After successful month, Nats want to get used to winning

PHOENIX – Informed late Saturday night that the Nationals had just completed their first winning month in nearly two years, only their second winning month in four years, Nathaniel Lowe was pleasantly surprised.

“Oh? Sweet,” the veteran first baseman interjected.

Lowe, of course, would have had no way of knowing such information. He wasn’t here when the Nats began to tear down their roster in July 2021. He wasn’t here when they finally put things together enough to go 17-11 in August 2023, a modest blip during an otherwise losing season. He only joined the organization this winter, having spent the previous four years with a Rangers team that won the World Series in 2023.

“We should get used to it,” he said. “You play this game to win. So ideally you show up every day with a chance to compete and win. Losing is not why we play at all.”

The Nationals are not a winning team yet. They got home from Arizona early this morning sporting a 28-31 record, having lost Sunday’s series finale to the Diamondbacks. Real success remains elusive for this franchise, which hasn’t gotten to two games over .500 since the end of June 2021, at which point everything fell apart and the plan to rebuild emerged.

But they did just go 15-12 in May, no small feat. And even with Sunday’s loss, they’ve still won 10 of their last 14 games, the best sustained stretch of success they’ve experienced in quite a while.

And it’s worth noting the Nationals have been beating good teams (or, at least, teams that were considered good at the time). So far this year they’ve won series against the Dodgers, Braves, Reds, Mariners and Diamondbacks (twice). They just went 4-2 on this West Coast trip, no small feat for any ballclub.

“It was very important,” second baseman Luis García Jr. said, via interpreter Mauricio Ortiz. “It just shows that we’re a team that can compete and that has a lot of talent.”

How have the Nats flipped the switch? Through a more productive lineup (especially the bottom half) and through a remade bullpen that no longer looks like the laughingstock of the league.

The 2024 Nationals sported one of the least productive lineups in baseball. They finished 25th in runs, 26th in slugging and 29th in homers. They insisted all winter they needed to improve, especially in the power department. Two months in, there’s no question they’ve achieved that goal.

The 2025 Nationals currently rank 11th in the majors in runs and slugging percentage. They rank 16th in homers. They’ve scored more runs than the Mets, Blue Jays, Padres, Astros and Braves (among others). Entering the weekend, the trailed the Phillies and Mets by only one home run.

What’s the difference? There are obvious changes in personnel, including the offseason acquisitions of Lowe and Bell (on pace for 22 and 25 homers, respectively). There is of course the emergence of James Wood (on pace for 44 homers) as one of the best all-around hitters in baseball. And there is the recent arrival of Robert Hassell III (.375 average, five RBIs on the trip) and Daylen Lile (four extra-base hits on the trip).

But there also has been an improved offensive approach that’s perhaps not evident every single game (see Sunday’s flail-fest against Corbin Burnes) but has been present more often than not.

“We’re swinging at better pitches,” manager Davey Martinez said. "We're getting the ball up. And we are really focused on using the whole field, staying in the middle of the field. When we can do that, you can see we hit the ball pretty good."

The bullpen’s improved performance in recent weeks has been even more remarkable.

On May 10, Nationals relievers owned a collective 7.29 ERA and 1.74 WHIP, both worst in the majors and historically bad. In 20 games since, they’ve delivered a 3.39 ERA and 1.27 WHIP, ranking in the top half of the league in both categories.

They’ve pulled off that magic trick thanks to the emergence of several young pitchers who have taken over high-leverage roles from fading veterans. Jorge Lopez, Lucas Sims and Colin Poche are all gone, cut loose less than two months into the season after signing for a combined $7.4 million over the winter. Cole Henry, Brad Lord and Jose A. Ferrer now occupy those roles and are thriving in the spotlight.

“Now’s the time to really focus on giving our young kids a shot to go ahead and do what they’ve been doing,” Martinez said.

There’s still a long way to go. The Nationals have already established themselves as a wildly erratic team, perhaps best exemplified by the disparity in their record when they score first (22-7) compared to when their opponents do (6-24).

A winning month of May was an important step in the larger process. It won’t matter much, though, if they fall apart in June and wind up right back where they started.

“So I would encourage this group to get used to winning,” Lowe said, “because that’s what we strive to do every day. But we’ll take this month and obviously keep going into June and look for another winning month.”