Home run barrage follows early zeros (Nats win 7-4)

Matt Harvey and Stephen Strasburg spent the first three innings of tonight's rematch trying to one-up each other, posting dueling zeros on the scoreboard to the delight of many in the crowd and the disgust of others in what has turned into a bipartisan ballpark.

But then came the fourth inning, which featured three solo homers: one from the Mets' Asdrubal Cabrera, then back-to-back shots from the Nats' Ryan Zimmerman and Anthony Rendon to give their team a 2-1 lead.

Strasburg had retired the first 10 batters he faced, six via strikeout, before watching former teammate Cabrera drill a 2-1 fastball into the right field bullpen. That's about the only mistake the right-hander has made so far, with only one other hit (a single) on the board and eight total strikeouts to his credit through four strong innings.

Strasburg is attempting to improve to 8-0 to begin the season, with the Nationals attempting to win for the 14th consecutive time when he pitches. That streak includes Thursday night's 9-1 drubbing of the Mets at Citi Field, a game that saw Strasburg dominant and Harvey get booed off the field.

The eyes of New York are focused squarely on Harvey tonight, five days removed from a career-worst outing in which the Nationals roughed up the wayward ace for nine runs in only 2 2/3 innings. Early on, Harvey was able to convince his critics to leave the pitchforks in storage.

Even so, Harvey was playing with fire early. He issued a leadoff walk in the first inning, put two more men on base in the second inning and gave up a leadoff single to Strasburg in the third inning. The Nationals couldn't manufacture a run through it all, but they took care of that in the fourth by simply hitting the ball over the fence.

Zimmerman got the party started by hammering a 2-2 changeup over the left field bullpen, his second hit of the night and his sixth homer of the season. Moments later, Rendon followed with a solo shot to nearly the same spot in the bleachers, making the third baseman 11 for his last 25.

The crowd, which includes plenty of New York fans (including one large organized group behind the right field fence) turned solidly in the home team's favor after those back-to-back homers, with taunting chants of "Har-vey! Har-vey!" emanating from the upper deck.

Update: And the Nats have knocked Harvey out of another game before he or the Mets preferred. They scored three runs in the fifth, capped by Daniel Murphy's two-run blast into the second deck. They really made solid contact against the right-hander during the fourth and fifth innings, and that ultimately did him in. Strasburg, on the other hand, continues to cruise. The Nats lead 5-1 after six.

Update II: The Mets got one run back in the seventh, ultimately knocking Strasburg out of the game after his 11th strikeout. Felipe Rivero entered with the tying run at the plate and struck out Juan Lagares, making it 22 consecutive inherited runners stranded by the Nats bullpen. Then they got the run right back when Ben Revere homered. Yes, Ben Revere. Yes, homered. It's only the fifth of his career, only the second off a left-hander. So it's 6-2 Nats after seven.

Update III: That's a final. Nats win 7-4 after Wilson Ramos clubbed the team's fifth homer of the game, then Eric Campbell hit a two-run homer in garbage time in the ninth. They increase their lead over the Mets to 1 1/2 games.