And we’re back. After a brief international trip for their first road series of the season, the Nationals are back home for six straight against a pair of tough National League West foes. The undefeated, defending champion Dodgers come to town next week. But first up, it’s the Diamondbacks, the 2023 NL champs.

As stated numerous times over the last several days, the Nats really need to get their lineup clicking early. They’ve scored only two runs in the first three innings of six games to date. That’s a tough way to live. They’ll try to make it happen tonight against right-hander Brandon Pfaadt, who they did beat last summer with three runs over 6 1/3 innings.

Jake Irvin gets the ball for the Nationals, on the heels of a good-not-great season debut. The right-hander lasted only five innings against the Phillies and put nine runners on base. But he limited the damage to two runs, an encouraging sign.

ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS at WASHINGTON NATIONALS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 6:45 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Cloudy, 69 degrees, wind 7 mph in from center field

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

The Nationals have placed Michael Soroka on the 15-day injured list with a right biceps strain, throwing a wrench into the team’s rotation plans just one week into the season.

Jackson Rutledge was recalled from Triple-A Rochester to take Soroka’s roster spot, but the 2019 first-round pick has made the full-time conversion to reliever, so he won’t be joining the big league rotation.

Soroka, signed this winter to a one-year, $9 million contract, made his club debut Monday night in Toronto, allowing four runs over five-plus innings. He felt fine physically until his 83rd pitch the game, a spiked slider in the bottom of the sixth, after which he looked toward the dugout and began clenching his fist.

Soroka told manager Davey Martinez and director of athletic training Paul Lessard his right biceps muscle had cramped on that pitch, and he was taken out of the game. Afterward, he expressed optimism the injury wasn’t any more serious than that and was hopeful he could still make his next turn in the rotation.

Soroka did admit he would need to throw off a mound before knowing for sure he was good to go. He played catch prior to Wednesday’s series finale against the Blue Jays and would have been on track to throw a bullpen session either Thursday (an off-day for the team) or today. The Nationals had listed him as their starter for Sunday’s series finale against the Diamondbacks.

The Washington Nationals recalled right-handed pitcher Jackson Rutledge from Triple-A Rochester and placed right-handed pitcher Michael Soroka on the 15-day Injured List (retroactive to April 1) with a right arm biceps strain. Nationals President of Baseball Operations and General Manager Mike Rizzo made the announcement.

Rutledge, 26, joins the Nationals active roster for the first time this season. He tossed 3.0 scoreless innings across two relief appearances with Triple-A Rochester prior to the recall. He allowed just one hit, struck out four batters and issued just one walk along the way.

Washington’s first-round pick in the 2019 First-Year Player Draft, Rutledge held opposing batters to a .189 average (10-for-53) across 10 Grapefruit League Spring Training outings in 2025.

Rutledge spent the majority of the 2024 season with Triple-A Rochester and made three appearances (one start) with Washington, posting a 3.24 ERA with the Nationals. He ranked among Washington's Minor League system in games started (2nd, 27), strikeouts (5th, 128) and opponents' batting average (5th, .271) in his sixth professional season.

Soroka, 27, made one start with the Nationals on March 31 at Toronto. He allowed four earned runs on five hits with three strikeouts and one walk in 5.0 innings pitched.

On a sunny, breezy, April afternoon in Philadelphia exactly 20 years ago, a major league ballclub wearing navy blue caps with a curly W logo and gray jerseys with “Washington” emblazoned across the chest took the field, embarking on a brand-new journey many never believed would come to fruition.

For anyone who suffered through 33 long years without baseball in the nation’s capital, the mere sight of a team representing D.C. in a real major league game was both unbelievable and emotional.

Most fans best remember April 14, 2005, the night Frank Howard and the 1971 Senators ceremoniously handed over their gloves to the newly renamed Nationals, George W. Bush threw out the ceremonial first pitch and RFK Stadium bounced and swayed like it hadn’t in a generation. But the first game in Nats history came 10 days prior at Citizens Bank Park on April 4, 2005.

The occasion started off in grand fashion. Brad Wilkerson was the first batter in club history and immediately recorded the first hit in club history, a single over second baseman Placido Polanco’s head. One inning later, Nick Johnson and Vinny Castilla each singled, then the latter scored on Terrmel Sledge’s RBI groundout to give the visitors a 1-0 lead.

Sledge, a late addition to manager Frank Robinson’s lineup after Ryan Church was scratched with a groin strain, would make history again in the top of the sixth when he launched a two-run homer to right off Jon Lieber. (Side note: The first home run in Nationals history was also Sledge’s only home run in a Nationals uniform.)

Everything was trending in the right direction for Colton Cowser. 

The defense was a known commodity. The second year outfielder brought elite range to the corner outfield, exceptional arm strength, and the versatility to play wherever needed. 

The speed, combined with the O’s increased emphasis on aggression on the basepaths, could’ve helped him reach 20 stolen bases. 

The bat was trending in the right direction during spring training, as the former first-round pick hit .364 with a .462 on-base percentage. Another 20-plus home run season seemed imminent. 

Cowser can still reach all of these benchmarks. He’ll just have six to eight fewer weeks to do it. 

TORONTO – Baseball players aren’t the type to look at the standings this early in the season, but if the Nationals happened to take a glance Wednesday evening at the NL East table, they wouldn’t like what they saw.

With two series in the books, the Nats are 1-5. They barely avoided a sweep against the Phillies. They couldn’t avoid a sweep against the Blue Jays. If not for the snakebit Braves, now 0-7 after giving up a walk-off homer to Shohei Ohtani, they’d reside in the basement. Not that their position in a distant fourth place is anything to get excited about.

“It’s difficult,” outfielder Dylan Crews said. “It’s something that we definitely don’t want. We want to win every single game. But it’s only April. April 2. So we’ve got May, June, July, August, September. I think we can really flip this thing around here in the future. … I see a lot of talent on this team.”

The Nationals clubhouse remained an optimistic place this week, even after three straight losses to the Blue Jays. The genuine belief in the room is that this is a significantly improved team from 2024, one that expects more of itself in 2025.

But they also know they can’t let things continue at this rate for long, lest they dig themselves into such a deep hole they can’t reasonably climb their way out of it.

TORONTO – The Nationals’ season-opening schedule, with four straight matchups against likely contenders, didn’t look kind on paper. It hasn’t looked kind in practice, either.

The Nats needed a win Sunday to avoid getting swept by the Phillies. They found themselves right back in the same position today against the Blue Jays, with perhaps their first favorable pitching matchup of the young season to hold their hats on.

That matchup didn’t even help. The Nationals couldn’t touch fill-in Toronto starter Easton Lucas, while MacKenzie Gore couldn’t duplicate his efforts from an Opening Day gem. The end result: a lackluster 4-2 loss and a demoralizing three-game sweep at Rogers Centre.

"The at-bats have to get better early in games," manager Davey Martinez said. "We talk about scoring first and trying to get on the starters early. And it just hasn't happened. Late in the games, we've been swinging the bats good. But there's nine innings. We've got to come out swinging from the get-go."

One week into a season of promise, the Nats are 1-5. They’ve gotten decent starting pitching. They’ve hit more homers than in recent years. Keibert Ruiz (who recorded another hit today) and CJ Abrams (who homered again today) have looked great. But they need more than that. And they haven’t gotten more. The challenge doesn’t get any easier, with the Diamondbacks and Dodgers coming to D.C. over the next week.

TORONTO – The Nationals are listing Michael Soroka as their scheduled starter for Sunday’s game against the Diamondbacks, suggesting the right-hander won’t have to miss any time after departing his season debut with a biceps cramp.

Soroka came out of Monday night’s game against the Blue Jays after spiking a slider to the first batter he faced in the bottom of the sixth, his 83rd pitch of the outing. He immediately looked to the dugout and began clinching his fist.

Whatever initial fears the Nats may have had about a potentially serious injury were alleviated when Soroka told them his right biceps muscle cramped on that final pitch, and he didn’t want to take any chances trying to go any further in the game.

He expressed cautious optimism afterward the injury was nothing serious, with manual tests performed by the club’s medical staff revealing no issues. He did acknowledge he would need to throw off a bullpen mound first before knowing for certain he would be fine to make his next scheduled start.

Soroka wasn’t planning to throw off a mound today, merely to play catch in the outfield at Rogers Centre prior to the Nats’ series finale. If everything went well, he would likely throw his bullpen session in D.C. on Thursday (an off-day for the team) or Friday (prior to the series opener against Arizona).

TORONTO – For the second time already in this young season, the Nationals find themselves needing a win to avoid a series sweep. They managed to do it Sunday against the Phillies. Now they need to do it again against the Blue Jays.

The good news: MacKenzie Gore is on the mound, looking to pick up right where he left off Opening Day. The lefty was utterly dominant that afternoon, striking out 13 over six scoreless innings of one-hit ball. Most impressively, Gore issued zero walks and kept his pitch count to a mere 93 even with all those strikeouts. He needs to bring that same approach to this outing against a good Toronto lineup.

The Nationals also need more offense than they’ve been getting, especially early in the game. They’ll be facing an unknown in Easton Lucas, a 28-year-old left-hander with a 9.82 ERA in 14 career major league appearances, all of them out of the bullpen. Lucas isn’t likely to pitch deep into this game, so it could wind up as more of a bullpen game for the Blue Jays. Regardless, now would be an opportune time for the Nats to string some hits together and finally score runs in bunches.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at TORONTO BLUE JAYS
Where: Rogers Centre
Gametime: 3:07 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Indoors

NATIONALS
SS CJ Abrams
2B Amed Rosario
C Keibert Ruiz
LF James Wood
1B Nathaniel Lowe
DH Josh Bell
RF Alex Call
3B Paul DeJong
CF Dylan Crews

TORONTO – He singled. He doubled. He stole a base. He doubled again, this time driving in the tying run. He was diving all around second base, in one instance making one of the best defensive plays of his career.

CJ Abrams was everywhere Tuesday night. And though the Nationals ultimately lost 5-3 to the Blue Jays, it wasn’t for lack of effort by their dynamic shortstop, who had his best all-around game of the young season.

“He’s been doing really well,” manager Davey Martinez said. “I’m happy because he’s hitting, but I’m also happy because he’s playing really good defense right now. He made some really good plays today.”

Yes, even on a night in which he went 3-for-4 with two extra-base hits, Abrams’ glovework stood out above all else. He found himself diving to make several plays at shortstop, none of them more impressive than his sixth-inning robbery of Will Wagner’s sure base hit up the middle.

On the play, Abrams dived to his left to snag the ball well to the right side of second base. Then he hopped to his feet and fired to first just in time to get Wagner. The Blue Jays challenged the call at first base, but replays were inconclusive and the call stood, much to the Nats’ delight.

Freshman Max Wagner wasn’t a key piece of Clemson’s lineup.

Entering the season, he was ranked as the 31st best freshman in the Atlantic Coast Conference by D1Baseball, and No. 36 by Perfect Game. 

Wagner did lead the team in a stat category in his first season: games off the bench. He was often used as a defensive replacement at the hot corner late in games. The infielder did make 22 starts at third base, but didn’t find much success, hitting just .215 with two home runs and a .651 OPS. 

For the first five games of 2022, it was back to being a late-inning defensive replacement. That was until he emerged as one of the country’s best hitters. 

In 58 games as a sophomore, Wagner hit .370 with an on-base percentage close to .500. He mashed 27 home runs and 15 doubles, slugged a ridiculous .852 and boasted a 1.348 OPS. He was named ACC Player of the Year, a semifinalist for the Dick Howser Trophy and Golden Spikes Award, and first-team All-American by just about every outlet you could find. 

TORONTO – A Nationals lineup that had been having a devil of a time scoring runs since arriving north of the border finally found a way to scratch out a few clutch hits, turning a sleepy game at Rogers Centre into a tight contest late.

Now it was up to a beleaguered Nats bullpen to keep this game against the Blue Jays tied and give that lineup another shot at plating the go-ahead run.

That proved too much to ask on this Tuesday night in Toronto. Jose A. Ferrer, tasked with completing two innings of relief, gave up a two-out, two-run single to Bo Bichette in the bottom of the eighth, the decisive runs in a disheartening 5-3 loss.

"At the end of the day, it is a game of inches," Trevor Williams said. "We executed what we could. The guys were laying it all out on the line behind me. On defense, we had a lot of diving plays, a lot of really close plays where guys were leaving their feet. You chalk it up to one of those games where they beat us by inches today."

The Nationals fell to 1-4 on the young season and for the second time in a week will need to win a series finale to avoid a three-game sweep. They did it Sunday against the Phillies behind Mitchell Parker. They’ll ask MacKenzie Gore to lead the way Wednesday afternoon.

TORONTO – Davey Martinez insists he planned to give Dylan Crews the night off all along. True or not, the benching comes at an appropriate time for the slumping rookie, who is still seeking his first hit of the 2025 season.

So for the Nationals’ game tonight against the Blue Jays, it’s Alex Call in right field and batting eighth, not Crews.

“Honestly, this was kind of pre-planned coming into the series,” Martinez said. “Look, it’s hard to play this game for 162 days, and I want to get everyone involved. I wanted to get Alex in there today. But it kind of worked out to give Dylan a little bit of a mental break today, get him off his feet.”

It’s been a difficult opening week for Crews, the highly touted rookie who enjoyed a good spring and looked poised to get his season started on the right foot. He’s 0-for-15 through four games, striking out 10 times (including one stretch of eight consecutive at-bats Saturday and Sunday).

Crews did make solid contact Monday, driving a ball 399 feet to the base of the wall in center field, a hit that carried an expected batting average of .820 but was nevertheless caught by Toronto’s Nathan Lukes. That one swing, though, is an anomaly during an otherwise rough start for the 23-year-old.

TORONTO – The Nationals have done some things well through their first four games, but not enough things well. Which is why they enter tonight’s contest with a 1-3 record, in search of a win before things really turn upside down on them. Their best path to making that happen? More offense.

Though they’ve actually hit for power so far, with eight homers through four games (fifth most in the majors), they’re not scoring runs the old fashioned way. They’re batting just .121 (4-for-33) with runners in scoring position (fifth worst in the majors). So while the big swings have been nice, a few more clutch hits would be even nicer.

They’ll try to solve that problem tonight against Blue Jays ace José Berríos, who had a rough one on Opening Day. The Orioles got to the right-hander for six runs and nine hits (three of them homers) in five innings.

Trevor Williams makes his season debut as the Nats’ fifth starter. The veteran hopes to prove last year was no fluke, when he finished with a 2.03 ERA and 1.035 WHIP in 13 starts despite missing more than three months with an elbow strain. Williams’ task: Keep the ball down in the zone and keep Toronto’s hitters from getting the ball in the air.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at TORONTO BLUE JAYS
Where: Rogers Centre
Gametime: 7:07 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Indoors

Weekend highlights include Ring of Honor pregame ceremony, special alumni appearances, sweepstakes to win authentic commemorative ring and more

The 2005 Washington Nationals, which helped sports fans welcome baseball back to the District after a 33-year absence, will be inducted into the Nationals Ring of Honor on Saturday, April 5, as part of the 20^th Anniversary Weekend celebration. The special weekend will also include alumni appearances, a commemorative ring giveaway on April 4, a 2005 replica jersey giveaway on April 5 and more. To learn more about the Nationals 20^th Anniversary season and to purchase tickets, visit nats.com/NATS20.

“We are very excited to honor the 2005 team during our 20^th Anniversary Weekend as we celebrate two decades of Nationals baseball with our fans,” said Mark D. Lerner, Managing Principal Owner of the Washington Nationals Baseball Club. “These players represent the first team to be inducted into the Ring of Honor as they helped start a new chapter of baseball in D.C. and establish the Nationals as the hometown team for generations to come.”

To start the 20^th Anniversary Weekend festivities, 20,000 fans in attendance will receive a NATS20 replica commemorative ring on Friday, April 4, exactly 20 years after the Nationals’ inaugural game (April 4, 2005 at Philadelphia Phillies). Fans will also have the opportunity to enter to win one of 20 authentic commemorative rings valued at nearly $6,000 each by scanning QR codes around the ballpark that day to enter the sweepstakes.

The following day, April 5, the celebration continues as the 2005 team will be welcomed into the Ring of Honor during a special pregame ceremony. The Ring of Honor was created in 2010 to recognize influential members of the Nationals and celebrate greats from the Washington Senators, Homestead Grays and Montreal Expos. Additionally, 20,000 fans will receive 2005 replica jerseys. 

TORONTO – CJ Abrams knew the situation when he stepped to the plate with one out in the top of the sixth. The gigantic scoreboard in center field at Rogers Centre can’t be ignored altogether, and the zero in the Nationals’ hit column was right there in plain sight.

Abrams knew Bowden Francis was no-hitting the Nats to that point. He also knew it would do no good to let that fact creep too deep into his mind.

“I don’t want to think about that at the plate,” he said. “I just want to get a good pitch to hit.”

Abrams did get a good pitch to hit, a 1-1 changeup from Francis that stayed up and over the plate enough to ripe for the taking. And when he proceeded to launch that pitch over the right field wall, Francis’ no-hit bid was over in style.

“The at-bats before, I kind of swung at his pitch,” Abrams said. “I was a little early on the ones I swung at. So I wanted to go to left field, and I got a changeup and I got to pull it.”

TORONTO – They didn’t make their season-opening rotation plans with this in mind, but the fact Michael Soroka’s debut with the Nationals came in his home country was a happy byproduct, something everyone had looked forward to for weeks.

"He's from here. He gets to pitch his first game for the Nats here in Toronto. It's awesome," manager Davey Martinez said of the Canadian right-hander (who is from Calgary). "Long time coming. He's worked hard this whole spring to get himself ready. He hasn't started in a while, but he's excited and we're excited to see him go out there and compete."

That Soroka’s homecoming wound end abruptly in the bottom of the sixth, the 27-year-old waking off the mound alongside a trainer clenching his fist after an errant pitch, turned the whole affair sour.

The Nationals lost to the Blue Jays, 5-2, in their first road game of the season. They also feared they lost their biggest offseason pitching acquisition, putting added strain on a rotation that pitched extremely well over the weekend but is suddenly razor-thin in the depth department. By night's end, there was a more encouraging outlook, with Soroka merely dealing with a biceps cramp and not something more significant.

"I think we'll be OK," he said. "It's just one those things you don't want to feel, and not something that's worth (pitching) through, especially at that point in the game and at this point in the season."

TORONTO – The Nationals’ first road trip of 2025 takes them north of the border for their biannual series at Rogers Centre, longtime home of the Blue Jays. The current wind chill here in 38 degrees (Fahrenheit, not Celsius). Fortunately, the roof is closed and will remain closed.

The guy on the mound tonight isn’t bothered by cold temperatures or metric conversions. Michael Soroka is from Calgary, so his Nats debut is sort of a homecoming for him, even if we’re clear on the other side of the country from his hometown. Soroka looked very good most of the spring before stumbling in his final tune-up start. The Nationals are banking on the right-hander to be a stabilizing force in their rotation. We’ll get our first real look at him tonight against a Blue Jays lineup that boasts a formidable 1-2 punch in Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Anthony Santander.

The Nats lineup, which surprisingly outhomered the Phillies 6-5 in the opening series, will now try to take aim at the hitter-friendly dimensions here. They face an unfamiliar foe in Toronto right-hander Bowden Francis, who went 8-5 with a 3.30 ERA in his first full big league season. Only four members of the current Nationals roster have ever faced Francis before, and only Nathaniel Lowe has more than three plate appearances against him.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at TORONTO BLUE JAYS
Where: Rogers Centre
Gametime: 7:07 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Indoors

NATIONALS
SS CJ Abrams
LF James Wood
C Keibert Ruiz
1B Nathaniel Lowe
DH Josh Bell
2B Luis García Jr.
3B Paul DeJong
RF Dylan Crews
CF Jacob Young

TORONTO – Keibert Ruiz is behind the plate for the Nationals tonight, his fourth straight start to begin the season.

As much as Davey Martinez suggested he might try to give his workhorse starting catcher a few more days off this year, Ruiz’s early production has not only kept him in the lineup. It has bumped him up the lineup.

After batting seventh in each of the Nats’ first two games against the Phillies, Ruiz moved up to the cleanup spot for Sunday’s series finale. And now he’s batting third tonight in the series opener against the Blue Jays.

“He’s getting a chance to hit third today,” Martinez said, not exactly committing to this look long-term. “I wanted to break up our lefties, because (the Blue Jays) do have three left-handed relievers in their bullpen. But he’s swinging the bat well.”

That’s an understatement. On the heels of a miserable 2024 in which he slashed .229/.260/.359, Ruiz homered in each of this season’s first two games, once from the left side of the plate, once from the right. He added another hit and scored two runs Sunday, leaving him 5-for-10 with a double, two homers, three RBIs and a 1.745 OPS to date.

The Orioles have made the following roster moves:

• Recalled OF Dylan Carlson from Triple-A Norfolk. He will wear No. 15.
• Placed OF Colton Cowser (left thumb fracture) on the 10-day Injured List.