After brief hiccup, Nationals seize 8-4 victory from Pirates

PITTSBURGH - Just when it looked like the Nationals would be asking yet another unproven reliever to notch a save in a tight situation, a Bryce Harper blast provided some much-appreciated cushion.

Harper's two-run homer that nearly left PNC Park in the top of the ninth turned a two-run lead into a four-run lead and allowed Koda Glover to pitch the bottom of the inning in a non-save situation. The rookie reliever removed any more drama from the proceedings, finishing off an 8-4 victory for the Nationals to open this road trip.

The Nats tried their best to make this one more interesting than it needed to be, turning a five-run lead in the seventh into a nailbiter. But they got some big-time performances from Blake Treinen (who recorded three outs on six pitches to quash a seventh-inning rally) and Enny Romero (who retired the side in the eighth) before Glover took over for the ninth.

Harper's laser of a home run off lefty Wade LeBlanc removed much of the drama that was building, giving Glover a much more comfortable lead. The blast was Harper's 13th home run, tied with Ryan Zimmerman for the club lead, and crossed off the final National League park on his career homer list.

The Nats held a 6-1 lead in the fifth inning, with every member of the starting lineup recording at least one hit along the way. That included Stephen Strasburg, who led off the top of the third with a single.

On the mound, Strasburg served up a first-inning homer to Josh Harrison, who surprisingly sent a changeup from the right-hander soaring down the left field line, but he quickly dialed it in and put together one of his better starts of the season.

Strasburg retired nine in a row at one point, and after two first-inning hits didn't surrender another until Harrison's leadoff double in the sixth. But when the Nationals needed their co-ace to give them one more inning, he couldn't deliver. After allowing a leadoff double and then issuing a walk, Strasburg was pulled with zero outs in the seventh and his pitch count at 108.

And so it was that Dusty Baker needed to ask for nine outs from his bullpen. Never mind his team led by five runs at the time; this still was no routine task.

Sure enough, the Pirates scored three runs before any outs were recorded. Two of those scored on a ghastly throwing error by Zimmerman on a potential 3-6-3 double play that went horribly awry. But Adam Frazier's RBI single off Oliver Pérez trimmed the lead to 6-4 and actually brought the go-ahead run to the plate before Treinen escaped that jam via a quick double play and a strikeout.

The Nationals wasted no time pouncing on Pirates starter Chad Kuhl, with Trea Turner leading off the game with a double and then scoring on Jayson Werth's single to center. Thus began a steady barrage of hits by the visiting lineup, which produced 10 base knocks before Kuhl departed two batters into the fifth.

Zimmerman's two-out, two-run double to right in the top of the third put the Nats on top and gave the league's leading hitter 38 RBIs through his team's first 38 games.

The biggest blast came in the fourth from an unlikely source. After Michael A. Taylor tripled to right, Wilmer Difo launched a two-run homer to right-center. Difo, starting at second base to give Daniel Murphy a night off, has only two major league home runs in 71 games over parts of the last three seasons.