Nats need offense to keep rolling to advance Thursday

LOS ANGELES - The Nationals lost Game 4 of the National League Division Series, but their offense showed life again.

Despite a 6-5 loss to the Dodgers, the Nationals made a big comeback from being down 5-2 to tie the game at 5-5 in the seventh.

In the last three games, the bats have clicked to score 18 runs.

Players like Jayson Werth, Ryan Zimmerman, Bryce Harper, Daniel Murphy, Anthony Rendon, Trea Turner and Danny Espinosa are contributing.

Jose Lobaton had a three-run shot in Game 2 that turned that game upside down.

"The more we go in these playoffs, the more you're going to see the lineup that I envisioned, production-wise, all year long," said manager Dusty Baker. "So it's a big. I told you before today's game that it was going to be a tough battle today, and it was. And now we're going home."

Murphy cranked the two-run single to tie the game. It was one of the biggest hits for the Nationals this series.

"He was one of the best hitters before we got here," Baker said. "He knows how to hit. He comes through in the clutch. Man, that was a hard-fought game on both sides."

Murphy was asked about Espinosa, who broke out of a 0-for-9 to start the series with a big single that started the three-run seventh inning rally.

"It's a great swing right there. It gets that inning started," Murphy said. "And then he tacks on another good AB that he had against Joe Blanton in the eighth, if I'm not mistaken, when he lined out to almost the warning track. Danny looked real good. It looks like he's getting comfortable in there. It's nice to see him get two quality at-bats back-to-back."

Espinosa said his first single in the series helped to start to build back his confidence.

"Yeah, it did. I felt better," Espinosa said. "I just had to simplify. I was late on his fastball. Just had to simplify a bit, spread out a little bit more to be on time with his heater. I did in the next at-bat left-handed and it felt good as well."

Espinosa had trouble early in the game catching up to the Clayton Kershaw fastball.

"It's tough," Espinosa continued. "But I kept being a tick late to the fastball and I kept missing the fastball. And that last at-bat against Kershaw I just told myself to spread myself out a little more and just be on time.

"I had to be on time there. He was pounding me in, pounding me in and I just needed to simplify right there to make my swing be on time."

Baker said Espinosa's speed helped the Nats in their big inning.

"Danny is a streaky player and perhaps he's getting into a streak, because he hit the ball hard the last time up to right field," Baker said.

"Had I had a slower player in there, we would have never threatened in that inning. That was a big play by Danny beating that throw to second base, you know, which continued the inning and then, you know, gave Murphy a chance to come up with some men on base."

Zimmerman has also had a great series. Despite an 0-for-4 Tuesday, he still is hitting .333 (5-for-15) in the four games this postseason. He hit only .218 during the season.

"I'm loving what Ryan is doing," Baker said during Game 4 pregame. "I think he's going to get even better the longer we go in the playoffs. He's feeling good about himself. He's been waiting on this moment to feel good and we've been waiting on it.

"I was confident that this moment would come where everybody wanted me to kind of sit him down, but you can't get it by sitting down. You can only get it by playing. Fortunately, for us, we had enough lead where we could wait on him to this point.

"I think his experience is going to help big time, especially his demeanor, if nothing else, because you really can't tell when this guy's shaken. You can't tell when he's down. You really can't tell when he's happy. He's probably the most consistent-personality guy that I've been around in a while."

Baker also spoke of Werth's series to date. His homer in Game 3 was pivotal.

"I know Jayson told me something that I thought was one of the weirdest things, as you can imagine, Jayson telling you some weird stuff," Baker said. "But he says he enjoys hitting off closers. And I don't know anybody that enjoys hitting off closers. But he's done real well against closers."

Not only do the Nationals need Max Scherzer to have a big game Thursday, but they need their multi-faceted offense to remain hot to keep the pressure on the Dodgers.