As much as CJ Abrams’ leadoff homer on the first pitch of Sunday’s game in Baltimore set the tone for the Nationals, his dazzling defensive gem to set in motion a 6-4-3 double play that ended the 10-4 victory might actually have been more spectacular.

Abrams ranged far to his left to snag Ryan Mountcastle’s grounder up the middle, then flipped the ball directly from his glove to Luis Garcia Jr., who in one motion stepped on second base and threw across his body to first to complete the web gem.

“That double play is how me and Luis do it in practice. It’s a lot of fun,” Abrams said afterward, perhaps beaming even more than he was when discussing the two home runs he hit during the game. “We were glad to end it that way.”

Maybe there’s some symbolism to take away from it all. As fantastic as he was at the start of Sunday’s game, Abrams was more proud of what he did to end it. It’s a feeling he’d like to experience again this fall.

One year ago, Abrams was putting together a brilliant first half performance that earned him the first All-Star selection of his career. He was on top of the world, the young face of the rebuilding Nationals and one of the best shortstops in baseball.

BALTIMORE – The Nationals arrived here late Thursday night following a frustrating series in Atlanta following a frustrating homestand against the Guardians and Cardinals. A season that felt promising not long ago now felt like it was one more bad series from slipping away.

And then something clicked when they walked into Camden Yards on Friday. Maybe it was the fact they were facing an Orioles team whose season really has slipped away, leading to the dismissal of their manager. Maybe it was something the Nats did themselves, especially at the plate.

Whatever the case, it was a welcome development. Today’s 10-4 victory, which for the second straight day featured an early seven-run explosion, was exactly what the Nationals needed, exactly when they needed it.

At 21-27, they’ve still got plenty of work to do. But if they can come anywhere close to duplicating their performance from this weekend’s three-game sweep, things may just work out in the long run after all.

"It's awesome that we bounced back like that," outfielder Dylan Crews said. "Obviously, you don't want things to go like they did in Atlanta, or even before that. But we're going to go out here and flip the page, and that's what we did. We're going to use this as momentum going forward."

BALTIMORE – He’s not in today’s lineup, but Jacob Young appears to be fine after a scary collision with the center field wall Saturday afternoon that left him on the ground in pain for several minutes.

Young found out after the game X-rays on his left shoulder were negative, and the Nationals outfielder also passed concussion tests. He’s sore, but he should be available to come off the bench this afternoon if his team needs him.

“It’s awesome,” manager Davey Martinez said. “I went back and looked at it: He hit the wall hard. I was kind of concerned he might have hurt his shoulder, or anything, or even come up with a concussion. But he’s a tough kid, as we all know, and he feels good.”

Young was trying to track down Ramón Laureano’s seventh-inning drive to deep center when he slammed into the Camden Yards wall and fell to the ground as Laureano raced into second base with an RBI double. He lay on the ground for several minutes as Martinez and director of athletic training Paul Lessard went to check on him. After a lengthy conversation, he was able to get up to his feet and walk off the field under his own power.

“It just knocked the air out of me when it first happened,” Young said. “That was my initial reaction: You just can’t breathe. It’s a scary feeling.”

BALTIMORE – For the first time since 2018, the Nationals have won the Battle of the Beltways. Now they have a chance to sweep their first series at Camden Yards since that same 2018 season if they can pull off another victory in this afternoon’s finale.

The Nats finally scored early and often against an opposing starter Saturday, knocking Kyle Gibson out in the top of the first with six runs. The challenge is a bit tougher today in Zach Eflin, who has yet to give up more than three runs in any of his four starts this season, even with an IL stint mixed in there.

Michael Soroka also missed time on the IL, and today the right-hander makes only his fourth start of the year. He’s looked very good at times but has been done in by a couple of bad innings that have inflated his pitch count. The Nationals will be hoping today’s the day he extends himself through the sixth inning and moves closer to the 100-pitch mark after topping out at 81 last time out.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at BALTIMORE ORIOLES
Where: Oriole Park at Camden Yards
Gametime: 1:35 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Mostly sunny, 78 degrees, wind 17 mph out to right field

NATIONALS
SS CJ Abrams
LF James Wood
1B Nathaniel Lowe
C Keibert Ruiz
2B Luis García Jr.
DH Josh Bell
RF Alex Call
3B José Tena
CF Dylan Crews

BALTIMORE – Rarely have the Nationals had the opportunity to beat a team when it’s down. And given his close friendship with now former Orioles manager Brandon Hyde, Davey Martinez probably took little pleasure in rubbing salt in Baltimore’s wounds this afternoon.

But there was a game to play regardless, and the Nats made the most of the opportunity presented to them, bursting out of the gates to score six quick runs in the top of the first, take a big lead early and cruise to a 10-6 victory at Camden Yards that only looked moderately close because of a four-run rally in the bottom of the ninth against Zach Brzykcy.

Behind their first big offensive showing against an opposing starter in more than a week, and behind a no-nonsense start from Jake Irvin, the Nationals enjoyed a rare lopsided win and put themselves in position to try to sweep the struggling Orioles in Sunday’s series finale.

"Obviously, we're taking one win at a time, but the vibes are good right now," designated hitter Josh Bell said. "We have to attack starters. We have to get into their bullpen early. When we do that, good things happen. Hopefully, this is a turn in the right direction."

The lone negative development on this 84-degree late afternoon? Jacob Young injured his left shoulder slamming into the center field wall trying to make a difficult catch in the bottom of the seventh and had to depart the game.

BALTIMORE – Davey Martinez has no shortage of close contacts in baseball, having played with, coached with and ultimately managed with countless figures over the last four decades. Brandon Hyde, though, is high on Martinez’s list of close friends in the game, the two having worked together on the Cubs’ coaching staff for three seasons before eventually competing against each other for seven seasons as managers of the Nationals and Orioles.

So while today’s news of a managerial change in Baltimore obviously affected Hyde most of all, it also hit Martinez hard, compounded by the fact it occurred hours after the Nats defeated the Orioles in dramatic fashion.

“It’s tough,” Martinez said. “Brandon and I are close. I love the guy. We all know what we sign up for when we take this job. It really just stinks. He’s a good man. I know he’ll land on his feet. I wish him all the best, but it’s a tough gig.”

Martinez first met Hyde following the 2013 season, when the latter was working in the Cubs front office and the former interviewed for their open managerial position. They immediately hit it off, and even though Martinez lost the job at that point to Rick Renteria, one year later he was back in Chicago as bench coach for newly hired manager Joe Maddon, who also appointed Hyde as his first base coach.

That arrangement remained in place for three seasons, with the trio playing a big role in the Cubs’ historic World Series run in 2016. And when the Nationals hired Martinez after the 2017 season, Hyde moved into his role as Maddon’s bench coach, a high-profile position that helped him land the Orioles’ managerial gig one year later.

BALTIMORE – Friday night’s series opener here at Camden Yards was one of the strangest games you’ll ever see. And it appears the Nationals’ 4-3 victory came at a very high cost for the Orioles, who just a few minutes ago announced they’ve fired manager Brandon Hyde. Maybe that move was inevitable at some point, given the team’s disappointment to date this season. But you have to think Hyde’s decision to pitch to James Wood with first base open in the eighth inning Friday night – Wood proceeded to hit the game-tying homer – was the final straw.

Davey Martinez, meanwhile, is very close with Hyde, the two of them having previously served together on Joe Maddon’s staff in Chicago. This will not be easy for Martinez, who now has to continue to manage the rest of the weekend knowing his friend is out of work. So, there’s the context as both clubs prepare for game two of the series.

The Nationals won the opener despite once again doing very little offensively until late in the game. That’s now eight straight games in which they’ve failed to score more than two runs against an opposing starter. They’ll try to finally break that streak today against veteran Kyle Gibson, who enters with a 13.11 ERA in three starts.

Jake Irvin gets the ball for the Nats, and while Irvin has mostly found a way to be effective this season, he strangely isn’t striking anybody out recently. He’s got three total strikeouts in his last three starts, encompassing 17 1/3 innings. We’ll see if he can get back on track in that regard today.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at BALTIMORE ORIOLES
Where: Oriole Park at Camden Yards
Gametime: 4:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Mostly sunny, 88 degrees, wind 13 mph out to right field

BALTIMORE – A ballgame that had already defied conventional wisdom in countless ways for eight innings of course came down to a most unconventional conclusion in the ninth.

On a night in which MacKenzie Gore was simultaneously hittable and unhittable, on a night in which neither team could score many runs despite one team more than tripling the other team’s hit total, on a night in which the Nationals found themselves forced to play Nasim Nuñez in center field, it was Nuñez who found a way to produce the decisive run in a 4-3 win over the Orioles with his legs.

With two outs in the ninth, Nuñez hustled down the line to beat out a chopper to first, and José Tena astutely raced around to score from second base while a bewildered Félix Bautista scrambled unsuccessfully to try to throw him out at the plate.

"It's about the hunger. It's about the passion," Nuñez said. "We're fighting every single pitch, every single inning. No matter who's on the mound, we're going to get him."

Nuñez, the 26th man on the roster who got the start at second base with Luis García Jr. just returning from paternity leave, somehow found himself playing the outfield for the first time as a professional when Davey Martinez had García pinch-hit for Jacob Young in the top of the seventh, leaving the Nats without any more natural outfielders.

BALTIMORE – Luis García Jr. is back on the Nationals’ active roster, but not back in the lineup quite yet.

García was activated off the paternity list this afternoon, having spent the last three days away for the birth of his first child. Under the circumstances – and with left-hander Cade Povich starting for the Orioles – Davey Martinez wanted to give his starting second baseman a day to simply work out before returning to action.

“He’ll hit in the cage. He’ll be available to (pinch) hit if we need him,” the manager said. “But I want to him to go out and catch ground balls, get back in the swing of things.”

It’s been a disappointing season to date for García, particularly on the heels of his breakthrough 2024 campaign. He enters tonight batting .226 with a .618 OPS, down from .282 and .762 a year ago. García has also taken a step back in the field, his minus-8 Defensive Runs Saved ranking last among all major league second basemen.

“It’s just the inconsistency of his hitting,” Martinez said. “And to his defense, he’s hit the ball hard, just had nothing to show for it. … We’ve got to get him going, he’s a big part of our lineup. When he’s going well, he can do some damage with the bat.”

BALTIMORE – Hello from Camden Yards, where a couple of teams desperate to start winning more face off this weekend. The Nationals have lost eight of nine, falling to nine games under .500 in the process. The Orioles have lost nine of 11, falling to 12 games under .500 in the process. Something’s got to give.

You already know this by now, but the Nats need to hit. They’re averaging only 2.4 runs on 7.2 hits and 2.7 walks over this nine-game slide, and most of the offense they’ve produced has come late in games, when they’re scrambling to try to catch up. They’ve struggled against opposing starters, especially some less-accomplished starters who have outpitched their overall numbers. That includes Cade Povich, the Baltimore left-hander who sports a 5.55 ERA in seven starts but held the Nationals to one run over 6 1/3 innings last month in D.C.

Povich’s opponent that night was MacKenzie Gore, who faces him tonight in the rematch. Gore was really good in that previous matchup, allowing two runs over six innings while striking out eight, but was the hard-luck loser because of the lack of run support. Despite a 3.57 ERA and league-leading 75 strikeouts, Gore remains 2-4 and still seeking his first win since April 19 in Colorado.

The Nationals made a roster move this afternoon: Luis García Jr. is back from paternity leave, so Trey Lipscomb heads back to Triple-A Rochester after a brief stint up here.

Update: Tyler O'Neill has been scratched from the Orioles lineup, with Ryan O'Hearn now playing right field and batting fifth.

Nathaniel Lowe was preaching the need to remain patient, to avoid panicking at this point, following Sunday’s 6-1 loss to the Cardinals. The Nationals had just been swept over the weekend and completed a miserable, 1-5 homestand that dropped them to a season-low seven games under .500.

“But you can’t win the World Series tomorrow,” Lowe said. “You can’t fix your entire stat line in one at-bat. We need to continue to work pitch to pitch and keep going.”

As the only member of the current roster who actually has won the World Series – in 2023 with the Rangers – Lowe’s words carry a little more weight than most within a highly inexperienced clubhouse. But how patient can the Nats afford to be right now?

The season is one-quarter complete, and the Nationals are 17-24. That’s a 67-win pace over a full season, which would represent a four-game regression from the last two seasons.

They’re nine games out in the NL East. They’re seven games back in the NL wild card race, with only three teams currently behind them: the Marlins, Pirates and Rockies (the last two of which fired their managers in recent days).

The Nationals spent the season’s first six weeks playing well enough to claim a winning record but doomed to a sub-.500 mark almost exclusively because of the majors’ worst bullpen. They spent the seventh week playing like a team that has no business believing it should have more wins than losses.

Today’s 6-1 loss to the Cardinals was the final blow to a miserable homestand that saw a major regression in offense, some regression in starting pitching and not much opportunity for the bullpen to make any difference, positive or negative.

The Nationals won the opener of Tuesday’s doubleheader against the Guardians in wild fashion, then dropped five in a row to fall to a season-worst seven games under .500. They were swept by the Cards this weekend, scoring a meager three runs during 27 innings of tortured baseball.

"We're frustrated," starter MacKenzie Gore said. "This was a tough homestand down here. We've got to be a little better as a group. We're doing a lot of good things. We're just not doing quite enough to win right now."

Though seven of his team’s 17 wins entering the day were comeback wins, Davey Martinez knows the importance of taking an early lead and not relying on the lineup to rally late. He often brings this up on his own, without prompting.

The Nationals believe Jarlin Susana avoided a major elbow injury, but they admittedly won’t know for sure until the top pitching prospect proves he can return to the mound after a brief planned shutdown.

Susana has a Grade 1 sprain of his ulnar collateral ligament, a concerning revelation but one that won’t immediately require Tommy John surgery.

Manager Davey Martinez said Susana will be shut down from throwing for two weeks, at which point the organization will reassess the situation and determine next steps. Club officials were initially worried the injury was more severe but were relieved when the MRI revealed only a Grade 1 strain of the ligament.

“That was best-case scenario for us,” Martinez said.

Susana, currently the Nationals’ second-rated prospect behind fellow right-hander Travis Sykora, made his most recent start for Double-A Harrisburg one week ago and threw 80 pitches over only three innings, allowing two runs on five hits and three walks. He was placed on the seven-day injured list Saturday, with Martinez at the time knowing only that the issue was with Susana's arm.

The Nationals came home feeling pretty good about themselves, but they have since lost four of five on this homestand and now need a win today to avoid a weekend sweep at the hands of the Cardinals.

Offense is key, especially early offense. The Nats need to find a way to jump on Miles Mikolas and play out in front instead of behind for a change. History isn’t on their side: In five starts against them over the last three seasons, Mikolas owns a 2.15 ERA and 1.023 WHIP. Even when the veteran right-hander has struggled in the larger picture, he has always seemed to pitch well against this particular opponent.

So the pressure may be on MacKenzie Gore to author one of his gems. The left-hander continues to lead the majors in strikeouts (68 of them in only 46 innings), and he’s done an excellent job of minimizing damage, even when he’s perhaps not in peak form. The Nats hope he can be at least that today, though they surely would love for him to be in true peak form and help them salvage a Mother’s Day win before hitting the road.

ST. LOUIS CARDINALS at WASHINGTON NATIONALS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 1:35 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Partly cloudy, 81 degrees, wind 4 mph out to center field

CARDINALS
LF Lars Nootbaar
SS Masyn Winn
2B Brendan Donovan
3B Nolan Arenado
1B Willson Contreras
DH Iván Herrera
C Yohel Pozo
RF Jordan Walker
CF Victor Scott II

Three-and-a-half weeks later, Paul DeJong’s face still doesn’t look completely normal. His nose is pushed toward the right. The area around his left eye is still slightly swollen. The scars from the surgery he underwent to repair the broken nose, the broken orbital bone and broken orbital floor are still visible. Baseball is still months away, in all likelihood.

DeJong was back at Nationals Park this week, though, for the first time since getting struck in the face by a fastball April 15 in Pittsburgh. And that seemingly simple act, something the infielder used to take for granted, meant everything to him.

“That’s what I was missing the most, just the camaraderie of the daily process that we go through every day,” he said. “So I’m happy to be able to be cleared to do some of my own process now, and kind of gain some momentum that way.”

In the immediate aftermath of his harrowing injury, DeJong wasn’t allowed to do much at all. Doctors had to wait more than a week before they could operate, giving time for some of the swelling to go down. Before and after that procedure, he was stuck at home, aided by his grandfather, who drove up from Florida to live with him while he recovered.

DeJong and his grandfather, Steve Whipple, watched movies together every night. Whipple got DeJong into classic Clint Eastwood movies like “Dirty Harry” and “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.” DeJong got Whipple into more recent comedies like “The Hangover” and “Beerfest.”

On the heels of back-to-back starts that seemingly were lost in the opening frame, Mitchell Parker took the mound tonight desperate to reverse the trend.

“That first inning is going to be key,” manager Davey Martinez said roughly three hours before first pitch. “We talked a lot this week about not overthinking things, just sticking to his mechanics and staying on top of the baseball and throwing downhill.”

Parker proceeded to walk the game’s first two batters, each of them eventually coming around to score during another laborious first inning that left the Nationals trailing yet again. And because the left-hander couldn’t right his wayward ship, and because Erick Fedde pitched like he hardly ever did in six seasons in D.C., tonight’s 10-0 loss to the Cardinals turned into the team’s most depressing of 2025. One that led to the release of another struggling reliever.

With Parker pitching like Fedde circa 2022, and with Fedde pitching like Doug Fister circa 2014, this game was never in doubt. The Nationals trailed throughout and never threatened to rally against Fedde, who went on to toss the first shutout of his career, the final nail in the coffin.

"This one wasn't good," Martinez said. "I'm sitting here trying to figure out what went on. Mitchell, early on, struggled. Walks. Fell behind. Our offense just couldn't get it going. We came in after a day off. We were playing well. I'm just going to try to really forget about this one."

Cade Cavalli returns to the mound tonight, an encouraging development for the rehabbing right-hander and the Nationals, who were holding their breath after he departed his last start with fatigue.

Ten days after throwing only 37 pitches in two innings for Triple-A Rochester, Cavalli is back starting for the Red Wings tonight against Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. The Nats believe the brief layoff won’t disrupt his overall rehab program.

“We’re going to let him go, see how far he can go,” manager Davey Martinez said. “There’s no limitations. He just had 10 days off. I know he threw two bullpens in between then, but we’ll see how he does today. We’re going to let him go, and see how far he can go.”

Cavalli, ostensibly in the final stages of rehab from his March 2023 Tommy John surgery, made three rehab starts in April, dominating at Single-A Fredericksburg and Double-A Harrisburg to the tune of nine scoreless innings. He then moved up to Triple-A for an April 29 start and gave up three runs over two innings, leaving the game early complaining of fatigue.

The Nationals decided to have Cavalli skip his next start and instead throw a couple of bullpen sessions in the interim. They found no cause for concern injury-wise and are confident the 2020 first-round pick will pick up right where he left off and wrap up his rehab stint as planned in the coming weeks.

After a much-needed day off, the Nationals are back in action with a weekend series against the Cardinals, looking to take two of three and ensure at least a .500 homestand. And they’ll be facing an old friend in tonight’s opener.

Erick Fedde gets the start for St. Louis, his first appearance at Nationals Park since Sept. 30, 2022, when he took a 5-1 loss to the Phillies. The former Nats first-round pick went off to South Korea the following year and resurrected his career, earning a two-year contract with the White Sox, who promptly traded him to the Cardinals last summer. Fedde has made seven starts so far this season, two of them blowups involving six or more runs allowed, but four of them quality starts.

Mitchell Parker is coming off back-to-back rough starts himself and needs to get back on track tonight. The left-hander has issued nine walks over his last nine innings, and that’s been the obvious source of his struggles. He got a couple extra days of rest since last Friday’s outing in Cincinnati. Hopefully he used it well and has more command of the strike zone tonight.

An important reminder: Tonight’s game is only on Apple TV+. It’ll be Rich Waltz, Ryan Spilborghs and Tricia Whitaker with the call.

ST. LOUIS CARDINALS at WASHINGTON NATIONALS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 6:45 p.m. EDT
TV: Apple TV+
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Partly cloudy, 62 degrees, wind 12 mph in from left field

Kyle Finnegan remembers career save No. 1. How could he forget?

On July 29, 2021, the Nationals played a seven-inning doubleheader against the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park, necessitated by a COVID outbreak among the team’s coaching staff the previous day. The trade deadline was 24 hours away, and Mike Rizzo was working nonstop making six deals involving eight players.

Finnegan was directly impacted by this. Before that day’s game, Rizzo traded Brad Hand to the Blue Jays for Riley Adams. Later that day, he dealt Daniel Hudson to the Padres for Mason Thompson and Jordy Barley. Which is why Finnegan found himself pitching the final inning of a 3-1 victory, capped by strikeouts of Alec Bohm and Odúbel Herrera to secure the first save of his career.

“I always joke that I went to bed the sixth-inning guy and woke up the closer that day,” he said this week. “It was a big change.”

Finnegan didn’t become the Nationals’ full-time closer right away. He and Tanner Rainey alternated through the rest of 2021 and throughout 2022 before he finally took over in 2023.

Would you believe we are already 38 games into the 2025 season? This weekend, the Nationals will pass the one-quarter mark, which is usually enough time to start drawing some conclusions about the quality (or lack thereof) of a ballclub.

What have we learned about the Nats to this point? Well, the rotation has been solid, at times excellent. The lineup has been inconsistent, but at times quite productive. And the bullpen has been ... well, the bullpen is the No. 1 reason the team has a 17-21 record as opposed to flip-flopping that mark.

It's been a grueling schedule of late, with 16 consecutive game days on the original calendar. (One of those, of course, was rained out, necessitating Tuesday's doubleheader.) The Nationals will happily enjoy their true day off now, though, before returning this weekend to host the Cardinals.

There are no days off around here, however. So let's spend this one answering your questions about the season to date. As always, submit your questions in the comments section below, then check back for my replies throughout the morning. (And if you're unable to view the comments, try clicking on the little cookie logo on the bottom left of your screen and enabling cookies. That usually does the trick!) ...