Ross battled without his good slider and usual velocity

DENVER - It wasn't the best start for Joe Ross in Tuesday's 15-12 slugfest win for the Nationals over the Rockies. His slider wasn't sliding and his velocity was lower than usual.

He said that having to warm up again after a 66-minute rain delay didn't help.

Could his lower velocity be attributed to the rain and cold at Coors Field?

"A little bit. It's kind of tough," Ross said. "I went out in my normal time just to get ready and then find out there's going to be a rain delay, plus it's not ideal, temperature-wise. But I just tried to go out and compete with what I had today. I'm not going to look too deep into velocity and stuff like that. We came out with the win, that's kind of all that matters."

But one pitch Ross had trouble locating was his slider. He allowed a pair leadoff home runs, lasting 4 2/3 innings and five runs.

Ross realized in the warm-up bullpen that something was wrong.

"I feel like everyone says stuff isn't going to move as much, and that was kind of the case today," Ross said. "You got to make an adjustment. Start a little lower. If you are trying to get off the plate, start a little further off the plate. I just tried to make adjustments to the game.

"You kind of see how the ball is moving in the 'pen. Really, that's where your first adjustments try to come. I kind of saw how it felt then and took that out in the first inning and tried to make adjustments each inning as I kept going and tried to execute my pitches."

Manager Dusty Baker saw what was happening or not happening with the Ross slider.

"Just that his slider wasn't working," Baker noted. "It was just kind of rolling, but this is the place usually where your breaking ball doesn't break that well. There's very little air resistance to let the ball spin. He'll be better the next time out. We tried to nurse him through that fifth inning, but it just got to that point where they were threatening to take the ballgame. So it just got to the point where we had to do what we had to do to win the game."

Baker yanked his starter with two outs in the fifth.

But somehow Baker's club kept the pressure on. They were never content with a lead because they remembered what happened Monday night, when a 4-1 advantage turned into an 8-4 loss.

"Well, that's Coors Field at its finest, right there," Baker said. "No lead is safe. No deficit is secure. You just gotta keep playing and keep playing and keep scoring. Boy, I haven't played one like that in a long time. Probably since I was here last. I played a lot of games here, and you're always nervous. You don't want to take anybody out. You want to give guys rest, but you don't know. A couple walks, a couple hits, homers and they're back in the game."

And Ross can walk away knowing his club won, even in a game in which he didn't have his best stuff.

"You just got to battle," Ross said. "Keep pitching aggressive. It's tough for us on the mound, but it's tough for the hitters in the box. So I just tried to stick to the game plan and execute pitches the best I can."