WASHINGTON -- At the time, it seemed like nothing.

Joe Ross had just allowed a single to New York Mets left fielder Brandon Nimmo. It was the fourth straight hit that Ross had given up. So with nobody out in the top of the third, and his Washington Nationals already trailing 4-0 to New York and Noah Syndergaard in the opener of a key three-game series between NL East rivals, Dusty Baker dialed up a mound visit.

But this time, instead of sending pitching coach Mike Maddux out there as he’d done the previous inning, Baker called his own number.

At first, it seemed as if the Nats skipper was sending his young righty to the showers early. After all, Ross had already allowed eight hits and four runs in two-plus innings, and Baker never comes out of the dugout unless his pitcher’s coming out of the game. As good as Ross has been this season -- and he has been arguably Washington’s most consistent starter -- this just wasn’t his night. The staggering Nats, who managed to lose both their seventh straight game and their best pitcher (Stephen Strasburg, on the DL with a back strain) this past weekend, needed this game, and Baker wasn’t about to let it get out of hand. Hence the hasty hook.

Dusty Baker was able to get Joe Ross focused and helped turn the tide of the Nationals' win. Alex Brandon/AP

Or so it seemed.

But instead of extending his hand and taking the ball -- which he has done every single time he’s walked to the mound during the first 76 games of the season -- Baker stood there face-to-face with Ross, just like he did back in spring training after Ross’ first bullpen session, when Baker pulled the youngster aside and espoused the virtues of pulling the brim of his cap lower on his head to project a steelier look. Only this time, there were 33,000 fans watching, two runners on base, and a quickly vanishing division lead at stake. Not that Baker cared one bit.

So there they stood, the 67-year-old skipper and the 23-year-old hurler; a couple of Northern Cali guys, transplanted 3,000 miles away on a circular dirt island steeped in humidity. Peering intently through his frameless, black-armed glasses at a young man who’s just a few years older than his own son, Baker did what he does best: He connected.

“The ball is yours,” said Baker, putting Ross at ease and letting him know that his night wasn’t finished yet. “Just attack the hitters.”

Ross, knowing full well his role in the one-sided conversation, just stood there and listened as the skipper continued.

“I got your back,” Baker said, eschewing the mechanical for the motivational. “But now it’s time to go to work. They don’t get any more after this.”

Rocket science, it wasn't. Effective, it was.

With his manager back in the dugout, and with runners on first and second and nobody out and the Mets on the verge of breaking the game wide open, Ross calmly retired the next three batters. And the next three batters after that.

And the next three batters after that.

In the sixth inning, when he finally decided to grant another Mets hitter access to first base (Travis d'Arnaud started the frame with a leadoff single), Ross quickly destroyed all evidence of his generosity by getting pinch-hitter Kelly Johnson to ground into a double play, then whiffed Curtis Granderson to punctuate what had to be one of the most impressive and significant six-inning, 10-hit, four-run outings in the history of Major League Baseball.

Or at least in the history of the 2016 Washington Nationals.

“Joe buckled down big-time,” said Baker, whose team, seemingly energized by its pitcher’s panache, stormed back to score 11 unanswered runs and take the series opener, 11-4. “He wanted to go further in the game, but we figured that was enough.”

In fact, it was more than enough. By the time Ross was lifted for a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the sixth after throwing 94 pitches, the game had already been salted away. And while the offensive explosion had much to do with the outcome, let the record show that the initial eruption -- a five-run bottom of the third -- happened only after Ross got back off the ropes in the top half. Which, to hear him tell it, happened only because of Baker’s well-timed tête-à-tête.

“When he came out,” Ross said after the game, “it was kind of like a clean slate. That was big for me, confidence-wise. It all just came together and kind of turned the whole outing around.”

And then some.