Nats use tried and true formula to beat Giants again

SAN FRANCISCO - The formula sounds simple enough. Get a quality start from the guy on the mound. Get some big hits to seize an early lead. Turn things over to the bullpen to close out a victory.

For the better part of four months, the Nationals didn't have enough of the right ingredients to concoct that formula. Most notably, the bullpen pieces.

Now that they do have a relief corps with more than one or two trusted arms, the Nats are perfectly capable of winning games like tonight's 5-3 victory over the Giants. Even if they still cause a heart palpitation or two in the dugout (and on living room sofas throughout the D.C. area).

"When things are clicking as a bullpen, and you feel like you're really doing it as a group, that's what it's about," closer Sean Doolittle said. "Getting the ball to the next guy. ... It feels good just to have a little bit more flexibility, so we can share the load more as a group."

First and foremost, the Nationals built up a three-run lead behind six strong innings from Aníbal Sánchez and home runs from Kurt Suzuki and Trea Turner. That was enough cushion for this current incarnation of the bullpen.

Hunter Strickland, making his return to San Francisco as a visitor, gave up his first run as a National via Pablo Sandoval's RBI double in the seventh but allowed nothing else. Fernando Rodney gave up a single and a deep drive to left - that was caught by a leaping Juan Soto - but no runs in the eighth.

Doolittle then pitched around Kevin Pillar's one-out double in the ninth, getting Brandon Crawford to fly out to deep left-center before striking out Pablo Sandoval to earn his 25th save of the season.

"Just the way the ball plays at night here, you have to challenge guys in the zone at some point," Doolittle said. "Fortunately we got the flyout and then the strikeout. So, crisis averted."

Crisis averted tonight, and crisis averted in the slightly larger picture. The Nationals came to town having lost three straight series but now have a chance to sweep the Giants on Wednesday afternoon.

"We're playing good baseball right now," manager Davey Martinez said. "We hit a little lapse there for a minute, and now we're back on track. Let's keep it going."

This game began in inauspicious fashion, with Gerardo Parra popping up a first-inning bunt attempt and Turner subsequently getting picked off first base. But the Nationals cleaned things up quickly and not only got on the board in the top of the first but kept it going beyond that.

Suzuki was front and center throughout it all, enjoying one of his best offensive performances of the season. The veteran catcher, as much of a dead-pull hitter as there is in this lineup, proved that he is indeed capable of going the other way every once in a while when he lofted an RBI single to right field to give the Nationals a 1-0 lead in the first.

Two innings later, Suzuki would go back to his more traditional swing path. He destroyed a slider from left-hander Conner Menez and sent the ball soaring 400 feet to left field for a two-run homer (his 12th in only 231 plate appearances this season) to cap a three-run rally.

"You can battle up there with two strikes, and I'm not trying to do too much," Suzuki said. "And usually when you stay within yourself, the ball goes far. I try to have good at-bats. Obviously with runners in scoring position, you want to drive in the run and have good at-bats, productive at-bats. And I just kind of did it that way."

Turner then showed off his power stroke in the top of the fifth. Having drawn walks in each of his first two plate appearances, he worked the count full against Menez and looked poised to take yet another base on balls. Or not. Turner turned on an inside fastball and hammered the ball down the line for his 10th homer of the season and 500th hit of his career.

"That's what he does," Martinez said of Turner's ability both to set the table and drive in runs. "That was his 500th hit, the big one. We preach all the time now about taking his walks, and he got two early. And then got a good pitch to hit, and he hit it out."

Those five runs in five innings were ample support for Sánchez on a night when the veteran was crisp and efficient.

Sánchez really made only one mistake through his first five innings, and it wasn't a pitch. His errant pickoff throw skipped down toward the visitors' bullpen and allowed Pillar to advance from first to third base. That put Pillar in position to score on Crawford's RBI groundout.

Sánchez otherwise was fantastic, working ahead in the count and inducing weak contact with minimal effort. He completed the fifth inning at 65 pitches, and though he labored a bit in the sixth he still got out of it with a 5-2 lead intact to earn handshakes upon his return to the dugout.

"When you've got that small a pitch count late in the game, you can use more off-speed (pitches) for chase late," the right-hander said. "You're able to go deeper in the count with some kind of hitters. You don't want every hitter after the fifth inning or sixth inning to have a 3-2 count. But you can throw more pitches for chase, instead of just attacking the strike zone."