Williams on the homer barrage, LaRoche's back and more after 6-4 win

LOS ANGELES - The longball barrage continues.

The Nationals pounded out four more homers tonight - this after hitting 40 home runs in August - and hung on to a shrinking lead late, taking the opener of a three-game series agains the Dodgers by a 6-4 final.

Denard Span ripped two homers, giving him three in his last five games, and Jayson Werth and Asdrubal Cabrera also went yard, giving Gio Gonzalez a solid lead to work with.

Gonzalez went six-plus innings, allowing three runs on three hits, and the Nats took a 6-3 lead into the ninth. Rafael Soriano made things a bit interesting, giving up a run and putting the go-ahead run on base before striking out Joc Peterson looking to end the ballgame.

Adam LaRoche left the ballgame in the seventh inning with a tight back and is day-to-day.

With the win and the Braves loss earlier today, the Nats' magic number is down to 19.

Here's Matt Williams after the win:

On the Nats getting to Dodgers starter Roberto Hernandez: "The first time he pitched against us, in Philly, he had a really good game. The time he pitched against us in Washington, that was the time we talked about we've never seen so many lineouts and balls hit hard. That was the game. You can't steer it when you hit it, but tonight we were able to get to him a little bit. We got the ball up in the zone. Ball was really carrying today at the start of the game. Felt like a day-game out there. Warm weather, ball carries generally better here in the daytime. We were able to take advantage of that."

On Soriano's ninth: "It's the last out, and we got it, and that's what matters. But they put some good at-bats together in the ninth. Sori got two quick out and then they hit a ball back through the middle. The walk got him. But he got the last one. That's all that matters."

On if he still has as much confidence in Soriano as he always has: "Yeah, we're going to give him the ball. He's our closer. He's been our closer all year and will continue to be. There's situations where we're going to use other guys, but it depends on his pitch count and his workload, too."

On LaRoche: "Yeah, his back's tight. Really tightened up tonight. So we decided to get him out of there. His last at-bat, he took a swing and fouled a ball off and it really hurt him. So we'll evaluate him tomorrow and see how he is."

On if he could sit LaRoche tomorrow with the Dodgers throwing lefty Clayton Kershaw: "Yeah, potentially. It's pretty painful right now, so we'll see how he does tonight. We've got a little time with the earlier game tonight and the later game tomorrow. We'll see."

On the homers: "It's not something that we live by. We manufacture better than we hit homers. But we'll take 'em. You can't give 'em back. So we'll continue to try and win games however we can."

On Gonzalez: "Gio was good. The first-inning homer to Kemp was the only one. He gave up a couple of hits in his last inning, but pitch count was down. He was doing fine. He gave up the two hits in his last inning and we had to go get him."