The idea is to play a more fundamental brand of baseball the rest of the season, Miguel Cairo explained this afternoon. The Nationals’ interim manager then watched as the Padres showed them the proper way to do that while watching his own team come up woefully short on multiple occasions.

Despite getting a jolt from CJ Abrams’ game-tying homer in the bottom of the eighth, the Nats still lost 7-2 when San Diego scored five runs off Kyle Finnegan in the top of the ninth, an inning that featured a successful hit-and-run, the game’s second successful safety squeeze, good baserunning and then a grand slam for the final dagger.

The Nationals? They ran themselves into three more outs (Josh Bell accounting for two of them at critical moments in the game), stumbled in the field and watched another winnable game not only slip from their fingers but turn into a rout.

In short, the second half of a season gone awry opened in much the same manner the first half closed.

"I said it before: That's something we need to keep working on getting better," said Cairo, whose team is now 1-6 since he replaced Davey Martinez. "We're going to keep working on doing the little things better than the other team. There's still 2 1/2 months to go, and we've got to keep our heads up. I'm going to stay aggressive. If you're not aggressive, you're not trying."

For four months, Derek Law tried to get his arm ready to pitch in the major leagues, hoping the setbacks he experienced along the way could finally be overcome. Until the veteran Nationals reliever was told last week he has a partial tear of the flexor tendon in his right elbow, at which point hope turned to acceptance.

Law will undergo surgery soon to repair the tear, a procedure that will prevent him from pitching this season and likely sideline him until early-to-mid 2026. It’s a tough pill to swallow for the 34-year-old, who wanted to believe all along he’d be able to contribute to the Nats in 2025 but has now resigned himself to the fact he can’t.

“It was already hard enough to miss Opening Day this year. And then you hear that,” he said. “I needed every bit of five days to figure out in my head what the heck’s going on, the downtime I’m going to miss.”

The workhorse of the Nationals' bullpen, Law made 75 appearances and pitched 90 innings last season, the highest total by any of the team’s relievers since Tyler Clippard in 2010. He did so while missing two weeks in late-August with a flexor strain, an injury he rebounded from to close out the season with no real issues.

Law never could get his arm right this season, though. After a delayed build-up in spring training, he began experiencing elbow soreness, so he opened the year on the injured list. That turned into a much longer process than initially envisioned, with Law eventually making four appearances in minor league rehab games over the last month but unable to emerge from those sessions without a return of the elbow pain.

Before the Nationals broke for the All-Star break, they made a small adjustment to their starting rotation that left a lingering question mark heading into the second half. And before their second-half opener against the Padres, interim manager Miguel Cairo provided an answer.

Brad Lord will be stretched out as a starter again to fill the fifth spot in the rotation, taking the opening left by Shinnosuke Ogasawara who was optioned to Triple-A Rochester following his second big league start Saturday against the Brewers.

“It feels good. I'm just grateful for the opportunity to start again,” Lord said in the Nationals' dugout ahead of this six-game homestand. “I'm looking forward to building up and just seeing what I can do.”

The 25-year-old right-hander is in line to start Tuesday against the Reds, following Jake Irivin who will start Monday’s series opener against Cincinnati.

“It's going to be Lord. So Lord, we're going to stretch (him out),” Cairo said. “We're going to start Lord on the fifth day. It's gonna be a progression, how many pitches, how many innings. But we're gonna stretch him out.”

And we’re back. After a much-needed, four-day break, the Nationals return for the second half of the season, surely hoping it will go much better than the first half did. The “second half,” of course, is a misnomer. They’ve already played 96 games, so there are only 66 still to be played.

It begins tonight with the opener of a three-game series against the Padres, who are sending someone to the mound the Nats may not be thrilled to see again: Dylan Cease. Almost exactly one year ago, the right-hander tossed a no-hitter here at Nationals Park. Cease hasn’t been nearly as good this season; he enters 3-9 with a 4.88 ERA, but he’s still striking out more than 11 batters per nine innings.

The All-Star break gave Miguel Cairo and Jim Hickey a chance to reorganize their rotation. So with MacKenzie Gore having thrown his scoreless inning Tuesday in Atlanta, he’ll now be pushed back to Sunday. And with Jake Irvin having thrown Sunday’s first half finale in Milwaukee, he’ll get extra rest. So it’s Michael Soroka out of the chute tonight, with Mitchell Parker set for Saturday night’s game.

SAN DIEGO PADRES at WASHINGTON NATIONALS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 6:45 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Mostly cloudy, 80 degrees, wind 66 mph out to left field

PADRES
RF Fernando Tatis Jr.
1B Luis Arraez
3B Manny Machado
LF Gavin Sheets
CF Jackson Merrill
SS Xander Bogaerts
2B Jake Cronenworth
DH Trenton Brooks
C Elias Díaz

The All-Star break is over. The Nationals – along with 29 other major league teams – return to action tonight, and the second half of the 2025 season gets underway.

It’s a second half that doesn’t hold anything close to the same promise it did a few months ago, when it looked like the Nats might at least threaten the .500 mark, maybe even make a surprise cameo appearance in the National League wild card race. Alas, that’s not going to happen now. To finish 81-81, they need to go a ridiculous 43-23 the rest of the way. (That would be the equivalent of a 105-win pace over an entire season. So, yeah, it’s not happening.)

But that doesn’t mean the rest of the season is going to be meaningless. There are storylines worth following over the next 2 1/2 months. Such as these …

THE TRADE DEADLINE
For the fifth straight season, the Nationals figure to be sellers on July 31. That’s not a position anyone wanted to be in this year, but it’s reality now. Interim general manager Mike DeBartolo has no choice but to see what he can get for players who don’t look like part of the long-term plan around here. Anybody on an expiring contract (Kyle Finnegan, Michael Soroka, Josh Bell, Paul DeJong, Amed Rosario, Andrew Chafin) is going to be shopped and likely moved if any kind of substantive offer is made. The bigger question is whether DeBartolo looks to move anybody still under club control in 2026 (or beyond). Nathaniel Lowe would be a potential candidate. And what about (gulp) MacKenzie Gore, who is the same distance away from free agency right as Juan Soto was in July 2022. It would take a gargantuan offer from someone, but would DeBartolo consider doing it?

WOOD’S PERSONAL PURSUITS
He’s not going to be able to do anything on his own to help the Nationals become a winning team this year, but James Wood has plenty to shoot for on a personal level. He’s shooting for 40-plus homers, a number previously reached only by Bryce Harper (42) and Alfonso Soriano (46) in club history. If he gets within shouting distance of Soriano, September could actually be a lot of fun. He could also join Anthony Rendon as the only players in club history to drive in more than 110 runs, though it would take a mammoth surge to threaten Rendon’s team record of 126 RBIs.

At the macro level, it’s impossible to look at the Nationals’ 2025 season to date and deem it a success. The team has been in a tailspin since early June, losing 28 of its last 38 games and plummeting to 20 games under .500. That tailspin cost both Mike Rizzo and Davey Martinez their jobs, firings few could have accurately predicted when they closed out May with a respectable 28-30 record.

Now, the strange part. At the micro level, there actually have been a few positive developments through the season’s first half. Several key young players have performed exceptionally well. Several prospects called up to debut amid the turmoil have done a nice job to date.

Those individual positives don’t add up nearly enough to salvage the big picture. But they have created a weird dichotomy to the first 96 games of the season. All is not well around here, but all is not lost, either.

There’s much that still needs to take place in the second half to determine the fate of the 2025 Nationals, and we’ll explore that Friday morning before the guys return from the All-Star break. Today, we’ll look at what already transpired, what went right and what went wrong through a first half that won’t soon be forgotten by anyone who had to experience it. …

RIGHT: JAMES WOOD
This can’t be said enough: Wood is having the best individual season by a National since Juan Soto. The team hasn’t had a qualified hitter finish with a .900 OPS since Soto’s .999 mark in 2021. Wood currently sits at .915, and that’s down 43 points over his last eight games. If he gets that number back to .950, he’d joint an awfully select list of players in club history (Soto, Anthony Rendon, Daniel Murphy, Bryce Harper). That’s it. Oh, he’s also on pace for 41 homers and 116 RBIs. Only Harper (42) and Alfonso Soriano (46) have hit 40-plus homes in club history. Only Rendon (126) has driven in more than 110 runs. If the Nats were a more competitive team, Wood would be in the MVP discussion over the rest of the season.

Apologies that my annual Nationals draft tracker was not up this year. I was making my way back from covering the team in Milwaukee on Monday and couldn’t follow along the second day of the MLB Draft live.

But on this, the slowest day in the sports calendar, let us revisit the 17 picks the Nationals made in Rounds 4-20 throughout the day Monday.

Of course, we know the Nationals brass – now led by interim general manager Mike DeBartolo along with mainstays vice president of amateur scouting Danny Haas, senior director of amateur Scouting Brad Ciolek and assistant director and national crosschecker of amateur scouting Reed Dunn – made somewhat of a surprising pick by taking Oklahoma high school shortstop Eli Willits at No. 1 overall.

Their other two picks from Sunday night include power-hitting outfielder Ethan Petry out of the University of South Carolina at No. 49 overall and right-hander Landon Harmon out of East Union Attendance Center High School (Miss.) with the No. 80 overall pick.

And with that, let’s take a look at the rest of the Nationals’ 2025 draft class (round, overall, name, position, B/T, height, weight, age, school) …

The Washington Nationals selected 17 players on the second and final day of Major League Baseball’s 2025 First-Year Player Draft on Monday. Interim General Manager Mike DeBartolo; Vice President, Amateur Scouting Danny Haas; Senior Director, Amateur Scouting Brad Ciolek; and Assistant Director and National Crosschecker, Amateur Scouting Reed Dunn made the joint announcements.

The Nationals opened Day 2 with the selection of right-handed pitcher Miguel Sime Jr. from Poly Prep Country Day School (NY). The 6-foot-4, 235-pounder recorded a 1.47 ERA (8 ER/49.1 IP) with 89 strikeouts and zero home runs allowed in eight outings as a senior on his way to being named the Gatorade High School Player of the Year in the state of New York, a Perfect Game All-American and a second-team ABCA/Rawlings High School All-American.

Sime is rated by MLBPipeline.com as the No. 86 prospect and by Baseball America as the No. 88 prospect in the 2025 First-Year Player Draft. He is the top high school prospect in the state of New York and the No. 6 high school right-handed pitching prospect in the country, according to Perfect Game. Prior to the 2025 Draft, Sime participated in the MLB Draft League, striking out 11 batters and posting a .161 opponents’ average (5-for-31) in 8.2 innings.

In the fifth round, the Nationals selected shortstop Coy James out of Davie High School (N.C.). James, 18, hit .605 with 15 doubles, four triples, nine home runs, 25 RBI, 21 stolen bases, 22 walks, 50 runs scored and just six strikeouts on his way to being named Gatorade North Carolina Player of the Year and 4A Player of the Year by the North Carolina Baseball Coaches Association.

The 6-foot, 185-pound right-handed hitter was named a First Team All-American by ABCA/Rawlings this season. He was ranked the No. 15 overall player and No. 9 shortstop, according to Perfect Game, while being named to their All-American Game in 2024. He was also ranked the No. 49 overall draft prospect by Baseball America and the No. 94 prospect by MLBPipe.com.

The No. 1 pick was always going to dominate the conversation about the Nationals’ 2025 draft class, no matter who they selected. And a front office that experienced major change just one week ago desperately wants and needs Eli Willits to become everything they believe he can be, putting to rest any doubts about their somewhat-surprising decision to draft him.

But the Nats also know this draft can’t be considered a success if only their first round pick pans out. Among the reasons ownership decided to make a change of general managers was the organization’s lack of development of later round picks over the last decade.

There have been some strides made in that area more recently, with the likes of Cole Henry (second round, 2020), Daylen Lile (second round, 2021), Jake Irvin (fourth round, 2018), Mitchell Parker (fifth round, 2020), Jacob Young (seventh round, 2021) and Brad Lord (18th round, 2022) all reaching the big leagues and becoming contributors of varying degrees. But it’s still not enough. The Nationals know they need to develop more quality players out of picks beyond the first round.

It will be some time before we know if they were successful in that regard this year, but it’s clear they took a different approach with several of their down-ballot draft picks over the last two days: They went for more high-upside high schoolers than has typically been the case.

“They’re such talented guys,” vice president of amateur scouting Danny Haas said. “Big arms. Big power. Athletes. Just the value of where you get them with every round, we were very excited about that.”

James Wood seemed to set the bar high enough when he kicked off tonight’s Home Run Derby with a solid number and several jaw-dropping blasts.

Little did the Nationals’ young slugger realize just how impressive the competition would be on this night.

Despite launching 16 home runs as the first contestant at Atlanta’s Truist Park, Wood wound up being the first one eliminated when the four batters who followed – Brent Rooker, Junior Caminero, Oneil Cruz and Byron Buxton – each surpassed that number.

Wood drew the short straw and had to bat first, leaving the 22-year-old with no way of knowing how many home runs it would take to advance to the semifinals. And he got off to a slow start, with only one of his first eight batted balls clearing the fence.

But the young man known for hitting baseballs as hard as anyone in the sport put forth a mighty swing at that point that got him going at last. His 486-foot blast off the roof of the restaurant in right-center field was longer than any ball hit during last summer’s derby in Texas.

The gentlemen in charge of the Nationals’ draft war room Sunday night all made the same point, in their own various words, about the ultimate decision to use the No. 1 pick on Eli Willits. They all were adamant he was the choice, no dissension in the room.

Vice president of amateur scouting Danny Haas: “I think there was general consensus for a while, and it solidified into unanimous toward the end of our process.”

Assistant scouting director/national crosschecker Reed Dunn: “I’m really proud of the work everybody did to come together. And, as Danny said, to make a unanimous decision on somebody we truly believe in.”

Senior director of amateur scouting Brad Ciolek: “We scouted the entire class. We were prepared. And then ultimately when we ended up winning the lottery, we knew exactly who we needed to hone in on, who we needed to do more work on.”

Interim general manager Mike DeBartolo: “It was one of those nice things where the scouts and the analysts see things the exact same way and saw him as the best hitter in the draft, the best fielder in the draft, with just great makeup, great work ethic and all the intangibles. Everything came together, and it was a really collaborative and great process.”

The Washington Nationals selected right-handed pitcher Landon Harmon out of East Union Attendance Center High School (Miss.) in the third round with the No. 80 overall pick in the 2025 MLB First-Year Player Draft on Sunday. Interim General Manager Mike DeBartolo; Vice President, Amateur Scouting Danny Haas; Senior Director, Amateur Scouting Brad Ciolek; and Assistant Director and National Crosschecker, Amateur Scouting Reed Dunn made the joint announcement.

Harmon, 18, pitched to a 1.09 ERA with 131 strikeouts in 66.1 innings of work this season. He was named MHSAA's Class 2A Mr. Baseball for the second year in a row, an All-State first-team selection and to the 2025 Clarion Ledger's Dandy Dozen, a collection of Mississippi's top high school baseball prospects.

The 6-foot-5, 190-pound righty was the MLBPipeline.com No. 48 prospect in the draft and Baseball America’s No. 65 draft prospect. He was named an All-American, the No. 26 overall player and the No. 2 right-handed pitcher by Perfect Game. He was also named a second-team All-American by Baseball America.

In the end, the Nationals went with the other talented shortstop from Oklahoma whose father played in the big leagues.

The Nats selected Eli Willits with the No. 1 pick in tonight’s Major League Baseball Draft, a choice that may have surprised some but became increasingly possible over the last week both because of the 17-year-old’s all-around skills and the suspicion he might command a lower signing bonus than either Ethan Holliday or Kade Anderson, possibly opening the door for the club to go over slot on later-round picks.

Owners of the top selection in the draft for the third time in club history, the Nationals faced a much tougher decision this time than they did when last they found themselves in this position. Stephen Strasburg (2009) and Bryce Harper (2010) were no-brainers, two of the most highly touted prospects in the history of the sport.

The list of viable options was much longer this year, with Willits joined by fellow Oklahoma high school infielder Holliday, LSU left-hander Anderson, Tennessee lefty Liam Doyle and California high school right-hander Seth Hernandez all meriting consideration down to the wire, according to a source familiar with the club’s deliberations.

Willits, who admitted he made it his personal goal to be drafted No. 1 overall two years ago, was optimistic about his chances after he visited Nationals Park last month and got a chance to meet team executives and coaches. That didn't diminish his emotions when he officially got the call today.

The Washington Nationals selected collegiate outfielder Ethan Petry out of the University of South Carolina in the second round with the No. 49 overall pick in the 2025 MLB First-Year Player Draft on Sunday. Interim General Manager Mike DeBartolo; Vice President, Amateur Scouting Danny Haas; Senior Director, Amateur Scouting Brad Ciolek; and Assistant Director and National Crosschecker, Amateur Scouting Reed Dunn made the joint announcement.

Petry, 21, hit .321 with 10 doubles, one triple, 10 home runs, 34 RBI, 26 walks and 30 runs scored in 44 games for the Gamecocks in 2025. He posted a .437 on-base percentage and a .590 slugging percentage while leading the team in home runs and ranking second in RBI and walks.

The 6-foot-4, 235-pound right-handed power hitter was named a consensus All-American, an All-Southeastern Conference First-Team selection and the Perfect Game National Freshman of the Year in 2023 after he hit .379 with a South Carolina freshman record 23 home runs and 75 RBI.

Petry added 21 more home runs his sophomore season in 2024, hitting .306 with eight doubles, a triple, 53 RBI, 51 walks and 57 runs scored. He was named to the All-NCAA Raleigh Regional after he was 3-for-7 with a pair of doubles.

A native of Land O’ Lakes, Fla., he attended Cypress Creek High School. A two-way prep player, he hit .402 with 80 runs scored, 29 doubles, three triples, 12 home runs and 80 RBI with a 1.211 OPS in his high school career. He was named the Sunshine Athletic Conference Player of the Year in 2022 after he was 5-2 with a 1.97 ERA and 60 strikeouts on the mound in addition to his accomplishments at the plate.

Petry was ranked the No. 31 overall player in the 2022 class by Perfect Game and played in the High School All-American Game at Coors Field in Denver.

The Washington Nationals selected prep shortstop Eli Willits out of Fort Cobb-Broxton (Okla.) High School with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 MLB First-Year Player Draft on Sunday. Interim General Manager Mike DeBartolo; Vice President, Amateur Scouting Danny Haas; Senior Director, Amateur Scouting Brad Ciolek; and Assistant Director and National Crosschecker, Amateur Scouting Reed Dunn made the joint announcement.

Willits, 17, hit .473 with 14 doubles, one triple, eight home runs, 34 RBI, 27 walks, 47 stolen bases and 56 runs scored while striking out just four times all season to lead the Mustangs to their sixth straight Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association Class B state title. He posted a .602 on-base percentage and a .912 slugging percentage to combine for a 1.514 OPS in 128 plate appearances.

Willits was named a  Baseball America, Rawlings/American Baseball Coaches Association and Perfect Game High School All-American, an Oklahoma Baseball Coaches Association Class B All-Star and was an OBCA Class B All-State selection.

The switch-hitting Willits was also a member of the U-18 Team USA squad that won the gold medal at the 2024 World Baseball and Softball Confederation World Cup America qualifier to earn a place in the U-18 WBSC World Cup. He started all eight games for the Americans in center field and recorded four hits, four RBI and two stolen bases in the tournament. He registered one hit, a hit by a pitch and a stolen base in the gold medal game.

At 17 years old and seven months, Willits is the youngest first overall pick in Major League history and the fourth-youngest selection at any point in the history of the MLB Draft. After he reclassified to the 2025 class, he was rated the eighth overall player in the Perfect Game national rankings and the second in the state of Oklahoma, while being named a Perfect Game All-American in 2024.

MILWAUKEE – If the Nationals were going to head into the All-Star break on a positive note, they had an uphill climb to battle.

Already having struggled this weekend against Brewers pitching, facing right-hander Freddy Peralta, who was selected for the upcoming All-Star Game but will not pitch in it, may have proved to be the Nats’ toughest challenge yet.

And they were shorthanded heading into the matchup, with their two best hitters sidelined before the game even started. For the first time in 174 games since he made his major league debut, James Wood was not in the starting lineup, the struggling All-Star slugger getting some extra rest before tomorrow’s Home Run Derby.

“He's going to be in the Home Run Derby, he's going to play in the All-Star Game. And he doesn't have time off, so I just wanted to give him the day today so that he can just chill out and relax," interim manager Miguel Cairo said after the game. "He's been playing every day. He's the big player on our team. And I just wanted to give him a day.”

Then 30 minutes before first pitch, CJ Abrams was scratched from the starting lineup, with Paul DeJong taking over at shortstop and batting fourth. The Nats announced during the game (a change from the team’s policy under the previous regime) that the young shortstop was scratched with minor right shoulder soreness, which he first experienced on Saturday.

MILWAUKEE – One more. There is only one more game to play before the Nationals head into the desperately-needed All-Star break.

This week has not been easy for the boys in curly W caps. The front office shakeup. The managerial change. Having lost seven of their last eight games, yesterday in spectacularly heartbreaking fashion. But there is one more game they need to battle through before they can finally rest for a couple of days.

Jake Irvin will try to be the stopper against the Brewers. And much like his team as a whole, he really needs to finish the first half on a strong note. Although his record is better than it was at this point last year (7-4 vs. 7-8), the rest of his numbers are worse. His ERA is over a run higher (from 3.49 to 4.78) and his WHIP is about 200 points higher (from 1.112 to 1.306). He also leads the National League with 22 home runs surrendered after giving up 14 in the first half last year. A strong outing against this potent Brewers offense would be a good step toward a strong second half.

The Nats' offense, on the other hand, will have to face another tough starting pitcher in Freddy Peralta. The right-hander was selected to the All-Star Game, but obviously will not pitch. So he will be full-go this afternoon in his first-half finale. Peralta is 10-4 with a 2.74 ERA and 1.086 WHIP over 19 starts, and he’s given up more than three earned runs in a start only once this year.

A small roster move this morning: The Nats recalled right-hander Andry Lara from Double-A Harrisburg to take the roster spot of Shinnosuke Ogasawara, who was optioned to Triple-A Rochester after yesterday's game.

MILWAUKEE – The Nationals made a small roster move ahead of their first-half finale against the Brewers. They recalled right-hander Andry Lara from Double-A Harrisburg to take the open roster spot left by Shinnosuke Ogasawara, who was optioned to Triple-A Rochester last night.

“Very happy. Very happy to be back here,” Lara said of coming back to a major league clubhouse, via interpreter Mauricio Ortiz.

Lara’s return comes 11 days after he made his major league debut on July 2 as the 27th man in the first game of a split doubleheader against the Tigers, in which he tossed three scoreless innings and struck out four to preserve the Nats' bullpen for the nightcap. His outing came in an 11-2 loss, but he was the lone bright spot for the team in a moment he’ll never forget.

“I remember everything. Everything,” Lara said. “It was really special to me. Of course, it was my major league debut. That's something I've always dreamed of, and I'm really happy.”

The debut was a long wait for the 22-year-old, who signed with the Nationals out of Venezuela for $1.25 million as one of their top international prospects six years ago. After some ups and downs in the minor leagues, Lara, currently the Nats’ No. 16 prospect per MLB Pipeline, gets another chance at the major league level.

MILWAUKEE – The Nationals entered Saturday’s matchup with the Brewers needing to put Friday night’s loss behind them. They struggled mightily against opener DL Hall and regular starter Quinn Priester, who combined to hold them to just three runs over the course of the series opener.

But today, the Nats would only need to face one Milwaukee starting pitcher before manager Pat Murphy turned it over to his traditional relievers. The problem was that one starter was Brandon Woodruff.

That mattered little to two Nationals rookies, who hit two home runs off the two-time All-Star and then one more late in the game. But that was not enough to power their team to a win, as the Nats were walked off by the Brewers in the ninth for a 6-5 loss.

Handed a two-run lead following CJ Abrams’ sacrifice fly in the top of the inning, Kyle Finnegan immediately ran into trouble in the bottom of the ninth.

The Nats' closer issued a first-pitch infield single that bounced over third baseman Brady House's head to lead off the frame. He then walked Christian Yelich on four pitches and gave up a two-run double to Andrew Vaugn that tied the game at 5-5. After a groundout moved the runner to third and an intentional walk to set up a potential double play, Caleb Durbin hit a single down the right field line to give the home team the walk-off celebration.

MILWAUKEE – Brady House’s bat helped him earn his first promotion to make his major league debut about a month ago. But it’s his glove at third base that’s impressed the most so far over his first 21 big league games.

House slashed .304/.353/.519 with an .873 OPS, 15 doubles, 13 home runs and 41 RBIs in 65 games with Triple-A Rochester before getting the call on June 16. And while the bat is slowly coming around at the major league level, his defense at the hot corner has been the best the Nationals have received at the hot corner this year.

“I'm feeling good. I'm just trying to attack everything that kind of comes my way,” House said before today’s game against the Brewers. “That's kind of helped out a little bit with that mindset. Just once it's hit, try to come up and get it, unless it's hit hard. But yeah, just trying to attack it and not let the ball attack me.”

The 22-year-old was a first-round pick out of high school in 2021, largely because he was scouted as one of, if not the, best prep bats in that draft class. A shortstop in school, many thought his 6-foot-4, 208-pound frame was a better fit at third base. And although he said he wished to stay at short after he was selected 11th overall, the Nationals quickly moved their top prospect over to be their third baseman of the future.

“He's special. He can play defense, and you can see that,” said interim manager Miguel Cairo. “Last year, when I first got here for my first year as the bench coach for the Nationals, the improvement from one year to another one has been amazing. He's still, what, 22, 23? He's still a young player. And he's elite. To me, he's an elite third baseman every day over there.”