Nats blast five homers to sweep O's (updated)

BALTIMORE – The Nationals arrived here late Thursday night following a frustrating series in Atlanta following a frustrating homestand against the Guardians and Cardinals. A season that felt promising not long ago now felt like it was one more bad series from slipping away.

And then something clicked when they walked into Camden Yards on Friday. Maybe it was the fact they were facing an Orioles team whose season really has slipped away, leading to the dismissal of their manager. Maybe it was something the Nats did themselves, especially at the plate.

Whatever the case, it was a welcome development. Today’s 10-4 victory, which for the second straight day featured an early seven-run explosion, was exactly what the Nationals needed, exactly when they needed it.

At 21-27, they’ve still got plenty of work to do. But if they can come anywhere close to duplicating their performance from this weekend’s three-game sweep, things may just work out in the long run after all.

"It's awesome that we bounced back like that," outfielder Dylan Crews said. "Obviously, you don't want things to go like they did in Atlanta, or even before that. But we're going to go out here and flip the page, and that's what we did. We're going to use this as momentum going forward."

Saturday’s early outburst was built on a barrage of singles, doubles and triples. Today’s was built on the muscle of five home runs, something the Nats did not do once in 2024. And they wasted no time doing it.

A large crowd filled with thousands of area little leaguers was just settling in when CJ Abrams stepped to the plate to begin today’s game, hopeful this one would be more competitive than the previous afternoon’s affair was. And then Abrams crushed those hopes with one mighty swing.

Belting Zach Eflin’s very first pitch onto the flag court beyond the right field wall, Abrams set the tone for the Nationals with his fourth leadoff homer of the season, the 11th of his career.

"It's the same every day: I want a pitch in the middle, put a good swing on it if it's there," he said. "I got one today, and I put a good swing on it."

Saturday’s offensive explosion included six runs in the first, then one run in the second. The Nats decided to flip the script today, managing only that Abrams homer in the first before putting up a half-dozen more runs in the second, all but one of them scoring via home run.

Luis García Jr. got it going with his own leadoff homer, mashing an Eflin changeup to right-center for his fourth homer of the season. Crews stepped to the plate four batters later, with a pair of teammates on base, and tagged a first-pitch sinker to deep left-center for his sixth of the season, this one a three-run homer that made it 5-0.

"We were aggressive in the zone," manager Davey Martinez said. "We took some pitches, we worked some good counts. And when we got the ball in the zone, we swung the bats really well."

And they weren’t done. Abrams followed Crews with another deep drive, this one to the opposite field, for his second homer in as many innings. And when Keibert Ruiz sent a two-out RBI single to left later in the inning, the Nationals once again found themselves leading the Orioles 7-0 in the second inning, once again having batted around. At one point, they were 5-for-9 with four homers on the day against Eflin, who somehow remained in this game all the way into the sixth inning.

Martinez has been pleading with his team for weeks to jump out to early leads against opposing starters. The Nats took it to the extreme against Baltimore’s starters the last two days. Now the pertinent question will be: Was this the beginning of a new trend, or just one really great weekend against a downtrodden opponent?

"Just keep going, build off each other," Abrams said. "We've got each other's back, and we're playing for each other right now. If we keep going, we'll be good."

Whatever the case, the Nationals happily took the back-to-back touchdown leads they handed their starters over the last 48 hours. And just as Jake Irvin did Saturday, Michael Soroka made the most of all the run support this afternoon.

In his fourth start of a season disrupted by a biceps strain, Soroka looked his sharpest. Mixing a mid-90s fastball with a low-80s breaking ball that for the first time officially registered with Statcast as a “slurve,” the right-hander cruised through four scoreless innings on 54 pitches, at one point striking out four during a five-batter span.

Soroka gave up a leadoff homer to Cedric Mullins in the fifth but proceeded to notch his seventh strikeout of the afternoon later that inning and went into the sixth with his pitch count still a modest 71.

"It was a point of mine to make sure I got out there and beat up the zone," he said. "I always used to do that in the minor leagues. My whole career coming up I kind of made a name for just living in the zone, no matter what the count, no matter what the situation was. I wanted to get back to that and prove to the Nationals that when they signed me, those issues were behind me."

Whether it’s a sign he still needs to build his stamina back up after missing time on the IL, or a more concerning sign of recurring trouble as he gets deeper in games, Soroka seemed to hit a wall in the sixth. He gave up another homer, this time to Gunnar Henderson, then a couple of doubles to Ryan O’Hearn and Mullins, trimming the Nats’ lead to 8-3 and bringing Martinez out of the dugout seeking the ball.

Four starts in, Soroka seemingly has pitched well to the naked eye. But his 5.95 ERA suggests there’s still work to do around the edges, especially when it comes time to finish his starts on a high note.

"I think (pitching strategist Sean Doolittle) said it after that second inning: 'You've got to pitch like it's 0-0, because they're swinging,'" he said. "It's an aggressive team. You saw late in the outing they made me pay on a couple of pitches that caught a little too much plate, or all of the plate. You've got to still just mow them down. Just let it rip."

Brad Lord replaced Soroka and did surrender a solo homer to Jackson Holliday in the seventh. But Josh Bell responded with a 433-foot moonshot to right-center in the eighth, giving the Nationals their first five-homer game since Sept. 29, 2023.

"We did so much work in spring training, up to this point of the season, about hitting the ball a little more out front, getting the ball off the ground," Martinez said. "And it's starting to come to fruition. We're starting to hit the ball more in the air, and that's where the home runs come from."