Instant analysis: Nats 5, Phillies 1

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Game in a nutshell: Knowing they faced a tough challenge against Cliff Lee (otherwise known as The World's Greatest Strike-Thrower), the Nationals had to hope for a strong start from Gio Gonzalez and then some timely hits against the Phillies left-hander. They got both. Gonzalez was outstanding yet again, allowing one run over seven innings. And his teammates provided the support, blasting four solo homers off Lee in the fifth and sixth innings. Anthony Rendon and Wilson Ramos went back-to-back in the fifth, then Ryan Zimmerman and Jayson Werth did it in the sixth. Tyler Clippard and Rafael Soriano finished things off out of the bullpen and the Nationals got back on the winning track. They're three games over .500 again and trimmed their deficit in the NL East to five games entering tomorrow's series finale.

Hitting highlight: Though they weren't able to produce any runs early, the Nationals did hit the ball hard against Lee, offering some evidence they might break out at some point before the night was over. Did they ever. Rendon got it started with his fourth career homer, off an 0-2 pitch from Lee in the fifth. Moments later, Ramos duplicated the feat, taking a 1-0 pitch from Lee deep to right. One inning later, the power display resumed. Zimmerman took an 0-2 pitch to left-center for his 11th homer. And then Werth made it back-to-back jacks again, putting his 10th homer of the season down the left-field line. Four homers in a span of eight batters against one of the toughest lefties in baseball. Not bad.

Pitching highlight: Is Gonzalez pitching as well now as he did last year during his 21-win campaign? You can certainly make the argument. With seven innings of one-run ball tonight, the left-hander improved to 5-1 with a 2.18 ERA over his last 13 starts. That's a prolonged stretch of dominance, one all too reminiscent of Gonzalez's remarkable run during 2012. He was in control throughout this game, scattering six hits and two walks. And even when things started to potentially fall apart in the seventh, Gonzalez earned the trust of his manager to get out of the jam himself. After Darin Ruf's solo homer, Gio gave up back-to-back, two-out singles. But on his 117th pitch of the night, he got Ben Revere to fly out to left, capping another stellar outing by the lefty.

Key stat: The Nationals are now 36-5 this season when they score at least four runs.

Up next: The series wraps up at 7:05 p.m. Thursday when All-Star Jordan Zimmermann takes the mound, again seeking his league-leading 13th win. Right-hander Kyle Kendrick gets the nod for the Phillies.