Nationals throttle Royals 13-2 to capture another road series

KANSAS CITY - They marched into St. Louis and swept the Cardinals. Now they've marched into Kansas City and taken two of three from the Royals, coming within a blown save of another sweep of the defending World Series champs.

Wasn't this supposed to be the most daunting road trip the Nationals had ever faced?

Not to this point. With a 13-2 drubbing of the Royals this afternoon, the Nats added yet another impressive victory to their growing list, their fifth win in six days in Missouri.

Next up: A four-game weekend series at Wrigley Field against the Cubs, the only team in baseball that can top the Nationals' 19-8 record.

As has been the case throughout the first two legs of this trip, the Nats got contributions from just about everyone in today's game. Every member of the starting lineup drove in at least one run except for Michael A. Taylor. Everybody scored a run except for Clint Robinson and Danny Espinosa. Ryan Zimmerman and Wilson Ramos had three hits a piece. Daniel Murphy had four hits and briefly sported a .402 batting average.

Even Bryce Harper had a pair of hits, including his 10th homer of the season, potentially snapping out of a 1-for-23 slump that has been masked by his team's winning performance for the last week.

As they have done so often this year, the Nationals scored early and often. They plated four runs before Royals starter Kris Medlen ever recorded an out and handed their own starter, Stephen Strasburg, a 6-0 lead before he ever took the mound. The Nats have now scored 14 first-inning runs in the first six games of this trip, 39 total first-inning runs this season.

Strasburg happily accepted the support today. Though the right-hander got off to a bit of a ragged start, allowing two early runs and needing 45 pitches to complete his first two innings, he was all business the rest of the way, departing after six strong frames.

In the process, Strasburg improved to 5-0 for the first time in his career. Over his last 19 starts (dating back to his return from a neck injury last summer) he is now 13-2 with a 1.96 ERA.