PHILADELPHIA – Brad Lord had handed over the ball to his manager four times previously as a big league starter, but this one was different. Different, because he was handing the ball to Miguel Cairo, not Davey Martinez. And different, because no matter who he was handing the ball to, he was doing so beyond the fifth inning and with the Nationals leading at the time, leaving the rookie right-hander in line for the win.

“Great job. Way to compete,” Cairo, who was filling in for Martinez while the latter attended his longtime agent’s funeral, said. “You put us in a good spot.”

Lord had to sweat out the final four innings of Thursday night’s game at Citizens Bank Park. But when Kyle Finnegan got Rafael Marchán to line out to end the game, he knew what it meant. His first major league win was now official.

“It’s a huge relief,” Lord said. “I knew right from the get-go, no doubt in my mind that he’s got it. When that last out is made, it’s a huge flood of emotions.”

Lord earned his first win both because of his effective pitching performance, allowing only two runs to a tough Phillies lineup, but also because of the efficiency he displayed to allow him to complete the requisite five innings for the first time.

The Nationals had felt compelled to pull Lord from his previous starts earlier because he was still building his arm up after opening the season in the bullpen. But they had been waiting for him to put together the kind of performance that warranted a longer leash like this.

He did it by mowing through the Phillies for four scoreless innings, needing only 41 pitches to reach that juncture of the game.

“It was really just mixing and matching pitches, trying to keep them off-balance, really trying to keep them off the fastball,” Lord said. “Me and (catcher Keibert Ruiz) had a plan and executed a lot of offspeed pitches. They were swinging at some well-executed stuff, and I was able to be pretty efficient with that.”

Lord stumbled a bit in the fifth, allowing a one-out double to Max Kepler and an RBI single to Alec Bohm. But even so, he finished that inning with a remarkably low pitch count of 61. And even though the Philadelphia lineup was set to bat for the third time, Cairo let the rookie take the mound for the bottom of the sixth with a 4-1 lead, at least until he got himself into some trouble.

“I was still feeling pretty good in the sixth inning. I still felt like I had more,” Lord said. “But given the situation, and who was coming up, it made a lot of sense to bring in Ferrer.”

The move came after Lord allowed back-to-back singles to Trea Turner and Bryce Harper. With the dangerous Kyle Schwarber stepping to the plate representing the tying run, Cairo made the decision to summon his only left-handed reliever, Jose A. Ferrer, right then and there.

“That inning, I think it was the game,” Cairo said. “I think it was the game, so I brought Ferrer to face the big boys.”

Ferrer would allow one inherited runner to score, so Lord wound up charged with two earned runs in five-plus innings. But he escaped the inning without any more damage, returned to pitch a scoreless seventh and then watched as Jorge López and Finnegan closed out the rest of the game.

Five starts into his major league career, Lord now owns a win and respectable 4.43 ERA. He’s finally built up his arm to the point he can be treated like a true starter. But he doesn’t know if there will continue to be a starting job for him.

Michael Soroka, whose biceps injury opened the door for Lord to start in the first place, is scheduled to make his third rehab appearance tonight, pitching for Triple-A Rochester. If all goes well, the veteran right-hander should be cleared to return from the 15-day IL and reassume his rotation spot.

If that happens, the Nationals have a decision to make with Lord. Do they move him back to the bullpen, believing he has value there? Do they option him to Triple-A and allow him to remain on a starter’s pitching schedule, knowing they’ll need him again at some point later this season? Or do they find a way to keep him in the big league rotation and clear a spot for Soroka in some other manner?

They won’t make any decisions or declarations about that until it’s officially time to do so, given the potential for anything and everything that could disrupt the plan in the meantime. But Lord has made the decision tougher with his performance to date.

For now, the 25-year-old is content to just soak in his first big league win. Literally. He was greeted in the clubhouse postgame by teammates who celebrated his achievement by giving him a beer shower.

“Getting the first win, that’s a huge accomplishment,” Lord said. “I was just extremely happy with it.”