When Joe Ross’s night was over, after eight encouraging innings in his first start back from Class AAA Syracuse, Ross sat in the dugout with his Washington Nationals teammates, snacking on sunflower seeds and smiling as he chatted. Most starters head to the clubhouse after their work is done, but with the Nationals safely on their way to a 10-1 win over the Seattle Mariners, Ross looked like a man who belonged on a big league bench and big league mound, a man who was exceedingly happy to be there.

The Nationals hoped Ross would return in force, to something similar to what he was when he was their no-doubt fifth starter, the youngest member of one of the more formidable rotations in the majors. They could not have hoped for what they got from him Tuesday, when he threw eight innings of one-run ball, allowed five hits and did not walk a batter.

“That’s the guy that we know,” said Manager Dusty Baker, who said Ross did not want to come out after eight, though by then he had done plenty.

Ross benefited from the Nationals’ biggest offensive outburst since his last major league outing April 30, when they scored 23 runs against the New York Mets. The Nationals have scored 62 runs for Ross through his first four starts of the season, a major league record. But while an offensive resurgence seemed inevitable for these Nationals, now 27-17, Ross’s reemergence was anything but.

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The Nationals sent Ross down to the minors to revive him, to help him find the stuff that earned him a spot in their rotation at age 22, then earned him a playoff start at 23. No one was quite sure where he lost it.

Last year, he battled right shoulder inflammation, a condition troublesome enough to cause long-term concern, nebulous enough to cause short-term confusion. He never looked quite right again.

Then, when Ross’s stuff flattened out in April, Nationals decision-makers found what they believed to be the flaw: His arm slot had dropped, significantly and problematically. Normally, shoulder trouble can lead to a drop like that. But the Nationals believed he was healthy, so instead of the disabled list, they sent him to Syracuse.

“It was almost just giving my arm enough time to get up there, and not rushing down the mound,” Ross said. “Because when you tend to overthrow, things speed up and you don’t really give myself time to get to the correct arm slot.”

Pitching coach Mike Maddux gave Ross drills. Baker told him to run, because he had noticed Ross tiring as games wore on. Ross seemed to find himself again, and after two strong starts for the Chiefs, the Nationals decided he was ready to return. He certainly looked ready Tuesday.

Through four innings he had faced the minimum, his fastball sitting at 94 and 95 mph, his slider tying up left-handers inside and getting swings and misses from right-handers away.

Meanwhile, the recently dormant offense exploded against Mariners starter Christian Bergman. The Nationals scored more runs in the fourth inning than they had scored in a game in a week, pummeling Bergman as 11 batters came to the plate.

They compiled eight runs on nine hits in that inning alone. Anthony Rendon hit his second homer of the game. Jayson Werth and Bryce Harper hit back-to-back homers. Harper’s flew to dead center an announced 450 feet, what felt like a conservative estimate. Ryan Zimmerman was 3 for 4 by the time it ended. Trea Turner was halfway to the cycle. So Ross had a cushion going into the middle innings, which have caused him trouble recently.

In addition to his arm slot, the Nationals wanted Ross to work on his longevity in Syracuse. He isn’t out of shape — far from it, his manager said before the game Tuesday — but seemed to hit a wall in the fifth or sixth inning of every start.

Ideally, syncing his mechanics would allow him to stay strong. But after his team’s fourth-inning outburst, Ross did not look the same.

His fastball dropped to 90-91, even into the high-80s at times. Baker attributed that in part to the wet mound conditions Ross dealt with as the rain that pelted Nationals Park all night picked up. Ross said Maddux told him to emphasize getting on top of the ball, “staying behind the ball.”

The reminder seemed to work, though Ross also worked around the fastball more in the later innings, throwing more change-ups, mixing up the velocity and location of his slider.

No one warmed in the bullpen after the sixth. No one warmed after the seventh. Only in the eighth, when Ross approached 100 pitches, did Baker get a reliever up. Ross struck out the side that inning and his night ended there, matching the longest start of his career.

“I was just happy to be back, first of all, coming back and kind of getting a big start for myself after going down to Syracuse for a little bit,” Ross said. “I felt good out there.”

The Nationals can feel good now, too. Though Ross was facing a lineup that had not seen him before, on a rainy night in a blowout, he looked like the front-line starting prospect the Nationals still believe him to be. His eight innings gave a tired bullpen almost two full days of rest. His start meant the four recently overworked starters got an extra day of rest, and that the Nationals did not suffer for giving it to them. Most of all, his return restored a key component of the Nationals’ rotation, now back where he and his team think he belongs.