One of the best defensive plays Andrew Chafin has made in some time wound up sending the veteran reliever to the injured list.

The Nationals placed Chafin on the 15-day IL this morning with a right hamstring strain, an injury he sustained six days ago while doing the splits to make a play in the field. Ryan Loutos, a right-hander acquired only four days ago from the Dodgers, was recalled from Triple-A Rochester to take Chafin’s place in the bullpen.

Chafin didn’t initially show any ill effects when he sprinted to cover first on Corey Seager’s grounder to the right side in the top of the ninth Sunday against the Rangers, then stretched to the point he was doing the splits to snag CJ Abrams’ return throw on the 3-6-1 double play. But the left-hander did not pitch in any of the Nats’ last four games and was unavailable during Friday night’s 11-9 loss to the Marlins.

Chafin was going through a jogging drill in the outfield prior to today’s game, so the injury is not severe enough to prevent him from moderate physical activity right now.

The Nationals summoned Loutos from Rochester late Friday afternoon, then placed Chafin on the IL this morning. They were allowed to backdate the transaction only three days, to June 11, which was still three days after he suffered the injury. The soonest he could return would be June 26, but the team will be cautious with his recovery, not wanting to risk rushing him back and potentially making it worse.

ATLANTA – The Nationals should have been feeling good about their chances to break their losing streak entering the bottom of the ninth inning of last night’s game against the Braves.

Jackson Rutledge had just pitched a shutdown eighth inning on 12 pitches, keeping it a 3-1 game going to the ninth. In the top half of the final frame, the offense rallied to tie the game 3-3, thanks to a throwing error by Braves shortstop Nick Allen.

So when the door to the Nats bullpen swung open in left field, it was surprising to see only a security guard step out onto the warning track and turn to scan the crowd. Kyle Finnegan, the All-Star closer who hasn’t pitched since the first game of Tuesday’s doubleheader against the Guardians, remained in the ‘pen and Rutledge ran back to the mound from the dugout.

And so it was Finnegan watching from the sidelines as Rutledge gave up a single and sacrifice bunt on a combined four pitches, Andrew Chafin entered to surrender the walk-off RBI single to Alex Verdugo and the Nats dropped their sixth straight game, their longest such losing streak since 2023.

“He's throwing the ball well. We had the bottom of the order up. He threw the ball really well,” manager Davey Martinez said to defend his decision to stick with Rutledge in the ninth. “Chafin, he's a guy we count on to get lefties out. He put a good at-bat up. For me, I don't want to put my closer in a tie game in the ninth inning. So I thought that they threw the ball well. It was just unfortunate a ground ball got through the infield.”

ATLANTA – The most recent homestand wasn’t kind to the Nationals. A rainout on Monday forced a doubleheader Tuesday, and with a noon game already scheduled for Wednesday, they had to play all three games against the Guardians in under 24 hours.

The Nats won the first game of that twinbill. And that still stands as the last time they found themselves in the win column.

With tonight’s 4-3 loss in the opener of a four-game series against the Braves, the Nationals have now lost six in a row, their longest losing streak since also dropping six straight Aug. 30-Sept. 5, 2023.

After a ninth-inning rally tied the game at 3-3, Jackson Rutledge and Andrew Chafin combined to give up the winning run in walk-off fashion in the bottom frame.

While closer Kyle Finnegan, who hasn’t pitched since the Nats’ last victory Tuesday, sat in the bullpen, Rutledge gave up a leadoff single, with the runner advancing to scoring position on a sacrifice bunt.

The formula has become so routine at this point, it almost feels like a cruel joke when it keeps happening.

The Nationals get five good-to-great innings out of their starter, then watch him fade in the sixth inning before handing it over to the bullpen, which proceeds to make an absolute mess of a once-low-scoring ballgame.

But wait, there’s more. Despite facing a suddenly daunting deficit created by their relief corps, the Nats battle back to turn this into a high-scoring nailbiter late. At which point everyone holds his or her breath to see how it will end.

Sometimes that formula has produced dramatic victories, as it did Tuesday afternoon. And sometimes it has produced mind-numbing losses, as it did this afternoon in an 8-6 loss to the Guardians to wrap up a wacky interleague series.

Completing three full, nine-inning games in less than 24 hours, the Nationals wound up losing two of three to Cleveland. They certainly had a chance to duplicate their rousing success from a 10-9 win in the opener of Tuesday’s doubleheader in the finale, but instead they were done in by yet another bullpen disaster and an inability to complete a potentially rousing rally.

CINCINNATI – The Nationals’ 4-1 victory over the Reds early Sunday evening was made possible by MacKenzie Gore’s gutsy five innings in the rain, and by Luis García Jr. and CJ Abrams’ clutch hits in the seventh that gave them the lead for good.

But the only way the Nats were going to be able to celebrate the win at the end of a long weekend and an even longer road trip was for their bullpen to protect that three-run lead.

It may not sound like much of an accomplishment. Bullpens should be counted on to protect three-run leads, yes? This bullpen, of course, did very little in the season’s first month to deserve that kind of trust.

But over the last several days, beginning Thursday in Philadelphia and continuing throughout the weekend in Cincinnati, the Nationals relief corps started pitching like a more reliable unit. And so by the time they took the mound at Great American Ball Park on Sunday, there seemed to be less fear of pending disaster and more confidence about a job well done than there had been at any previous point this year.

It all started with Jorge López, who was given the ball for the bottom of the sixth in relief of Gore. Like the bullpen as a whole, the veteran right-hander endured through a miserable opening month, owner of a 10.57 ERA on April 16 after he was ejected for allegedly throwing at the Pirates’ Andrew McCutchen.

CINCINNATI – Amed Rosario had already hit the ball hard three times tonight, with only minimal production to show for it. By the time he stepped up to the plate a fourth time to face Nick Lodolo, the veteran Nationals infielder had to like his chances of doing it again. And perhaps finally having something real to show for it.

Sure enough, Rosario delivered. His three-run homer to center in the top of the sixth gave the Nats a lead they would not relinquish during what wound up a satisfying, 11-6 victory over the Reds.

That big blast capped a four-RBI night for Rosario, who got the nod at third base against Cincinnati’s left-handed starter and got four chances to face him. His first two at-bats produced loud outs, both in the air to center field. His third found the gap in left-center for an RBI double. But it was his fourth that made the most impact, literally and figuratively.

Stepping to the plate with two on and one out in a tie game, with Lodolo still on the mound for the Reds, Rosario saw a belt-high changeup over the plate and belted it 408 feet to center field. He cruised around the bases to cheers from the visitors’ dugout.

“I was prepared since my first at-bat,” Rosario said, via interpreter Mauricio Ortiz. “But of course towards the second and third, I kind of knew what he was going to throw.”

CINCINNATI – Sometimes, a player takes great care and thought before signing with a new team. And sometimes, Andrew Chafin gets a call from the Nationals, and the veteran reliever just says yes right away.

“They called and said: ‘We’ve got a job for you.’ I said: ‘Alright, let’s do this thing,’” the left-hander said. “So then I showed up today. It’s pretty simple.”

That right there should tell you everything you need to know about Chafin, the 34-year-old reliever with 601 games of major league experience, now about to pitch for his seventh different team after the Nats offered him a one-year, $1 million contract Thursday.

As Nathaniel Lowe, briefly his teammate in Texas last season, put it, Chafin is “uniquely himself.” There’s nothing phony about him. What you see is what you get.

And what the Nationals are hoping to get are a whole lot of quality appearances out of the bullpen, providing some stability and experience to a group that sorely needs it.