LaRoche on magic number: "My advice is to keep winning"

It felt like it happened in the blink of an eye.

Eight hits in one inning.

Some wondered when the Giants would be able to record an out after all the hits in a row.

"I tell you what, you talk to the opposing pitchers on that, and it happens real quick," said Nationals first baseman Adam LaRoche. "I've been on that end, too, unfortunately. Just keep putting pressure on them. Again it was nice to be able to pick (Stephen) Strasburg up. He had a rough start, obviously. We could easily (have) laid down on that. But to keep fighting and find a way to win it for him was nice."

The numbers are staggering. The Nationals outscored the Giants 14-1 after the third inning.

They pounded those eight hits in one inning, the first time they had done that in three seasons.

A 5-0 deficit turned into a 14-6 rout.

And the big picture shows the Nationals up eight games in the National League East after a 9-1 homestand.

"You don't explain really what's happened this whole homestand," LaRoche said. "Regardless of how good you are, how good you're lineup is, it's tough to come back on demand like we been doing.

"There's no doubt we have a great team, ateam that never quits fighting. We also got a lot of luck and a lot going in our favor right now. It's been one of the homestands, been pretty incredible."

And with a big division lead and a red hot team, others start bringing up the magic number to clinch the division. It currently stands at 25. The magic number is a combination of Nationals wins and Braves losses needed to win the NL East.

"I don't want to think about the lead or the magic number," LaRoche said. "My advice is to keep winning until they tell us we're in the playoffs. Until that happens, don't worry about what any other team's doing. Just keep pushing and trying to put up wins.

"It'll turn at some point. We'll hit a spot where it's a little tougher to push runs across. Or balls aren't finding holes like they are. But we've done that this year and battled back out of it and keep ourselves in games. Just great fight in this whole team."