Jayson Werth, Ryan Zimmerman break out with a big night

Searching for a way to ignite his slumping offense and jumpstart his grizzled veteran's season, Nationals manager Matt Williams opted to pencil in Jayson Werth in the leadoff spot Tuesday night.

For one night, the move delivered, with Werth ripping a double and a single, drawing a walk and scoring all three times he reached base in the Nationals' 15-6 win over the Rockies in the series opener.

"It's comfortable for him, he's been there before," Williams told reporters. "He's a good run producer, as well. But with him coming back from the injury and not feeling his stroke as much as he wants to, it's a good opportunity to get him in the leadoff spot and get him some fastballs to hit and let him see some pitches, too."

After going 0-for-12 in San Francisco, Ryan Zimmerman's bat heated up Tuesday night. The 11-year veteran went 2-for-3 with a double, two walks and two RBIs.

"I think for the rest of the season that it's going to be important that J-Dub gets a lot of at-bats, Zim gets a lot of at-bats and those guys have to be at the top of the lineup to do that," Ian Desmond said to reporters after driving in four runs. "These guys haven't played a lot this year. I looked up (Tuesday) and was almost shocked that Zim had like 255 at-bats. In the big scheme of things, that's nothing. The more at-bats they can get and the quicker they can get them, the better they're gonna be."

Werth, Zimmerman and Desmond are the three veteran leaders in the Nationals clubhouse. None of the trio has performed consistently throughout the season.

"Obviously, we haven't been playing the way we want to play," Werth said on MASN's "Nats Xtra." "I haven't been playing the way I want to play. The whole season is in front of us. We got a long way to go. We need to play with a little bit of a sense of urgency and play like we're accustomed to and I think we're gonna be fine."

Werth knows one big offensive explosion at Coors Field doesn't solve all of the Nats' issues, but it's a giant step in the right direction with 44 games remaining.

"They are all gonna be significant," Werth said on "Nats Xtra". "We put ourselves in a little bit of a hole. We got some work to do. We believe in each other and that's all that matters. We think we can do it. We know we can do it. It's just a matter of going out there and getting it done."