Reynolds explodes for career-high 10 RBIs in 18-4 win over Marlins

When his club was losing 18 of 24 games, you could understand how it would be easy for Nationals manager Davey Martinez to toss and turn at night.

But imagine not being able to sleep because you have too many good players?

Mark Reynolds is one of those very good players. The veteran first baseman went 5-for-5 with two singles, a double and two homers, rolling up a career-high and club record-tying 10 RBIs as the Nats crushed the Marlins 18-4 on Saturday night.

In his last six at-bats in this series, Reynolds has hit three homers and piled up 11 RBIs. The Nats' 18 runs are a season high, and they pounded out 17 hits in clinching the series against the Fish. Anthony Rendon notched a career-high 10 RBIs in last year's 23-5 win over the Mets.

"Incredible," said Martinez. "Like I said over the last week, (Reynolds) has been really hitting the ball really good. Once again, I thought I was going to sleep nice, but I'll have to think about where am I going to put him tomorrow. I have seen him like this. When he gets hot like this, he can stay hot for a while, s, we'll have to figure something out, see if we can get him in there tomorrow."

It is the Nats' first win streak of three or more since winning six in a row back from May 25-30. The 14 straight wins over the Marlins are the most over a single opponent in Nationals history.

Reynolds hit a walk-off homer to end the game Friday night. He followed that up with a two-run shot to start it all Saturday. Then connected with a run-scoring double, a two-run single, a three-run homer and a two-run single in consecutive at-bats.

"Obviously, I knew what I was doing, but I just didn't want to give at-bats away towards the end being up so big," Reynolds said. "I've been guilty of that before. I just wanted to keep putting good at-bats together because I don't get a lot in a row, so I wanted to work it every single one of them."

Reynolds had connected with five RBIs as a career high six times in his career. He had that total by the fifth inning Saturday night.

"Yeah, that's like a good two weeks," Reynolds said. "These things don't happen often. I've been playing a long time and only gotten five, so ... Look at my last hit, the guy dove and it hit off his glove and went into left field. Got a little luck involved. Sometimes you take a good swing the night before and feel confident going into the next day. That's what happened."

Right-hander Max Scherzer (11-5) notched the win, his first since June 5. He allowed four runs over seven innings, but was thrilled to get so much offense to work with, a luxury he had not enjoyed during his four-game losing skid.

"I remember I said after Tampa that run support is going to be there," Scherzer said. "Guys are too good. They grind, they do everything and look tonight they came out and absolutely grinding apart (Wei-yin) Chen and just had good ABs, one after another. Just explode there in the fifth, put up a seven spot.

"When you get that type of run support, makes it easy on yourself to go out there and just attack the zone and just throw up zeros behind them. It makes a good team win when everybody can do that."

Reynolds' 10 RBIs, coupled with Trea Turner's eight RBIs Thursday, mark the first time two players have recorded eight or more RBIs in a game since Texas pulled off the feat in 2012, when Nelson Cruz and Josh Hamilton turned the trick.

What will this 10-RBI performance do for Reynolds?

"Might keep me on the team for a couple more weeks," Reynolds said with a smile. "Hopefully, the confidence will snowball and when I get my chances, I can perform and help us win.

"I know that it will eventually turn around. Not getting those every day at-bats, it takes a little longer to get some confidence back, especially when you are pinch-hitting off of guys throwing hard. Just going to try to make it hard for Davey to take me out of the lineup going forward. We got a lot good players and not enough spots. I'll take my at-bats as I get him and try to help us."

With a veteran like Howie Kendrick out for the season, new players Matt Adams and Reynolds have added a huge boost to the offense when the club needed it most. That was not lost on Martinez after Saturday's offensive explosion led by Reynolds, who didn't join the team until May 13 in Arizona.

"It's been that way all year, it really has," Martinez noted. "We've had guys up and down here and helped us win a lot of ball games. To this point, we are here because of those guys. I appreciate them very much."

So is Reynolds worried that his skipper will have trouble sleeping while finding a way to get Reynolds in the lineup Sunday against right-hander Trevor Richards?

"I'm going to sleep just fine. That's his problem," Reynolds laughed. "I'll be ready to go either way."