Before brawl, Roark continues recent return to form

SAN FRANCISCO - So, there was an actual ballgame played yesterday afternoon at AT&T Park. Easy as that might have been to forget once Hunter Strickland decided to reignite a three-year-old feud with Bryce Harper.

The Nationals beat the Giants, 3-0, with one of those runs made possible by Strickland's apparently premeditated plunking of Harper in the top of the eighth. It was a nice way to start this long West Coast trip, and it leaves the Nats with a 31-19 record, the best record they've ever had 50 games into a season.

And the man most responsible for it was Tanner Roark, who for the second time in the last week utterly dominated on the mound.

Two starts ago, Roark looked lost. He was unable to keep the ball down in the zone. He was unable to put away hitters with two strikes. He was unable to prevent his pitch count from getting out of control.

Well, here's what the right-hander has done in his last two starts: 14 innings of one-run ball, with one walk and 14 strikeouts. His ERA in that time has plummeted from 4.82 to 3.86.

"He's getting himself back right again," manager Dusty Baker said. "The last couple starts have been like Tanner."

As he did last week against the Mariners, Roark was able to put away the Giants, striking out six batters, four in the first three innings alone.

That he was able to do this despite a lack of substantive sleep the previous night added to the impressive nature of the start.

With the Nationals playing at home Sunday afternoon against the Padres and then on the road Monday afternoon in San Francisco, Roark was set to fly commercially on his own early. Except his flight out of Washington was delayed for three hours. He didn't land in San Francisco until 11 p.m. local time (2 a.m. by his body's clock), which was only barely ahead of the Nats' charter plane.

"It is what it is," Roark said. "Kind of the same thing that happened with the rest of the guys."

Roark showed no ill effects of the late travel and lack of sleep, putting together a dominant start. He allowed only two Giants runners reach scoring position and didn't let anybody reach third base.

On the heels of his seven inning-one run performance against the Mariners, this was even better.

"I built off the last one; that's what I'm going to continue to keep doing," Roark said. "Confidence is feeling good. Just trust my stuff and keep them off-guard and not let them feel good up there at the plate."