Fedde putting away hitters early in second start (Nats win 9-4)

CHICAGO - Erick Fedde has come out throwing strikes again. And so far, that has produced better results for the Nationals rookie than in his first career start.

Taking the mound seven days after he was roughed up by the Rockies for seven runs in four innings, Fedde retired the first five Cubs batters he faced today, three via strikeout. The bottom of Chicago's lineup strung together three straight two-out singles to produce the afternoon's first run, but the rookie right-hander bounced back with a quick third inning.

Fedde has looked - early on, at least - much better today than he did in his debut. He continued his trend of getting ahead in the count, throwing first-pitch strikes to 11 of the first 12 batters he faced.

Last time, Fedde struggled to put away hitters. This time, he reversed course, striking out Jon Jay, Willson Contreras and Kyle Schwarber, all looking.

Javier Baez's RBI single up the middle gave the Cubs a 1-0 lead, but the Nationals responded quickly in the top of the third. Wilmer Difo roped a leadoff triple just past Jay's diving attempt in center field, then scored when Schwarber couldn't snag Brian Goodwin's sinking liner to left.

Ryan Zimmerman started a nice, 3-6-3 double play to end the bottom of the third and bring Fedde back to the dugout with a pitch count of 45.

Update: Fedde made a mistake to Willson Contreras and paid the price for it. His 1-2 changeup over the plate in the bottom of the fourth was launched by the Cubs catcher over the left field bleachers and onto Waveland Avenue. That's 20 homers for Contreras (nine since the All-Star break) and it gives Chicago a 2-1 lead after four innings. Fedde is at 72 pitches.

Update II: What was shaping up to be a very positive start for Fedde ended on a sour note. After a quick fifth inning put him in good position to notch a quality start, he opened the sixth in disastrous fashion. Both Contreras and Schwarber homered to begin the inning, and Fedde wound up getting pulled with one out and 99 pitches on his ledger. There again were encouraging signs, but the final line wasn't great: four runs in 5 1/3 innings. Nats down 4-1 now with three innings to go.

Update III: The Nationals are trying to claw their way back into this one. They got doubles from Daniel Murphy and Anthony Rendon to open the seventh, then got a sac fly from Matt Wieters (with Jon Jay making a spectacular catch at the wall in right-center to prevent another double). And so as the game heads to the eighth, it's 4-3.

Update IV: Well, that changed in a hurry. The Nats just scored five runs in the top of the eighth. Harper singled and Zimmerman doubled, forcing Joe Maddon to intentionally walk Murphy and pitch to Rendon. Except reliever Carl Edwards Jr. plunked Rendon with his first pitch to force in the tying run. And then his very next pitch, a slider to Matt Wieters, was launched into the shrubbery beyond the center field fence. Yes, a grand slam for Wieters, giving the Nationals an 8-4 lead. What a turn of events.

Update V: Goodwin hit a solo homer to lead off the ninth. Sean Doolittle closed out the win.