Ross departs after two innings with blister (Werth out, too)

MIAMI - Joe Ross departed his start tonight against the Marlins after two scoreless innings after a blister developed on his right middle finger, the Nationals announced.

Ross showed no obvious ill effects of the blister during his abbreviated, 33-pitch outing. He allowed one hit, one walk and hit one batter, but never let a Miami runner reach second base.

Ross was allowed to hit for himself in the top of the third inning and wound up drawing a walk, then scoring on Bryce Harper's two-out double to right-center. All the while, though, long reliever Yusmeiro Petit was warming in the Nationals bullpen, an odd sight for anyone who didn't know what exactly was going on.

Sure enough, when the inning ended, Ross remained in the dugout while Petit trotted in from left field to take over the game.

Ross is off to a fantastic start to his season, sporting a 2-0 record and 0.54 ERA over 16 2/3 innings. With a scheduled off-day for the Nationals on Monday, the club wouldn't need him to return to the mound until Tuesday, giving him a bit of extra time to let the blister heal.

Because he failed to go the minimum five innings required, Ross can't be credited with the win tonight, though the Nationals held a 2-0 lead when he departed. Ryan Zimmerman's two-out double in the top of the first scored Anthony Rendon from first. Two innings later, Harper's two-out double scored Ross to make it 2-0.

Update: Now Jayson Werth has departed from this game, replaced in left field by Chris Heisey in the bottom of the fifth. No reason has been given yet, but Werth has actually looked good out there so far tonight, making a couple of nice running catches. At the plate, he's 1-for-2 with a broken-bat single and a strikeout.

Meanwhile, it's now a 3-1 Nats lead after five innings, with Michael A. Taylor and Derek Dietrich swapping solo homers in the fifth.

Update II: Petit put in yeoman's work tonight. He tossed four innings of one-run ball on 43 pitches, bridging the gap between the early departing Ross and the back end of the Nationals bullpen. We just saw exactly why the Nats wanted to add the right-hander this winter.

Also impressive was Oliver Perez, who pitched a 1-2-3 bottom of the seventh that began with a strikeout of Giancarlo Stanton on a wicked curveball. So the Nats are still holding a 3-1 lead as they move to the eighth.

Update III: Ballgame. Nats win 3-1, thanks to some outstanding relief work following Ross' early departure. Petit, Perez, Blake Treinen and Jonathan Papelbon combined for seven innings of one-run ball, allowing the Nats' early lead to hold up all night.

So they're now 11-3 for the season, though we'll find out shortly what caused Jayson Werth to leave in the fifth inning and how serious it is.