Lester (W), Schwarber (2 HR) lead the way

WASHINGTON -- The Nationals bounced back from a Game 1 loss to the Mets with a commanding 6-2 victory in Game 2 of the doubleheader. Let’s take a look at three things that helped them regain momentum on Saturday night at Nats Park.

Lester’s long-awaited win
Ten starts into his 16th season, Jon Lester earned his first win of 2021 -- and first as a National. The veteran southpaw tossed six-plus innings, allowing two runs and no walks with seven strikeouts over 100 pitches (62 strikes). He picked up his last ‘W’ on Sept. 21, 2020, as a member of the Cubs.

“You want your name next to that W,” Lester (1-2) said. “W’s mean a lot … But at the end of the day, a W for the team is what matters the most.”

Lester exited the game in the sixth after giving up a two-run homer to José Peraza. It marked his second quality start of the season and the 256th of his career, the fourth-highest among active pitchers.

"I thought our approach was good against Lester,” said Mets manager Luis Rojas. “He was nibbling. He was coming back with some of his pitches, but we just couldn't get some big hits throughout the course of the game."

Turner’s HR drought over
Trea Turner broke out of his homer-less skid that dated back to May 17 at Wrigley Field. He smacked an 81.4 mph slider from Sean Reid-Foley that traveled a Statcast-estimated 395 feet to left-center field in the third inning.

It was a solid day overall for Turner, whose OPS had dipped from .801 in May to .696 in June. In Games 1 and 2 combined, he went 5-for-7 with two runs and an RBI.

“I finally swung at a mistake and didn’t miss it,” Turner said. “I think for the last few weeks, I feel like I haven’t had too many mistakes, been pitched pretty well.”

Turner has been batting in the No. 2 spot in the lineup since Martinez bumped Kyle Schwarber up to leadoff. The goal is for Schwarber to get on base early for Turner and Juan Soto to have runners to drive in. Which brings us to …

Schwarber does it again
Schwarber continued his success hitting leadoff -- and more remarkably, in a Lester start. The left fielder homered on a 443-foot blast, 111.4 mph to center field in the first inning against Robert Gsellman. He followed up in the fifth with a 398-footer to center off Reid-Foley. Schwarber has hit six home runs since being moved to leadoff last weekend, including two multi-homer games.

“When Kyle hits a first-inning homer basically every day, it’s a nice start,” Turner said. “We’ve just got to build off that.”

He also continued his trend of going yard when his longtime teammate Lester takes the mound. Saturday marked the 27th game (regular and postseason) in which Schwarber homered in a Lester start -- 23 with the Cubs, four games with the Nationals. He emphasized his desire to help Lester get his first win of the season following Lester’s last start.

“Finally, today we were able to get him some runs there to where he can just go out there and do his thing,” Schwarber said. “I think he pitched one heck of a ball game, and that’s what I’ve seen from Jon for how many years now.”