ATLANTA -- During what to this point has been a tumultuous 2019 season, the Nationals haven¡¯t been able to enjoy many nights like Wednesday night¡¯s 14-4 pummeling of the Braves at SunTrust Park, where everything goes smoothly and they can cruise to victory. So a night like Wednesday gives a team a chance to brief a bit of a sigh of relief.

The Nats knocked Braves starter Kevin Gausman out of the game after having recorded just three outs, but first they ambushed him for eight runs on eight hits, sending all nine batters to the plate in the first and second innings. Nats starter Anibal Sanchez carried a perfect game into the sixth inning in his return from the injured list. All nine Nationals position players who had an at-bat collected at least one hit; Adam Eaton and Juan Soto reached base four times, Trea Turner collected three hits and Howie Kendrick drove in four runs.

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¡°I always tell the boys: ¡®One more than the other guys always works,'¡± manager Dave Martinez said. ¡°But tonight, they came out swinging the bats. We jumped out early. We tacked on runs. So it was nice to sit back, watch the boys play and have some fun.¡±

And now suddenly baseball is starting to be fun once again for Washington, winners of five of its past six games after completing it¡¯s first sweep of the season, taking both games of this brief series in Atlanta.

There are still flaws in the bullpen and with some fundamentals, but the Nationals are playing their best baseball of the season. Here are three takeaways from Wednesday¡¯s blowout victory and trends worth watching as the season continues:

Successful return for Sanchez

It was on the mound with the Braves at SunTrust Park last season that Sanchez revived his career, posting his lowest ERA (2.83) and best all-around season in five years, which convinced Washington to sign him to a two-year deal this offseason. Sanchez had struggled to start the season, but the performance they got Wednesday in his return from the injured list is much closer to what the Nats anticipated.

¡°That was the Braves' Sanchez that I played behind tonight,¡± first baseman Matt Adams said.

In his first outing back from the injured list, the Nats aimed to keep Sanchez¡¯s pitch count around 75-80 pitches. And then he retired the first 16 batters he faced and thoughts of a perfect game began creeping into his mind.

¡°I said, ¡®OK, I got a pretty good chance,¡¯¡± Sanchez said. ¡°I don¡¯t know how many pitches I have, don¡¯t want to look, don¡¯t want to see it. I just want to keep pounding the strike zone.¡±

The 17th batter, Ozzie Albies, collected a one-out single in the sixth inning to put a halt to those dreams, but it was the lone hit that Sanchez allowed in six scoreless innings with seven strikeouts. If Sanchez can be closer to that pitcher, rather than the one who entered the game 0-6 with a 5.10 ERA, it could be huge for Washington¡¯s rotation.

¡°He kept everything down, mixed all of his pitches up. He was very effective,¡± Martinez said. ¡°That¡¯s what I saw last year from Anibal. Everything down in the zone. And he pitched really, really well.¡±

Nats¡¯ lineup starting to click

For much of the early portion of the month, the Nationals¡¯ lineup had been decimated by injuries to virtually all of their key players. Slowly, those players have all returned and started to find form, and now the Nats¡¯ lineup is rolling.

Anthony Rendon is one of the best players in baseball. Soto is on fire during a career long hitting streak (now at 13 games). Kendrick is having one of his best seasons at the plate in years. Combine that with Turner and Adams rounding into form coming off the injured list and the Nationals' lineup looks as potent as they expected it to be before the start of the year. It¡¯s been the key to the recent hot streak, as the Nats are scoring 7.8 runs per game while winning five of six.

¡°We had guys injured, we had guys come back. We had guys that played that needed to just play games,¡± Martinez said. ¡°And now things are starting to click a little bit and they¡¯re starting to play. Our lineup¡¯s got some length now and we¡¯re starting to extend some innings.¡±

Soto feels really close to 2018 version of himself

Even in the midst of Soto¡¯s worst struggles at the plate, with pitchers tossing a steady diet of offspeed pitches to keep him off balance, with his strikeout rate up and his power numbers down, those around the Nationals¡¯ front office and coaching staff shared the same sentiment -- they were not concerned about Juan Soto.

Soto has quickly erased early season concerns about a sophomore slump thanks to a career-high 13-game hitting streak, during which he is batting .449 with a .517 on-base percentage. Soto credits adjustments made with hitting coach Kevin Long and assistant coach Joe Dillon working on his balance.

His season battling line has improved to .291/.394/.523 with a 141 wRC+, much closer to his performance from his sensational rookie season a year ago, although Soto still feels he has room for improvement before he gets back to that form.

¡°Really close, really close,¡± Soto said. ¡°I need a little bit more, but I'm really close to [last year]. I feel amazing.¡±