Nats pile up 22 hits, emphatically snap skid

SAN FRANCISCO -- Eight was enough for the Nationals.

They began their three-city road trip on Friday with a 14-4 win over the Giants at Oracle Park, emphatically snapping an eight-game losing streak that began on April 20 during which they had been outscored 49-16. They scored the most runs since July 7, 2021, and collected the most hits (22) since May 14, 2021.

“It’s over with,” manager Dave Martinez said of the skid. “Let’s just go out, play baseball and have fun. I told the guys today, we weren’t going to lose every game this season.”

Martinez attested the Nationals were close to snapping their skid. If they stopped chasing outside the zone, the exit velocity on their contact was already there. Players who had been struggling were putting in extra work in the cage, too. And as for Juan Soto, once he began staying on the ball, Martinez commented on Thursday, “you’ll start seeing Juan become the Juan that we see all the time.”

“We’ve got to have some kind of consistency throughout our lineup,” Martinez said pregame. “We’ve got to have that one inning where we get something going that we drive in runs.”

The Nats got that one burst, and then some. They plated at least one run in five innings, scored multiple runs in four innings, broke the game open with a four-run sixth and sealed the win with a five-run eighth -- an abundance of run support for starter Aaron Sanchez’s first "W" with Washington.

“I liked the fact that we scored, we came back, we jumped on them again, they came back, we jumped on them again,” Martinez said. “That’s a good sign.”

Soto got Washington’s offense going with a Statcast-projected 409-foot solo home run in the opening frame. It was his fourth dinger of the season and first since April 16 when he landed a shot in the Allegheny River in Pittsburgh. Soto has gone yard in 21 Major League parks.

“It feels great to finally hit the ball to center field, way deep,” Soto said. “It feels great to be in that shape. Not only with that homer, with every at-bat I feel really good.”

Friday was a turnaround moment for several players who entered the game searching for offensive production, including the bottom third of the order. Victor Robles, Lane Thomas and Alcides Escobar came into Friday batting .152, .185 and .123, respectively. Robles -- with reminders before each plate appearance from Martinez to keep his hands up on the bat -- Josh Bell and Maikel Franco led all players with four hits. César Hernández and Escobar added three apiece, and Soto and Thomas collected a pair. There was a domino effect of success, with every player minus Nelson Cruz and Keibert Ruiz collecting a hit.

“You start supporting each other, you’re happy about your teammates playing well and then they start cheering for you and give you a little bit of motivation,” Robles said. “It adds a lot of motivation and excitement in that dugout.”

The Nationals left Washington, D.C., on Thursday night looking to find success on the road. They discovered it in just their first game, with eight more opportunities ahead of them to build on in Denver and Anaheim.

“I don’t even think about it,” Soto said of the losing streak. “But finally, to get a win, it feels pretty good and more in this way.”