Erick Fedde tosses two scoreless in 2019 debut; Nationals beat Cardinals, 12-2...

It was a long one this afternoon, in spite of the pitch clock [giggles] and the Washington Nationals came out on top in the end, 12-2.

Erick Fedde tossed two clean innings to start things off against St. Louis’s Cardinals, Victor Robles showed some patience at the plate, Koda Glover struggled to throw strikes, and Brian Dozier connected on his first hit as a National. Then the NRIs piled on late...

Here’s how it all happened...

• Erick Fedde’s 2019 Grapefruit League campaign got off to a solid start with a 12-pitch, 1-2-3 first. Fedde picked up his second K of the day with a 2-2 slider outside that fooled Cardinals’ outfielder Tyler O’Neill, but gave up a one-out triple into the right-center gap on a 2-2 pitch to Drew Robinson that was up in the zone and got smoked.

Fedde buried a 1-2 breaking ball in the dirt outside to Yairo Munoz, who started at second for the Cards, and got a grounder to short for the final out of a 16-pitch frame, leaving him at 28 total over two scoreless.

• Victor Robles took a one-out walk from Michael Wacha in the top of the second, moved to third on an Andrew Stevenson double, and scored on a groundout by Adrian Sanchez that put the Nationals up 1-0 early in Jupiter, FL’s Roger Dean Stadium.

• One-time catcher of the future Pedro Severino doubled to center to start the top of the third, sliding in safely just ahead of the throw in by Cardinals’ outfielder Lane Thomas.

Back-to-back walks by Trea Turner and Adam Eaton loaded the bases in front of Brian Dozier, and a wild pitch from righty Daniel Ponce de Leon brought Severino in, 2-0.

Dozier worked the count full and took the third walk of the inning, loading the bases back up, and Matt Adams hit a sac fly to center field for a 3-0 lead.

Robles was first-pitch swinging in the next at bat and he sent the second consecutive sac fly to center field to make it a 4-0 game.

• Austin Voth took over for Fedde in the bottom of the third inning, and the 26-year-old right-hander worked around a two-out walk in a scoreless, 19-pitch frame.

In his second inning of work in the fourth, Voth gave up a solo shot to right by Tyler O’Neill, who went the other way with a low fastball outside and powered it out to get the Cards on the board, 4-1.

• Koda Glover issued three consecutive one-out walks in the fifth inning, pushing his pitch count up to 22 pitches before the Nationals went to the pen for Austen Williams, who got Andrew Knizner to line to second base where Jacob Wilson dropped it, but settled for one out as a run scored, 4-2.

• Wilson, selected out of the Cards’ organization by the Nationals in the Rule 5 Draft in 2017, hit a 1-0 fastball from left-hander Genesis Cabrera out to center field in the top of the sixth, putting the Nationals back up by three, 5-2. RBI singles by Jake Noll, Carter Kieboom, and Brandon Snyder put the Nationals up 8-2.

• Non-roster invitee Ronald Peña worked around a single in a scoreless bottom of the sixth, and the Nationals added to their lead with three straight hits in the seventh, by Wilson, Noll, and Hunter Jones, 9-2, and Taylor Gushue drove in two more with a double to right, 11-2.

• Kyle McGowin worked around a walk and hit-by-pitch for a scoreless bottom of the seventh inning.

McGowin came back out for the eighth and worked around a walk to keep it 11-2.

• Noll homered to deeeep left field in the ninth to put the Nationals up by 10. Mercy Rule?

• Vidal Nuño wrapped things up with a scoreless ninth in his own debut in a Nationals uniform. 12-2 final.