MINNEAPOLIS – If the Nationals believed a day off in the Land of 10,000 Lakes would do them good and allow them to return to action tonight with no residual effects of their shutout loss Wednesday in D.C., they were greatly mistaken.

The Nats batters who dug in tonight against the Twins’ Zebby Matthews looked no better than the guys who dug in Wednesday afternoon against the Reds’ Nick Lodolo. They made quick outs. They drew zero walks. They scored zero runs.

And when it was all over, they had once again wasted MacKenzie Gore’s pitching efforts, trudging out of Target Field on the wrong end of a 1-0 ballgame, their second straight shutout loss.

The Nationals haven’t scored a run in 21 innings now, their last runners to cross the plate coming way back in the sixth inning Tuesday night via Riley Adams’ two-run single. They’ve barely even given themselves a chance to score again since.

"We didn't hit," interim manager Miguel Cairo said. "We got three hits, I think. Sometimes it goes like that. They got three hits, too. They just got one more run than us."

MINNEAPOLIS – The Nationals signed second-round pick Ethan Petry today and in the process went over their total slot pool for this year’s draft.

Petry, an outfielder from South Carolina who hit 54 homers over the last three seasons, signed for $2.09 million, a source familiar with the deal confirmed. That’s slightly above Major League Baseball’s recommended slot value for the 49th overall pick in the draft ($1,984,200).

Petry was the last of the Nats’ top 10 selections to sign, so they’ve now locked up everyone who was subject to the draft pool. He joins third-round pick Landon Harmon ($2.5 million), fourth-round pick Miguel Sime Jr. ($2 million) and fifth-round pick Coy James ($2.5 million) in receiving above-slot bonuses. Petry is the lone college player from that group.

No. 1 overall pick Eli Willits officially signed last weekend for $8.2 million, a record amount for a high school player but nearly $3 million below slow value for the top choice in the draft this year. The Nationals managed to apply those savings, plus money saved with below-slot bonuses for their sixth through 10th round picks, to lure the three other high school draftees to sign instead of honoring their college commitments.

All told, the Nationals spent $17,365,000 on their top 10 picks, exceeding their MLB-designated draft pool of $16,597,800 by $767,200. That makes them subject to a league-imposed 75 percent tax on their overages, which equates to an extra $575,400 spent this year on draft picks.

Jacob Young is no stranger to making incredible defensive plays in center field. Since becoming a full-time major leaguer last year, the 25-year-old has been one of the most electric outfielders in the sport.

So while it wasn’t a surprise Young made a miraculous catch to rob Will Benson of a home run yesterday, it was still a play that should draw plenty of praise. And a highlight that should be remembered from an otherwise forgettable 5-0 loss to the Reds.

With Cincinnati having already extended its lead to 3-0 in the eighth inning, it looked like Benson was going to add more with a two-run homer off Jackson Rutledge. He hit the right-hander's elevated first-pitch fastball 103.1 mph off the bat and it traveled 400 feet to straightaway center.

But he needed 401 feet to beat Young.

The 5-foot-11 center fielder ran back and climbed the wall with two literal steps to reach over and bring the ball back for the final out of the inning, sending a loud roar of approval from the crowd ringing across Nationals Park and putting a lot of astounded looks on players’ faces.

In order for the Nationals to accomplish something they hadn’t in two months, they would need to build on the offensive outputs they posted in each of the first two games against the Reds.

They claimed victories in those outings in very different ways, setting up an opportunity for their first three-game sweep since mid-May against the Orioles in Baltimore. On Monday, they jumped out to a big early lead and held on late. On Tuesday, they stayed patient against a tough starter, who they eventually got to the second time through the order, and relied on the bullpen.

Unfortunately, the Nats were victims of another feat, something that has happened to them more recently than their own sweep.

Neither version of the offense showed up this afternoon, as the Nats were shut out by Nick Lodolo in a 5-0 loss in front of 21,567 fans on camp day at Nationals Park.

Lodolo became the third pitcher to toss a complete-game shutout against the Nationals this season, joining Erick Fedde (who was coincidentally designated for assignment by the Cardinals today after going 3-10 with a 5.22 ERA) on May 9 and David Peterson with the Mets on June 11.

Rarely do the Nationals make you wait to find out if it’s going to be a good night at the plate or a bad night at the plate. You usually know right away in the first or second inning if they’ve got an opposing starter figured out. If they do, great. If they don’t, it’s probably going to be a long night.

So consider what the Nats did tonight against Chase Burns an important step in the right direction. The Reds’ rookie phenom made them look silly for four innings with an upper-90s fastball and a low-90s slider that produced 10 strikeouts. And then they began to make some adjustments along the way and took him down in the fifth and sixth.

That later-than-usual offensive surge, combined with an impressive, all-hands-on-deck pitching performance from Brad Lord and a makeshift bullpen put the Nationals in position to celebrate a well-earned 6-1 victory over Cincinnati.

It’s only the Nats’ third series win in their last 14 attempts. And they’ll have a chance Wednesday afternoon to do something they haven’t done since mid-May in Baltimore: sweep a three-game series.

"It's always fun to win a series before the series is over, that's for sure," center fielder Jacob Young said. "The chance to sweep is awesome. But it feels great to win a series early like that and have a chance to sweep tomorrow and kind of get the second half going."

Needing a fresh arm to help an overtaxed bullpen, the Nationals promoted left-hander Konnor Pilkington from Triple-A Rochester today, a move that led to the demotion of Mason Thompson and the transfer of Dylan Crews to the 60-day injured list.

With Brad Lord making his return to the rotation tonight against the Reds but likely to only throw three or four innings, the Nats knew they were going to need to lean on their bullpen to get through this game. That problem was only exacerbated when MacKenzie Gore failed to make it out of the third inning Sunday against the Padres and Jake Irvin didn’t make it out of the fourth inning in Monday night’s series opener against the Reds.

So the call was placed to Rochester, where Pilkington had been pitching well (2.59 ERA, 1.200 WHIP in 36 games) in a multi-inning relief role. The 27-year-old has 16 games of major league experience with the Guardians, including 11 starts in 2022, and he has a newfound appreciation for the significance of a return from Triple-A.

“You understand how much it actually means to get the call, being able to be in the big leagues,” he said. “That makes it extremely special this time, just as special as every other time. When I was with Cleveland, I got the opportunity to be in the big leagues with them. Moved on and signed with (the Nationals) this offseason, and the main goal is to help the team win. Whether that’s in the big leagues or in Triple-A, or wherever they need me, that’s the kind of guy I am, the kind of pitcher I am.”

Pilkington, who lasted pitched Sunday and said he’s available if needed tonight in relief of Lord, takes over the active roster spot previously held by Thompson, who had only recently returned from the second Tommy John surgery of his career.

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.”

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 – 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.”

MILWAUKEE – There aren’t a lot of positives to take away from an 8-3 drubbing like the one the Nationals suffered at the hands of the Brewers last night. But of the few, the biggest one perhaps was the contributions the Nats got from their No. 9 hitter and backup catcher.

With primary backstop Keibert Ruiz back on the seven-day concussion injured list, Riley Adams has been thrust back into the starting catcher’s role. And while most of the Nats' lineup struggled against Brewers opener DL Hall and Quinn Priester on Friday night, Adams actually reached base in each of his first three plate appearances, finishing 2-for-3 with a home run, a walk and two of the Nats’ three runs scored at the bottom of the lineup.

“It was big,” said interim manager Miguel Cairo. “It was nice to see him get a couple (of hits). A homer and a double and a really good walk, too. So it was nice to see him come back. You know, he's going to be catching, so he's going to be helping us.”

Adams drew a five-pitch walk – just his fourth of the year – against Hall leading off the third inning. He then hustled to score all the way around from first on CJ Abrams’ triple to give the Nats an early 1-0 lead.

After working a full count against Priester in the fifth, he smoked a ball 102 mph off the bat for just his fourth double of the year.

MILWAUKEE – The Nationals have three opportunities this weekend to end this disappointing first half on a high note. They entered this three-game set against the red-hot Brewers having lost five of their last six games.

Even so, they began the day only 2 ½ games behind the Braves in the National League East, leaving a small chance they could enter the All-Star break not in last place for the first time since June 23.

Alas, this surging Brew Crew squad was too much for the Nationals to handle, getting them off to a rough start to the weekend with a 8-3 setback in front of an announced crowd of 35,057 at American Family Field.

For the Nats to have any chance of a more successful second half, the pitchers in the starting rotation not named MacKenzie Gore need to find more success on the bump. Once a promising young core on the roster, Nats starters entered the day with a collective 4.72 ERA, fifth-worst in the major leagues.

Mitchell Parker is definitely in that group looking to turn things around. After a strong rookie campaign in 2024, the left-hander has struggled to recapture that success in his sophomore season.

MILWAUKEE – For obvious reasons, this week has been challenging for the Nationals. Two mainstays for the organization – general manager Mike Rizzo and manager Davey Martinez – are no longer here.

It’s been an adjustment period for the players, many of whom were drafted or acquired by Rizzo and only knew Martinez as their big league skipper. But it’s also been a challenge for the coaching staff, particularly interim manager Miguel Cairo, who moved over from the bench coach role to take over the head man’s job after the dismissal of his close friend.

Cairo’s first series at the helm of the Nationals resulted in losing two out of three to the Cardinals in St. Louis. Now as he gets ready for his second series as skipper, he’s settling more into his new role, one that he’s somewhat familiar with after managing 34 games on an interim basis with the White Sox in 2022.

“We got to take it one day at a time,” Cairo said during his pregame media session ahead of tonight’s opener against the Brewers. “The guys are playing hard. I got to continue being myself. And put the players in the best situation possible for them to succeed. That's my main goal. And with the pitching staff, the same way. Put them in the spot where they can have a good outing and be successful.”

One of his first challenges comes tonight against a Brewers team that is 13 games over .500 and owns the best record in the major leagues since May 25 (28-12). And Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy is not making it easy on his counterpart by sending out left-hander DL Hall as an opener before handing the ball to right-hander Quinn Priester.

ST. LOUIS – Wednesday night’s offensive explosion may have created an uplifting moment for a Nationals club reeling from a week of turmoil. But anyone who predicted that lopsided win over the Cardinals would serve as a springboard for bigger and better things to come hasn’t been watching this team enough all year long.

The 2025 Nats can be defined by many things, but high on the list is inconsistency. The results of one game rarely have any carryover effect into the next one. And boy was that on display tonight during an 8-1 lambasting at the hands of the Cardinals.

Overwhelmed yet again by Miles Mikolas, the otherwise struggling St. Louis right-hander who somehow has owned this particular opinion for some time now, the Nationals put forth one of their weakest offensive showing of the season. They finally scored their lone run in the top of the eighth, finishing with four hits, three walks and five total bases.

As such, they trailed from the get-go and never seriously threatened to come back, certainly not after the Cardinals torched the bullpen for six late tack-on runs to finish off the series victory and send the Nats (38-55) off to Milwaukee to close out the first half of a season that few will want to remember.

"Take a deep breath and understand the talent in this room is able to win baseball games on a daily basis," right-hander Michael Soroka said. "That's what we get to: Looking back on the good things we did in this first half. And I think there is a good amount. It's just a matter of being consistent with it." 

ST. LOUIS – While making a point to thank the man he has replaced and the owners who have now given him an unexpected opportunity to lead a baseball operations department, interim general manager Mike DeBartolo made clear today he has been given the authority to lead the Nationals into a new direction he believes will lift them back into regular contention after six straight losing seasons since the franchise won the World Series.

“The fans are right to be frustrated. We’re all frustrated,” DeBartolo said this afternoon in his first public comments since replacing Mike Rizzo on Sunday evening. “We have a lot of interesting, exciting, young pieces to build on. We have a lot more we need to build. Simply stepping up our game is not enough. We need real change. I’m excited to bring a fresh approach, a fresh voice to this role, and integrate more data, more technology, more innovation into our decision-making across the organization at all levels, and hopefully improve the performance of our players as well.”

The man who now reports to DeBartolo as interim manager, meanwhile, made it clear he took the job only because he first received the blessing of his predecessor and close friend.

“The only approval, the only blessing that I needed, it was from my friend, Dave Martinez,” Miguel Cairo said, his eyes welling up during his first press conference in his new role. “And the reason I’m doing this right now and I took the job is because I got his blessing. If he would have told me no, I would have gone home with him, gone to see my family. But he told me to do it, continue doing what we started.”

Cairo, who served only 1 1/2 seasons as Martinez’s bench coach but has known him since the two were teammates with the Devil Rays in 1998, will lead the existing coaching staff through the remainder of the season, with two slight changes. Catching instructor Henry Blanco will now become his bench coach, and organizational mainstay Bob Henley will return to the big league staff as field coordinator.

ST. LOUIS – Hello from Busch Stadium, where an unexpectedly new era of Nationals baseball begins tonight. There’s a week to go until the All-Star break, 72 games left to play in the season. And there’s a new general manager and manager (interim, in each case) calling the shots the rest of the way after Mike Rizzo and Davey Martinez were fired following Sunday’s loss to the Red Sox.

We’ll be hearing from Mike DeBartolo and Miguel Cairo this afternoon, so plenty more to come from them on their vision for the rest of the season. One significant note to add here, though: The Nationals announced a couple more tweaks to their coaching staff this afternoon. Henry Blanco, who has been the catching instructor, will now be Cairo’s bench coach. And Bob Henley, who has held a variety of roles in the organization since the beginning, is back on the staff as major league field coordinator.

As for tonight’s game, it’s Jake Irvin on the mound for the Nats, who decided over the weekend to give MacKenzie Gore a couple extra days off after his 111-pitch start, which also sets him up to be available for next week’s All-Star Game. So it’s Irvin on normal rest in the series opener against veteran right-hander Sonny Gray for the Cardinals.

UPDATE: Some roster moves to share here, as well, since they'll probably get lost in the shuffle with the other big news of the day ... The Nationals have signed veteran reliever Luis Garcia (no relation to the second baseman who he's now teammates with) and optioned Eduardo Salazar to Triple-A Rochester. And they've placed Keibert Ruiz back on the 7-day concussion injured list, recalling Drew Millas from Rochester to take his spot. They cleared a 40-man roster spot for Garcia by transferring Trevor Williams to the 60-day IL.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at ST. LOUIS CARDINALS
Where: Busch Stadium
Gametime: 7:45 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Chance of storms, 77 degrees, wind 7 mph in from left field

When last we saw the Nationals on the field, CJ Abrams was lofting a long fly ball to left field for the final out of a 6-4 loss to the Red Sox, completing a series sweep. A frustrating loss to end the homestand, for sure, but it was immediately followed by uplifting news: James Wood and MacKenzie Gore had been voted into the All-Star Game by their peers.

When the Nats take the field again tonight in St. Louis, they will do so after the biggest shakeup this organization has experienced in a very long time. The Sunday night firings of general manager Mike Rizzo and manager Davey Martinez threw the franchise into chaos, and it’s probably a good thing the team was off Monday because it took more than 24 hours for the dust to settle from that seismic event.

Miguel Cairo, not Martinez, will be manager tonight against the Cardinals and presumably each of the season’s final 70 games. Mike DeBartolo, not Rizzo, will be in charge of baseball operations. Both already were well-respected club employees and are as reasonably prepared for their new assignments as possible. But both are entering uncharted waters.

There are countless questions that still need to be answered. Some of them probably need to be answered by a higher-ranking team employee than will be made available this afternoon at Busch Stadium. But for now, here’s what we need to hear from DeBartolo and Cairo as they embark on an unexpected journey for the next three months …

ARE THERE ANY OTHER CHANGES TO THE COACHING STAFF?
It did not initially sound like there are, but we don’t know that for sure yet. Cairo gets bumped up from bench coach to interim manager. Will he have a bench coach? Will they add that title to catching coach Henry Blanco’s responsibilities, or might they add someone new to the staff to help out? Is everyone else from Martinez’s staff staying through the season, one that essentially leaves them all with lame-duck status?

The Nationals named Miguel Cairo interim manager this afternoon, promoting Davey Martinez’s bench coach in the wake of his firing Sunday evening.

Cairo will take over Tuesday night when the Nats open a three-game series in St. Louis, inheriting the same coaching staff he was a part of the last 1 1/2 seasons.

The former big league infielder was offered the job following Martinez’s dismissal Sunday after the team was swept by the Red Sox, falling to 37-53 in a season that was supposed to see the franchise take a significant step forward in a rebuilding effort that began four years ago. He took a day to consider the offer before accepting.

Triple-A manager Matt LeCroy likely was the Nationals’ other option to replace Martinez for the remainder of the season before a full managerial search is conducted by ownership and the club’s eventual permanent general manager.

Mike DeBartolo, who was named interim GM on Sunday after Mike Rizzo was fired following a 16-year tenure leading baseball operations, is now in charge of day-to-day operations. In addition to the 72 games remaining on the team’s schedule, DeBartolo also has immediate responsibilities leading the Nats into Sunday’s MLB Draft (they hold the No. 1 overall pick for the first time since they drafted Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper in 2009-10) and then the July 31 trade deadline.

Mike Rizzo became the Nationals’ full-time general manager in August 2009. By that point, he had three years of experience with the organization, five months of experience as interim GM. Taking over a franchise in disarray following the mid-spring training resignation of Jim Bowden amid a scandal involving a Dominican prospect who falsified his name and age, Rizzo did plenty during those five months to convince the Lerner family and then-team president Stan Kasten he deserved the job on a permanent basis.

But there was one final task Rizzo needed to accomplish before his superiors were fully convinced: He needed to sign Stephen Strasburg before the Aug. 15 midnight deadline for all of that summer’s draft picks.

Rizzo took negotiations with agent Scott Boras down to the final minute before emerging with a deal: four years, $15.1 million, the most money ever guaranteed a major league draft pick. And in the Nationals Park conference room where he announced that successful deal in the wee hours of the morning – the same room where one year earlier Bowden announced he had not been able to sign 2008 first round pick Aaron Crow – an unsuspecting Rizzo was ambushed by Kasten with a shaving cream pie to the face.

A few days later, Rizzo officially had the GM job he long coveted. One he held for just shy of 16 years, making him one of the longest tenured heads of baseball operations in the industry. Along the way, he built a 103-loss team into a 98-win division champion, made the playoffs five times in eight seasons, won D.C.’s first World Series title since 1924, tore down the remnants of that championship roster to embark on another rebuild, traded away a likely future Hall of Famer for five prospects (three of which have since become All-Stars), hired five managers, signed five players to nine-figure contracts, signed countless more to lesser deals, acquired players who helped make the team better and in some cases worse and both butted heads with and celebrated successes with nearly everyone he worked with along the way.

Signed to five separate contract extensions over the years, Rizzo always seemed to find himself waiting until the last minute for his bosses to lock him up, an annoyance for sure but one he begrudgingly accepted as the price of holding such an important position in this organization. That’s the situation he found himself in once again this summer, waiting to see if the Lerner family was going to pick up his contract option for the following season or finally decide it was time to make a change.

PHILADELPHIA – The Nationals made their first significant bullpen change of the season this evening, signing veteran left-hander Andrew Chafin to a major league deal and designating Colin Poche for assignment.

Chafin, 34, has 601 games of big league experience with six different clubs, the first 380 of them with the Diamondbacks. Owner of a 3.42 ERA, 1.275 WHIP and 20 career saves, he had a 3.51 ERA in 62 games with the Tigers and Rangers last season.

Chafin opened this season with Detroit's Triple-A club in Toledo, posting a 2.13 ERA and 17 strikeouts in 12 2/3 innings before opting out of his minor league contract and becoming a free agent. He's scheduled to join the Nats in Cincinnati on Friday.

Poche made the Opening Day roster out of spring training based on his solid track record with the Rays, but the 31-year-old struggled from the outset and never found a groove despite a number of opportunities. In 13 total appearances, Poche had an 11.42 ERA, issuing 12 walks in only 8 2/3 innings. He also allowed 8-of-12 inherited runners to score.

Chafin will join Jose A. Ferrer as the two left-handers in a Nationals bullpen that enters the day ranked last in the majors with a 7.41 ERA and 1.77 WHIP. The team will be a man down for tonight's game, with only seven available relievers.