Williams' confidence in Fister key to 2-1 win over Braves

It was an important decision in a nail-biting moment of the game.

With the Nationals leading 1-0 over the Braves and two out in the seventh, right-hander Doug Fister had walked two batters. The dangerous Andrelton Simmons was ready to dig in.

Manager Matt Williams jumped out of the dugout and made his way to the mound.

Fister at first did not see Williams coming toward him, but he knew he wanted to have a shot and getting Simmons.

"I always hope for that chance," Fister said. "My back was turned when he first walked out. So I wasn't sure if he had already pointed or not, if I had any options. He came out there and gave me the option. That's greatly appreciated. That's the epitome of showing confidence. That's what great managers do is show confidence in guys and trust, and that's what he did tonight.

"We both have that sense about us that we kind of read personalities. He looked at me on his way out there and asked me, 'Hey, what'd you got?' I said I want this guy. He was ready for that answer."

Shortstop Ian Desmond was a part of the meeting on the mound.

"It was good. They were both intense," Desmond said. "Matt asked if he wanted to stay in, and he said of course. And glad it worked out. Obviously, not a whole lot of doubt there. But it's pretty cool when the manager comes in like that. It's always exciting, especially when the pitcher has the intensity that Doug had."

Desmond believed Williams felt from the moment he left the dugout to talk to Fister that there was a good chance he was going to leave his pitcher in to get that final out of the seventh.

"I think with Doug, Doug was pitching well," Desmond said. "He was still down in the zone. I kind of anticipated it a little bit just because he came out a little quicker than he normally does. Usually, right away he goes to the bullpen. By the time he got to the mound, I figured that was going to happen. I'm glad it did."

Fister got Simmons to ground to Desmond on a fielder's choice that ended the threat. The Nationals then scored a run in the bottom of the seventh to go up 2-0.

They ended up beating the Braves 2-1.

Fister gave up two hits and no runs in seven innings.

"It's all about execution and letting the defense work using teammates," Fister said. "And those guys, whether it's fly balls in the outfield, (Denard) Span running balls down tonight, stuff like that. That's what we're doing is we're playing team baseball."

Fister was asked if he made any drastic changes in his strategy following three straight losses before Monday's win.

"There's constant adjustments being made," Fister said. "At the most part, I want to focus on keeping the ball down. I want to make sure that sinker is in on right-handers. That's one of the things I focused on tonight. There was a few times they swung and it was off the plate. That's the kind of adjustment that I was trying to make."

In the ninth, Drew Storen came in for his second straight save. He did it by striking out the side. But Storen said he wasn't just trying to strike each hitter out.

"I'm trying to miss the barrel," Storen said. "These are good hitters. You are just going up there, with a one-run lead you don't have a lot of room for error. If I can get soft contact, that's good and if you can miss the bat completely, that's ideal."

Storen has been able to develop confidence in his changeup to add to his fastball and wipeout slider.

"Anytime you can go to three different pitches in a two-strike count, that helps," Storen said. "Adding that changeup has been huge for me and I've been able to use it against righties and lefties. That's been something that's helped me a lot this year, and it has really paid off here recently."

What was the key with the changeup against the Atlanta offense?

"I think it's a matter of placing it," Storen said. "If you are leaving that in the zone, those guys are going to hit it. They're pretty aggressive in the ninth inning, so it's good. You're just trying to keep those guys off-balance."

And what about the shot at closing again?

"It's been fun," he said. "I've done a bunch of different roles down there. So anytime you can throw the ninth inning, that's quite the adrenaline rush."

The Nationals now lead the Braves by eight games in the National League East and the magic number is 12 to clinch their second division title in three seasons.

Is that special to get this close?

"Not to me. Not to us," Fister said. "Our mentality is we've got to take care of our business. If we take care of our end, it doesn't matter what anybody else does. If we go out there and play well, that doesn't affect us. We want to go get tomorrow and start it off right."

The win was only the Nationals' fifth over the Braves in 14 meetings this season.

"We've struggled all year against the Braves," Storen said, who recorded his third save. "It's nothing new to anybody. But for us to go out there and play our game, and that's a tight game. That can swing either way with just a couple of pitches. For us to lock that down, that's really big.

"One of the things that we have done well is really just kind of worrying about what's in front of us today. If we concentrate on going out there and just winning and playing our game, that's the most important thing. If you go out there trying to do too much, we are going to get ourselves in trouble."

"We've really got to focus on ourselves," Desmond said. "That's what we've been doing really well this year, just going out and playing clean baseball. That's our goal every day and we did that tonight. We've still got a lot of baseball to play against some really good teams."