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.
Lowe’s rate stats for the season (a .228/.295/.393 slash line) don’t stand out. And yet he’s now on pace for 25 homers and 99 RBIs, critical production for a lineup that needs its first baseman to serve as protection behind young stars like Wood and CJ Abrams.
“As I’ve said before, I put him in the middle of the lineup because I know he can drive in runs for us,” manager Davey Martinez said. “He tends to really work good at-bats. It was a really big game for him.”
Indeed, Lowe didn’t just notch his 100th career homer, a line drive to the opposite field that bounced off the top of the wall and caromed over. He also launched No. 101, a more conventional moonshot to right-center, delivering two of the team’s five home runs in a 7-3 thumping of the Dodgers.
“It’s pretty encouraging,” he said. “It’s really rewarding for a whole lot of hard work and a lot of time put in. So it’s a special moment, but obviously more special we won today, too.”
Lowe knows there are plenty of major leaguers with way more than 100 home runs in their careers, and he needed only look across the way at the Dodgers’ dugout to find eight guys who rank well ahead of him in that category (Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts, Shohei Ohtani, Maxy Muncy, Teoscar Hernandez, Will Smith, Michael Conforto, Kiké Hernández).
But that doesn’t diminish the significance of this moment for Lowe, who will happily accept his long-awaited inclusion in the Century Club.
“If you’re going to hit 100 … there’s a lot of guys in that clubhouse with a whole lot more,” he said. “It’s pretty cool. A lot of guys have put in a lot of time to get those kinds of results. But it’s encouraging to be a part of something like that.”