Taylor, Espinosa lead Nationals out of scoring funk

ST. LOUIS - Michael A. Taylor insisted he had no idea how many innings the Nationals had gone without scoring, but he - like everyone else on the roster - knew it had been awhile.

So when he was presented with an opportunity to do something about it, Taylor put an end to that streak and set the Nationals on their way to a 5-4 victory over the Cardinals in the opener of a 10-game trip through the Midwest that should serve as a test of this team's true talent level.

"It's definitely nice," Taylor said of his game-opening home run off Mike Leake. "It's not something you can do every time. My focus is just to have a quality at-bat, give the other guys a chance to see the pitcher and hopefully get on base."

Taylor did more than just get on base. He circled them after hammering Leake's 2-0 fastball into the right field bullpen at Busch Stadium. It wasn't the difference in the game - the Nationals still needed a four-run top of the fourth to take the lead for good - but it did set a decidedly positive tone to the night and put to rest any concern about a scoreless streak that had reached 22 innings.

"We didn't want to start off on a slide like that," shortstop Danny Espinosa said. "To get this win, and to get back on a positive note and to hopefully get a few more wins and get on a good run, I think it was real important."

It was perhaps important as well that the biggest offensive contributors in this win were guys who had not been contributing much through the season's first 21 games. Taylor, who entered with a .192 batting average and .231 on-base percentage, homered and hit a couple more balls hard. Espinosa, who entered with a .172 average and only one extra-base hit, went 2-for-4 with a key two-run homer. And Jayson Werth, whose .185 average was a source of consternation, drove in the go-ahead run with a sacrifice fly, singled and was robbed of a likely double.

"It's good to see other guys coming through," manager Dusty Baker said. "Sometimes you've just got to be patient and wait on them. It's hard, because everybody wants you to panic, but there's no panic around here. Boy, that was a big game for us to win."

And it began with Taylor's leadoff homer, the culmination of an encouraging few days for the struggling center fielder. Forced into an unnatural position as the Nationals' leadoff man until Ben Revere returns from the disabled list (possibly as soon as next weekend in Chicago), Taylor has begun to find a comfort zone. He has reached base seven times in his last 17 plate appearances.

"The last three days, I've honestly felt a lot better," he said. "I'm seeing the ball better, and I'm more relaxed at the plate, a lot closer to how I felt in spring training. Hopefully it will turn into a few more hits."

Taylor admitted feeling "a little jumpy" through the season's first three weeks, but with a more relaxed approach he's been able to shorten his swing and make better contact.

"He hit the ball hard three times tonight," Baker said. "And he stayed off some tough pitches, some pitches he was chasing before. That's the secret to hitting: Getting a good pitch to hit and squaring it up. After that, it's really out of your control."

Espinosa has fought that battle for several years now, losing it more often than winning it. But the struggling shortstop did something especially encouraging tonight that he hadn't done in quite some time: He homered from the left side of the plate.

Espinosa's two-run shot in the top of the fourth capped a four-run explosion against Leake and provided Stephen Strasburg a 5-2 cushion that the right-hander seized the rest of the way. It was Espinosa's first left-handed home run since Aug. 15, 2015, a streak of 84 homerless at-bats since he took now-teammate Yusmeiro Petit deep.

And it came on the seventh pitch of a long at-bat against Leake.

"I was just trying to battle, just trying to stay alive right there, waiting for a mistake to hit something hard," Espinosa said. "But right there, I'm just trying to grind out an at-bat and keep going."

With that blast, the Nationals had themselves five runs in four innings, matching their total offensive output from their previous 29 innings.

Whether this will be remembered as the moment they collectively flipped a switch at the plate remains to be seen. But with nine games yet to be played on this trip through St. Louis, Kansas City and Chicago, it was a particularly encouraging opening act.