Nationals blast Phillies en route to series sweep (updated)

They knew at the outset this was a big week, and they didn't shy away from admitting that. And though they had to wait through two rainouts and watch as one of the games was rescheduled for late September, once the Nationals finally took the field against the Phillies, they got down to business and played like their season depended on it.

Which, it's not unfair to say, it probably does.

In that regard, there's nothing bad you can say about what transpired at Nationals Park over the last 36 hours. They swept a doubleheader behind great pitching performances from two of their aces. And then tonight they rode their resurgent lineup and newly effective bullpen to a 7-4 victory and a three-game sweep that has helped reshape the narrative of the National League East race.

The Nationals (36-38) have won 17 of 24 overall, drawing to within two games of the .500 mark for the first time since April 28. More importantly, they've not only completed their first three-game sweep of the season, but they've also now won their last five games against the Phillies and Braves, allowing them to inch ever closer to the top of the division.

"More than anything, it gives us a lot of confidence," center fielder Victor Robles said. "We have a good team, and we're playing pretty good and things have been going our way. We've been working hard for this, and now we're back in the race."

Yes, they are. The Nats are now three games behind Philadelphia for second place, 7 1/2 games behind division-leading Atlanta. And now the Braves come to town for their own three-game weekend series that will go even further toward shaping the NL East race heading toward the season's halfway point.

"We're playing really good baseball all the way around: Big hits when we need them, our bullpen's stepped up, starting pitching's been good," manager Davey Martinez said. "Let's come back tomorrow and do it again."

Tonight's affair was far from a clean game from the Nationals' perspective. A brief pregame cloudburst delayed first pitch by 30 minutes. A lack of command by both teams' starters then delayed the pace of play for considerably more time than that.

Erick Fedde was all over the place from the get-go, and though he managed to avoid damage through his first three innings, he racked up a pitch count of 58, thanks to four walks and two singles.

It certainly helped that Fedde received some brilliant play from the guys behind him, most notably Trea Turner and Adam Eaton. Turner made a sparkling play on a second-inning grounder up the middle; he couldn't get the batter at first but he did get Scott Kingery trying to score all the way from second. Two innings later, Eaton scooped up Jay Bruce's two-out single to right and fired a strike to the plate, where Kurt Suzuki held onto the ball despite a hard slide by Bryce Harper.

"The defense behind me was amazing today," Fedde said. "Those guys really played their butt off."

That was the end of the rope for Fedde, though. He was pulled with his pitch count at 84 (only 43 of those strikes), having allowed only two runs but having put his bullpen in a precarious position needing to churn out 5 1/3 innings.

The Nationals led, though, thanks to their latest big night at the plate against Nick Pivetta. The one-time Washington prospect, traded in July 2015 for Jonathan Papelbon, entered with a 10.94 ERA in eight career games against the organization that drafted him. He departed having surrendered six runs in 5 1/3 innings.

The Nats got a two-out RBI double from Juan Soto in the bottom of the first, then started elevating the ball after that.

Suzuki launched a two-run homer in the bottom of the second, his eighth of the season. Anthony Rendon sent a 421-foot blast to left in the bottom of the sixth, his 17th of the season. And then, shortly after Pivetta was pulled in favor of right-hander Edubray Ramos, Robles sent a three-run shot flying into the visitors' bullpen to open up a 7-3 lead for the home team.

"They're all doing their part and swinging the bats well," Martinez said. "What I like is even when we don't hit home runs, they're putting the ball in play. They're moving the ball. Our strikeouts are down, which is nice. They're making contact and putting balls in play when we need to."

As the rain picked up again, the Nationals bullpen was tasked with holding the four-run lead. Tanner Rainey, Wander Suero and Sean Doolittle all had pitched during Wednesday's doubleheader, but all were needed again tonight.

No worries. Rainey surrendered a solo homer to Bruce in the top of the seventh, but Suero retired the side in the eighth and Doolittle finished things off to secure his 16th save and secure a most-welcome series sweep for the Nationals, albeit merely the first step in a long journey back to the top they have not yet completed.

"You can talk about it all you want, but you've still got to keep playing baseball," Turner said. "There's a lot of baseball left, and a lot of things can happen. I think we're definitely trending in the right direction, but we've got to keep it up."