SAN DIEGO – The Nationals showed up Monday night at Petco Park, blasting a couple of home runs and delivering a flurry of clutch hits en route to a 10-6 win over the Padres. They’re 2-2 so far on this West Coast trip, and they’ve had a real chance to win every game, which isn’t too shabby, all things considered. The key now is sustaining that, and they’ll attempt to do it tonight in the second game of their series.

At the plate, the Nats will be facing an unknown opponent in Ryan Bergert. The rookie right-hander, drafted in the sixth round in 2021 out of West Virginia, makes his ninth career appearance, his fifth career start. He’s been pretty good to date in this role, delivering a 2.25 ERA through those four previous starts. He’s reached the sixth inning three times, though he has yet to complete that frame. He features a mid-90s fastball and two breaking balls in the mid-to-high 80s, plus an occasional changeup to left-handed batters.

Trevor Williams returns to his hometown of San Diego, hoping to turn in his third consecutive solid start. The veteran right-hander held both the Marlins and Rockies to two runs over 5 1/3 innings, but he’s facing a much more imposing Padres lineup tonight.

The Nationals have put Keibert Ruiz on the 10-day injured list after he was struck by a foul ball into the dugout last night. The team has recalled Drew Millas from Triple-A Rochester to fill the roster spot.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at SAN DIEGO PADRES
Where: Petco Park
Gametime: 9:40 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Clear, 66 degrees, wind 8 mph left field to right field

The Orioles have made the following roster move:

• Agreed to terms on a 2025 minor league contract with C Jacob Stallings.

Pitcher Brandon Young and infielder/outfielder Terrin Vavra are on the taxi squad from Triple-A Norfolk.

The Orioles haven’t listed a starter for Wednesday and Young could fill the role or be used in bulk relief. Either way, interim manager Tony Mansolino indicated that Young will pitch.

Young allowed six runs and 11 hits with eight walks and nine strikeouts in 8 2/3 innings in two starts with the Orioles this season, but he’s registered a 3.29 ERA and 0.841 WHIP in five outings with Norfolk. He pitched in Memphis on Friday and allowed one run and two hits in five innings in his return from right shoulder soreness.

Tomoyuki Sugano will be pushed back from his scheduled turn Wednesday. Mansolino said Sugano isn't a candidate for the injured list.

Vavra is on the medical taxi squad as insurance in case infielder Jordan Westburg goes on the IL with a sprained left index finger that’s kept him out of the lineup since Saturday in New York. However, Mansolino said "all indications" are that we'll see Westburg in the lineup Wednesday or Friday. 

SAN DIEGO – Keibert Ruiz never had time to react, nor could he have anticipated what happened in the top of the fourth Monday night at Petco Park.

The Nationals’ 10-6 victory over the Padres was marred somewhat by the freak incident that forced Ruiz to an area hospital for a CT scan after he was struck by Josh Bell’s errant foul ball on the left side of his head.

Ruiz was watching the game from the top railing of the dugout when Bell fouled off Stephen Kolek’s pitch and sent the ball on a direct line toward the third base dugout. Nationals players and coaches barely saw it whiz past their heads, and nobody saw it carom off the dugout’s back wall and strike Ruiz on the side of his head.

The 26-year-old wasn’t wearing his catcher’s gear, because his spot in the lineup was approaching. He immediately grabbed his head and headed down the dugout steps and toward the visitors’ clubhouse as director of athletic training Paul Lessard followed close behind.

“When he went down, we kind of got scared a little bit,” manager Davey Martinez said. “He had a nice lump on his head.”

The Orioles are in a rare catching bind with Adley Rutschman making his first career stop on the injured list and Maverick Handley placed on the seven-day concussion injured list yesterday. Apparently, it isn’t safe to swing in the cage or try to make a tag at home plate.

Gary Sánchez is less than two weeks removed from his own IL stay and could get worn to a nub if he’s forced to handle a heavy workload, especially in this heat. Interim manager Tony Mansolino gave him a slight break last night by using him as the designated hitter against Rangers left-hander Patrick Corbin.

Chadwick Tromp is back in the majors. He caught last night. David Bañuelos is making is living on the taxi squad. The Orioles like keeping him close.

Veteran James McCann was released Sunday by the Braves so that he could sign a major league deal with the Diamondbacks. The Orioles never came into play. The sides had some early talks but nothing recent.

The organization’s No. 1 prospect just happens to be a catcher, but 20-year-old Samuel Basallo remains at Triple-A Norfolk.

SAN DIEGO – It seems to be defying logic, because the opposing pitching staffs are much better than what they faced last week and the ball isn’t supposed to carry better in the cool Southern California air than it does in the hot and humid nastiness back home.

But sometimes you have to throw logic out the door and just embrace what you’re seeing with your own eyes. And four games into what should be a tough West Coast trip for a previously reeling team, the Nationals are putting together the kind of offensive performances they desperately needed last week when they were losing to the Marlins and Rockies.

They scored 6.3 runs per game over the weekend at Dodger Stadium. And in tonight’s series opener on a 64-degree late-June evening at Petco Park, they took it a step further, blasting their way to a 10-6 win over the Padres behind three hits a piece from two of the young stars they acquired from San Diego three years ago.

"I just think we were kind of due," left fielder James Wood said. "We've been hitting the ball hard, just right at people. I feel like not much has changed, maybe a few more homers. But I just think the balls we've hit hard are finding gaps."

CJ Abrams went 3-for-5 and scored three runs. Wood went 3-for-5 and drove in four runs, three of them coming on his latest towering home run, this one clanging off the right field foul pole for the 22-year-old’s 22nd round tripper of the season.

The Orioles’ strategy for beating the heat wasn’t sustainable, but they had a solid plan for winning a game.

How does a team prepare for a first-pitch temperature of 100 degrees?

“By being inside,” said interim manager Tony Mansolino.

The Orioles didn’t hit this afternoon or plan on taking batting practice before the next two games. But they eventually had to face the oppressive conditions, as well as the Rangers, and try to rebound from back-to-back losses in the Bronx.

The option to not hit would be lifted at 6:35 p.m. and Jackson Holliday went to work by driving in the Orioles' first four runs to support Trevor Rogers, who kept his cool with eight magnificent, scoreless innings in a 6-0 victory before an announced crowd of 13,929 at Camden Yards.

SAN DIEGO – As he watches his teammates play every night from the dugout, Dylan Crews tries to trick his mind into thinking he’s still a part of the active roster. Deep down, he knows he’s not, and there’s nothing he can do on the field to help the Nationals win. But it’s the only way the rookie outfielder knows how to keep his mind in the right place as he navigates his way through rehab from a strained oblique.

“I’ve been good,” he said today as the Nats prepared to open a three-game series against the Padres. “I’m trying to stay locked in as much as I can. It’s all new to me. I try to stay locked in as if I was playing the game every day. But right now, it’s a different chapter in this whole story. I’m just trying to stay locked in and win my day every day.”

It’s been nearly five weeks now since Crews suffered the injury on a check-swing. The good news: He was finally cleared to travel with the rest of the team on this nine-game West Coast trip, and he recently began taking some very light swings to test his core.

It’s not much. Crews isn’t allowed to take full swings or hit an actual baseball. He’s running at about 85-to-90 percent, he surmised, but only on a treadmill. He’s not doing any kind of work on the field yet.

But he’s making progress, and the prospect of ramping things up looms in the not-too-distant future.

SAN DIEGO – Hello from beautiful Petco Park, where the Nationals begin the second leg of their three-city trek through Southern California tonight with the opener of a three-game series against the Padres. Though they legitimately played well for most of the weekend series in L.A., they made just enough mistakes at critical moments and wound up losing two of three to the Dodgers. Now they try to flip that script against a very good San Diego club.

It's up to Mitchell Parker to hold the Padres lineup in check. The left-hander was stuck in a pretty good rut there for a while, but he bounced back big-time in his last start (admittedly against the Rockies). In that game, he allowed one run over six innings, striking out eight without issuing a walk. It’s probably too much to ask for that kind of performance tonight against a much better lineup, but it’s not too much to ask Parker to give his team a chance to win.

At the plate, the Nationals will try to score early against Padres starter Stephen Kolek, who pitched out of the bullpen last year but has become a full-time starter this year. It’s been kind of all-or-nothing for the right-hander. In four of his nine starts, he’s posted a zero. In the other five, he’s surrendered at least three runs.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at SAN DIEGO PADRES
Where: Petco Park
Gametime: 9:40 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Mostly clear, 65 degrees, wind 7 mph out to right field

NATIONALS
SS CJ Abrams
LF James Wood
2B Luis García Jr.
1B Nathaniel Lowe
DH Josh Bell
3B Brady House
RF Daylen Lile
C Keibert Ruiz
CF Jacob Young

Orioles infielder Jorge Mateo is beginning his injury rehab assignment Tuesday night for Triple-A Norfolk. The Tides are hosting Gwinnett.

Mateo is on the 10-day injured list with left elbow inflammation caused by a May 31 collision with Heston Kjerstad in right-center field. He was eligible to return on Tuesday but needs to get some at-bats.

“I feel a lot better right now,” Mateo said today via interpreter Brandon Quinones.

The injury occurred in the same elbow that underwent reconstructive surgery last summer, but Mateo was bothered only by some swelling. He’s able to swing a bat, play defense, slide and do “everything I need to do.”

Infielder Luis Vázquez remains on the roster in Mateo’s absence.

The Orioles have made the following roster moves:

• Selected the contract of C Chadwick Tromp from Triple-A Norfolk.
• Placed C Maverick Handley on the 7-day concussion Injured List.
• Transferred INF Ryan Mountcastle (right hamstring strain) to the 60-day Injured List.

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

Infielder Jordan Westburg remains out of the Orioles lineup for tonight’s series opener against the Rangers at steamy Camden Yards.

Westburg is day-to-day with a sprained left index finger.

Gary Sánchez is the designated hitter and batting fourth. That’s sort of like getting a break.

Coby Mayo is starting at first base.

Ramón Laureano is batting second for the first time this season.

Ryan O’Hearn has opened up a commanding lead in voting for American League designated hitter for next month’s All-Star Game in Atlanta.

O’Hearn has received 937,205 votes to stay well ahead of the Yankees’ Ben Rice (409,336). This would be O’Hearn’s first All-Star selection.

Nelson Cruz in 2014 is the only Orioles designated hitter to be elected by fans.

O’Hearn is slashing .305/.387/.480 with nine doubles, 10 home runs and 29 RBIs in 65 games. His 1.9 fWAR ranks second on the team behind Gunnar Henderson’s 2.0.

Jackson Holliday stays in second place among AL second basemen with 806,133 votes, barely ahead of the Astros’ José Altuve at 795,123. The Tigers’ Gleyber Torres is first with 1,133,888.

LOS ANGELES – It’s easy to overlook now, because of the ultimately lopsided nature of Sunday’s game, but the Nationals and Dodgers were actually engaged in a tight, closely played contest into the seventh inning.

Even after Jose A. Ferrer served up Max Muncy’s grand slam in the bottom of the sixth, the Nats only trailed 4-3, with plenty of opportunity left to make up that slim deficit. And when Jacob Young drew a one-out walk in the top of the seventh, with the top of the lineup now due to bat, they looked like they might be in business.

What transpired next was unfortunately the latest in a growing list of baserunning gaffes by the Nationals. Young took off for second, hoping to steal the base and put himself in scoring position for CJ Abrams. And he beat Dodgers catcher Dalton Rushing’s throw and shortstop Mookie Betts’ tag.

Except for one key point: Young overslid the bag, and because Betts held the tag throughout the entire process, Young was called out, killing the Nats’ positive momentum at a crucial point in the game.

The speedy center fielder (who scraped up his right hand but was able to finish the game) defended his decision to run against Los Angeles lefty Anthony Banda in that spot but conceded his mistake at the end of the play.

NEW YORK – The Orioles almost have become numb to the injuries ravaging their roster again in 2025.

Catcher Adley Rutschman won’t return until after the break due to a strained left oblique, marking his first career trip to the IL. Infielder Jordan Westburg is day-to-day with a sprained left index finger, but he's going to join Rutschman if he isn’t available later this week.

Backup catcher Maverick Handley came out of yesterday’s game in the bottom of the second inning after colliding with Jazz Chisholm Jr. Ten players are on the IL, and Westburg and Handley are trying to keep it under a dozen.

Twenty-one Orioles have spent time on the IL this season, including 10 of the position players on the Opening Day roster. And that doesn’t include shortstop Gunnar Henderson, who stayed back in Sarasota with an intercostal strain.

The Orioles keep testing the next-man-up philosophy that’s preached in the clubhouse.

LOS ANGELES – Michael Soroka was cruising, - dominating, if we’re being honest - a Dodgers lineup that rarely finds itself in such a position. And thanks to Nathaniel Lowe’s latest clutch blast, the Nationals were in control at Chavez Ravine, looking to pull off what could only be considered an improbable weekend series victory over the defending World Series champs.

The sixth inning, though, has been Soroka’s personal nightmare most of the season. And today, it became not only Soroka’s nightmare, but Jose A. Ferrer’s as well. Only to be upstaged minutes later by the absolute disaster Ryan Loutos and Cole Henry made of the seventh inning.

Thus did the Nats somehow turn a three-run lead into an eight-run deficit in the span of about 25 minutes at Dodger Stadium, suffering one of their worst meltdowns of the year en route to a 13-7 loss that doesn’t begin to hint at how winnable this game actually was at one point.

Max Muncy’s grand slam off Ferrer flipped the affair from Washington's to Los Angeles' favor. Shohei Ohtani’s three-run triple off Loutos added to the misery. And Muncy’s three-run homer off Henry – giving the veteran infielder seven RBIs in two innings – felt downright embarrassing to the Nationals, who were in prime position to win not only this series but the season matchup with the Dodgers, only to go down in flames in the finale.

"I don't think you want to look at the score. A loss is a loss, whether you lose by one or you lose by six," said center fielder Jacob Young, whose team trailed by 10 before scoring four runs in the top of the ninth off position player Kiké Hernández. "I thought we actually played a pretty good game, and they had two big swings that blew it open and caused it to be uglier than it was. It was a chance to win a series, and that's what we wanted to do when we came here. We just didn't get it done."

NEW YORK – Jackson Holliday singled on the first pitch thrown this morning. The Orioles had their fill yesterday of no-hit tomfoolery. Get that drama out of the way quickly and go about trying to win a series.

They made it to the eighth inning before losing their lead, and the series.

Jazz Chisholm Jr. lined a two-run double into right-center field off Bryan Baker to move the Yankees past the Orioles 4-2 before an announced crowd of 45,571.

Ben Rice led off the inning with a single and Giancarlo Stanton lined a one-out single into left field at 110.7 mph. Chisholm brought home Rice and pinch-runner Paul Goldschmidt, who slid across the plate as catcher Gary Sánchez tried to make a lunging tag.

Chisholm went to third base, and he scored an insurance run when Sánchez failed to hold onto Gunnar Henderson’s throw on DJ LeMahieu’s grounder. Plate umpire Jansen Visconti called Chisholm out before seeing the ball roll away.

LOS ANGELES – Inside a joyous Nationals clubhouse late Saturday night, Nathaniel Lowe was asked about the significance of the 100th home run of his career.

“It’s super cool,” the veteran first baseman said. “I never would have thought that would have been an option.”

For a 13th-round draft pick who debuted with the Rays in 2019, was dealt to the Rangers in 2021 and then to Nats last winter, such career milestones never crossed Lowe’s mind. He’s made the most of his time in the majors, though, from the Silver Slugger and Gold Glove awards in 2022 and 2023, respectively, to the World Series trophy he hoisted in 2023 with Texas.

The 29-year-old is now trying to bring those experiences to a very inexperienced Nationals clubhouse. His words and actions carry weight with teammates.

“He’s a guy in our locker room that we all kind of lean on, we all listen to,” left fielder James Wood said.

LOS ANGELES – Guess who has played some pretty good baseball here the last two nights? Yeah, that would be your Washington Nationals, who narrowly lost Friday night’s series opener and then bounced back by blasting five homers Saturday night to convincingly beat the Dodgers. And just like that, they have an opportunity today to both win this series and win the season series against the defending World Series champs. Not too shabby for a team that just lost 11 in a row, huh?

The challenge today is a unique one, because the Nats will be facing Shohei Ohtani as both a hitter and as a pitcher. They’ve done a nice job against him as a hitter so far (1-for-7, two walks, three strikeouts). It’ll be up to Michael Soroka and the bullpen to try to keep that trend going this afternoon.

How will the Nationals’ lineup fare against Ohtani the pitcher? He’s only faced the franchise once before (April 2023 in Anaheim) and he dominated (seven scoreless innings of one-hit ball, despite five walks and a hit batter). Given the fact this is only his second start back from elbow surgery – and he couldn’t go on a minor league rehab assignment because he’s still on the active roster as a hitter – the Japanese phenom is expected to throw only two innings, maybe three if he’s really cruising. So really this game may hinge more on the Nats’ ability to do some damage against the Dodgers’ bullpen than their opener.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at LOS ANGELES DODGERS
Where: Dodger Stadium
Gametime: 4:10 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Sunny, 78 degrees, wind 4 mph out to center field

NATIONALS
SS CJ Abrams
LF James Wood
2B Luis García Jr.
1B Nathaniel Lowe
DH Josh Bell
3B Brady House
RF Daylen Lile
C Keibert Ruiz
CF Jacob Young

NEW YORK – Orioles reliever Yennier Cano struck out the side yesterday in the seventh inning and was optioned after the game. Overall production and limited bullpen flexibility doomed the 2023 All-Star.

Reliever Yaramil Hiraldo was recalled from Triple-A Norfolk. He’s using Cano’s locker at Yankee Stadium.

Cano has a 4.73 ERA and 1.388 WHIP in 32 games. He was scored upon once in nine appearances this month, but the Rays tallied four runs against him in two-thirds of an inning. He had a streak of nine scoreless outings out of 10 prior to the implosion.

“It starts, ultimately, with the amount of innings we’ve had to cover here recently with the bullpen,” said interim manager Tony Mansolino. “We need a fresh arm. You have a limited amount of bullpen guys who have options, so there’s really just a couple to choose from. You start to look at the big picture, right? The whole season for players, too, and where maybe a guy can take a break and go down and maybe work on something and get back to what they were.

“I know yesterday looks great where Cano comes in, probably has one of his best outings of the year for us. I think you’ve got to be very careful with the recency bias and just understand that we have to look at the last three, four months, last year. And understand that Yenni Cano has been good at times. He’s been up and down. I think everyone can admit that. And I think this could be a really good opportunity for Yenni to go down right now and kind of make the small adjustment, whatever needs to be made in order to get back to being Yenni Cano.”