Washington Nationals’ Joe Ross solid in 6-1 loss to Atlanta Braves...

Joe Ross followed up on a rough outing against the St. Louis Cardinals (8 H, 4 HR, 3 BB, 10 ER in 4 ¹⁄₃ innings pitched) with a solid start against the New York Mets during the last road trip (5 H, 1 HR, 1 BB, 1 ER in 6.0 IP).

Ross, 27, said the first two outings this season, in which he tossed eleven scoreless, made it a little bit easier to move on from the rough start versus the Cards, and bounce back with a strong showing.

“Starting off well probably made that a little bit easier,” he reasoned, “also it’s one game, so I think one not-great game can kind of shake that off.”

“If it was two or three in a row then that would be different, but I think a good start kind of makes it a little bit easier.”

Ross got off to another good start last night in the series opener with the Atlanta Braves in the nation’s capital, tossing four scoreless on 60 pitches, but one of the 20 pitches that he threw in the fifth cleared the out-of-town scoreboard in right off of Ronald Acuña, Jr.’s bat.

Acuña, Jr.’s tenth of 2021 gave the Braves a 1-0 lead in Nationals Park, and Ross was done for the night after a single and a throwing error by Trea Turner put a runner on second with one out in the sixth...

The runner he left on came around to score, and Ross was charged with two runs in what ended up a 6-1 loss for the Nationals, with Tanner Rainey coming on in relief in the top of the sixth, and giving up an RBI single, 2-1, and after a base-loading, two-out walk, a grand slam by the opposing starter, Huascar Ynoa.

Joe Ross’s Line: 5.1 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 3 Ks, 1 HR, 86 P, 54 S, 4/6 GO/FO.

“He threw the ball okay,” manager Davey Martinez said in a not-exactly-ringing endorsement of Ross’s work on the mound. “He threw a couple balls up in the zone. I always like Joe when he’s down in the zone.

“Got a couple balls up and got hit fairly hard, but that’s why we play defense. We had some opportunities. Trea made a couple errors today, one was costly. But I thought he threw the ball good.”

“He kept us in the ballgame,” Martinez added. “He gave up the one home run to Acuña, which if you look at it the ball was out of the strike zone. The kid is just a good hitter, he covers home plate really well, but [Ross] did get hit hard.”

“I mean I wouldn’t say I had my best stuff really by any means,” Ross acknowledged. “I don’t know.

“Location-wise definitely not, but they made some really good plays, so kind of kept me in there for a little — stayed close their till the end, but kind of got blown up in the sixth.”

“Overall, I felt good, just didn’t really — felt like I was searching a little bit there towards the middle of the outing, but had to figure it out, and got to figure it out for my next start and see what I can do to get back on track a little bit.”