Nats cruise to victory as they celebrate Crews (updated)

Today was one of those days where, in the grand scheme of things, the result of the Nationals’ game against the Giants didn’t really matter. The franchise introduced Dylan Crews, the No. 2 overall pick in this year’s draft, as one of the “keystone” pieces for the future.

Many were thinking about the next competitive Nationals team a few years down the line. But the players in the home clubhouse were not.

On the day the Nats celebrated Crews, they also celebrated a victory as they cruised to a 10-1 win over the Giants in front of 32,504 fans who came out to welcome the newest prospect and watch a ballgame.

And what a ballgame to watch if you were supporting the team wearing the cherry blossom uniforms, who won their second straight to take this series against the Giants.

"Yesterday was good, today was really good, so I like the trend," manager Davey Martinez said.

The Nationals offense looked like a well-oiled machine from the jump. They put up crooked numbers in two of the first four innings thanks to extended rallies.

Joey Meneses led off the bottom of the second with a single to right and Keibert Ruiz followed with a walk. Dominic Smith and Corey Dickerson delivered back-to-back RBI singles to give the Nats a 2-0 lead. Two batters later, Alex Call hit an RBI triple into the right-center field gap. Two pitches later, CJ Abrams hit a two-run home run to the same gap to celebrate his bobblehead night.

“Just goes to show all of our hard work that we put in every day when we come to the ballpark," Smith said. "It's just paying off. We've got a young team. We work hard every day. And when opposing teams come in and give us the compliment that we're a scrappy group and we're hard to kind of put away, that's a great compliment. We just look forward to continue to work hard and playing Nationals baseball.”

Abrams’ 10th homer of the year came on a low changeup from Giants righty Logan Webb, traveling 392 feet. It also knocked Webb from the game after just 1 ⅓ innings and 55 pitches.

“It means a lot," Smith said of Abrams' bobblehead night while holding his own. "His first bobblehead. I'm really proud of him. Like I said, just seeing him grow as a player, as a young man, and he shows every day why he belongs up here and why the Nationals think so highly of him. And it's fun. It's fun for you to hit a home run on your bobblehead night. Takes a special person to do that. So that was impressive.”

Left-hander Sean Manaea took over from that point to try to limit the damage and give Giants manager Gabe Kapler some length. But the Nats bats got to him, too.

Luis García led off the fourth with a single up the middle and stole second base before Call followed with a walk. Abrams reached on a fielder’s choice to second baseman Brett Wisely to put runners on the corners. Lane Thomas hit an RBI double to left and Jeimer Candelario hit an RBI single past shortstop Casey Schmitt. Then two batters later, Ruiz and Smith hit back-to-back RBI singles.

“It's fun," Dickerson said. "You get to sit back and watch the pitcher work a little bit. Watch Gray work. It's fun when he gets in the groove. And then when we're scoring runs, it's so much easier to go out there and not be so much worried about yourself and root for one another. It seems to be contagious. So it's always fun when we get things going.”

By inning’s end, the Nationals had turned this into a laugher with a 10-1 lead. They would go on to collect 14 hits by night’s end.

“They're just seeing the ball, staying in the middle of the field, making good solid contact, using the whole field," Martinez said. "They did a great job today. Faced a tough opponent today. We try to get them to get the ball up, not chase. I thought we did a good job with that.”

The run support was very much welcomed by Josiah Gray, who has a history of receiving little to no support from the offense.

“I was definitely sitting around there after the six-run inning because I think they changed the pitcher in that inning as well," Gray said. "So yeah, I kind of got a little stiff, but it's nothing you can't work through with warmup pitches or down to the tunnel or something like that. But it's huge for the offense to go out and do what they got to do. CJ did his thing on this bobblehead day and the guys were awesome today. Just got to do my part and they did their part today.”

Gray’s night almost got off to a similar shaky start as Webb’s. But whereas Webb and Manaea couldn’t get out of jams, Gray somehow could.

The young right-hander issued back-to-back walks on nine pitches to start the outing. But then he struck out J.D. Davis with an 83-mph slider and got a double play ball off Michael Conforto over his next five pitches.

He issued another leadoff walk to start the second, but proceeded to retire the next three batters. The Giants finally got on the board in the third with LaMonte Wade Jr. single, Joc Pederson double and Davis sacrifice fly. But Gray limited the damage to just the one run.

“Just had to recenter my focus a little bit," he said. "The first inning, walking the first two guys, just wasn't really focused, I guess you could say. So I wanted to get some quick outs for the guys and they put up six runs and then they put up the four there in the fourth. So just had to refocus a little bit and kind of look at the score ahead and be like, if I give up a hit, if I give up a run, the guys had my back. Just pitch my game and get the first out, the first strike. So after the first two innings, I felt like I did a better job at that.”

Gray retired 11 of the next 13 batters he faced, Pederson on a leadoff double in the sixth and Luis Matos on a leadoff single in the seventh being the only batters to reach over the following four innings. His final line: seven innings, four hits, one run, three walks and four strikeouts on 87 pitches, 58 strikes.

“Josiah was good," Martinez said. "After the first two batters, he settled down and he got ahead of 26 hitters, which is great. I said it before, you get pitching like that, we hit the ball well, but the pitching is what really got us going."

Rico Garcia, making his Nationals debut, and Joe La Sorsa closed out the win with two scoreless innings out of the bullpen. But Gray led the way and was the star in tonight's game, even though, according to him, his bobblehead isn't as impressive as Abrams'.

“It's huge. It's like actually a lot bigger than mine," Gray said of Abrams' giveaway with a laugh. "So it's pretty cool. I got him to sign it. I'm sure he had a lot of friends and family here. So for him to go deep and have another hit after that, it's pretty cool. I'm hoping he enjoyed the day and gets to enjoy that bobblehead forever.”

The Nationals have now won their first series since the All-Star break and their second series against the Giants this year. It’s also the seventh time they’ve scored 10 runs or more this season.

On a day when a future Nats player was on display, we were reminded that the current players can play some ball, too.

“Big day. Big day for us," Martinez said. "Like I said, the future is bright here. We're excited about it. Our young guys are playing really well. Veteran guys are keeping us grounded. So just a really good day. It's been a good weekend so far. So let's finish up tomorrow and go 1-0.”