Nationals blow out Diamondbacks 14-1 in rare laugher

PHOENIX - After a grueling weekend in San Francisco that featured more tense moments - not to mention missed opportunities - than they would have liked, the Nationals were in need of a good, old-fashioned laugher.

Boy, did they get one tonight at Chase Field.

The Nationals blasted the Diamondbacks out of their air-conditioned ballpark, winning 14-1 behind an all-out offensive attack that included hits from all nine starters, not to mention yet another boringly dominant performance from Stephen Strasburg.

Put that all together and you get the most lopsided win of the season.

"One of those nights for us," said Jayson Werth, who scored the first of his team's 14 runs and then was replaced after five innings. "It's nice to give some guys a rest, and everybody gets some at-bats and a chance to play, and start the series with a win. It's something you can build on. You need those games every now and then."

The Nationals haven't gotten a lot of those games lately, certainly not on the first two legs of this road trip, in which every game was decided by three or fewer runs. But they made up for it tonight.

After a sluggish weekend at the plate in San Francisco, the Nationals burst out of the gates tonight, pouncing on Diamondbacks starter Archie Bradley for four runs in the top of the first. Wilson Ramos, Clint Robinson and Danny Espinosa all delivered two-out, RBI singles in succession in an inning in which 10 batters came to the plate.

And the Nationals didn't let up after that. They scored two more runs in the second inning, Anthony Rendon's double down the left field line accounting for both.

By the time they strung together three more singles in a row in the top of the fourth, with Ramos driving in his second run of the game, Arizona manager Chip Hale had seen enough. He pulled Bradley, who had faced 24 batters and surrendered 12 hits, and left the rest of the game in his bullpen's hands.

"Everybody got a piece of it tonight," said Daniel Murphy, who went 3-for-3 with a walk, raising his NL-best average to .355. "It was a lot of fun as an offense. I didn't think we gave any at-bats away."

Not even when the starting pitcher was at the plate. Strasburg was just as much an offensive contributor as anyone, rapping out as many hits as he allowed in six innings of work: three.

All of that made life easy for the right-hander, who cruised through his 99 pitches, never letting anybody pass first base over his final five frames.

Strasburg thus improved to 15-1 on the season, a record that continues to amaze his teammates.

"He has consistently given us a chance to win every single start, and that is probably underselling what he has done for us this year," Murphy said. "Pounds the zone, goes deep into ballgames, works fast. He's been unbelievable. He really sets the tone for the pitching staff."

Strasburg has earned each of those 15 wins, no doubt. But he also has benefited from remarkable run support. Seven of his wins this season have come in games with final scores of 14-1, 12-1, 10-2, 9-1, 13-2 and 7-0. The Nationals score an average of 6.8 runs in games he starts, 4.2 runs in games started by anyone else.

"You can't complain, that's for sure," he said. "You just try to not read into it too much. You keep telling yourself there's a lot of game left. You just have to go out there and do your job."

With his team ahead so comfortably, manager Dusty Baker had no need to push Strasburg beyond the sixth. So he used the opportunity to get Jonathan Papelbon an inning of work; the deposed closer retired the side on eight pitches.

He also got his new closer in for his debut, even though it was hardly a save situation. Mark Melancon, acquired from the Pirates on Saturday, retired the side and struck out a pair in the ninth to close out this dominant victory.