Bryce Harper's tenacious at-bat, 41st homer lead Nats to 5-2 win

For the third straight day, a Nationals starter spotted the Marlins a two-run lead in the first inning. But today, right-hander Jordan Zimmermann locked down Miami after that, combining with four relievers to shut the Marlins out over the final eight innings as the Nationals won 5-2.

The Marlins connected on three hits against Zimmermann in the opening frame, including an RBI double from Christian Yelich and a run-scoring single from Justin Bour. But over the next five innings, Zimmermann yielded just three hits with one walk and seven strikeouts.

"I was throwing fastballs and they were hitting them so I had to change up my gameplan a little bit," Zimmermann said. "I think I threw 30-some sliders today and a whole bunch of curveballs. After the first, they kind of gave me the first punch in the face and I had to shut them down after that. I was throwing everything. I threw a lot more sliders than I would like but I needed zeroes."

After plating three runs against Brad Hand and knocking him out in the fourth last Sunday, the Nationals waited a bit longer to get to the left-hander this afternoon. Tyler Moore struck first with a solo blast to deep left-center to start the fifth.

"He loves to play," Nationals manager Matt Williams said about Moore, who was making just his 33rd start of the year. "Opportunities have been a little sparse for him. But he wants to play. He looks forward to any opportunity he gets. He's ready to go. He prepares himself."

After Zimmermann followed with a single, Hand lost his control, loading the bases on consecutive walks to Anthony Rendon and Yunel Escobar. Bryce Harper stepped to the plate, proceeding to foul off five two-strike pitches before lifting Hand's 10th offering to right, plating Zimmermann to even the score on the sacrifice fly.

"I was trying to put the bat on the ball," Harper said of the sequence, which also included a broken bat. "Trying to definitely make something happen. Didn't care what he was going to throw up there. I was just trying to battle and do the best I could to get something in the air or get something through a hole. I was able to do enough to get Jordan in on that sac fly."

You'll find Nationals manager Matt Williams focusing on moments like Harper's battle with Hand more than the slugger's prolific home run record this season.

"That's the evolution," Williams said. "That's the evolution of his game. Grind at-bats. Bases loaded. The lefty-on-lefty matchup. Staying on balls. Doing what he can to put that ball in play. Those are the steps he's made this year and will continue to make that will allow him to do the things he wants to do on the field. Pretty good at-bat."

Marlins manager Dan Jennings stayed with Hand, who then walked Jayson Werth and Ian Desmond, allowing the Nats to take the lead as Rendon trotted home.

With Escobar on in the seventh, Harper unloaded on left-hander Kyle Barraclough's slider. Barraclough's head dropped, his body sunk as the ball soared into the right field second deck for Harper's National League-leading 41st homer.

"I wasn't sure what he was going to throw me 2-2," Harper said. "I don't know if I've faced him or not. He threw me a 2-1 changeup. Didn't know he had a changeup, so was kind of shocked about that. So I was trying to sit on something and see if he hung it and was able to put the barrel on the ball and do what I needed to do."

As he crossed the plate, Harper pointed to the 32,768 fans chanting "MVP, MVP".

"We've got (14) games left, so not really worried about the MVP or anything like that," Harper said. "I've said that numerous times. Just trying to win ballgames. And just trying to do everything I can to help this team win. I definitely loved the support from the fans today and that was great to see them out there on a good Saturday."

The Yankees shut out the Mets so the Nationals pulled to within seven games of the lead in the National League East.

"Just got to keep winning ballgames," Harper said. "Just worry about ourselves and worry about us winning games. If we don't win, it don't matter. We were lucky enough to get a win today, and the Yankees beat the Mets today. So we just got to keep winning ballgames, keep doing our thing and hopefully by the end, we're two or three games out going into New York and we'll see happens."