” I wasn’t here before, and I don’t know what happened, but if I had won 15 games I would have expected to come back and try to win 20,” Baker said. “Most guys that win 15 don’t go to the bullpen. I told him we’re going to give him a chance to start because he had earned it. Plus he didn’t complain, not that I saw. He said all the right things when I talked to him.”

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“We’ll see how it fits,” Baker added. “I didn’t make any promises, which I never do, it’s just we’ll see how things work out.”

Roark threw 33 pitches, 21 for strikes, over two scoreless innings in Wednesday’s 6-2 Nationals win. His curveball fooled lefties, though Roark said it wasn’t as good Wednesday as he might have liked. He spotted his fastball to the outside corner. He walked a batter and endured Wilmer Difo’s first of two errors without allowing a run.

“Felt like I was able to locate the ball pretty well with my fastball. Curveball was ehhh. Slider felt really good, tight sharp. Changeup felt good,” Roark said. “Not where it needed to be 100 percent, but I’m getting there. I can feel it, so that’s a good thing.”

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As Baker mentioned, Roark won 15 games in 2014. Then the Nationals signed Scherzer, and Roark was relegated to the bullpen and a herky-jerky series of spot starts. He admitted the process left him discombobulated, though he never said so at the time. Now 29, Roark is open about his desire to start, and his willingness to compete this spring to do so.

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“I told you guys once before that I wanted to start, and I’m telling you guys again that I want to start. I’m a competitor on the mound. I know the fight inside me is a starter,” Roark said. “I can go multiple innings and I build off each inning. It’s a big mental part, and I think I’ve learned a lot, and there’s always so much to learn. But I feel like I’ve proven myself to people, but I’ve still gotta prove myself even more.”

Baker said he didn’t make any promises to Roark beyond an opportunity.

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“Then it’s up to you to put the pressure on us through performance for us to make a decision,” said Baker, who admitted he knew little about Roark besides what he’d seen in his numbers (“his record looks good”), what he’d seen so far in camp (“his stuff looks pretty good”), and what he’d heard:

“I talked to some people here and they say he’s one of the hardest working guys here which impresses me big time,” Baker said. “I’m about hard work and dedication.”

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>>>>> Ross followed Roark with two innings in which he allowed two runs, both unearned, the product of the second Difo error. The Rays squared up a few balls, and accumulated three hits over the course of Ross’s 37 pitches.

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“It’s too early to tell, but (Roark) was pretty sharp. All the guys were pretty sharp for the first day,” Baker said. “I think it helps that Mike Maddux had them all in those camp games. This wasn’t their first time out. Those guys, they threw real well.”

Non-roster invitee Scott Sizemore, the 31-year-old infielder who finished last season with the Class AAA Syracuse Chiefs, hit a three-run homer off the batter’s eye in dead and deep center field to give the Nationals the lead in the sixth.

“Obviously wasn’t expecting to kind of go off like that in my first at-bat, but obviously I’m glad I did,” said Sizemore, a Virginia Beach native. “The guy kind of hung a changeup, just put the barrel on it, luckily had the wind behind me so that helped some, but it felt like a pretty good swing.”

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Difo made those two errors and misplayed a ball, but the Nationals were otherwise sound defensively. Rafael Martin, Sammy Solis, Matt Grace, Austin Voth, Matt Grace and Erik Davis held the Rays scoreless for five innings. Baker had never seen most of those pitchers before, he said, but said they looked “pretty electric.”