Zimmermann and Moore star in another Nats comeback win

The Nationals survived an early deficit and the emotions from losing their best player to an ejection in Wednesday's 3-2 win over the Yankees.

Despite giving up two runs in the first inning, starting pitcher Jordan Zimmermann felt pretty confident about his outing, lasting seven innings and holding the Yankees to five hits with one walk and six strikeouts.

"Everything was working. I had pretty good stuff tonight," Zimmermann said. "First inning was just they were on the fastball and I left a few over the middle and I like to try to go a few innings with just the fastball. I had to break everything out right away after the first. I told myself, 'Got to hold them here, we're going to score runs.' I was able to do that."

Nationals manager Matt Williams was thrown out in the third after Bryce Harper had been ejected following an argument with home plate umpire Marvin Hudson.

But while Williams was on the bench, he saw the Yankees get two runs in the first on base hits from Brett Gardner and Carlos Beltran, and a sacrifice fly from Brian McCann.

"Jordan was really good, on the corners down in the zone," Williams said. "Gardner got a bloop hit and then the double. They did a good job of moving him over to third and scoring the second one. But from then on, he was really good."

Zimmermann realized pretty quickly that he had to not show them the fastball too much early in the count after that two run first frame.

"I just told myself you got to start mixing it up and (you) can't throw first pitch fastballs to these guys, they're all good fastball hitters," Zimmermann said. "I started throwing the curveball and the slider and got them off balance and was able to go seven."

The Nationals offense came alive in the bottom of the inning on a solo shot to deep center field by Ian Desmond.

"When Desi starts driving the ball to the middle of the diamond then he's seeing it better and he's staying on the baseball," Williams said. "Nice to see that from him. He feels better about it over the last couple of days, so hopefully he's making strides to get back to where he wants to be."

Then in the fourth inning, down 2-1, Tyler Moore cranked a home run to left field to tie up the game. Moore said he was pumped up ever since he walked into the clubhouse today and saw the posted lineup.

"Yeah that was really cool, came in, saw my name in the lineup and obviously J-Dub's down," Moore said. "Just feels good to contribute to this team, they've been doing so good. Just glad we got that win."

Moore had an equally important game-tying homer on the road in Arizona last week. His two-run shot evened the score at 5-5 that day. The Nationals went on to win that game on a Michael A. Taylor grand slam.

Moore says not starting every day can sometimes be difficult for utility players and he had his troubles maintaining consistency at the plate with infrequent opportunities last season. But, now he feels like he's learning how to take advantage of those coveted at-bats and not get too down when he can't generate a hit.

"I think coming off the bench is never easy," Moore said. "I think some of my pinch-hits have been better quality at-bats even if I get out. That's kind of what I gauge my success on. I just want them to be able to trust me when I go up there."

The key for Moore is to "just not to get too down on yourself obviously. You want to do good every time you get up there," he said. "This game is too tough for that. Just having that short memory really helps out."

Denard Span then added an RBI single in the seventh to stake the Nationals to a 3-2 lead. Matt Grace and Drew Storen kept the Yankees off the scoreboard for the second straight night to preserve the victory.

They have now won 17 of their last 21 games, the best run for the Nationals franchise since its inception in 2005.

"We're scoring a lot of runs," Zimmermann said. "These guys are really swinging the bat. Makes it easier on us, we don't have to be perfect every time out. That's the biggest thing right now. They're putting up six, seven, eight runs a game, taking a lot of pressure off us."