Nats on long road trip and getting offense clicking

The Nationals today embark on a nine-game 10-day trip to California to face off against the Giants, A's and Dodgers. It is their second long road trip of the season. On their last 10-game trip they went 9-1, the best record for that length of a road trip in franchise history.

Acting manager Chris Speier was asked what would be the key to success on the road trip.

"Sunscreen," Speier smiled.

"No. They're good teams. Those are teams that are playing well. It comes down to the same things that most teams look for. Get that great starting pitching and timely hitting. It's just a matter of being focused."

The Nationals opted to rest Bryce Harper, Jayson Werth, Matt Wieters and Daniel Murphy from the starting lineup on Sunday in their 5-3 loss to the Padres. Werth, Wieters and Murphy all pinch-hit late in the game. Harper had the full day off. It was reported as a day of rest for three of them while Murphy had been under the weather as of Saturday.

"We're all good now. Everyone's good," Speier said of Murphy's illness.

But Speier went into more of the design reasoning of the lineup Sunday and why manager Dusty Baker, who missed the weekend series while attending his son's high school graduation, wanted to rest the four starters.

"It was fairly well-known that we have some guys who were battling some fatigue and illness things going on," Speier said. "The extra time that they can get rest is going to help them in this stretch. There were some guys that were scheduled days off today. I'm following my skipper's command from afar."

Perhaps it's not the only reason for the loss, but the Nationals struggled to go just 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position against the Padres in their first and only loss of the series.

"That's baseball," Speier said. "Those are situations that come up. The times that you do it, those are times you win. You leave those men on third base or runners in scoring position, you don't get them in, those usually come back to haunt you."

Right fielder Brian Goodwin went 2-for-4 with an RBI, the lone hit with a runner in scoring position. He also made an outstanding catch on a liner to right and made it a double play with a relay to Wilmer Difo to tag out Chase d'Arnaud at second base in the fifth inning.

"We are competitors," Goodwin said. "Everybody wants to step up in a big moment and ultimately get the win. Any time you don't do it, it's kind of a letdown."

As for the bullpen, Blake Treinen was able to put up two scoreless innings thanks to his sinker sinking again the way he would like.

"I think just being aggressive with my sinker," Treinen said. "They were seeing the ball at the plate most of the day, so I was trying to pound the sinker in and go to my strength.It worked well. I think I located it pretty well."

Jacob Turner also put up two scoreless innings and Enny Romero struck out three. Does Treinen think the outstanding bullpen work is a sign of a positive trend for a group that has had some issues at times?

"I don't think it changes anything for us," Treinen said. "It's kinda what we expect to do. Encouraging? Sure. I think we all expect to go out there and put up a zero."