Early offense, Ross' return to form produce blowout win (updated)

Davey Martinez sat in a portion of the visitors' clubhouse at Citi Field designated for Zoom press conferences around 1:30 p.m. today and expressed a profound desire for his Nationals to do something in particular in their upcoming game against the Mets.

"I think we need to start scoring earlier in the game," the Nats manager said. "We've been scoring runs late. We need to start scoring runs early to take a little bit of pressure off our starting pitching, and see where that takes us."

Some 2 1/2 hours later, Martinez's charges did exactly as he asked, scoring their first run two batters into the game. And some 3 hours, 20 minutes after that, he and his team gathered in the middle of the diamond to exchange high-fives following a 7-1 victory that went about as splendidly as anyone wearing a curly W cap could've hoped.

"It worked out well," the manager said afterward. "Good team effort. The boys bounced back well today after yesterday. They came back today ready to play, like they always do."

With a reconfigured lineup that included as many available left-handed bats as possible against Mets starter Marcus Stroman, the Nationals scored early and often. They were up 5-0 in the fourth, then extended their lead in the fifth. And by the time it was over, they had fully distanced themselves from Friday night's 15-strikeout goose egg against Jacob deGrom.

They also made life so much easier on Joe Ross, who bounced back from his rough start earlier in the week to toss six innings of one-run ball and continue his hugely encouraging April on the mound.

"There's no doubt. When you're up a point or two and (a pitcher) goes out there, you kind of relax a little bit," Martinez said. "You're not trying to do too much."

Martinez's plea for his guys to get on the board early was grounded not only in desire but in fact. Entering today's game, the Nationals were 6-1 when scoring first, 1-9 when they don't.

They wasted no time at all setting the tone in this contest, taking a 1-0 lead all of four pitches in. Josh Harrison, bumped up to the leadoff spot, lined a single to right and wound up on third base when Michael Conforto let the ball get by him. Moments later, Yadiel Hernandez (the surprise No. 2 hitter) sent a ball the other way for a sacrifice fly to put his team ahead for the first time.

"As soon as I saw Harrison hit that triple, I knew somehow, some way I had to bring that run in," Hernandez said, via interpreter Octavio Martinez. "I focused a lot and got my concentration up for that one at-bat, and I was able to do the job."

That's how things continued to go through the game's first five innings. The Nats didn't score runs in bunches, and they didn't threaten to hit the ball out of the park. But they consistently made contact and found enough holes to rack up 10 singles, and when they didn't do that they showed the patience to draw four walks.

So it was that the Nationals scored once in the first, once in the second, twice in the third, once in the fourth and twice in the fifth.

"Any way you get it done, whether it's home runs or 10 singles ... that's part of what we talk about," Harrison said. "Long lineup, moving the line. And within those singles, we had guys push the envelope, take extra bases. Anytime you've got people on base, you're putting pressure on the other side."

Everyone contributed. Kyle Schwarber and Starlin Castro had back-to-back RBI singles in the third. Hernandez followed up his sac fly in the first with a single and a run in the third and a two-out RBI single in the fourth. Alex Avila notched an RBI the hard way, getting plunked by a pitch with the bases loaded in the fifth. Even Ross helped his own cause with a two-out RBI single in the second, at that point the pitcher's third hit in seven at-bats this season.

"We'll see if I can keep this up all year," Ross said with a smirk. "I'm not going to jinx myself, hopefully."

Ross, of course, made a bigger difference today on the mound, a much-needed and encouraging bounceback from his disconcerting start earlier in the week. On Monday night, the Cardinals roughed up the right-hander for 10 runs in 4 1/3 innings, blasting four homers (including a grand slam).

That outing skewered Ross' season stats, but it didn't erase the good vibes he exuded in his first two starts, when he tossed 11 combined scoreless innings. And that's the version that showed up today in Flushing, when he had good command of his sinker and slider combo and kept the Mets at bay as a result.

"Starting off well (in my first two starts) probably made it a little bit easier," Ross said when asked about brushing off his last outing. "Also, it's one game. I think one not-great game, you can shake that off. If it was two or three in a row, that would be different."

New York managed some hard contact off Ross in the bottom of the first, but he escaped unscathed on a 105-mph lineout to right. He found his groove after that, retiring nine in a row before Conforto smacked a hanging slider off the right field foul pole for a solo homer in the fourth.

That was the end of Ross' troubles on this late afternoon. He posted a zero in the fifth, then returned for a quick sixth and walked off the mound with his pitch count a very manageable 91.

Martinez perhaps could've given the 27-year-old a chance to return for the seventh for the first time this season. But with his team up six runs, and with Ross still working his way back into full form after sitting out 2020, the Nationals manager decided not to push it any farther.

"For right now, I like where he's at," Martinez said. "Pushed him up to 90 pitches today; I think that's good for right now. He gave us six good innings, which is perfect. We've definitely got to monitor his workload. This way, we can keep him for 162 games."

For once, the skipper had the luxury of prioritizing the long term over the need to do everything in his power to try to win one ballgame. It made for an enjoyable evening at the ballpark.