Washington Nationals’ lineup for series finale with San Francisco Giants...

Davey Martinez decided to mix things up a little bit with Washington’s lineup last night, giving Brian Dozier a break after he fouled a pitch off his toe and had to have it drained, getting two hot hitters (Howie Kendrick and Matt Adams) in there, and moving Anthony Rendon up to the two-spot where he’d get more at bats and give the Nationals a shot at scoring some runs early after the offense sputtered in losing three of the previous four (though they did score three in each of those games).

Adam Eaton stayed up top, with Rendon moving from third, (where he hit in 14 of 15 games early this season), and Soto batting third, (after hitting fourth in 14 of 15), followed by Adams and Kendrick.

“I’m viewing this as getting these guys up there and trying to score early in the game, and getting these guys up as much as possible, and yet getting Matt Adams in the lineup and just moving Howie behind Matty,” Martinez told reporters, as quoted by MASN’s Mark Zuckerman before the second game of the three-game series with San Francisco.

Soto homered with a runner on in the first, Kendrick followed with a solo blast one out later, Eaton singled in a run in the second, and Adams hit a three-run home run in the seventh for a 9-2 lead at that point, in what ended up a 9-6 win.

So Martinez had to be happy with those results, right?

“I liked it,” the second-year skipper said. “They scored a bunch of runs, but we had good flow going throughout, they worked good at bats.”

Martinez also noted that he didn’t have an issue with left-handed hitters in three of the top four spots.

“The lefties didn’t bother me as much together, because I’m not going to really pinch hit for those guys, I’m not,” he explained. “Those guys, Soto, Eaton, they work good at bats against lefties, like I said, I’ll pick spots with Matt Adams, he’ll face lefties as well.

“I don’t mind that at all, but we’ll have to pick those spots.”

He even left Adams in to face Giants’ left-hander Travis Bergen with two on and two out in the seventh, when the slugger hit his three-run blast, scoring what was the winning run in the end himself.

So after talking during Spring Training and early this season about having consistency in the lineup this time around, what did he do with his lineup today?

Well, a day later, and after talking about liking Victor Robles in the ninth spot, Robles is leading off and Adams and Kendrick are sitting in favor of Ryan Zimmerman (vs a lefty) and Dozier...

HERE’S THE NATIONALS’ LINEUP FOR THE FINALE WITH THE GIANTS: