The Nationals’ decision in mid-August to re-sign their entire coaching staff caught most outside observers by surprise. Yes, the team had shown signs of progress, but not so much progress that the decision to bring everyone back was a no-brainer.

If nothing else, conventional wisdom suggested the front office would wait until season’s end to evaluate coaches’ performance and then make decisions about everyone’s fate heading into 2025.

The early decision, prompted by manager Davey Martinez’s desire to let all of his coaches have peace of mind and not have to sweat out the season’s final month-and-a-half, was approved by general manager Mike Rizzo and ultimately by club ownership.

The Nationals owned a 55-65 record on Aug. 14 when Martinez announced the decision. They’ve gone 15-25 since and are now 20 games under .500 in the season’s final weekend. They need to win their final two games to surpass last year’s win total of 71.

Rizzo, who met with beat reporters Friday for the first time since the coaching decision, was asked both about the timing of the move and the rationale for retaining the whole staff.

MINNEAPOLIS – The Orioles are going with Matt Bowman as an opener for tonight’s game against the Twins at Target Field.

Bowman has made 210 appearances in the majors with zero starts. He’s started 71 games in the minors, most recently with Triple-A Las Vegas in 2015.

Bowman has registered a 3.77 ERA and 1.395 WHIP in 14 games this season. He’s allowed five runs and six hits in his last two appearances over 1 1/3 innings, surrendering a three-run homer to Aaron Judge and a solo shot to Alex Verdugo.

The Orioles selected left-hander Tucker Davidson’s contract from Triple-A Norfolk earlier today and he could provide bulk relief behind Bowman. He’s wearing No. 67.

Reliever Bryan Baker was optioned to the spring training complex, leaving him ineligible for the Wild Card and Division Series.

Who were those guys in Nationals uniforms Friday night, and why haven’t we seen more of them during this final month of the season? It’s too late for them to rewrite the past, but maybe that 9-1 thumping of the Phillies bodes well for the rest of the weekend.

Then again, for the Nats to keep the good times rolling, they’re going to have to do it against Zack Wheeler, the perennial Cy Young candidate who enters his final tune-up before the postseason with a 16-7 record and 2.56 ERA, with two of those wins coming against Washington. This is remarkably Wheeler’s 35th career start vs. the Nationals, and though his overall numbers (14-15, 4.50 ERA) aren’t great, he’s been much better since leaving the Mets and joining the Phillies in 2020.

MacKenzie Gore makes his final start of an up-and-down season, hoping to finish strong. The lefty enters with 10 wins and a 4.04 ERA. In order to end up with an ERA in the 3.00s, he either needs to give up one run in at least 4 2/3 innings or two runs in at least 6 1/3 innings. That will be a challenge against this lineup, but we’ll see if he can pull it off.  

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 4:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 88.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Partly cloudy, 84 degrees, wind 7 mph out to left field

NATIONALS
2B Luis García Jr.
LF James Wood
C Keibert Ruiz
3B José Tena
DH Juan Yepez
RF Dylan Crews
1B Joey Gallo
CF Jacob Young
SS Nasim Nuñez

MINNEAPOLIS – Keegan Akin didn’t make last year’s Division Series roster. He didn’t stand a chance.

A lower-back injury ended Akin’s season on June 28. He allowed 10 earned runs and 13 total in four innings over his last four appearances, an ugly stretch by any measurement.

The Orioles are meeting to discuss their roster for the upcoming Wild Card series and Akin’s spot is secure. He’s healthy and having the finest season of his career. He’s just doing it quietly.

More people should be talking about this guy.

Akin’s 65 appearances rank second to Yennier Cano’s 69 and are 20 more than his previous high in 2022. He’s registered a 3.13 ERA and 0.927 WHIP, the best of his five seasons in the majors, and he’s struck out 96 batters in 77 2/3 innings.

Now we know for certain there will be playoff baseball in Baltimore this year. That Oriole Park at Camden Yards will host at least two home games and hopefully many more.

With Friday's 7-2 win over Minnesota, the Orioles wrapped up the No. 4 seed, the top Wild Card seed, and will host a series next week, beginning Tuesday versus either the Tigers or Royals.

It's a best two-of-three series with all games at the higher seed, which will be the Orioles.

Can't wait to see and hear the Yard rocking as it was last season in the American League Division Series.

Detroit is currently holding the No. 5 seed to be the O's opponent. The Tigers lead the Royals by one game. Should they tie, Kansas City gets the No. 5 spot via winning the tiebreaker.

Anyone who paid zero attention to Trevor Williams over the last two seasons would probably have a hard time grasping how he pitched for the Nationals, based solely on his final stat lines.

2023: 6-10, 5.55 ERA, 1.600 WHIP in 30 starts.

2024: 6-1, 2.03 ERA, 1.035 WHIP in 13 starts.

What was wrong with the right-hander in his first season in D.C.? And how did he pull off a complete 180 the following season? And why did he only make 13 starts when he was that good?

All valid questions, and the kind of questions that can only be answered by those who watched it all and understand the wild path he took to get to this point.

The ball went soaring off Stone Garrett’s bat and made a beeline for the left field bleachers, one of those no-doubters that leaves the crowd oohing and aahing before anyone officially knows where it’s going to land.

Garrett, of course, knew it too. And his reaction – fist pumps, verbal exclamation – revealed everything you needed to know about the significance of this moment for the 28-year-old slugger.

"I don't even know the word to describe it," he said. "Rounding the bases, I blacked out."

In his first major league plate appearance in 13 months, his first since he broke his left leg and tore his ankle ligament in a gruesome injury at Yankee Stadium, Garrett had hit a 431-foot home run, the signature moment of the Nationals’ 9-1 thumping of the playoff-bound Phillies in the opener of the final series of the season.

He finished 3-for-4 with three RBIs and a walk, a triple shy of what might’ve been the most remarkable cycle in baseball history.

The Nationals’ decision to demote CJ Abrams for disciplinary, not performance, reasons last week hasn’t changed the organization’s outlook on their All-Star shortstop for 2025 and beyond, general manager Mike Rizzo insisted today.

“No, absolutely not. He’s still our guy,” Rizzo said in an end-of-season session with reporters. “We love him, and he’s going to be a great player for us. Optioning him out wasn’t the end of the world. We have a standard here, and we have to keep people accountable. He still has great upside and is still going to be, in our minds, a great major league shortstop.”

Abrams was shockingly optioned to Triple-A Rochester one week ago after he was reportedly caught staying out all night in Chicago prior to the team’s afternoon game at Wrigley Field. With the minor league season ending the following day, the 23-year-old was sent to West Palm Beach, Fla., where he has spent this week working out with a handful of other Triple-A players who are on standby in case the Nationals need to make any last-minute roster moves.

The very public demotion of Abrams, which both Rizzo and manager Davey Martinez have acknowledged was not performance-based, stunned the entire baseball community and raised questions about his future with the organization.

Both Rizzo and Martinez, though, have stressed the message they delivered to Abrams – while disciplinary – was one of encouragement.

It has not been an encouraging finish to what had been looking like an encouraging season for the Nationals. They’ve lost nine of their last 10 and now would need to sweep the Phillies this weekend just to get to 72 wins and surpass last year’s total. The odds of that happening? Probably not great, especially with Philadelphia still trying to catch the Dodgers for home field advantage in the National League playoffs. Los Angeles leads by one game entering tonight, but the Phillies hold the tiebreaker.

Patrick Corbin made his final start for the Nats on Thursday, and tonight Trevor Williams is making what may or may not be his final start. The right-hander’s contract expires, but given how well he pitched (when healthy) there’s a case to be made for bringing him back on a modest deal, either as No. 5 starter or a long reliever. First things first, he needs to do to the Phillies what he’s done to so many other lineups this year and keep them in the ballpark and off the scoreboard.

The Nationals are really struggling to score runs right now, and the challenge tonight doesn’t get any easier against Ranger Suárez. The lefty owns a 3.15 ERA and 1.157 WHIP this season. He faced the Nats only once this year, way back on April 6, and allowed two runs over six innings to earn the win.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 6:45 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 88.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Rain, 74 degrees, wind 14 mph in from right field

NATIONALS
RF Dylan Crews
LF James Wood
1B Juan Yepez
C Keibert Ruiz
DH Stone Garrett
2B Luis García Jr.
3B Ildemaro Vargas
CF Jacob Young
SS Nasim Nuñez

The Washington Nationals announced the winners of the ninth-annual end-of-season awards, as voted on by members of the local media on Friday. In the closest voting in the nine-year history of the awards, infielder Luis García Jr. was voted the 2024 Nationals Player of the Year, while right-handed pitcher Kyle Finnegan was named Pitcher of the Year. Outfielder Jacob Young was given the Good Guy Award, presented to a player for his always-professional dealings with members of the media, his work in the community and for representing the Nationals organization with class both on and off the field. All three awards were decided by one vote.

García Jr., 24, was named Player of the Year for the first time after he produced just the second 15 home run-20 stolen base season by a Nationals second baseman. He enters Friday leading the Nationals in batting average (.278), RBI (68), OBP (.315), slugging percentage (.438), OPS (.753) and hits (135). He also ranks in the top three in doubles (2nd, 25), extra-base hits (2nd, 43), total bases (2nd, 213) and runs (3rd, 55). García Jr. set career highs in 2024 in games (137), at-bats (486), hits, doubles, home runs (17), RBI, walks (27) [matches a career high] and stolen bases (21) in 2024.

García Jr. is just one of seven players in Major League Baseball hitting over .275 with 40 extra-base hits and 20 stolen bases entering Friday. He ranks second among National League second basemen in slugging percentage, batting average, RBI and OPS and third in home runs. 

In addition to his career-year at the plate, García Jr. has put together his best defensive season with five outs above average and four runs prevented at second base.

Signed by the Nationals as a non-drafted free agent on July 2, 2016, García Jr. is slashing .269/.301/.408 with 90 doubles, nine triples, 41 home runs, 201 RBI, 81 walks, 34 stolen bases, and 192 runs scored in 462 career games over parts of five Major League seasons. 

NEW YORK – A win tonight and the Orioles would clinch the home Wild Card. A loss and the Yankees would finally pop champagne corks as division champions, the jubilation put on ice for the first two games of the series. The out-of-town scoreboard didn’t require watching. The important stuff was happening on the field.

The starting pitchers were worthy of the importance attached – former Cy Young winners Corbin Burnes and Gerrit Cole. Lay down your aces.

The Orioles are eyeing bigger stakes. They shuffled the deck, shortening Burnes to five innings and 69 pitches to freshen him for Tuesday’s assignment. And the game collapsed like a house of cards.

Burnes’ only mistake was a solo homer by Giancarlo Stanton. The Yankees scored six times in the sixth inning against three relievers, Aaron Judge delivered a towering two-run shot in the seventh, and the Orioles were eliminated from the American League East race with a 10-1 loss in the Bronx. They’ll try to secure the first Wild Card this weekend in Minnesota.

Cole shut out the Orioles (88-71) on two hits in 6 2/3 innings and the Yankees avoided the sweep.

With 5-3 and 9-7 wins the last two nights at Yankee Stadium, the Orioles can sweep their three-game series at New York tonight.

The Orioles (88-70) have four games left in the regular season and a series at Minnesota beginning tomorrow night.

They have five sweeps this year of at least three games, but none since early June. They swept three at Boston April 9-11, versus Minnesota April 15-17 and at Cincinnati May 3-5. Their past two sweeps are four-game sweeps at the Chicago White Sox May 23-26 and at Tampa Bay June 7-10.

In going 8-4 this season against the Yankees, the Orioles have a team ERA of 3.75 allowing a .698 OPS in the 12 games. The O's batters score 5.08 runs per game with a .754 OPS.

In going 4-1 at Yankee Stadium, the Orioles have scored 40 runs with a .320 batting average and .908 OPS.

NEW YORK – The Orioles know who’s starting the first game of the Twins series. The rest is dependent on “what happens,” said manager Brandon Hyde.

Rookie left-hander Cade Povich gets the ball at Target Field. Albert Suárez and Dean Kremer are lined up for the last two games, but they might not matter.

A win tonight secures the first Wild Card. A Yankees win eliminates the Orioles in the division race, but they could clinch the No. 4 playoff spot after Friday.

A “bullpen game” on Sunday isn’t ideal with a possible Game 1 two days later. A possible solution is calling up a pitcher to handle bulk innings and optioning him afterward. Trevor Rogers and Chayce McDermott fit the description and there are a few others.

Another pitcher would need to be optioned to make room, and he wouldn’t be eligible to return unless as an injury replacement until the Championship Series.

NEW YORK – The Orioles can clinch the home Wild Card with a win tonight or a Tigers loss this afternoon. The Rays are ahead 3-2 in the seventh.

Update: The Tigers rallied for a 4-3 win.

James McCann is catching tonight and Adley Rutschman is the designated hitter. Jordan Westburg stays at second base, batting second, and Ramón Urías is the third baseman. He’s batting seventh.

Colton Cowser stays in the cleanup spot. Ryan O’Hearn is the first baseman.

Corbin Burnes makes his final start before an expected Game 1 assignment in the playoffs. His last two starts came against the Tigers and he tossed a combined 14 scoreless innings with five hits and 15 strikeouts. He faced the Yankees on May 1 at Camden Yards and allowed two runs in six innings – Oswaldo Cabrera’s two-run homer.

The primary object of the great game of baseball is to score runs. You can’t win games without doing that. And the Nationals are being made all too aware of that here in the season’s final week.

For the third straight game, they were shut out, this time in a 3-0 loss to the Royals. They have not scored a run in their last 31 innings.

"I think they're pressing, for sure," manager Davey Martinez said. "We've just got to go out there relaxed tomorrow. Just get a good pitch to hit."

The last member of the Nationals to cross the plate? Joey Gallo, via his three-run homer in the top of the sixth Saturday afternoon at Wrigley Field. Gallo, as a matter of fact, has driven in six of the team’s last nine runs.

Not depressing enough? How about this one: The Nats have been held to zero or one run in seven of their last nine games.

Cade Cavalli was in the Nationals Park bullpen this afternoon, throwing 25 pitches of all varieties at full velocity. He was all smiles afterward. He feels like he would be ready to pitch in games soon, if only the calendar had cooperated.

“We just ran out of time this season,” he said. “I hate it, because I want to be out there more than anything. I miss competing like crazy. We just ran out of time. I’m very excited. There’s a lot of fuel for the fire for 2025.”

Cavalli never did pitch in the major leagues this season, just as he never pitched last season following his March 2023 Tommy John surgery. It appeared the 2020 first-round pick was close this summer. He made three minor league rehab starts and also faced live hitters in a simulated game here in D.C. in which his fastball topped out at 98 mph.

And then he was shut down in late June and didn’t pitch competitively again. What happened?

Cavalli did deal with a bout of the flu at one point, but the larger issue involved his arm. It wasn’t injured, per se, but it wasn’t responding to the workload the way he and team doctors wanted it to, especially the day after he pitched. The term “dead arm” was used to describe the condition.

The Nationals need to score a run tonight. Preferably more than a run. But at least a run after getting shut out each of their previous two games. They’ve actually been held to zero or one run in six of their last eight games, which is a tough way to try to win baseball games.

It’s an interesting matchup tonight against Royals right-hander Michael Lorenzen, who you probably remember no-hitting the Nats last year in Philadelphia. You may not remember that they faced him again nine days later and roughed him up for seven runs in 3 1/3 innings. So, who knows if any of that history matters tonight.

On the other side, DJ Herz takes the mound tonight for the 19th and final time this season. While other members of the Nationals rotation have tended to fare worse in the second half than they did in the first half, Herz had been the exception. In 10 starts since the All-Star break, he owned a 2.76 … until he was beaten up by the Mets last week to the tune of seven runs in 3 1/3 innings (sense a recurring theme here?). So now the young lefty has one last shot to end his season on a high note against a Kansas City lineup that has struggled to score runs as well.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs KANSAS CITY ROYALS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 6:45 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 88.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Chance of rain, 71 degrees, wind 7 mph right field to left field

NATIONALS
RF Dylan Crews
LF James Wood
DH Luis García Jr.
2B José Tena
1B Joey Gallo
3B Ildemaro Vargas
C Drew Millas
CF Jacob Young
SS Nasim Nuñez

Asked if he could remember the last time he made a behind-the-back play in the field like the one he pulled off in the top of the first Tuesday night, Mitchell Parker laughed.

“A long time ago,” he said. “High school.”

And what did Parker think when he realized he had somehow snagged Freddy Fermin’s 98-mph comebacker in such stunning fashion?

“Oh geez, now I’ve got to get it to first base,” he said with another laugh.

Credit the 24-year-old Nationals left-hander for having a keen sense of self-deprecation. He knows how many times he has botched much easier plays in the field than this one, leading to his reputation as one of the worst-fielding pitchers in club history. He also knows he has the ability to get better at it, and Tuesday’s web gem was the best example of that yet.

Neither the Nationals nor the Royals have been able to score runs with any regularity down the stretch of the season, so maybe it was appropriate tonight’s interleague series opener between the two was scoreless into the ninth inning.

The only difference: One of these teams is fighting for its life to secure an unlikely postseason berth, while the other is playing out the string for the fifth straight year.

And at night’s end, the Royals managed to keep their hopes alive with a 1-0, 10-inning victory made possible only because of a Nationals error.

Nasim Nuñez’s low throw to first allowed automatic runner Kyle Isbel to score from second to finally break the scoreless deadlock. And when the Nats couldn’t get their automatic runner home in the bottom of the inning, they were left to stew over their 17th shutout loss of the season.

"It all came down to one play. And execution, not being able to hit the ball," manager Davey Martinez said. "It's kind of been a common theme these last few weeks."

Stone Garrett stood in front of the same locker he occupied in the Nationals Park clubhouse last season, right next to good friend MacKenzie Gore, and smiled wide as he was asked what it felt like to be back here for the first time in 2024.

“It’s like getting called up to the big leagues again,” the outfielder said. “Honestly, it feels like the first time I ever got called up.”

Garrett is indeed back in the big leagues, even if for only a few days during the final week of the season. With Andrés Chaparro going on paternity leave, the Nationals called Garrett up from Triple-A Rochester, rewarding the 28-year-old for his perseverance following last year’s devastating left leg injury.

On Aug. 23, 2023, Garrett attempted to make a leaping catch at the right field wall in Yankee Stadium and fell to the ground in agony. He was eventually carted off the field, having suffered a broken left fibula. He also tore a ligament in his ankle on the play, which required “tightrope” surgery to be repaired and ultimately prolonged his full recovery from the gruesome injury.

Though he was able to play in the minor league games by mid-April and made it through the entire season with few interruptions, Garrett clearly wasn’t 100 percent for some time. The Nationals managed his workload, rarely playing him on back-to-back days during the first half. His power numbers regressed. His running form still didn’t look right.