Nats outplay Rays again for fourth win in five (updated)

These are not the 2019 Nationals. Not in name and not in style of play. Most likely, they won't finish the season like their 2019 version did, either. But for now, that's not worth stressing over.

Instead, take a step back and just appreciate what this ever-changing 2020 Nationals club is now doing. They don't have the star power - or the offensive power - of their World Series champion predecessors. But over the last week, they're finally starting to play with some passion. They're starting to develop their own identity.

And most importantly, they're starting to win games.

Tonight's 5-3 victory on South Capitol Street secured a two-game sweep over the best-in-the-American League Rays and was their fourth win in five days. At 16-25 in a 60-game season, they're still running out of time to make it all the way back into the playoff hunt. But they're at least showing some fight after a wretched first half to this strange campaign.

"There's a familiar feeling that's starting to come back in the clubhouse," reliever Sean Doolittle said in a postgame Zoom session with reporters. "I wouldn't say it's like 'Screw it,' but it's like 'Why not?' This season's been so weird, so unique already. I mean, why not? Let's see what we can do."

For at least these last two nights, the Nationals looked clearly superior to a Tampa Bay club with visions of October success. Not because they outmuscled the opposition. But because they outplayed them, manufacturing rallies, getting quality starting pitching and effective late-inning relief.

Aníbal Sánchez set the tone in this one with his best start of the season. The wily veteran has known all along he was better than the 6.48 ERA and 1.800 WHIP he brought into this outing. He just needed to get back to what made him so successful the bulk of last season.

And for most of the evening, Sánchez did exactly that. Mixing up his wide-ranging repertoire to keep the Rays guessing, he coasted his way through five scoreless frames on 74 pitches. With an especially sharp changeup - the harder one, not his fluttering butterfly variation - he struck out four of the first 11 batters he faced and six overall.

"I think it's because my fastball and my changeup came out the same," he said. "It's something that hasn't happened before, even when I threw good against the Marlins. But today, I was able to throw my fastball and my changeup with the same arm motion. It helped me to keep those guys out of balance."

But then it nearly came apart in rapid fashion in the top of the sixth. Sánchez opened the inning with a single, then plunked a batter to put himself in a jam. And when Ji-Man Choi singled to right and Brandon Lowe barely beat Kurt Suzuki's tag at the plate, the Rays were on the board and Sánchez was suddenly done for the night.

Enter Wander Suero, who had been a perfect 9-for-9 stranding inherited runners this season. That streak quickly ended when Yoshi Tsutsugo poked a cutter down the left field line for an RBI double. Add a curveball in the dirt that Suzuki couldn't find and what had been a 4-0 lead for the Nationals was now 4-3.

Suero escaped the jam without surrendering the tying run, leaving Tsutsugo stranded at third. His teammates then set about to pad their lead.

They took that initial lead thanks to their latest - and perhaps most extreme - example of small ball. With a modified lineup that has produced only one homer their last six games, the Nationals have needed to resort to doing the little things to push runners across the plate. They've shown they can actually be quite effective at it.

"That's a good sign," said Juan Soto, who returned to the lineup after missing five games with a sore left elbow. "We're scoring runs without homers. So when the homers come, we're going to score more."

The bottom of the first tonight was a prime example. The Nationals' first four batters didn't record a hit, didn't hit a ball out of the infield, didn't register an exit velocity over 70 mph. But they scored a run, thanks to Victor Robles' hit-by-pitch, Adam Eaton's sacrifice bunt, Trea Turner's walk, a double steal by Robles and Turner, and Soto's RBI groundout to third. Somewhere, Whitey Herzog wept tears of joy at that picture-perfect display of '80s baseball.

"Hey, we're trying to be creative in scoring runs," manager Davey Martinez said. "Bunting. Doing some hitting and running. Stealing bases. It's part of the game. I told these guys: Just be ready for anything. You never know. We've got to try to score first."

The Nats did score first and then kept the pressure on Tampa Bay starter Ryan Yarbrough. They got back-to-back doubles from a stunningly rejuvenated Brock Holt and Carter Kieboom (the rookie's first extra-base hit of the season) to make it 2-0 in the second. Then they got four hits, another hit-by-pitch and a sacrifice fly in the third to extend the lead to 4-0.

Add one more run without benefit of a hit in the sixth - two hit-by-pitches, another Eaton sacrifice bunt, Turner's RBI groundout - and the Nationals were able to hand a two-run lead to the back end of their bullpen.

Doolittle, Tanner Rainey and Daniel Hudson complied. Each member of that trio posted a zero in relief. And as a result, they ensured the Nationals would notch their fourth win in five days.

"Let's see what we can do," Doolittle said. "Let's put our head down and grind these last 2 1/2 weeks out and not worry about what other teams are doing. We're well aware of the position that we're in. But keep coming to the field every day with the same energy that we've had for the last week."