After a weekend sweep of the Reds that included a series of notable rallies and some long-awaited power displays from a lineup that desperately needed it, the Nationals returned tonight to face the Padres hoping for at least some carryover effect.

Instead, they got the exact opposite. During the course of a lackluster 4-0 loss, they did very little at the plate, squandering the scoring opportunities they had and rarely hitting the ball with any real authority.

Thus did the Nats lose for the first time since the All-Star break, missing a chance to sustain some positive momentum with a tepid showing at the plate against an unheralded opposing pitcher.

Randy Vasquez, a 25-year-old right-hander who has given up a bunch of hits – especially homers – this season, combined with three San Diego relievers to shut out the Nationals on only 102 pitches.

"We hit some balls hard, but we just couldn't get any good swings off," manager Davey Martinez said. "We swung the bats today, but we really didn't work good at-bats."

The Washington Nationals recalled left-handed pitcher DJ Herz from Triple-A Rochester and optioned right-handed pitcher Eduardo Salazar to Triple-A Rochester on Tuesday. Nationals President of Baseball Operations and General Manager Mike Rizzo made the announcement. Herz will start tonight against the San Diego Padres.

Herz, 23, returns to Washington for his second Major League stint this season. He struck out 41 in 31.1 innings over his first seven career starts from June 4 to July 7. He struck out 13 hitters in 6.0 innings in his first MLB win against Miami on June 15 and fanned 10 in 5.2 innings against the New York Mets on July 2. In all, Herz has gone 1-3 with a 5.17 ERA for the Nationals this year.

Herz was 3-3 with a 3.89 ERA, 44 strikeouts and a .176 opponents’ batting average in 10 starts for the Red Wings this season. Over his last five starts, he went 3-1 with a 2.95 ERA (7 ER/21.1 IP), 27 strikeouts and a .151 average against. In his last start before being recalled, Herz pitched 3.1 innings, struck out two and allowed two runs on two hits on July 14.

Herz leads all of Minor League Baseball with a .176 opponents’ batting average and is third with 13.01 strikeouts per 9.0 innings since the start of the 2021 season (min. 250.0 IP). In parts of five Minor League seasons, Herz is 13-17 with a 3.67 ERA with 457 strikeouts in 321.0 innings and has held opposing hitters to a .178 batting average. 

Salazar, 26, pitched in two games for Washington. He worked 4.0 innings, struck out seven and allowed one unearned run on three hits.

The Nationals used the days before and after the All-Star break to carry an extra reliever. Turns out they only used him once before sending him back to the minors.

Eduardo Salazar, who impressed in his July 14 outing against the Brewers, was optioned to Triple-A Rochester this afternoon, a move necessitated by the return of DJ Herz, who starts tonight’s series opener against the Padres.

Salazar, who posted eye-popping numbers in nine games with Rochester after the Nationals claimed him off waivers from the Mariners last month, was called up for the final two days before the All-Star break when the club could afford to carry a ninth reliever. He pitched two innings in the first half finale in Milwaukee, striking out four batters with a sharp-breaking slider, though he also issued two walks in that game.

The Nats kept the nine-man bullpen for last weekend’s series but never summoned Salazar while sweeping the Reds. So the 26-year-old now heads back to Triple-A, where he’ll hope to make an impression again and earn his way back to the majors.

“I think we will see more eventually,” manager Davey Martinez said. “The thing about it that’s tough is, one, he’s got options. Two, he’s a depth piece for us. But he threw the ball really well. So I’m sure we’ll see more of Salazar.”

The Nationals couldn’t have asked for a better start to their second half, sweeping the Reds over the weekend in impressive fashion. Now they’ll have to try to keep it going against a team that recently swept them.

The Padres are in town, and it was only four weeks ago when they won three straight against the Nationals during a wild series in San Diego that ruined a lot of positive momentum they had built up earlier in June.

One of those games at Petco Park was started by DJ Herz, who makes his return to the big leagues tonight after officially getting recalled from Triple-A. (Reliever Eduardo Salazar was optioned to Rochester to clear up that roster spot.) Herz essentially got a 16-day break since he last pitched up here, making only one abbreviated start for Rochester to keep his arm fresh. It will be fascinating to see how the rookie left-hander returns, and whether he can find some level of more consistency than he showed in his first stint.

Right-hander Randy Vasquez is tonight’s opponent, and he will be a new face from the Nationals’ perspective, nobody on the current roster having faced him before. There will be a few ex-Padres in the lineup, though, with some extra motivation against the franchise that traded them. How will James Wood and CJ Abrams handle this assignment?

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs. SAN DIEGO PADRES
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 late, 88 degrees, wind 7 mph out to left field

For three months, as he produced decent – but hardly spectacular – numbers in Rochester, Juan Yepez had little reason to believe he was a simple phone call away from Washington. He was, like so many others with big league experience, stuck at Triple-A, trying to make the best of a frustrating situation.

“For sure, I felt like the call felt far,” he said. “Honestly, I was surprised. I wasn’t expecting it. But I think I had trust that I was going to get my opportunity, and I’m just glad I had it.”

The call did finally come July 5, the Nationals deciding they couldn’t wait any longer for Joey Meneses to break out of his season-long slump. Meneses went down to Rochester. Yepez came up and was given the opportunity to prove he deserved to be the starting first baseman.

More than two weeks later, he’s done just about everything in his power to prove he does deserve the job.

Yepez has played 13 games with the Nats. He has recorded at least one hit in all 13 games. He has recorded at least one extra-base hit in eight of those games. He’s the proud owner of a .367 batting average, .437 on-base percentage and 1.008 OPS, the kind of production the team desperately needed from the most offensive-minded position on the field.

Forgive Kyle Finnegan if he has trouble remembering what day it currently is, or where he’s been over the last week.

A quick refresher course, then. On Sunday, Finnegan was with the Nationals in Milwaukee, having just pitched three straight days. On Monday, he and his family were in Hershey, Pa., enjoying their All-Star break at an amusement park. Until he got the call from Nats general manager Mike Rizzo he had just been selected as a last-minute addition to the National League’s All-Star team.

So on Tuesday, the Finnegan family surprisingly found itself in Arlington, Texas, getting the full All-Star experience (even though he didn’t pitch in the game). Wednesday and Thursday finally offered an opportunity to rest up a bit. But then Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Finnegan found himself on the mound at Nationals Park, recording the final out in three consecutive victories over the Reds to cap off a wild week.

“A lot has happened,” he said. “It’s been exciting. It’s been a little hectic. But I was talking to my wife: The experience we’ve been able to have with our family over these last four or five days has been really special. That’s the beautiful part about this game and what it can bring into your life.”

Finnegan wouldn’t trade any of it for the world. Though he was the only one of 12 pitchers on the active NL All-Star roster who didn’t appear in the game, he otherwise got to partake in everything the Midsummer Classic had to offer. (Oh, and by the way, had the NL rallied from a 5-3 deficit in the top of the ninth, he would’ve been the one closing out the game in the bottom of the inning.)

The formula that won Saturday night’s game wasn’t going to be plausible today. The Nationals simply couldn’t afford another ultra-abbreviated outing from their starter, putting even more strain on an already strained bullpen.

So Jake Irvin did his part, rediscovering the form that made him one of the league’s breakout pitchers in the first half of the season. And then James Wood made sure that pitching performance would count with one huge late swing.

Wood’s three-run homer off reliever Justin Wilson turned a tie game in the bottom of the eighth into a 5-2 Nats victory and a three-game sweep of the Reds to kick off the season’s second half in decidedly upbeat fashion.

"We're right there with them," Wood said of a Nationals team that has won five of six and currently sits four games out of a wide-open Wild Card race. "We're trying to make a push, too."

Wood stepped to the plate with two out and two on in the eighth, Cincinnati manager David Bell summoning Wilson specifically to face him. The rookie had batted against the veteran left-hander Saturday night, grounding out on the fifth pitch of that at-bat. He wasted no time today, aggressively going after Wilson’s first-pitch fastball and driving it 404 feet to left for his second career homer.

The second half schedule afforded the Nationals the option of waiting a while before using their fifth starter. They’ve decided, though, to go ahead and use him now.

The Nats will send that yet-to-be-announced starter to the mound Tuesday against the Padres in what is actually the team’s fourth game coming out of the All-Star break. That pushes left-hander Mitchell Parker back to Wednesday’s game, with Patrick Corbin (who started Friday night’s second half opener) pitching Thursday’s series finale against San Diego.

The presence of an off-day on the schedule this week gave the Nationals some room to maneuver if they wished. They don’t actually need a fifth starter until Saturday’s game in St. Louis, the eighth game coming out of the break.

But rather than offer all of the extra rest to one pitcher, the club decided to give others (especially Parker) an extra day before taking the mound.

“Exactly, that’s what it boils down to,” manager Davey Martinez said. “We want to try to give these guys as much rest as we possibly can. Some of these guys are going to pitch a lot more than they have in the past, so we’re trying to just stretch this out a little bit.”

The Nationals have already won back-to-back series. Now they have a shot at a rare series sweep if they can beat the Reds again in this afternoon’s finale.

Though they’ve somehow managed to win a pair of games in the last week in which their starter didn’t even reach the third inning, that’s probably not a formula for sustained success. So it would behoove Jake Irvin to be good today, and to give his team some length so Davey Martinez doesn’t have rely too heavily on a bullpen that’s already worn down only two games into the second half of the season.

Irvin is coming off back-to-back rough starts, though, which took some of the luster off his breakthrough first half. The right-hander’s issue in those games against the Mets and Brewers: He was hit hard, to the tune of 13 runs on 18 hits over 10 innings. That was a pretty stark drop-off after back-to-back starts in which he surrendered only one hit.

The Nationals face another left-hander today in Andrew Abbott. He’s been solid in 40 career starts, but the Nats did get to him for six runs in 5 2/3 innings last August in Cincinnati. The University of Virginia alum has walked 22 batters over his last 37 1/3 innings, so patience is a virtue against him this afternoon.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs. CINCINNATI REDS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 1:35 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 88.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Partly cloudy, 89 degrees, wind 5 mph out to left field

ARLINGTON, Texas – The Orioles were a little more patient tonight before pouncing on a Rangers veteran starting pitcher. They actually waited until the second inning.

For the post-break Orioles, that’s considered slow out of the gate.

Nine batters came to the plate against three-time Cy Young winner Max Scherzer and four runs scored to match last night’s total in the first against Nathan Eovaldi.

Scherzer was removed before the third, Texas native Grayson Rodriguez celebrated his homecoming with a quality start and the Orioles continued to thrive at Globe Life Field with an 8-4 victory before an announced crowd of 38,410.

Cedric Mullins hit his 10^th home run, Jordan Westburg his 16th and Ryan O'Hearn his 12th, and the Orioles posted their 60^th win, a total they reached last season on July 22. Their lead in the division increased to two games.

That the Nationals had to ask for at least seven innings from their bullpen for the second time in four games was aggravating. That they somehow were still in position to win another one of these games was absolutely remarkable.

And yet here the Nats were once again, forced to turn to the bullpen early after an extra-abbreviated outing from their starter. And here they were once again finding a way to emerge victorious at the end of the night, storming back from an early deficit created by MacKenzie Gore to beat the Reds, 5-4.

"Well, that was a grind," manager Davey Martinez sighed. "The boys played hard. They played with their heart."

They pulled it off by chipping away at Cincinnati’s early lead, scoring two runs in the first, one in the fourth, one in the seventh and one more in the eighth on Jacob Young’s clutch two-out RBI single.

And they pulled it off thanks to another brilliant performance by a relief corps asked to work overtime after Gore lasted only two laborious innings.

After mashing four more home runs, to lead the majors with 153, the Orioles opened the second-half with a 9-1 romp over Texas last night. They improved to 59-38 and could open a two-game lead atop the American East with another win tonight.

Lefty Nestor Cortes allowed six runs in 4 1/3 innings this afternoon as the New York Yankees (59-41) lost 9-1 to Tampa Bay. The Yankees are now 17-20 in AL East games. They have lost 9 of 14 games and are 9-19 since June 15.

The Orioles ended the first half going 1-5 on a homestand and had lost five of six, six of eight and seven of 10 heading into the Texas series. Now they are 10-13 since June 21 with Friday's win.

Anthony Santander hit two of their four homers, driving in five runs. With his first home run last night, Santander reached 25 home runs and he's the ninth player in O's history to do so in at least three straight seasons. He matches Frank Robinson (1969-71), Lee May (1976-78), and Manny Machado (2015-17), and trails Eddie Murray (1982-85) and Rafael Palmeiro (1995-98), who did so in four consecutive years, Chris Davis (2012-17) and Cal Ripken, Jr. (1982-87), who had six, and Adam Jones (2011-17), who hit at least 25 homers in seven straight years. He now has 15 multi-homer games, eighth-most in club history.

Since the start of June, Santander is slashing .280/.322/.640 (45-for-161) with five doubles, one triple, 17 home runs, 24 runs, 34 RBIs, and 11 walks across 41 games. His 17 homers and 103 total bases are the most in MLB during that span, while his 23 extra-base hits are tied with teammate Gunnar Henderson for the most in the AL in that time.

ARLINGTON, Texas – Kyle Stowers walked through the outfield early this afternoon, pausing to chat with a few teammates. He returned to the clubhouse, put on his street clothes, grabbed his backpack and headed out the door again.

Stowers was optioned for the second time this season, the predictable counter move to Heston Kjerstad’s reinstatement from the seven-day concussion injured list.

The Orioles recalled Stowers on May 13, optioned him June 19 and brought him back July 13 after Yankees closer Clay Holmes drilled Kjerstad on the ear flap and emptied both dugouts and bullpens.

The movement and roster construction have limited Stowers to 37 plate appearances with the Orioles. He’s 11-for-36, including a pinch-hit single off Holmes Sunday that fueled a three-run rally and walk-off win.

That’s the only at-bat for Stowers during his return to the majors. He was a defensive replacement last night.

Cade Cavalli hoped all along to make his return from Tommy John surgery in June. And if not June, at least by July. But as the clock continues to tick and the right-hander still finds himself waiting to restart the latest phase of his extensive rehab program, it has become clear the Nationals are only going to be able to get a handful of big league starts out of their 2020 first-round pick before season’s end.

Cavalli, who had elbow ligament replacement surgery in March 2023, has made only three official minor league rehab starts, none since June 21 for Single-A Wilmington. In the month since that outing – he tossed three scoreless, hitless innings – he has been sidetracked both by the flu and a period in which he experienced “dead arm” when he threw.

The dead arm period, which manager Davey Martinez revealed for the first time today, prompted the Nats to further delay Cavalli’s throwing progression.

“We just wanted to keep him down, and honestly slow him down a little bit,” Martinez said. “He had that dead arm for a little while. And him being sick, we just didn’t want to push him. … It’s one of those things, he’s so young and he’s a big part of our future. We want to make sure we do everything right for the kid. We talked to him. He was in agreement. He wanted to take a little bit of a break, and then we’ll go from there.”

Cavalli, who turns 26 next month, remains in D.C. with the Nationals. He’s scheduled to go to West Palm Beach, Fla., next week and start his progression all over again, throwing off flat ground, then off a mound, then against live hitters before he goes on another rehab assignment.

The Orioles have made the following roster moves:

• Reinstated OF Heston Kjerstad from the 7-day concussion Injured List.
• Optioned OF Kyle Stowers to Triple-A Norfolk.

ARLINGTON, Texas – The Orioles reinstated outfielder Heston Kjerstad from the seven-day concussion list today and optioned outfielder Kyle Stowers to Triple-A Norfolk.

Kjerstad had a full workout yesterday and was cleared to play. He’s in right field tonight.

Stowers is 11-for-36 with four doubles and a home run in 19 games with the Orioles. He had one at-bat after replacing Kjerstad on the roster, and his single off Clay Holmes ignited Sunday’s ninth-inning rally against the Yankees that produced a walk-off win.

Anthony Santander is the designated hitter tonight. Ryan O’Hearn is playing first base and Ryan Mountcastle is on the bench.

Colton Cowser is in left field and Cedric Mullins is in center. Ramón Urías is playing third base, with Jordan Westburg at second.

Though it got way more interesting in the top of the ninth than it needed to be, the Nationals’ 8-5 victory over the Reds on Friday night was a very good way for them to open the second half of the season. They got sustained offense, including a pair of home runs from two positions where they’ve desperately needed more offense. They got a very good start out of Patrick Corbin. And they actually supported him for a change and earned him his first win since May 10.

Now there’s an opportunity to clinch a weekend series win and really get the second half to a positive start. It starts with MacKenzie Gore, who needs some positive performances himself right now. The left-hander allowed four or more runs in four of his last five starts, turning a 3.26 ERA into a 4.01 ERA at the break. He’s got to be more efficient and give himself a chance to go deep in the game, especially after the Nats used five relievers to pull off Friday’s win.

The Nationals lineup faces the Reds’ Nick Lodolo, who put together a very solid first half of his own, going 8-3 with a 3.33 ERA and 1.123 WHIP. The left-hander is facing the Nats for only the second time in his career, and the previous start took place back in 2022, when he allowed three runs over seven innings to a lineup that included a top four of César Hernández, Joey Meneses, Luke Voit and Nelson Cruz. Not a lot to be drawn from that performance.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs. CINCINNATI REDS
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 ending, 80 degrees, wind 9 mph out to left field

NATIONALS
SS CJ Abrams
RF Lane Thomas
1B Juan Yepez
DH Harold Ramírez
C Riley Adams
2B Ildemaro Vargas
LF James Wood
3B Trey Lipscomb
CF Jacob Young

For the first time since they drafted him No. 1 overall in 2022, you hear fans open to trading one of baseball’s best prospects in Jackson Holliday.

I don’t have a vote or say here in anything and neither do fans, but I do have an opinion. And I still see Holliday as an untouchable.

While he may have lost his No. 1 prospect status with some outlets, that is fine. He did go 2-for-34 with 18 strikeouts for the Orioles in April.

Once it started going south for him with the O's, it stayed that way.

He looked overmatched for whatever reason. This will sound like an excuse but some players coming up from Triple-A Norfolk agreed with an opinion that while Holliday was getting every pitch out of the zone called a ball against him in Triple-A with the ABS system, that changed in the majors. He seemed to be down 0-2 every at-bat. He took some pitches that may have been called balls by the computer but were strikes in the bigs. 

It was a busy return from the All-Star break for the Nationals on Friday.

Josiah Gray announced a partial tear in his right ulnar collateral ligament that will require season-ending surgery. First-round pick Seaver King and third-round pick Kevin Bazzell officially signed their contracts and were introduced as Nationals for the first time. And the Nats started the second half with an 8-5 win over the Reds that had some early fireworks and late dramatics.

With all the pregame news, some things said by long-time general manager Mike Rizzo were left by the wayside. But they were no less important for the Nationals in the grand scheme of things.

Rizzo spoke to members of the local media for 12 minutes after introducing two of his top four selections from this year’s draft. The topics varied, but in the spirit of the draft celebrations, started with the trade Rizzo made a week ago today to add another pick in the first night of the draft.

In a surprising move at the time, the Nationals traded right-hander Hunter Harvey to the Royals for third base prospect Cayden Wallace and a Competitive Balance A pick, which happened to be No. 39 overall. The Nats used that pick to select catcher Caleb Lomavita out of Cal.

ARLINGTON, Texas – Ryan O’Hearn dealt with the disappointment of losing the All-Star vote at designated hitter and failing to make the American League team as a reserve. He enjoyed the time home instead, got some rest and arrived at Globe Life Field ready for the second-half grind.

O’Hearn joined the viewership for the Home Run Derby and the game. He hung on every swing.

“Fun to watch all the way around,” he said yesterday. “Obviously, I would have loved to have been a part of it, but fun for me to watch our guys and pull for our guys, cheer for them on that big stage.”

Gunnar Henderson was the top seed in the Derby with 28 homers but hit only 11, the lowest total in the eight-player field.

O’Hearn has his own Derby experience going back to 2015 in the South Atlantic League while playing for the Lexington Legends in the Royals system.