Kyle Bradish is coming back to the Orioles, and a little faster than anticipated.

Manager Brandon Hyde said Bradish is returning to the major league rotation. The right-hander’s injury rehab assignment will end early.

Bradish started last night for Triple-A Norfolk and held Gwinnett to one run in five innings, with one walk and six strikeouts. He’s stretched out to 77 pitches.

The assignment technically began on April 16 with three scoreless innings at Double-A Bowie, and the 30-day period would have carried Bradish into the middle of May. However, he threw a live batting practice session on April 11 at High-A Aberdeen, which sped up the process to get him ready.

“He threw the ball really well last night and our medical team talked to him this morning,” Hyde said. “Our pitching guys, as well. He feels great. We’re just looking right now kind of when to slot him in, but he’s going to be with us soon.”

MIAMI – It took until the eighth inning, but the Nationals finally got the big hit they needed in order to get the series-opening win against the Marlins, a team they have struggled to beat over the past two years.

Now the question is: Can they build upon Joey Meneses’ clutch two-run hit and build an earlier lead today?

They will try to do so against Edward Cabrera, who is off to a 1-0 start with a 3.27 ERA and 1.455 WHIP in 11 innings over two starts. The right-hander has also struck out 17 batters while only issuing four walks. The 26-year-old is 2-1 with a 3.86 ERA and 1.048 WHIP in four starts against the Nats, including 1-0 with a 3.60 ERA and 1.000 WHIP in his lone start against them last year.

If the offense can’t get going, it will be up to Mitchell Parker to keep the Nats in the game. The young lefty has been outstanding over his first two starts, going 2-0 with a 1.50 ERA, 0.583 WHIP, 12 strikeouts and no walks.

To the bats’ credit: Parker has been staked to early leads in each of his two starts.

Colton Cowser stays in left field this afternoon and Jorge Mateo gets the start at second base, as the Orioles attempt to bounce back from last night’s 3-2, 10-inning loss to Oakland.

James McCann is catching, with Adley Rutschman serving as designated hitter.

Anthony Santander is batting .303/.425/.606 (10-for-33) with five doubles, one triple, one home run, four RBIs, five walks and four runs scored in his last nine games since April 16. He’s in right field today and batting cleanup.

Ryan Mountcastle has registered a .937 OPS when batting third this season, more than .150 points higher than his OPS when hitting in all other spots (.756), per STATS. He’s the first baseman.

Left-hander Cole Irvin, trying to hold onto his spot in the rotation, is coming off his finest outing with the Orioles. He shut out the Royals over 6 2/3 innings Sunday in Kansas City. They batted .133 against his fastball.

Before Friday’s game, the Orioles made a tough decision. They decided to send 20-year-old Jackson Holliday, the No. 1 ranked prospect in the sport, back to the minor leagues.

After he showed the club a hot bat in spring training and also at the start of the Triple-A season for Norfolk, he struggled in his first shot at the big leagues.

Just a couple of days before the Orioles would have guaranteed he would stay with the club at least for seven big league seasons, they called him up, showing this was not about service time. But the kid struggled. He played solid defense and showed plenty of capabilities at second base. But he failed to hit big-league pitching. At least this time, going 2-for-34 with 18 strikeouts.  

"Again, ultimately, do I like the way that this has gone in April totally? No, and I feel responsible for that,” Orioles executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias said before the game. “But it’s possible, just like it was for Grayson (Rodriguez) or Colton Cowser or any of these guys, that this was sort of a necessary development episode to be exposed to this before you’re fully ready for it. And now the work that you put in, you kind of know exactly what you need to do when you get back up there, and that’s valuable.

“It comes at a cost to get that negative feedback, but it’s valuable, and I guarantee you Jackson’s going to channel that well.”

The Orioles scored twice last night in the opening game of another homestand, a paltry output by their standards but also exhibiting two ways they can go about their offensive business.

They collected three singles in the third inning, the last two with two outs, keeping a rally alive and passing the bat to the next guy.

Cedric Mullins launched a changeup onto the flag court in right field in the fourth to break a tie. They also can flex their muscle.

This is a special group, with numbers early on that haven’t been posted here in a long time.

The game began with the Orioles leading the American League with a .260 average, .459 slugging percentage and .780 OPS. The last time they finished a season first in all three categories was also the first time they were crowned champions.

MIAMI – Almost exactly a year ago, Cade Cavalli walked into the visiting clubhouse at loanDepot Park and was reunited with his Nationals teammates for the first time since undergoing Tommy John surgery that ended his 2023 season in spring training.

At that time, he was in street clothes, having just made the trip down from the team’s facility in West Palm Beach where he had begun his lengthy rehab, and quickly changed into his Nats gear to be a part of the team again with a wide smile across his face.

On Friday, Cavalli made the same walk into the Nats clubhouse, only this time he was already in his Nats workout gear, which was covered in sweat from his latest bullpen session. And he still had that same wide smile across his face (although this time with a little more facial hair).

“It's been great. I'm extremely grateful to be where I'm at in the process,” Cavalli said of his rehabilitation in front of his locker with a No. 9 jersey hanging inside. “Just fully healthy and feeling very close to normal. And we got lives (live BP) on Monday for the first time, so I'm really looking forward to that. It'll be fun seeing batters.”

Cavalli, the Nats’ first-round pick in 2020 from the University of Oklahoma, has been throwing 60-pitch bullpen sessions and was scheduled to throw 75 in his latest one before facing live hitters for the first time. His fastball has been consistently hitting 96 mph, which is what it was averaging pre-injury in his one and only major league start to date on Aug. 26, 2022.

It’s easy to look at the Nationals’ offensive woes right now and lament their lack of power. This is a team that has hit only 21 home runs in 24 games, the fifth-lowest total in the majors.

Davey Martinez would love more homers from this team, no doubt. But he also knows this lineup wasn’t built with home runs in mind. What the Nats manager really wants, more than anything else, are any hits that score runs, whether singles, doubles, triples or homers. Or even a non-hit that still scores a run.

“We had a chance today to score a run, just by moving a guy over (and) the next guy hit a fly ball,” Martinez said following Thursday’s 2-1 loss to the Dodgers. “Those are the little things that matter. If we do that, it’s a tie game right now. We have to get back to that.”

Indeed, the Nationals, for all their issues, have consistently given themselves a chance to win games this month by putting runners in scoring position. They just haven’t consistently shown an ability to get those runners home.

Consider Thursday’s loss, when they went 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position. Or Tuesday’s loss, when they went 3-for-9 but drove in only one run in the process.

It wasn’t his best, nor his most overpowering performance. Most of the afternoon, to be honest, felt like an uphill climb for MacKenzie Gore, with long at-bats, high pitch counts and traffic on the bases.

This may have been one of the most important starts of the young left-hander’s career, though. Because on a day when he wasn’t at his best, he still found a way to surrender minimal damage to one of the toughest lineups in baseball. And was given the chance to extend himself beyond the limits the Nationals normally impose on him.

That Gore’s gutsy start still came during a loss – 2-1 to the Dodgers – stings in the moment. Unable to mount any kind of sustained offensive attack the last three days, the Nats wound up getting swept by Los Angeles, putting a real damper on the positive momentum they created in winning three of their previous four series.

"We're playing well," manager Davey Martinez said. "We're playing good defense. It's not easy to hold that team over there to just two runs. We've just got to hit."

The Nationals scored a grand total of four runs in these three games, delivering a grand total of only four hits with runners in scoring position the entire series. And because of that, they wasted a really strong outing today by their young lefty.

Keibert Ruiz is back on the Nationals’ active roster, and back in the starting lineup for the first time in more than two weeks.

Ruiz, who was sidelined with a bad case of influenza, was activated off the 10-day injured list this afternoon and immediately placed in the lineup for the team’s series finale against the Dodgers. He’ll catch and bat fifth.

To make room for Ruiz on the active roster, the Nats optioned Drew Millas back to Triple-A Rochester. Millas wound up catching only one of the eight games the team played while Ruiz was on the IL, with Riley Adams starting the other seven.

Ruiz initially tried to fight through his illness, remaining on the roster for nearly a week but unable to play. The Nationals finally placed him on the IL when his condition hadn’t improved enough, and after he had lost 18-to-20 pounds.

Ruiz felt better enough to go on a short rehab assignment this week with Double-A Harrisburg. He caught both Tuesday night and Wednesday afternoon, going 1-for-9 and even stealing a base. As encouraging as that was, the team is still somewhat concerned about his ability to put weight back on while dealing with the demands of catching in the big leagues.

The Nationals need a win today to avoid a series sweep, a dilemma they’ve faced only once previously this season (against the Phillies). All things considered, it’s a sign of progress that they’ve mostly found themselves in a position to win series, and often have. But avoiding the sweep today against the Dodgers would be nice, especially with the pitcher they’re sending to the mound.

MacKenzie Gore vs. the L.A. lineup is a marquee matchup. If nothing else, it’s a real good challenge for the young left-hander, who was great two starts ago in Oakland but struggled last time out against the Astros. Knowing the competitor he is, Gore should be plenty motivated to get himself back on track this afternoon.

The Nationals face a brand-new face in Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the other Japanese sensation on their roster who merely signed the biggest contract ever given a major league pitcher before ever throwing a pitch in the major leagues. The 25-year-old right-hander (12 years, $325 million) has been great at times, not so much at others through the first five starts of his career. He features mostly a three-pitch (fastball, curveball, splitter) with an occasional cutter thrown in there for good measure.

The Nats have Keibert Ruiz back on the roster and in the lineup. After two rehab games with Double-A Harrisburg, Ruiz has been activated off the 10-day injured list and will be behind the plate this afternoon. Drew Millas was optioned back to Triple-A Rochester.

Most notable quirk of today’s lineup: Trey Lipscomb is not starting, something you wouldn’t think we’ll see much now that he’s back in the big leagues. It’s Joey Meneses at first base, with Jesse Winker serving as DH and Eddie Rosario in left field for the series finale.

When the Nationals recalled Trey Lipscomb on Wednesday, and when Davey Martinez then put him at first base in his first game back in the big leagues, the eyebrow raises could be seen throughout the ballpark and fandom. After making such an effort to have the rookie focus on second base, then third base, now they’re really going to put him at first base for the foreseeable future?

Lipscomb, of course, shrugs it all off.

“The whole new position thing, that’s kind of what I’ve been doing my whole career,” he said. “Wherever they need me, just put me out there and I’m going to do my thing. First base. Third base. Honestly, wherever.”

For the uninitiated, Lipscomb was supposed to play shortstop in college. But his Tennessee roster was so loaded, he wound up settling in at third base by his senior year in 2022, the Nats then using their third-round draft pick on him.

Once in the minors, Lipscomb again found himself moving around the diamond. Though he won the Gold Glove Award for all minor leaguers at third base last season, he actually ended the year at Double-A Harrisburg playing second base because of the presence of 2021 first-round pick Brady House at third.

Funny how quickly the narrative of a baseball season can twist and turn. Not 48 hours ago, the Nationals were flying high, having won three of their last four series, including back-to-back triumphs over the Dodgers and Astros. They were getting excellent starting pitching and coming through with clutch hits, offering fans real reason for late-April optimism.

Since then? They’ve lost two straight to the Dodgers behind poor starting pitching and at times a complete lack of offense. They also lost their starting right fielder to a knee injury that, while not as bad as it could’ve been, nonetheless will sideline him for some time.

Suffice it to say, the vibe surrounding the Nats isn’t quite what it was a few days ago.

Tonight’s 11-2 thumping at the hands of the Dodgers represented a new low. With Jake Irvin in trouble from the get-go, the home team faced an uphill climb. And with Lane Thomas now on the 10-day injured list with a sprained left knee ligament, an already inconsistent lineup had little chance of keeping up with the opposition.

"The best thing about today," manager Davey Martinez said, "is we have tomorrow to go 1-0."

Lane Thomas was placed on the 10-day injured list today with a Grade 2 MCL sprain in his left knee, but the Nationals outfielder was encouraged by that diagnosis, which is not as severe as it could have been and doesn’t require surgery.

“I definitely think it could’ve been a lot worse,” Thomas said this afternoon, standing at his locker with his knee wrapped, not needing to use crutches to walk. “It wasn’t anything too crazy. They haven’t really given me a time frame yet, but hopefully sooner rather than later.”

Thomas hurt himself while sliding into second base in the bottom of the fifth Tuesday night against the Dodgers, his trailing leg getting twisted in awkward fashion as he tried to pop up following a successful steal attempt. He initially had trouble staying up on his feet, crumpling to the ground as Los Angeles second baseman Mookie Betts spotted him.

After a consultation with manager Davey Martinez and director of athletic training Paul Lessard, Thomas stayed in the game. But two innings later, Eddie Rosario replaced him in right field and he returned to the clubhouse as team officials scheduled an MRI for this morning.

“The initial pain was pretty intense, but it went away kind of quick,” Thomas said. “I feel like I’ve had a pretty high pain tolerance in the past, so I wasn’t sure. I had broken a wrist (in 2019) and didn’t realize it. Sometimes those things, with your adrenaline, you don’t really know what’s going on until a few hours after when you settle down.”

Tuesday night’s loss was a costly one for the Nationals, who not only lost the game but lost their starting right fielder for the foreseeable future. The MRI on Lane Thomas’ left knee showed an MCL sprain, and he has been placed on the 10-day injured list. We’ll hope to learn more shortly about the timetable for his return.

Rather than promote another outfielder to replace Thomas, the Nats decided to recall Trey Lipscomb only nine days after they sent him down once Nick Senzel was healthy. We hope to soon find out about the plan now for Lipscomb and others in the daily lineup, but it’s interesting to note Lipscomb will start at first base tonight with Joey Gallo in right field.

Meanwhile, Jake Irvin gets a chance to beat the Dodgers for the second time in a week. The right-hander was brilliant out west, but it’s always a challenge to face the same team twice in a row, all the more so when that team includes the likes of Mookie Betts, Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs. LOS ANGELES DODGERS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 6:45 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 88.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Partly cloudy, 69 degrees, wind 12 mph in from left field

NATIONALS
SS CJ Abrams
LF Jesse Winker
DH Joey Meneses
2B Luis García Jr.
RF Joey Gallo
C Riley Adams
CF Eddie Rosario
3B Nick Senzel
1B Trey Lipscomb

The Washington Nationals recalled infielder Trey Lipscomb from Triple-A Rochester and placed outfielder Lane Thomas on the 10-day Injured List with a sprain of the left MCL on Wednesday. Nationals President of Baseball Operations and General Manager Mike Rizzo made the announcement.

Lipscomb, 23, returns to the Nationals after being optioned to Rochester on April 15. He hit .224 with one homer, four RBI, three walks, four stolen bases and seven runs scored in 14 games during his first stint with Washington from March 30 to April 14. In four games with Rochester, Lipscomb went 4-for-16 (.250) with two RBI while playing both second base (2 G) and third base (2 G).

Lipscomb made his Major League debut on March 30 at Cincinnati and became the first player in Nationals history (2005-pres.) to record a hit and a stolen base in his Major League debut. He hit his first career home run the following day, a go-ahead solo shot in the seventh inning.

Thomas, 28, hit .184 with two homers, 10 RBI, eight walks, 11 stolen bases and six runs scored in 22 games before sustaining the injury on Tuesday night. He ranks third in Major League Baseball with 11 stolen bases.

The Nationals won’t know for sure the severity of Lane Thomas’ left knee injury until they get results of an MRI scheduled for this morning. But they were concerned enough Tuesday night to already be making contingency plans. And if there’s reason to believe Thomas is going to miss significant time, the temptation to summon one of the organization’s top prospects is going to be strong.

Thomas hurt himself on an awkward slide into second base in the bottom of the fifth. Though he was safe on the steal attempt – he’s now 11-for-12 on the season – his trailing leg caught twisted around as he popped up and left him writhing in pain.

After a consultation with manager Davey Martinez and director of athletic training Paul Lessard, Thomas tested his leg with some light jogging behind second base. He looked well enough to convince Lessard and Martinez he could stay in the game, but Martinez was worried all along it might not last.

“Once he got to the outfield (the following inning), I told Paul to keep an eye on him,” the manager said. “He might get stiff.”

Sure enough, by the time the top of the seventh arrived, Eddie Rosario took over in right field, with Thomas headed back to the clubhouse for treatment.

The Dodgers’ baserunning tonight helped put them in position to win.

The Nationals’ baserunning tonight left one of their regulars limping and ultimately departing the game due to injury, then cost them one final chance to pull off what would've been a dramatic comeback in the ninth.

So it was the three key moments in a 4-1 series-opening loss to Los Angeles came on the bases. In the first two cases, those runners were successful at stealing second, but the Dodgers’ Teoscar Hernández eventually came around to score the go-ahead run while Lane Thomas eventually came out with a left leg injury that will require an MRI. Then in the third case, a late stop sign from third base coach Ricky Gutierrez forced Luis García Jr. to slam on the brakes in the bottom of the ninth, with trailing runner Joey Gallo not paying attention, leading to a killer rundown. 

"That's a tough lineup," manager Davey Martinez said of the Dodgers. "When we have a chance to put some runs on the board, we've got to capitalize."

With a crowd of 27,806 in attendance to see the mighty Dodgers and their star-studded lineup, these two teams played another low-scoring, tight game, not all that different from last week’s series on the West Coast. The Nats took two out of three at Chavez Ravine; they’ll need to win the next two nights to pull off the same achievement on South Capitol Street.

Heston Kjerstad will play his first major league game tonight since Oct. 1, starting in right field as the Orioles attempt to claim another series.

Kjerstad is batting eighth, nestled between third baseman Jordan Westburg and second baseman Jackson Holliday in a lineup featuring seven players that the Orioles drafted. An eighth, Grayson Rodriguez, is on the mound against the Angels.

A ninth, cleanup hitter Anthony Santander, was selected in the 2016 Rule 5 draft. Santander is the designated hitter tonight.

Ryan O’Hearn is playing first base with Ryan Mountcastle on the bench. Mountcastle didn’t play last night due to a sore left knee.

Colton Cowser remains in left field and has homered in back-to-back games.

The Nationals haven’t completely overcome the flu bug that has taken down several corners of the clubhouse the last two weeks: They had to place another ill player on the injured list today because of it.

Reliever Robert Garcia became the latest victim, placed on the 15-day IL with influenza prior to tonight’s series opener against the Dodgers. The club purchased the contract of right-hander Jacob Barnes from Triple-A Rochester to fill the bullpen vacancy and designated minor league infielder Jake Alu for assignment to clear a spot on the 40-man roster.

Garcia first was afflicted with the virus more than a week ago and was unable to pitch for several days during the Nationals’ West Coast trip. The left-hander did come back to appear three times in a four-game span at the end of the week but did not look himself, retiring only one of the seven Astros batters he faced Friday and Saturday, his fastball velocity down from 95-96 mph to 92-93 mph.

“We noticed his velo was way down, and he was trying to pitch through it,” manager Davey Martinez said. “I don’t want him to get hurt, so we’re going to take care of him.”

Garcia, whose transaction was backdated two days, joins Keibert Ruiz on the IL with the flu, but the catcher is healthy again and nearly ready to return. Ruiz, who lost 18-to-20 pounds while sick, begins what should be a brief rehab assignment with Double-A Harrisburg tonight and should be activated later this week.