BOSTON – Today felt like it was going to be a weird day at Fenway Park. The Nationals and Red Sox had played two quick, nondescript games to start this three-game series. Plus, it was Mother’s Day.

Something a little more interesting had to happen, right?

Well, something more interesting definitely happened and then some as the Nats fell to the Red Sox 3-2 in the series finale in front of 29,250 fans.

"We made some mistakes," manager Davey Martinez said after the game. "A dropped fly ball, ran into some outs on the bases and it cost us. It might have cost us the game, you don't know that. But when you make those kinds of mistakes, it's definitely gonna hamper the way you finish the game.

The wackiness started from the get-go.

BOSTON – After running out the same lineup for the first two games against the Red Sox, Davey Martinez mixed it up for Sunday’s finale at Fenway Park.

Jacob Young and Trey Lipscomb are getting rare days off today. Victor Robles returns to center field with Jesse Winker in left and Eddie Rosario in right, while Ildemaro Vargas takes over at third base and Nick Senzel serves as the designated hitter. And Riley Adams is giving Keibert Ruiz some rest for just the fourth game since returning from the injured list with a case of influenza.

“Jacob has been playing. He's just been beat up a little bit, so I want to give him a day,” Martinez said during his pregame media session. “Give Lipscomb a day and get Vargas in there. For me, it's about keeping all these guys engaged and keeping them fresh. Riley's in there today, Senzel's back in the day. But these young guys are playing really well. I gotta make sure I take care of them and that they're fresh. Here we go today. Try to go 1-0 today.”

Neither Young nor Lipscomb made the Opening Day roster out of spring training. But both were early call-ups and have been getting the majority of the playing time in their respective positions. Young has played in 30 of the Nats’ first 38 games, starting 27 of them. Lipscomb has played in 29 games, starting all but one of them.

Young is fourth in the National League with 12 stolen bases and started his career a perfect 25-for-25 in stolen base attempts, which is tied for the fourth-longest streak to start a major league career. He is also one of three current major league players to have at least a .275 average, 20 runs and 10 stolen bases (Trea Turner and Bobby Witt Jr.).

BOSTON – Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there! I hope each and every one of you gets to enjoy your special day. I want to give a special shoutout to my own mom, Darlene, back at home and to all the mothers in my life.

This Mother’s Day will be extra special for the Nationals if they can beat the Red Sox and leave Fenway Park with a series win.

Jake Irvin gave them one of the best starts of his career yesterday, but that wasn’t enough in a 4-2 loss. MacKenzie Gore will look to replicate Irvin’s efforts with a better final result.

Gore boasts a 2-3 record, 3.44 ERA, 1.471 WHIP and 11.1 strikeouts-per-nine-innings rate over his seven starts to date. The southpaw was roughed up for six runs in just three innings Sunday against the Blue Jays. But the lineup bailed him out in what would be a wild back-and-forth finish, ending in a Nats victory. Today he’ll try to get out to a good start like Irvin and Patrick Corbin have done this weekend.

Brayan Bello returns from the injured list to make his sixth start of the year. The right-hander went down with right lat tightness on April 24 (retroactive to April 21). He is 3-1 with a 3.04 ERA and 1.050 WHIP over his first five starts. His last start came on April 19, when he pitched six shutout innings with seven strikeouts against the Pirates.

BOSTON – Mother’s Day across baseball is always special. The players and coaches wear special pink-trimmed hats, jerseys and gear. Teams often put out videos of players wishing their moms and wives a happy Mother’s Day. Even mascots get to celebrate with their moms.

But this Mother’s Day is extra special for Joey Meneses thanks to a message from his mom, Lupita Ramirez, on Friday.

The Nationals are playing their first series at Fenway Park since 2020. Before the opener on Friday, many of the young players took a tour of the historic ballpark, including the iconic Green Monster.

Meneses was one of them. Despite playing in the Red Sox’s minor league system in 2021, the 31-year-old had never played at Fenway before this weekend.

Friday also just happened to be Mother’s Day back in his home country of Mexico. So when he was done with the tour, Meneses sent a video of the Green Monster to his mom, whose reply manifested what would happen Saturday in the second inning.

BOSTON – The Nationals returned to Fenway Park on Saturday afternoon in search of a series win over the Red Sox. A victory today would lock up their second series win in their last three and third in their last five. Plus, it would put them two games over .500 for the first time since June 30, 2021.

But despite Jake Irvin pitching one of the best starts of his career, a late Red Sox rally buried the Nats in a 4-2 loss.

Robert Garcia entered the eighth inning of a 2-2 game looking to keep the game tied. Pinch-hitter Rob Refsnyder hit a one-out infield single that dribbled up the third base line and never went foul. Garcia got pinch-hitter Romy Gonzalez to hit a ground ball to CJ Abrams, but the young shortstop tried to turn the double play by himself and threw the ball into the Red Sox dugout.

With Gonzalez on second, the Nats intentionally walked the right-handed Tyler O’Neill to bring up the lefty Rafael Devers, who proceeded to end a seven-pitch battle with a two-run double to left to send the 30,995 fans in Boston into a frenzy.

“Tried to throw a slider first pitch and see if I can get him to swing. It wasn't a great one, it moved away," Garcia said after the game. "I fell down 2-0, which was fine. I got right back in the count, evened it out 2-2. I threw a high fastball and he looked very uncomfortable. Surprised, kind of taken aback about, probably, the velo and the way it was thrown. So I figured that we're gonna go there. Because that's my best pitch. Fastball has been my best pitch, we're going right after him in that situation. I didn't execute my location and he beat my best pitch today.”

BOSTON – Davey Martinez managed his bullpen to perfection in last night’s 5-1 win over the Red Sox.

In a 3-1 game at the seventh-inning stretch and facing the Nos. 2-4 hitters in Boston’s lineup, the Nationals manager made the decision to go with Hunter Harvey in that moment instead of saving him for his usual spot in the eighth.

Harvey issued a leadoff walk to Rob Refsnyder, but quickly erased the baserunner with a double play ball from Tyler O’Neill. Then he got Rafael Devers, perhaps the Red Sox’s most feared hitter, to strike out on a curveball in the dirt.

That left Dylan Floro for the eighth to potentially pass the ball to closer Kyle Finnegan in the ninth. Floro retired the side in short order with three groundouts on 10 pitches.

“It's nice to have some veteran guys that understand how to pitch in high-leverage situations, especially in the back end of the bullpen,” Martinez said before Saturday’s game at Fenway Park. “Dylan fits that mold. Jacob (Barnes) fits that mold as well. But it was nice to know that, hey, the top of their lineup is tough. We could use Harvey in that moment. And then I like Floro in the middle to the bottom of that lineup. So we did it that way yesterday. Floro has been throwing the ball really well. We talked a lot about how he missed some spring training. But now he's got his feet underneath him, he's throwing the ball well.”

BOSTON – The Nationals pulled off a win last night with Patrick Corbin on the mound, thanks to five strong innings from the veteran lefty. The offense also staked him to an early lead and then provided two insurance runs in the ninth inning.

Now with a victory already in hand, they turn to two of their better starters for the remainder of the series: Jake Irvin and MacKenzie Gore.

Irvin takes the ball this afternoon with a 2-3 record, 3.72 ERA and 1.190 WHIP. The right-hander was charged with four unearned runs in his last start against the Blue Jays. He’s given up two earned runs or fewer in four of his last five outings. If you take out his rough start against the Dodgers (six runs in 4 ⅔ innings), Irvin has a 2.65 ERA over his six other starts.

Cooper Criswell takes the mound for the Red Sox. Although he has made major league appearances in each of the last three seasons, the 27-year-old still holds his rookie status. The right-hander has pitched well over his first five appearances (four starts) this season, going 2-1 with a 1.74 ERA and 1.065 WHIP. He hasn’t given up more than two runs in any of his appearances, but he hasn’t pitched more than five innings either.

If the Nats offense can jump on him early again, that should set them up for more success, especially with Kyle Finnegan not pitching last night. 

BOSTON – It had been 25 days since his last game with the Nationals. And it had been three days and two games since he had been activated off the injured list. But on Friday night, Victor Robles finally made his return to a big league game.

And what a triumphant return it was.

Robles landed on the IL on April 4 with a left hamstring strain, another frustrating injury sidelining the soon-to-be 27-year-old outfielder who is trying to find a place in this organization’s future. He ended up missing 29 games, the most by any injured Nats player this year, not including the three on the 60-day IL.

Although he was reinstated Tuesday afternoon, he didn’t play in either game against the Orioles. And then Thursday’s off-day prolonged his return even more.

But finally Robles saw his name written on the lineup card yesterday inside the visiting clubhouse at Fenway Park, batting ninth and playing right field instead of his usual position in center field. It didn’t matter. He was finally playing.

BOSTON – The Nationals arrived at Fenway Park with a rough history in the landmark ballpark.

Entering tonight’s opener of a three-game series, they were 15-24 all-time against the Red Sox and 5-13 at Fenway.

But the 2024 Nationals do not care much for history. They came to face a streaky Red Sox team with a similar record as their third straight American League East opponent. And they came away victorious.

The Nationals beat the Red Sox 5-1 to get back over .500 on a cold 51-degree Boston evening in front of an announced crowd of 31,313 fans. And they did so with some nifty two-out hitting and gutsy pitching, including from starter Patrick Corbin.

Facing right-hander Tanner Houck, who entered tonight’s start with a 1.99 ERA and 0.971 WHIP over his first seven outings, the Nats were able to put pressure on him with two outs in the early innings.

BOSTON – As the Nationals got settled into the cramped visiting clubhouse at Fenway Park, Joey Gallo learned that his next rehab game with Triple-A Rochester was postponed due to inclement weather about four hours south in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

Davey Martinez was hoping his first baseman/designated hitter, who has been on the injured list since April 26 with a left shoulder AC sprain, would carry over his strong night at the plate last night into tonight with the Red Wings.

“Joey Gallo is rehabbing in Rochester still,” Martinez said ahead of tonight’s opener against the Red Sox. “Today got rained out, so they got no game today.”

Gallo went 2-for-5 with a double and three-run home run in the Red Wings’ 14-12 loss to the RailRiders last night. It was his first multi-hit game and extra-base hits over his five rehab games, a good sign the 30-year-old is getting his timing back after hitting .122 with a .597 OPS and three home runs in his first 23 games with the Nats.

“He hit a home run and a double. He's starting to swing the bat a little bit better,” Martinez said. “They said he feels good. Just like everybody else, he's just trying to get his timing back. Hopefully, he continues to play. The rainouts are not good, but I want him to get as many at-bats as he possibly can before we bring him back up here. But we also want to make sure that this doesn't linger and that it goes away. But he said he feels good.”

BOSTON – Hello from historic (and chilly) Fenway Park! This weekend is my first time shipping up to Boston since I was a young lad, a trip I don’t necessarily remember. So I’m very excited to be your trusty beat reporter live from Bah-stan.

The Nats are nearing the end of a wicked 14-game stretch against American League teams. After these three games against the Red Sox, they’ll head to the south side of Chicago to face a different shade of sox and wrap up three weeks’ worth of interleague play. Entering tonight, the Nats are 7-7 against AL teams and 11-8 on the road.

Patrick Corbin makes his eighth start in the opener. He’s 0-3 with a 6.45 ERA and 1.8095 WHIP. Though he once again got roughed up early in his last outing, he actually turned in a quality start with three runs over six innings against the Blue Jays. The veteran lefty needs to get off to better starts, however: He’s given up 16 runs in innings 1-3 compared to nine in innings 4-6.

Corbin is 0-2 with an 8.22 ERA and 2.478 WHIP in two career starts at Fenway, the last one coming in 2016.

Tanner Houck makes his eighth start for the Red Sox, going 3-3 with a 1.99 ERA and 0.971 WHIP over his first seven with all but one coming in as a quality start. He pitched a complete-game shutout against the Guardians on April 17, while holding them to just three hits and striking out nine. He has pitched three scoreless outings on the year. He has a 9.1 strikeout-per-nine-innings rate and his 2.08 Fielding Independent Pitching leads the major leagues.

Kyle Finnegan had pitched in 241 big league games before taking the mound Tuesday night at Nationals Park. Appearance No. 242 carried more weight than usual.

“This one, for whatever reason, felt a little more meaningful,” the right-hander said afterward. “It’s been a while since we’ve been over .500. We’ve been putting in all the work behind the scenes, and to see it starting to come to fruition has been exciting. And to do it against Baltimore in this series is special.”

Finnegan’s 62nd career save was his first as a member of a Nationals team with a winning record. That fact wasn’t lost on the 32-year-old, who has become one of the organization’s longest-tenured pitchers but not long enough to have experienced the good old days when meaningful baseball was played on a nightly basis on South Capitol Street.

So Tuesday’s 3-0 victory over the Orioles, with Finnegan recording the final three outs and then receiving high-fives from teammates as pink LED lights glowed above and a crowd of nearly 30,000 roared with approval, was arguably the biggest game he’s ever pitched.

One night later, he found himself right back in the spotlight, posting another zero in the top of the 10th to give his teammates a chance to win in the bottom of the inning. They couldn’t pull that one off, ultimately losing 7-6 in the 12th, but it was through no fault of their closer.

It’s easy to draw comparisons between the Nationals and Orioles. The two teams are 35 miles apart, and over the past six years have each undergone their own organizational rebuilds, which are now at different stages.

Of course, the Nationals won the World Series in 2019. The Orioles began their rebuild that year after a 47-115 season in 2018, which led to the hiring of executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias and manager Brandon Hyde, and the drafting of Adley Rutschman with the No. 1 overall selection.

The Nats didn’t start their rebuild until halfway through the 2021 season by trading Max Scherzer and Trea Turner to the Dodgers. Then it really became a reality the following summer when they traded Juan Soto to the Padres for a package of five top prospects while the superstar outfielder was still two years away from free agency.

The time in between the respective rebuilds gave the Orioles a head start, and here they are six years later with one of the best records in baseball fresh off an American League East title and their first postseason appearance since 2016.

That’s where the Nationals hope to be in the coming years. But with the way the first edition of this year’s Beltway Series went – a two-game split with a wild back-and-forth finale last night – the similarities between the two teams are even more striking.

They turned out in large numbers – 34,078 of them, to be precise – to watch the conclusion of this two-game rivalry series, wondering if the Nationals would be able to duplicate their performance from Tuesday night’s opener and emerge with a sweep over the Orioles.

They didn't duplicate the performance. But they did put on a show that thrilled everyone in attendance, twice producing last-ditch rallies to tie the game before ultimately falling 7-6 in 12 innings.

With a furious rally in the bottom of the ninth, the Nats tied the game and sent it to extras. With another furious rally in the bottom of the 11th, they tied the game again and continued the proceedings deeper into the night. 

The magic ended there. The Orioles scored twice off a wild Jordan Weems in the top of the 12th, and the lineup could only score once in the bottom of the inning.

It was a thrilling ending to a highly captivating series between interleague rivals, who offered the large bipartisan crowd plenty of reason to want to see more of these matchups down the road.

Keibert Ruiz is in the Nationals lineup tonight, the 11th time he’s been in the lineup over the team’s last 13 games. He’s in there despite the career-worst 3-for-51 slump he’s stuck in. It’s quite possible he’s in there because of that slump, most of which has occurred since the 25-year-old catcher returned from a stint on the injured list with a bad case of influenza.

“When you get sick like that and miss 15 days, your timing is going to be off. And he lost a lot of weight,” manager Davey Martinez said. “He’s really working his way back. The only way he’s going to get his timing is by going out there and playing. He’s got to play.”

Ruiz has been playing a lot. Already a workhorse when healthy and productive, he’s getting just as much playing time now, perhaps even more. Last week he started on four consecutive days, though he was designated hitter for one of them.

The results have been tough to watch. Ruiz has one homer, two singles and one walk since coming off the IL. And there hasn’t been a lot of hard contact, with weak grounders and popups far more common.

Martinez believes the slump has to have a direct connection to his illness and recovery. He’s not worried about how Ruiz is holding up physically during this stretch.

The Nationals have finally gotten over the .500 hump. Let us never speak of that again. Of course, it would help if they gave themselves a little cushion, so one loss wouldn’t leave them right back where they started.

A win tonight would give the Nats a two-game sweep over the Orioles. It’s May, and it’s only a two-game series, but that would have to qualify as some sort of statement made by a rebuilding club against the club with the American League’s best record.

At this point, we know what the plan for success is. The Nationals need to get quality pitching, and they’ll hope Mitchell Parker can pick up right where Trevor Williams and the bullpen left off Tuesday night. Parker has started to show a few little cracks his last couple times out, not that anyone could expect him to consistently be as good as he was in his first two starts. But he needs to be willing to throw the ball over the plate to Baltimore’s hitters, keeping the fastball up and the curveball and splitter down. Can’t afford to give that lineup any free passes.

At the plate, the Nats will have to manufacture runs again, this time against Kyle Bradish, who makes his second start of the season. Bradish, who opened the year on the injured list with an elbow issue, held the Yankees to one run over 4 2/3 innings in his debut. Look for the Nationals to again try to run on him if they can get on base.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs. BALTIMORE ORIOLES
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 6:45 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 88.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Partly cloudy, 85 degrees, wind 10 mph left field to right field

Trevor Williams is scheduled to take the mound again Monday evening in Chicago, facing one of the majors’ worst teams in the White Sox. When he does, he’ll do so as the proud owner of a 1.96 ERA.

Which won’t show up on the major-league leaderboard, because by then Williams won’t qualify for the MLB leaderboard due to throwing fewer innings (36 2/3) than games his team will have played (39).

It’s an unusual place for someone pitching so well to reside, but at this point it should be clear this is where the Nationals want him to reside. And Tuesday night’s game provided the latest example of it.

Williams absolutely cruised against the Orioles, allowing just two singles over five innings, walking nobody and striking out eight to match his career-high. He threw only 77 pitches and looked very much like he could keep going deeper into the game.

But when his veteran right-hander returned to the dugout following the top of the fifth, Davey Martinez gave him a handshake and informed him his night was over. And there wasn’t really any doubt in the manager’s mind.

Three times in the last week, the Nationals put themselves in a position to get over a hump that for three years now had felt more daunting than the October hurdle they waited years to clear. They kept getting themselves to the .500 mark. They could not get themselves over it.

And then on attempt No. 4 tonight, they finally did it. The Nationals, for the first time since July 1, 2021, are a winning baseball team.

All it took? A 3-0 shutout victory over the Orioles, with Trevor Williams outdueling Corbin Burnes, the lineup manufacturing a few runs and the bullpen continuing its lights-out ways.

Yes, the Nats are 18-17, over the .500 hump at last. And happy not to have to talk about that longstanding negative fact anymore.

"I think it's the mentality that nobody sees us coming," closer Kyle Finnegan said. "We're kind of lurking in the shadows. And we know how good we are. Maybe the league will start to take notice." 

Victor Robles is back on the Nationals roster, but not back in their lineup yet.

The Nats activated Robles off the 10-day injured list this afternoon, the outfielder having proven he has fully recovered from the left hamstring strain he suffered during the season’s first week. The club optioned Alex Call to Triple-A Rochester to clear a roster spot.

Robles played in only four games before suffering his injury running the bases. He was off to a solid start, reaching base in three of his five plate appearances and stealing two bases, on the heels of a strong spring in which he hit .368 with a .455 on-base percentage.

All that progress, though, was disrupted by his injury, which knocked him out a full month. He went on a rehab assignment in Rochester last week and over the course of six games went 7-for-20 with a double, a triple, three RBIs and three walks, convincing club officials and himself he was ready to return.

“I feel great,” he said, via interpreter Octavio Martinez. “My legs feel great. I have no discomfort when I’m running around.”

OK, who’s ready for Round 1 of the 2024 Beltway Series? The Nationals host the Orioles the next two nights and, in a new twist, both teams will be wearing their City Connect uniforms. (I believe this is the first time any visiting team has ever worn those uniforms, but please correct me if I’m wrong about that.)

The Nats are once again sitting exactly at .500, having now alternated between wins and losses over their last eight games. They’re still trying to get over that daunting hump for the first time since July 1, 2021. If they’re going to do it tonight, they’re going to have to find a way to score some runs off Corbin Burnes.

The former Cy Young Award winner with the Brewers has continued his dominant ways in Baltimore, going 3-1 with a 2.61 ERA and 0.919 WHIP through his first seven starts of the season. He has yet to allow more than three runs in any outing.

Then again, Trevor Williams hasn’t given up more than three runs in a start yet, either, making him the Nationals’ most effective starter to date. This is a tough lineup he’s got to face tonight, and you would imagine Davey Martinez’s leash will again be short, with a well rested bullpen (that also now includes Robert Garcia) good to go whenever needed.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs. BALTIMORE ORIOLES
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 6:45 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 88.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Chance of rain, 76 degrees, wind 6 mph out to left field