HOUSTON – It was easily forgotten, because of what transpired moments later, but prior to the controversial ending of Wednesday night’s game, the Nationals put themselves in an especially disadvantageous position when they allowed Kyle Tucker to steal third off them without even attempting to throw him out.

Tucker, leading off second base with one out in the bottom of the ninth of what was at that point a tie game, took off for third as Hunter Harvey delivered his pitch to the plate and slid in safely as catcher Keibert Ruiz could do nothing but watch from his position.

It may not have mattered, because Harvey proceeded to walk Corey Julks and then surrendered the grounder by Jake Meyers that scored the winning run when Meyers wasn’t called for interfering with Ruiz’s throw to first. But it stuck with manager Davey Martinez, who has grown tired of seeing that type of play happen against his team over and over this season.

“It definitely matters,” Martinez said. “In a situation like that … we’ve got to keep the guy on first base or second base, wherever he may be.”

This has become a disturbing, regular pattern for the Nationals, who enter tonight’s game having surrendered 67 stolen bases (tied for third-most in the majors) while throwing out only 15 runners. The problem is more acute in late innings, with Harvey, Kyle Finnegan, Mason Thompson, Carl Edwards Jr. and Andrés Machado having combined to allow 20-of-22 opposing runners successfully steal of them.

The Orioles (42-25) host the Blue Jays (38-31) today to wrap up a three-game series and a six-game homestand. The homestand began with the Orioles sweeping Kansas City and now they have split the first two games of this series.

Baltimore scored 11 runs each on Sunday and Tuesday, but where held to just six hits - all singles - last night in a 3-1 loss to Toronto. That result ended the Orioles' win streak at five in a row, two short of their season high. They fall to 4-1 this year against Toronto and to 13-11 versus the Blue Jays since the beginning of the 2022 season.

Toronto, which has won nine of 13 of and is 12-6 its past 18 games, is now 18-8 in its past 26 games at Oriole Park.

The Orioles are 6-4 in rubber match games and 3-2 when that game is against an AL East opponent. They have won three in a row within the division with rubber match wins over Boston, Tampa Bay and New York.

In their first four games this season against Toronto, Baltimore batters had produced 31 runs. But last night the Orioles were held without an extra-base hit for the third time this season. That also happened April 8 against the Yankees and June 7 against the Brewers.

Austin Voth is hoping to begin throwing again next week to test the right elbow that forced him on the injured list yesterday.

Voth is taking a stronger dose of an anti-inflammatory to reduce the swelling.

The Orioles placed Voth on the IL after he allowed two runs and three hits Tuesday in one-third of an inning. He also walked a batter, and Cavan Biggio’s homer was the first that Voth surrendered in his last 18 appearances.

Voth’s previous outing also was a struggle, with two walks in one-third of an inning against the Royals.

“It’s getting better,” he said this morning. “It’s just a matter of calming it down to the point where I can move it without moving something. And from there, I’m not throwing right now, so the next step would be probably throwing in maybe a week to see how it’s doing.”

HOUSTON – The ninth inning of Wednesday night’s game at Minute Maid Park featured enough drama and twists and turns to capture every ounce of attention afforded the Astros’ 5-4 victory over the Nationals.

It also rendered everything that happened prior to the final inning moot, even though there were a few significant developments throughout the bulk of this game. Most notably, Josiah Gray’s seven-inning start and another new pitch he unveiled along the way.

Gray didn’t enjoy anything close to his best results of the season, charged with four earned runs thanks to a two-run double in the first and back-to-back homers surrendered in the fourth. But the right-hander did do a lot of things well, better than he had for much of the season to date.

He didn’t issue a walk for the first time since Aug. 10, 2022 against the Cubs. He threw 66 of his 95 pitches for strikes. He completed seven innings for only the third time this year.

For those reasons, Gray still viewed this as a positive outing, despite the fact he was due to take the loss until his teammates rallied in the top of the ninth.

The Orioles have made the following roster moves:

• Selected the contract of C Mark Kolozsvary from Triple-A Norfolk. He will wear #56.
• Placed INF Ryan Mountcastle on the 10-day Injured List with vertigo, retroactive to June 10.
• Designated RHP Noah Denoyer for assignment.

The Orioles’ 40-man roster currently has 40 players.

The Orioles have made the following roster moves:

• Recalled LHP Cole Irvin from Triple-A Norfolk. He will start today’s game.
• Optioned LHP Nick Vespi to Triple-A Norfolk after yesterday’s game.

The Orioles have made the following roster moves: 

• Recalled LHP Nick Vespi from Triple-A Norfolk.
• Optioned LHP Bruce Zimmermann to Triple-A Norfolk.

HOUSTON – There was what appeared to be a bounceback performance 2 1/2 weeks ago in Kansas City, prompting the question: Was Mason Thompson back?

The answer, at that time: No, he wasn’t. The Nationals reliever followed up an encouraging, two-scoreless-inning appearance May 27 against the Royals with a three-run meltdown three days later at Dodger Stadium.

So take this with a grain of salt. But after another dominant performance Tuesday night during the Nats’ 6-1 loss to the Astros, Thompson continued a more recent trend that suggests he may actually be coming out of his long funk at last.

“Absolutely, he’s getting back,” manager Davey Martinez insisted.

What did Thompson do in this game to stand out? He faced three batters in the bottom of the sixth and proceeded to retire the side, inducing a grounder to short and then back-to-back strikeouts of Chas McCormick and Jake Meyers.

HOUSTON – Minute Maid Park has always been kind to Patrick Corbin, and we’re not just talking about Game 7 of the 2019 World Series here.

While that epic, three-inning relief appearance may have represented the pinnacle of the left-hander’s career and proved essential to the Nationals’ championship victory that night, Corbin has enjoyed pitching in this supposedly hitter-friendly park for years.

When he took the mound for the bottom of the fifth tonight, Corbin was the proud owner of a 16 2/3-inning scoreless streak at the home of the Astros. He hadn’t surrendered a run here since Aug. 18, 2012 as a rookie with the Diamondbacks.

This place, for whatever reason, just brings out the best in him.

Then Corbin began pitching the bottom of the fifth, at which point the streak ended, the Astros reminded him just how powerful they still are and the Nationals reminded everyone how much has changed since the night of Oct. 30, 2019.

HOUSTON – Davey Martinez walked into Minute Maid Park this afternoon and couldn’t help but think about the last time he was here.

“Pretty cool,” the Nationals manager said. “It was four years ago, but it brings out good memories. I was sitting around with some of the guys who were here in ’19. There’s not many of us left. But we were reminiscing a little bit. It was fun.”

Indeed, there aren’t too many members of the Nats’ current roster or staff that were part of the 2019 World Series. Martinez is one of the last remaining, uniformed links to the franchise’s lone World Series title, so he found himself today sharing stories of that glorious late October week with young players who weren’t even in the major leagues at that point, let alone a part of this organization.

The next three nights, with the Nationals facing the Astros here for the first time in four seasons, offer everyone a chance both to reminisce about better days and to think about what it will take for this franchise to return to that kind of prominence.

There’s only one player on the active, 26-man roster who appeared in the 2019 World Series. And by sheer coincidence he takes the mound for tonight’s series opener.

HOUSTON – Hello from Minute Maid Park, where tonight the Nationals will take the field for the first time since Oct. 30, 2019. You probably remember some details about that night.

The guy who won that game is the only player on the Nats’ current active roster, and would you believe he starts tonight’s series opener against the Astros? Patrick Corbin gets the nod on normal rest, with the team using Monday’s day off to skip over Jake Irvin’s turn in the rotation and give the rookie a chance to work on some things. Corbin won’t be pitching in relief tonight, of course. He’ll be trying to hold in check a tough Houston lineup, albeit one that doesn’t bear much resemblance to the one from 2019, either.

The Nationals lineup, which broke out for six runs Sunday in Atlanta, has a familiar look against Astros right-hander Hunter Brown. Davey Martinez can only hope Joey Meneses, Jeimer Candelario and Dominic Smith pick up where they left off at Truist Park.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at HOUSTON ASTROS
Where: Minute Maid Park
Gametime: 8:10 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Indoors

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

He had an OPS of .659 at the end of April, but going into the weekend series with Kansas City, rookie Gunnar Henderson’s OPS was up to .732, which put him five percent above the league average OPS for the year. He has certainly made positive strides on offense in recent weeks with an OPS of .790 since May 1 as this weekend began.

Henderson recently made a choice to, in a sense, expand his zone a bit and be more aggressive at times early in the count. Even against a non-strike. It worked for him Thursday at Milwaukee when he got a pitch up in the zone in the eighth-inning off Brewers reliever Peter Strzelecki. It was a fastball that was just out of the strike zone on the first pitch and soon after that ball was just out of the ballpark. A huge go-ahead two-run homer to left he hit 98 mph off the bat.

The blast in Milwaukee was his second go-ahead homer in the seventh inning or later on the road trip.

“Yeah, there are times when I’ve been too passive,” Henderson told me during the road trip. “Just, I’ve had times recently where I’ve been starting to swing earlier in counts if it’s in the area that I want to go and do damage with. That has helped me and if you get contact earlier in the counts, you also limit strikeouts. A big thing has been learning how to be aggressive, but not too aggressive.”

“Definitely boosting it (my confidence) and glad to help the team in that situation. Looking forward to getting everything rolling again.

Tyler Wells needed four pitches to dispose of Royals leadoff hitter Nick Pratto last night, getting a swing and miss on his fastball for the game’s first out.

Félix Bautista began his quest for a 17^th save by striking out MJ Melendez and Maikel García with 101 mph heat, the latter frozen by it.

The final team tally was seven strikeouts, a decent total that fell short of the staff’s recent production.

Before last night, Orioles pitchers had struck out nine or more batters in seven consecutive games since May 31, and at least 11 batters in six of seven. The 84 total strikeouts were the most in any seven-game stretch in club history.

This sudden transformation to whiff wizards occurred after the Orioles struck out 40 over six games from May 25-30.

The Orioles have made the following roster moves:

• Recalled LHP Nick Vespi from Triple-A Norfolk.
• Optioned LHP Bruce Zimmermann to Triple-A Norfolk.

Victor Robles is ready to start playing in games again. Another week or so and he should be ready to play for the Nationals again.

Robles will join Triple-A Rochester on a rehab assignment Friday, the final step in the outfielder’s recovery from a back injury that has sidelined him more than a month.

“Hopefully everything goes well and we get him back here soon,” manager Davey Martinez said.

Robles departed Thursday and is expected to play four innings for Rochester, which is on the road at Worcester, on Friday. Given the amount of time he has missed, he will likely build up his workload over several days and could spend a full week on the rehab assignment before the Nats decide to activate him off the 10-day IL.

“He’s got to go out there and play, start getting some at-bats,” Martinez said. “I want to see him do everything that he normally does. If he gets an opportunity to steal some bases, take the extra bases, play good defense, all that stuff.”

The Washington Nationals welcomed 2022 Heisman Trophy winner, USC quarterback and graduate of D.C.’s Gonzaga College High School Caleb Williams to Nationals Park for today’s game vs. the Detroit Tigers. Williams threw out the ceremonial first pitch, which was caught by Nationals pitcher Mason Thompson.

You can watch Williams' first pitch here.

The Washington Nationals claimed left-handed pitcher Joe La Sorsa off waivers from the Tampa Bay Rays and optioned him to Triple-A Rochester on Thursday. Nationals President of Baseball Operations and General Manager Mike Rizzo made the announcement.

La Sorsa, 25, posted a 2.08 ERA (1 ER/4.1 IP) with three strikeouts and three walks in two relief appearances with the Rays this season. He had his contract selected on May 28 and made his Major League debut the next day vs. Chicago (NL), tossing 2.0 scoreless innings of relief.

La Sorsa went 2-1 with a 3.38 ERA in 11 games (three starts) between Double-A Montgomery and Triple-A Durham before joining the Major League club. Opposing left-handed batters went 7-for-32 (.219) with one double, two walks and eight strikeouts against him prior to his contract having been selected.

A native of Jamaica, New York, La Sorsa was selected in the 18^th round of the 2019 First-Year Player Draft out of St. John’s University. He is 16-10 with 13 saves, a 2.87 ERA, a 1.02 WHIP and a .216 opponents’ batting average in 99 games (10 starts) across four Minor League seasons (2019-23).

With smoke from Canadian wild fires getting worse in the region, Major League Baseball postponed today’s scheduled series finale between the Nationals and Diamondbacks, citing the health risks current conditions pose for players, fans and stadium workers alike.

The teams were able to play Tuesday and Wednesday night as planned under a hazy sky that wasn’t nearly as bad as it was in Philadelphia and New York, where games were postponed Wednesday. They were supposed to finish the three-game series at 1:05 p.m., but the air quality is considerably worse today, with Washington officially categorized as “Code Purple.”

The decision whether to play or not was made by MLB, with consultation with both teams and the MLB Players Association, and was announced about 90 minutes before first pitch.

“This postponement was determined following conversations throughout the day with medical and weather experts and the two impacted clubs regarding clearly hazardous air quality conditions in Washington, D.C.,” the league said in a press release.

This was to be the last time the Nationals and Diamondbacks faced each other this season, but Arizona will now be forced to come back to Washington for a June 22 makeup game at 1:05 p.m., a common off-day for both teams. The Nats begin a West Coast trip to San Diego and Seattle the following day. The D-backs will make a side trip to D.C. in between series at Milwaukee and San Francisco.

Today's 1:05 p.m. game vs. the Arizona Diamondbacks has been rescheduled due to the poor air quality in the Washington, D.C. area.

The game will be made up on Thursday, June 22 at 1:05 p.m. All tickets and parking passes for today's game will be honored for the rescheduled game.

Perhaps if other things had progressed in a different manner the rest of the night, Lane Thomas’ throw in the top of the fifth Wednesday would’ve carried more weight. In the end, the play had no bearing on the outcome of the Nationals’ game, a 6-2 loss to the Diamondbacks.

That doesn’t mean it didn’t feel significant in the moment, though. Or that it wasn’t noticed by everyone at Nationals Park.

When Corbin Carroll lined a hit to right to open the top of the fifth, Arizona looked like it was poised to start another rally against Patrick Corbin and perhaps cash in this time after being shut out since taking a quick 3-0 lead in the first. And when Thomas couldn’t cleanly field the ball on a hop, Carroll looked like he was destined for a leadoff double.

Until Thomas retrieved the ball and fired it toward second base, where CJ Abrams made a nice scoop and applied the tag to Carroll in time for the out.

It was a big play in what was a 3-2 game at that moment. And it was only the latest by Thomas, who has really come to his own in right field this season.