After rehab start, Ross on track for September return (Nats up 5-4)

ST. LOUIS - It may come too late to have much impact on their fortunes this season, but Joe Ross is on track to return from Tommy John surgery and pitch for the Nationals in September.

Ross, who had elbow ligament replacement surgery on July 19, 2017, made a rehab start for Single-A Potomac this afternoon, throwing 63 pitches of scoreless ball over 3 2/3 innings.

"He threw well," manager Davey Martinez said. "They said he had good action on his fastball, which is good, cause that's who he is."

The Nationals' No. 5 starter through the first half of the 2017 season, and projected as a key member of the rotation for the long-term, Ross struggled with diminished velocity and inconstant performance last year before the torn elbow ligament was discovered.

Given the typical 12-to-18-month recovery time for Tommy John surgery, Ross was looking at a midseason return to the Nationals at best. As things stand, his return would come 13-to-14 months following the procedure.

"I think there's a good chance," Martinez said.

Even if the Nationals are too far back in the pennant race to make September games meaningful, a few late-season starts by Ross would help the organization better prepare for the winter, determining whether the 25-year-old still looks like someone who can be penciled into the 2019 rotation or not.

"I think he's got a couple more rehab starts," Martinez said. "But if he's ready, it would be nice to have him up here in September."

Update: Martinez wanted his team to score first tonight and set a better tone for the game. And that's exactly what the Nats did. They got a first-inning run via Bryce Harper's double down the first base line. They added another in the third on Anthony Rendon's bases-loaded single (though they still stranded three the rest of the inning). And then Harper added another clutch hit in the fourth, singling to center with the bases loaded to bring home two more runs. (That hit, incidentally, came off Tyson Ross, Joe's older brother who just recently was picked up by the Cardinals.)

Tanner Roark, meanwhile, has continued his recent upswing, tossing four innings of one-run ball so far. Harrison Bader connected for a solo homer in the bottom of the third, but that's been it for St. Louis so far vs. the right-hander. So the Nats hold a 4-1 lead.

Update II: Make it 5-1, thanks to some ugly Cardinals defense. They were charged with two errors in the top of the fifth, one by Kolten Wong, one by Ross, that helped let another run cross the plate. Roark continues to cruise along himself.

Update III: Roark was cruising, but then came a not-so-great top of the seventh in which the Cardinals scored three runs to make this a tight game. The inning included four hits, but also a not-great angle taken by Juan Soto on a base hit to left-center that let one run score, then another less-than-perfect throw from Rendon across the diamond (he's had several of those in this series) that let another run score. And so now it's 5-4, and the Nats are going to have to hang on for dear life to win this game.