WASHINGTON — The message delivered by new Cubs interim manager Mike Quade to his team in the wake of Lou Piniella's surprising exit couldn't have been simpler: Relax and play hard.
Check and check.
Quade's debut a day after Piniella managed his last game with the Cubs couldn't have gone much better. Rookie right-hander Casey Coleman earned his first Major League win, taking a one-hit shutout into the seventh inning, and a couple of lineup changes paid immediate dividends in a 9-1 Chicago victory over the Washington Nationals on Monday night.
"It was a stress-free night, and it was fun to watch," said Quade, adding that he was eagerly anticipating a good night's sleep before he tries to formulate his first winning streak as a Major League manager.
For at least one night, the Cubs' former third-base coach had the golden touch. New leadoff hitter Blake DeWitt homered to ignite a five-run third inning, and the Cubs presented Quade with a victory in his debut. Quade was named to replace Piniella, who accelerated his retirement schedule, departing after Sunday's game to tend to his ailing mother in Tampa, Fla.
"I will enjoy this," Quade said. "This is a nice night for me, but you don't get much rest here. There's plenty of work to do."
Chicago, which had dropped six of seven games, opened a six-game road trip with a win. Coleman (1-1) did his part, allowing one run on three hits over 6 1/3 innings and chipping in an RBI single. The righty walked two and struck out three, and after Ryan Zimmerman's first-inning single the Nationals didn't get another hit until the seventh, when Ivan Rodriguez's RBI groundout ruined his shutout bid.
"I knew that the attention was on the Cubs now, with Lou deciding to retire," Coleman said. "It's been a disappointing season for a lot of guys, and I wanted to come up here and [win], especially tonight, after something's changed. Some of us see this as a new start maybe."
The victory came in the city where Coleman's father, 15-year Major League pitcher Joe Coleman, went 43-50 in his first six seasons after the Washington Senators took him with the third overall pick in the 1965 amateur Draft.
"He mentioned that to me: 'Your first year, you get to pitch in Washington, and that's where I spent my first year,'" Coleman said. "He likes to talk about stuff like that. It's cool to pitch in the same city where he was. Kind of different being on the other team, but it's still pretty cool."
No pitch was more important than the right-hander's 3-2 fastball to Nationals slugger Adam Dunn in the first, which set the tone for the night. Adam Kennedy had reached on DeWitt's error and Zimmerman had singled, putting runners at first and second with one out. But Coleman got Dunn to chase a 92-mph pitch, and the Nationals didn't get another hit until Dunn led off the seventh with a single up the middle against an exaggerated shift.
"After that first inning, when I was able to strike out Dunn, that just gives you a lot of confidence — their big guy up there with runners in scoring position," Coleman said. "Anytime you can get him out in that situation, especially a strikeout, it gives you a lot of confidence. I knew I could I throw strikes and compete with a fastball, and I was able to do that."
That strikeout helped set the stage for what turned out to be an easy evening piloting the Cubs for Quade.
"[Coleman] located very well. He did make some pitches early in the game when he had to," Quade said. "He was consistently down, I thought — and down too much at times — but he still was able to do what he does. Look, he's a guy who's got to make pitches. He doesn't have fantastic stuff, but he can locate and get great movement on his pitches. This was his best outing for sure."
Nationals starter Livan Hernandez tempted fate in the second inning, when he loaded the bases with two down and got Coleman to bounce back to the mound for the third out, then allowed Chicago to take a 5-0 lead in the third.
DeWitt, installed as the Cubs' new leadoff hitter in the most noticeable of Quade's lineup tweaks, led off with a homer to right field, his fourth of the year. Starlin Castro singled and was cut down trying to steal second, but Marlon Byrd was hit on the right hand by a Hernandez pitch and Aramis Ramirez drew a walk to put runners on first and second. Xavier Nady was hit on the back of the left leg, loading the bases, and Tyler Colvin shot a two-run single between first and second.
"You know his reputation," said DeWitt of Hernandez. "He's a tough pitcher. He's going to pitch you tough each and every at-bat. He never gives in. You know he's had a lot of success, so you try to be as patient as you can, and string as many good at-bats as you can together."
Alfonso Soriano, dropped to seventh for the first time this season to split up two right-handers in the lineup, looped a ball down the right-field line that got past the dive of Willie Harris and went for a two-run triple.
The Cubs chased Hernandez in a two-run fifth. Nady singled, Soriano hit a one-out double to left and Geovany Soto was intentionally walked to load the bases for Coleman. With the infield in, Coleman singled to left for his first Major League hit and RBI. DeWitt then greeted reliever Miguel Batista with a sacrifice fly to right, making it 7-0.
Hernandez (8-9) yielded seven runs on 10 hits in 4 1/3 innings. He walked four, hit two and struck out five.
Soto drew a bases-loaded walk off Doug Slaten in the sixth. Kosuke Fukudome, who entered the game on defense after Byrd left after being hit in the hand, added a run-scoring single off Joel Peralta in the seventh.
"Tonight was just a fun game all around. We're just going to keep playing hard, finish out the season strong," DeWitt said. "Make as many strides as players and as a team as we can and concentrate on getting better as a team."