060 reason to smile again. And the fact one of their potential building blocks acquired at the trade deadline played a starring role - against his former team, to boot - only sweetened the deal.

The trade that brought Adams to D.C. was notable at the time more for the player the Nationals gave up than the one they acquired. Brad Hand had worn out his welcome during a tumultuous, four-month stint as the team's closer - one that included 21 saves, but also five blown saves and five losses, most of them coming in agonizing fashion.

In exchange for two months of the lefty's services, though, the Blue Jays were willing to give up Adams, a young catcher with power potential who at worst is now competing for a backup job in 2022 and perhaps more than that.

Adams already started to make a case for himself with a bottom-of-the-ninth, go-ahead homer in Atlanta earlier this month. And now he has added another strong offensive performance to the ledger with his efforts tonight.

"There's definitely a little more excitement there," Adams said of facing the organization that made him a third-round draft pick four years ago. "It's fun to see all the familiar faces. I spent four or five years with that organization and built a lot of great relationships with those guys."

Based on the early returns, this didn't feel like the kind of game that would go the way it did. The Blue Jays, not the Nationals, were the ones who gave themselves scoring opportunities in the first three innings, putting a pair of runners on base each time. Erick Fedde labored throughout, but the right-hander managed to emerge having allowed only one of those six baserunners to score.

Fedde would enjoy only one clean frame tonight, a 1-2-3 to of the fourth right after his teammates staked him to a six-run lead. But he wouldn't finish strong, issuing a two-out walk of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and a moonshot of a home run to Teoscar Hernández in the fifth.

The right-hander departed at the end of the inning, having needed 94 pitches to complete five. He was in an advantageous position to earn the win, but the Nationals certainly would've liked more from him on this night.

"The way the game went, with the win, it makes everything a little easier," Fedde said. "But for sure I wish I could've gone a little deeper there. I really liked my stuff today. I just kept finding myself in situations where guys were on base and I was battling to get big outs."

In the end, it didn't matter much, because the offense took care of business with a sustained rally that had to feel good to everyone involved as the Nats snapped a seven-game losing streak.

Yadiel Hernandez's solo homer in the second - the first of his career off a breaking ball - set the tone, but the real damage came in the third, when the Nationals sent nine men to plate and brought six of them home.

Clutch hits were abundant. Alcides Escobar drove home a pair with a double to the gap in left-center. Josh Bell singled to right to load the bases with one out. Hernandez responded with an opposite-field single, driving in two more runs. And though Carter Kieboom just missed a homer moments later, his drive to the warning track in left was deep enough to score another run and hand Alec Manoah the worst of his 12 big league starts.

"We started getting deep in counts," Martinez said, "not chasing and just taking our walks and putting the ball in play."

And all of that merely set up one of the most satisfying moments of the night one inning later, when Adams dug in against the team that traded him three weeks ago, blasted his second homer in a Nationals uniform and very much enjoyed his trip around the bases.

Add an eighth-inning double to score two and give him team some welcome breathing room, and Adams couldn't have asked for a much better date with his ex.

"At the end of the day, it's just about helping the team win," he said. "I was just happy that we got the victory. It got a little shaky there, but some guys stepped up and we were able to get that win. Honestly, I just thought it was a really good team win altogether."