Washington Nationals have turned into MLB’s 2022 road warriors

DENVER — Looking for the most productive MLB team on the road so far in the 2022 season? Look no further than the Washington Nationals, who added on to their impressive feats away from home with a 10-2 clobbering of the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday night.

The Washington Nationals entered Tuesday night’s game averaging 6.2 runs per game on the road, the highest of any MLB team. That number will creep up after a night highlighted by home runs from Josh Bell and Juan Soto among 16 hits. Washington took advantage of Colorado starting pitcher Germán Márquez for seven runs on 10 hits through just five innings of work, building a 7-1 lead and never looking back on their way to a decisive victory.

With another big offensive performance on Tuesday night, the Washington Nationals are establishing themselves as 2022 MLB road warriors

The win was the third in what has been a four-game swing so far through San Francisco and Denver. In those wins, Washington plated 14, 11, and 10 runs. And all of those numbers came after Washington lost eight consecutive games … at home.

Sure, the Nationals may be just 6-5 overall away from our nation’s capital, but they are putting together some eye-popping statistics when sitting in the visitor’s dugout. Heading into Denver, Washington’s .299 road batting average and .374 road on-base percentage led all of baseball. Their .774 OPS away from Washington was the MLB’s second-best in the category.

“The big thing for us has been to score early and keep working good at-bats,” Washington manager Dave Martinez said. “They’re doing the little things right.”

For Bell, who went 6-for-13 in the three-game series in San Francisco before going 3-for-5 in the opener in Colorado, it’s about Washington getting contributions up and down the lineup.

“It seems like one through nine, we’re all contributing,” Bell said. “When you put all of those things together, good things happen.”

Nelson Cruz (who was pulled from the game with back tightness after going 0-for-3 at the plate) and Victor Robles (who went 0-for-4) were the only Nationals starters to not record at least one hit on Tuesday.

“I know a lot of our bats were frustrated for a little while, but just seeing hits all across the lineup is huge,” said starting pitcher Erick Fedde, who benefitted from Washington’s outburst on Tuesday.

Bell and the Nationals will have another chance to maintain that high level of offense on Wednesday night as the series continues in Denver. Following that, Washington has four more games on a Western swing that will take them to Los Angeles to face the Angels after finishing up with the Rockies.

“It’s just a matter of when we were going to get hot. Now it’s just a matter of maintaining,” Bell said.