Nats displaying power, but Baker wants more in front of taters

The Nationals offense ignited Sunday, scoring 10 runs one day after allowing the most runs they had in a game this season in 9-4 loss.

For most of the season, the Nationals' starting rotation has controlled games, usually for seven innings, keeping the score down and allowing the offense to put together just enough run support to eek out 4-3 or 2-1 or 5-3 wins.

But Sunday's power display demonstrated what this offense is capable of when more than one cylinder is firing at the same time.

Pounding out three home runs, including a dramatic pinch-hit grand slam by veteran slugger Jayson Werth, the Nationals put up double digits on the scoreboard for only the second time this season. It was just the fourth time in 51 games the offense had produced nine or more runs in one game.

Manager Dusty Baker on the welcoming thumping.

"Well, it's good to get it whenever we can get it from all the guys," Baker said. "It was nice to see Anthony (Rendon) reach the seats in right-center field. That was the capper because Jayson was down in the hole getting ready. We played a good game."

Earlier in the season, the Nationals had set a trend of scoring early and then riding their pitching to hang on for wins. First baseman Ryan Zimmerman said at that point they needed to be more consistent on offense and score runs again later in games. Baker said scoring late Sunday was a big boost.

"The good thing is, if you keep track, if you outscore the opposition in the seventh, eighth and ninth, then you are usually going to be in the game or ahead in the game," Baker said. "It was nice to see us have a couple crooked numbers up there because they had been putting the crooked numbers on us the last two days."

If you are going to emulate someone else's offense, the Cardinals are a good place to start. Guys like Greg Garcia (.545), who had a big series, and Eric Fryer (.476) arrived with little fanfare but proved that it doesn't have to be the name guys that are hitting.

Their entire lineup can get you at any time, including their bench. That will be critical for the Nationals to be a complete team. They will need the Michael A. Taylor's and the Clint Robinson's to contribute at times like the starting nine needs to contribute.

"That's a high-powered offense on the other side," Baker said. "They've got a lot of weapons, a lot of interchangeable parts. They're a long ways from not being heard of in this National League.

"It was a good series. We wanted three out of four to have a winning homestand, but we got what we got. To come out of here with a split and now we go on the road. Especially on the getaway day, a victory before we go on this long road trip."

Speaking of the starting nine, Rendon and Wilson Ramos are starting to connect, and the six through eight hitters had a good game, the place in the lineup where the Nationals have had trouble generating at times this season.

But one of the biggest hits came from the veteran Werth, who was visibly bothered by his ninth inning double play at Miami last Saturday night. When we arrived in the clubhouse postgame after that loss last week, he was sitting in one of the chairs in the middle of the clubhouse staring off in kind of a daze, disappointed in that final at-bat. Sunday, on his day off, he delivered his first ever pinch-hit grand slam.

"I'm very encouraged by it," Baker said. "This is a hot weather team. The older players get going generally around June. If we can hold on until then ... It was nice to see Werth not only hit it out of the ballpark, but he's been swinging a lot better sometimes with no results. I don't know if it was eating at him. He hit into the double play in Miami. I told him that I remember like it was yesterday when I hit into a double play to end the game against Ron Davis with Minnesota when I was with the A's. These are the things that you kind of remember. That was big time today."

The Nationals have hit 14 homers in the last six games. Their 64 combined home runs are third in the National League (Mets 71, Cardinals 69). Baker certainly likes the roundtrippers, but he also likes when the Nationals can get guys on base before those big hits.

Solo homers are nice, but two-run homers, three-run shots and grand slams are the optimal ways for teams to put away opponents.

"I love home runs. Everybody loves home runs," Baker said. Fans love home runs, everybody loves home runs. But we need some people on base prior to those home runs, so that they're not just solo home runs. You've still gotta manufacture. You're going to win more games probably on games that you don't hit home runs then on games that you do.

"This park is playing small. We're going to a couple of parks on this road trip that play small. Hopefully, this power surge can continue."

That is how the Cardinals pulled away in their two wins in the series, by hitting multi-run homers while the Nationals settled for solo shots. One step that could help the Nationals offense reach double digits more times in the next few weeks is to get the tablesetters on base prior to their mammoth taters.