DENVER – Coors Field can play tricks with the minds of pitchers and hitters alike. Pitchers enter this gorgeous ballpark at mile-high elevation and panic about anything left up and over the plate being launched into the stratosphere. Hitters come here and assume all they have to do is get the ball in the air and then watch it fly.

It doesn’t always work that way. It certainly didn’t this afternoon in the 30th home opener in Rockies history, in which the home team scored one run thanks to a fly ball lost in the sun and the visitors never came close to crossing the plate themselves.

Yep, that’s a 1-0 final, only the 11th in ballpark history, the Nationals losing for the sixth time in seven games to begin the season despite getting six highly effective innings from Josiah Gray and two more from reliever Mason Thompson. Quality pitching at altitude matters not if your lineup can’t even score a run.

"It's tough," manager Davey Martinez said. "He threw the ball well. Mason came in, threw the ball well. We couldn't score any runs today."

It's the first time the Nats have been shut out this year, but it's hardly the first time they've been rendered helpless. They've scored a total of 17 runs in seven games. They're batting .227 as a team, while slugging just .289.

DENVER – Though he made it only two days into the season before landing on the injured list, Corey Dickerson is traveling with the Nationals and hoping his stint off the active roster is a short one.

Dickerson, who suffered a left calf strain Saturday against the Braves and was placed on the 10-day IL the following morning, flew with the Nats to Colorado and will spend this road trip rehabbing. The veteran left fielder is already taking light swings in the cage.

“I wanted him here,” manager Davey Martinez said. “He’s feeling better each and every day, which is a good sign.”

Though he’s able to swing a bat, Dickerson has not tested his leg yet. Martinez said that will probably happen first on an AlterG treadmill, after which a decision will be made if he can progress to the field.

Dickerson technically is eligible to return one week from today. Given how few at-bats he was able to take before suffering the injury, he may need to go on a minor league rehab assignment before coming off the IL.

DENVER – Hello from Coors Field, where the Rockies celebrate their home opener this afternoon, the Nationals serving as the visitors for the festivities. It’s not exactly warm here: There were slow flurries last night, and the temperature was below freezing this morning. But it’s supposed to approach 50 degrees later this afternoon, and the bright sunshine does actually make it feel warmer than the temperature.

The Nats come to town for a four-game series, hoping the thin Colorado air helps them hit the ball with a bit more authority. They hit only two homers in six games during the opening homestand, and each of those was a solo shot in the bottom of the ninth with the team trailing by multiple runs. Perhaps the combination of Coors Field and the Rockies pitching staff will help flip that troubling trend.

Unfortunately, the Nationals aren’t going to want the ball to fly too much today with Josiah Gray on the mound. As you surely know by now, the right-hander gave up the most homers in the majors last season, and despite an outstanding spring in Florida served up three of them to the Braves in his 2023 debut. This will be a real challenge for him today, especially considering how much he relies on his breaking balls, which don’t break as much at altitude.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at COLORADO ROCKIES
Where: Coors Field
Gametime: 4:10 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Sunny, 49 degrees, wind 7 mph out to left field

NATIONALS
RF Lane Thomas
LF Alex Call
3B Jeimer Candelario
DH Joey Meneses
1B Dominic Smith
C Keibert Ruiz
2B Luis García
CF Victor Robles
SS CJ Abrams

The Nationals out-hit the Rays all night long, entering the top of the ninth tonight with more than three times as many base hits as their opponents. So why was there a sense of unease as Kyle Finnegan took the mound trying to close out a victory?

Because the Nats didn't make the most of their hits. Yes, they totaled 16 of them, but 13 were singles and the other three were doubles.

The Rays, on the other hand, most definitely made the most of their hits in this game. That's because seven of their 10 went for extra bases, four of those clearing the fence.

And when Luke Raley, Josh Lowe and Yandy Díaz all took Finnegan deep in a disastrous ninth, what should have been an uplifting Nationals victory instead flipped to their most agonizing loss of the young season, a 10-6 defeat that left the home team and a crowd of 15,272 stunned.

"We did what we needed to do to win, and I came up short tonight," Finnegan said. "That's what hurts the most. You want to win the game. I've got to be better."

Every member of the Nationals’ Opening Day bullpen had made his season debut by Sunday. Tonight, every member of their Opening Day bench will have done the same.

Riley Adams and Michael Chavis are each in the starting lineup for the first time, Adams catching and Chavis at second base for the Nats’ game against the Rays, their fifth overall game this season.

Manager Davey Martinez said he didn’t want either reserve to sit too long, especially after playing as regularly as they did during spring training. Chavis took 44 plate appearances in the Grapefruit League, batting .225 with a double, a homer and four RBIs; Adams took 42 plate appearances, batting .237 with two doubles, a team-high three homers and six RBIs.

Neither has played, though, since last Tuesday’s exhibition finale against the Yankees. The hope is that both managed to stay engaged through their workouts over the last week despite the lack of actual game action.

“You’re talking about two guys who are workaholics,” Martinez said. “They get plenty of swings throughout the day to keep themselves ready. They’re both in great shape. But I’ve got to understand they’ve got to get in the game. They’ve got to play a little bit, too. It’s part of it, so today they get an opportunity to play.”

The Nationals have scored nine runs in four games so far this season, which obviously is not good. In their defense, they’ve faced some pretty tough pitching, from the Braves’ Max Fried and Spencer Strider to the Rays’ Drew Rasmussen. The one opposing starter they had some success against was Atlanta rookie left-hander Jared Shuster. There’s a chance for success tonight against Tampa Bay lefty Josh Fleming.

Fleming, 26, owns a 4.93 ERA and 1.410 WHIP over 171 2/3 career major league innings, and he really struggled last year (6.43 ERA, 1.886 WHIP in only 35 innings) while shuttling back and forth between St. Petersburg and Durham. Knowing the way Kevin Cash manages his bullpen, don’t be surprised if the leash on Fleming is short. If you’re the Nats, look to be aggressive early as they were against Shuster on Sunday and try to take an early lead.

If they can do that, they’ll provide some breathing room for Chad Kuhl, who makes his season debut tonight as the No. 5 starter in place of the injured Cade Cavalli. Kuhl actually becomes the third straight starter to make his Nationals debut, following MacKenzie Gore and Trevor Williams. It’s only the second time that’s ever happened in club history, and to be honest, the first time shouldn’t really count because it was the first four games in club history, with Liván Hernández, Zach Day, Esteban Loaiza and Tomo Ohka taking the ball from Frank Robinson in April 2005. Thing is, all of those guys except for Loaiza had been part of the 2004 Expos’ roster, so it’s not really like they were all joining a new team.

TAMPA BAY RAYS at WASHINGTON NATIONALS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 7:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Clear, 76 degrees, wind 8 mph out to left field

NATIONALS
RF Lane Thomas
DH Joey Meneses
3B Jeimer Candelario
1B Dominic Smith
LF Alex Call
2B Michael Chavis
C Riley Adams
CF Victor Robles
SS CJ Abrams

The play looked eerily familiar, and not just because it had just happened moments earlier to the previous batter, who hit a nearly identical dribbler up the first base line.

No, for anyone who has watched the Nationals on a semi-regular basis since 2019, Manuel Margot’s little roller up the line in the top of the second Monday night immediately struck a chord. It certainly did once Trevor Williams picked up the ball and threw toward first base, only to watch as Margot (running in fair territory) ran past Dominic Smith and knocked his glove off to reach safely and then advance to second on the error.

Yep, it was the Trea Turner Play all over again. The one that nearly cost the Nationals in Game 6 of the World Series. The one that plagued Turner again two years later at Wrigley Field, not to mention Josh Bell in Miami. And led to multiple ejections for manager Davey Martinez.

Martinez didn’t get ejected this time, but he still couldn’t help but reiterate his point about the usage – or, in this case, non-usage – of Rule 5.09a(11), which states any batter-runner who is not in the designated running lane and in the judgment of the umpire interferes with the first baseman’s attempt to catch a throw shall be called out.

That’s what umpires called in the previous cases of Turner and Bell. Larry Vanover and his crew did not call it on Margot on Monday.

The Nationals understand they’re not going to hit many home runs this season. That’s just not in the cards with this particular lineup, which features nobody who hit more than 17 homers last year.

But that doesn’t mean they can’t deliver the occasional extra-base hit, some doubles or even a triple. Or, you know, hit the ball in the air every once in a while.

Even that seemingly simple act proved difficult tonight during a 6-2 loss to the Rays. Tampa Bay rode six dominant innings from starter Drew Rasmussen and effective work from their bullpen to cruise to victory on a 70-degree Monday evening in the nation’s capital. The evening would’ve been perfectly pleasant if only the home club was able to give those who attended any valid reason to believe a rally was possible.

Instead, a paid crowd of 10,754 – officially the second-lowest in Nationals history, ahead of only the 9,261 who were announced as attending the first half of a makeup doubleheader against the Diamondbacks last April – was left to watch the lineup flail away at Tampa Bay’s admittedly excellent pitching staff to little avail.

Rasmussen, the Rays’ No. 4 starter despite an 11-7 record and 2.84 ERA last season, cruised through six scoreless innings on a scant 66 pitches. The right-hander allowed two singles, didn’t issue a walk and struck out seven, pulled by manager Kevin Cash only because the organization is being careful with all of its starters early in the season.

The MRI of Corey Dickerson’s left calf showed only a “mild strain,” according to Davey Martinez, and the Nationals manager is hopeful his veteran left fielder’s stint on the 10-day injured list won’t be a long one. History, though, suggests it may be as quick a stint as the club hopes.

Dickerson missed a full month with a calf strain last summer while playing for the Cardinals. That doesn’t necessarily mean this one will take the same amount of time to heal, but the Nats do have a potential road map for his rehab based on what happened last year.

“When I talked to him yesterday, he said he was pretty sore,” Martinez said. “We’ll take it day to day. He’s already started the rehab process, so we’ll see how it goes.”

Signed to a $2.25 million contract over the winter, Dickerson was supposed to be the Nationals’ primary left fielder entering the season. But when Alex Call started Opening Day against Braves ace Max Fried, Martinez revealed he planned to platoon the duo, with Dickerson only playing against right-handers.

The 33-year-old wound up starting only one game before his calf tightened up on him in the seventh inning Saturday afternoon.

The Nationals opened the season in traditional fashion, with a three-game series against a division rival. Major League Baseball’s new schedule, though, has dramatically reduced the number of division games, so get ready to see a bunch of unfamiliar opponents now. Fourteen of the next 18 games, in fact, will be against American League teams, beginning tonight against the Rays.

Because of that, there’s not a lot of familiarity between hitters and pitchers. Only four members of the Nats roster have ever faced Drew Rasmussen (Jeimer Candelario, Michael Chavis, Lane Thomas, Ildemaro Vargas) and combined they’ve only totaled seven at-bats against the right-hander. Conversely, only three Tampa Bay batters have ever faced Trevor Williams (Yandy Diaz, Manuel Margot, Jose Siri) and they’ve combined for only seven at-bats as well.

Williams makes his Nationals debut. He’s technically the No. 4 starter, but he arguably could rank much higher within the rotation when it’s all said and done. The right-hander has a track record, he got a two-year deal over the winter and he takes a leadership role on the staff. Tonight he’ll get his first chance to show the Nats what they have in him.

The Nationals lineup has Luis García back in the leadoff spot. It has CJ Abrams back at shortstop after a day off. And it has Ildemaro Vargas in left field, not Alex Call despite Davey Martinez's claim Sunday that Call would make the bulk of the starts there with Corey Dickerson on the injured list.

TAMPA BAY RAYS at WASHINGTON NATIONALS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 7:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Partly cloudy, 68 degrees, wind 15 mph out to left field

Jeimer Candelario was sitting at his locker following Sunday’s game, phone in hand, watching the highlight of one of his defensive gems from the Nationals’ 4-1 win over the Braves, when reporters approached him.

Perhaps caught by surprise, Candelario quickly turned off the phone, as if he didn’t want anyone to know he was watching his own highlight reel. Not that anyone could blame him for wanting to bask in the glow following a spectacular game at third base.

“We knew that going in. We knew he was going to make plays,” said MacKenzie Gore, the pitcher who most directly benefitted from the stellar glove work. “We’re going to play good defense. We did that in the spring, and that’s what we did today. We had double plays. Candy was making plays all around. It was fun to watch.”

After a sloppy Opening Day and a less-than-crisp Game 2 to the season, the Nationals infield was flawless during Sunday’s win. They turned three double plays, including a critical 4-6-3 started by Luis Garcia to escape a sixth-inning jam. They saw Ildemaro Vargas, filling in for CJ Abrams at shortstop for the day, handle his three chances with no problems.

But most of all, they watched Candelario put on a dazzling show throughout the afternoon at third base.

MacKenzie Gore had been waiting for this, longer than he ever wanted. Same for the Nationals. And their fans, as well. From the moment the Nats and Padres consummated one of the biggest trades in baseball history, the notion of Gore making his D.C. debut had been front and center on many people’s minds. Alas, a bout of elbow inflammation delayed that debut until this afternoon.

At last, though, precisely eight months to the day since the trade that sent Juan Soto and Josh Bell to San Diego for a horde of prospects, the premier pitcher in the deal took the mound on South Capitol Street in a regular season game. And then delivered on the promise of what he could be for this franchise for years to come.

With 5 1/3 strong, at times dominant, innings against one of the toughest lineups in the majors, Gore led the Nationals to their first victory of 2023, a 4-1 triumph before an appreciative crowd of 21,440 that finally had reason to cheer for something positive and for someone with the potential to be a cornerstone of this roster rebuild.

"It's been a long time," the lefty said. "I've been looking forward to it. It was a lot of fun."

Gore allowed just one run on three hits. He struck out six. And though he walked four, he still managed to throw 60 percent of his pitches for strikes and show off the dazzling repertoire that has made him a top pitching prospect since the Padres drafted him third overall in 2017.

Though he won’t undergo an MRI until later today, Corey Dickerson was already placed on the 10-day injured list this morning by the Nationals, who couldn’t afford to wait for test results on their veteran left fielder’s left calf.

Needing another healthy outfielder on the active roster for today’s series finale against the Braves, the Nats called up Stone Garrett, who arrived from Triple-A Rochester this morning and reported straight to Nationals Park.

The team is calling Dickerson’s injury a left calf strain for now, pending results of his MRI. The 33-year-old told manager Davey Martinez he first felt tightness as he jogged off the field following the top of the seventh inning of Saturday’s 7-1 loss. Not wanting to take any chances, Martinez had utility man Ildemaro Vargas take over in left field for the final two innings of the game.

“I’d rather it be a shorter stint than try to push it and it becomes a bigger issue,” the manager said.

Dickerson, who signed a one-year, $2.25 million contract with the Nationals this winter, missed one month with a left calf strain last season while playing for the Cardinals.

It’s not particularly fair to MacKenzie Gore, who takes the mound today wearing a Nationals uniform for the first time in a regular season game. The left-hander shouldn’t have to deal with any added pressure in his long-awaited club debut. But make no mistake: The Nats really need him to pitch well.

When you drop the first two games of the season by a combined score of 14-3, you need to ask your Game 3 starter to put together a really nice outing. So the pressure most certainly is on Gore this afternoon against a tough Braves lineup that already torched Patrick Corbin and Josiah Gray.

Gore, one of the centerpiece young players the Nationals received from the Padres in the Juan Soto trade, was unable to pitch for his new team last year due to elbow inflammation. He did make it through the entire spring healthy, and looked quite sharp in his final Grapefruit League start against the Yankees. But as Gray can tell you, there’s a huge difference between spring training and the regular season. Gore will need to be in peak form today.

The Nats could certainly help their young starter out by providing him some early run support for a change. They’ll try to get something brewing against a pitcher none of them have seen before in the big leagues: Jared Shuster. The 24-year-old lefty (a first-round pick in the 2020 draft) makes his major league debut this afternoon; he struck out 145 batters in 139 1/3 minor-league innings last season.

ATLANTA BRAVES at WASHINGTON NATIONALS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 1:35 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Sunny, 52 degrees, wind 16 mph in from left field

It’s never a good idea to infer regular season performance based on spring training numbers, but in the case of Josiah Gray there seemed to be some valid reason to believe what he did in Florida in March could translate into what he would do in Washington in April.

Not the 0.55 ERA Gray posted in Grapefruit League play, as impressive as that looked. No, the primary reason the Nationals were excited about Gray entering his season debut today was the fact he issued only two walks and did not surrender a home run in 16 2/3 innings of exhibition baseball. Given how much of problem both were for the right-hander last year, this felt like a good omen.

Well, it did for all of six pitches this afternoon.

Back-to-back homers to open the game set an ominous tone for Gray, who would allow a third before departing after five roughshod innings during a 7-1 thrashing at the hands of the Braves.

Ronald Acuña Jr. and Matt Olson did the damage in the first two minutes of the first inning, leaving Gray shell-shocked and a still-arriving crowd of 27,529 wondering what exactly just happened.

Davey Martinez admitted this spring he might be trotting out different-looking lineups on a daily basis, based on matchups, lefty-righty splits and other assorted information. Whether the Nationals manager realized all along how different his Game 1 and Game 2 lineups would look is a valid question.

The lineup card Martinez submitted for this afternoon’s game against the Braves features eight of the same names that started on Opening Day, with only Corey Dickerson replacing Alex Call in left field. But only one of those eight players is actually batting in the same location: Joey Meneses, who again gets the No. 2 slot.

“We’re going to have to mix and match a little bit this year,” Martinez admitted during his pregame session with reporters. “The one thing I do like is having Joey in the 2-hole. Because if we do have someone that needs to get that last at-bat (in the ninth inning), I want to make sure he gets it.”

The most notable change from Thursday is at the top of the lineup. Luis García, who batted seventh in the opener, is leading off today, flip-flopping with Lane Thomas.

García did get several opportunities to lead off in spring training, and he also did it eight times last season. A notorious free-swinger who owns one of the lowest walk rates in the league, the 22-year-old doesn’t exactly profile as a typical leadoff man. Martinez, though, specifically liked him batting first today against Braves starter Spencer Strider.

There are few days on the baseball calendar as frustrating as the off-day following Opening Day. It’s unfortunately tradition, though, included to serve as a fallback option for the season opener in case of bad weather. When the weather’s fine, all it does is give everyone way too much time to overanalyze Game 1 before turning attention to Game 2.

The Nationals and Braves can finally focus on that next game now, with first pitch on South Capitol Street scheduled for 4:05 p.m. The Nats will hope to bounce back from a rough 7-2 loss that included bad defense, laborious starting pitching and very little clutch hitting.

Josiah Gray will have to be more efficient than Patrick Corbin was. The young right-hander was outstanding all spring, so he should enter this start with renewed confidence. But he’ll have to work really hard to keep the ball in the yard against a power-laden Braves lineup that will try to take advantage of a strong wind blowing straight out to center field once the rain clears out this afternoon.

The Nationals will hope some familiarity with Spencer Strider leads to some success. The flamethrowing right-hander made two starts in D.C. last summer. He dominated the first one, allowing one hit (a Luis García homer) while striking out 11 in 5 2/3 innings. But then the Nats got to him for five runs in four innings one month later, so perhaps they’ve got a better book on him now.

ATLANTA BRAVES at WASHINGTON NATIONALS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 4:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Rain ending, 73 degrees, wind 21 mph out to center field

Bryce Harper was the first to coin the phrase, way back on Sept. 23, 2012 when the then-rookie outfielder lost a fly ball in the sun during an afternoon game at Nationals Park.

“You can’t catch what you can’t see, you know?” Harper said that day. “Nothing you can do about it. Sun Monster got me.”

And for the last decade, anyone who has closely watched the Nationals has known to beware the Sun Monster every September. He comes out like clockwork, just as the summer humidity dissipates and the afternoon sun moves into a lower position above the upper deck at the ballpark.

In Thursday’s season opener, though, the Sun Monster made an extremely rare, late-March appearance, wreaking as much havoc on players in the field for both the Nats and Braves as perhaps it ever has.

It happened during the Nationals’ very first plate appearance of the season. Lane Thomas’ top-of-the-first popup into shallow center field appeared to make for an easy catch for either shortstop Orlando Arcia or center fielder Michael Harris II. But when Arcia called off his teammate and reached up to make the play, he recoiled in horror when he couldn’t locate the ball, which landed harmlessly on the grass for a cheap single.

Opening Day didn't produce the outcome Nationals fans wanted, but it contained no shortage of storylines. Patrick Corbin's labored start. CJ Abrams' three errors. Joey Meneses' two hits. Victor Robles' two walks. Stephen Strasburg's absence.

And because tradition is to schedule an off-day after the season opener just in case of a rainout, we have nothing to do today but completely overanalyze and overreact to everything that happened Thursday on South Capitol Street.

So let's take the opportunity to look back at Opening Day and what may be coming now the rest of the weekend and beyond. Submit your questions in the comments section below, then check back for responses throughout the morning. ...

If there is going to be a semi-regular formula for the Nationals to win ballgames in 2023, it will almost certainly have to include clean defense from a revamped infield, quality pitching from a deep bullpen and timely hitting from a lineup that hits for contact better than for power.

Maybe they can pull out some curly Ws when they achieve two of those three goals. But to expect it when they only get one of them right? That’s a tall ask, as they learned this afternoon.

Despite hanging around with the defending division champions until things fell apart in the ninth, the Nationals were left to accept a 7-2 Opening Day loss to the Braves that was defined by sloppy defense and a lack of clutch hitting.

"I could tell you now, they were a little bit nervous," manager Davey Martinez said of his relatively inexperienced team. "I was a little nervous. It's part of it."

Three errors by shortstop CJ Abrams proved costly, as did a 1-for-11 showing by Nats hitters with runners in scoring position. Those combined to undermine a strong showing by the bullpen, which churned out five scoreless innings after a laboring Patrick Corbin was pulled in the top of the fourth, with only Kyle Finnegan faltering during a three-run top of the ninth that turned a close game lopsided.