Baker on Lopez's first big league win: "It was a great performance"

Right-hander Reynaldo Lopez gathered all the knowledge from his first two starts and put it together for a solid seven innings and his first major league victory as the Nationals dropped the Braves 7-6 before a sold-out 38,490 at Nats Park Saturday night.

Lopez surrendered a first-inning solo shot to Freddie Freeman and then allowed only four more hits to improve to 1-1. He walked two and struck out two on 100 pitches, 63 for strikes.

Manager Dusty Baker spoke in his pregame briefing about how Lopez was solid against the Dodgers for a time in his first start then struggled against the Giants, and now he hoped the youngster could take a big step forward this time. Lopez did just that.

"First couple, the second outing wasn't that good of an outing," Baker noted. "His first outing was good, but the Dodgers were hitting that fastball. They were jumping on him early, but he was in the zone. Last start, he wasn't in the zone. Today, he was perfect like I talked about earlier. I'd hoped he would be somewhere in the middle, which he was. Man, I was still a little nervous when that game ended.

"It was a great performance," Baker said. "He and (Pedro Severino) worked together before, so that's why Sevy caught him. He was mixing his breaking ball, changeup, and he was locating his fastball well. Sevy called a great game for him. Mike (Maddux) gave him a great game plan and he executed. That was a real fine performance."

Lopez said through translator Octavio Martinez that he stuck to that game plan even after the Braves made good contact in the first, culminating in the Freeman homer with two outs. His first eight pitches were his four-seam fastball.

"Just like my other outings, when I was sent down, I was missing my spots a little bit, and I focused on working on my location and keeping the ball down, and that's what was working today," Lopez said.

He stuck with Severino. They started to work in his changeup and his curveball. His fastball got better location.

"He did a great job," Lopez said about his catcher. "He knows me very well, especially my pitch sequence, so that helped out a lot."

Second baseman Trea Turner, who had three hits and three runs, including a homer and a triple, said he sees Lopez gaining confidence with each start.

"He's good. He's going to be real good," Turner said. "I think it's just a matter of time figuring out and repeating his mechanics. He's young and inexperienced. Not saying I'm (not) or anything like that, but he's going to be special one day. He showed tonight what he's capable of. He can do that every night hopefully."

First baseman Daniel Murphy, who crushed a two-run shot in the first, ended up handing the baseball to Lopez after they came off the field in the seventh. He compared this start for the young Dominican to his first two in late July.

"He seemed like he pounded the zone a little bit better," Murphy said. "Didn't get behind in the count quite as much. Seemed like him and Sevy back there had a really nice rapport going. He was able to throw your secondary stuff for strikes. Any time you are 95 to 100 mph, if you can get your secondary stuff for a strike, it just makes it really tough on the hitter."

In his first two starts, the hard-throwing Lopez recorded a combined 13 strikeouts. In this game, he had only two punchouts. Baker said it's not always about the strikeouts for a fastball pitcher.

"Well I think everybody puts too much emphasis on the strikeout," Baker said. "The key is to get outs, and to take the sting out of the opposition's bats. They didn't hit that many balls hard off him. Freddie Freeman, who is dangerous and always hot I heard in this park, which is coming to fruition just like they told me, he hit the ball out of the ballpark. Other than that, they threatened a couple times, but he threw a couple key double plays. Which is part of pitching. Like I say, you gotta give Sevy a lot of credit for calling the game for him, and Mike for giving him a game plan."

So with Lopez securing that first win in the majors and Joe Ross a good ways away from returning, will we see Lopez make another start in five days?

"Probably. But you guys always want me to live in the future," Baker smiled. "I told you about that already. So the answer is probably."