Nats gain ground with 15-1 drubbing

The Nationals returned home knowing they needed to dominate the struggling Braves over the next four games to set the stage for a monstrous series with the Mets. For tonight anyway, the plan far exceeded any expectations as the Nationals smacked 18 hits in a 15-1 rout.

The assault began when right-hander Matt Wisler wanted no part of Bryce Harper - a Braves theme on the night - when he issued a two-out walk in the first. Apparently, Wisler and Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez preferred to deal with Ryan Zimmerman, one of the game's most prolific run producers over the past month.

Stepping to the plate to a standing ovation from 28,627 at Nationals Park, Zimmerman belted a double off the wall in right-center. Clint Robinson followed with a two-run single and the flood gates were open.

"The first at-bat from Clint set the tone, certainly Zim's double, but getting the two-run single in the first sets the tone for us," manager Matt Williams said.

Five more runs poured in an inning later on an RBI double from Wilson Ramos, a bases loaded walk to Harper, a sacrifice fly by Zimmerman and a two-RBI single from Yunel Escobar.

Zimmerman brought two more home in on a single in the third and Robinson plated Harper to give the Nats a 10-1 advantage after three innings.

Harper walked for the fourth time in the game in the fifth and then raced around to score from first on Zimmerman's double.

The Nationals tacked on four more runs to win by the largest margin of victory in Nationals history. The 15 runs scored also established a new single-game high for a home game in Nationals history.

"Everybody was really patient tonight getting good ones to hit and when they got 'em they put 'em in play hard," Williams said. "Good attack, offensively. Patience and power."

Zimmerman ended up 3-for-3 with two doubles, four RBIs and two runs scored. Over his last 11 games, Zimmerman is batting .405 (17-for-42) with seven homers, five doubles, 23 RBIs and 11 runs scored.

"Zim, he always swings the bat well, every year," Harper said. "I understand what it's like to come back from the DL and not play that many games and come back and have to go through a spring training kind of thing at the big-league level. It's tough. Seeing him doing what he's doing right now is very impressive. Of course I love scoring for him and getting him those RBIs. I think you guys saw that in the fifth inning when I scored from first. I'm always excited for everybody on my team to get better and do the things I can to help win ballgames. That's all that matters at the end of the day."

Harper became just the fourth player since 1914 to score four runs in a game and not record an official at-bat (BaseballReference.com). It was the second time this season that Harper has walked four times in a game and scored four runs. The 22-year-old slugger actually saw 20 pitches tonight without swinging the bat.

"He's been doing it all year," Robinson said after driving in a career-high four runs. "He's talked about it a lot, saying 'I'm not going to get away from my approach. I'm going to take what they give me.' And that's what a good hitter does. The good thing about Bryce is, he's patient. But when they do come in the zone, he does damage on it. He's got confidence in the rest of our lineup that when he gets on base, we're going to drive him in. So kudos to him. It's pretty impressive to see the patience and not getting out of his approach."

Harper was able to get some much-needed rest when Williams removed several starters in the sixth. The lopsided win moves the Nationals to six games back of the first-place Mets, who were off tonight.

"I just think coming back at 4:30 this morning, not getting to bed until 5-6 o'clock in the morning, we definitely needed that one tonight," Harper said. "Get some of the starters out of there and get us a breather. Jordan (Zimmermann) threw great from the beginning. Being able to score those runs tonight was definitely huge as a team and a lot of fun."