TORONTO – Davey Martinez insists he planned to give Dylan Crews the night off all along. True or not, the benching comes at an appropriate time for the slumping rookie, who is still seeking his first hit of the 2025 season.

So for the Nationals’ game tonight against the Blue Jays, it’s Alex Call in right field and batting eighth, not Crews.

“Honestly, this was kind of pre-planned coming into the series,” Martinez said. “Look, it’s hard to play this game for 162 days, and I want to get everyone involved. I wanted to get Alex in there today. But it kind of worked out to give Dylan a little bit of a mental break today, get him off his feet.”

It’s been a difficult opening week for Crews, the highly touted rookie who enjoyed a good spring and looked poised to get his season started on the right foot. He’s 0-for-15 through four games, striking out 10 times (including one stretch of eight consecutive at-bats Saturday and Sunday).

Crews did make solid contact Monday, driving a ball 399 feet to the base of the wall in center field, a hit that carried an expected batting average of .820 but was nevertheless caught by Toronto’s Nathan Lukes. That one swing, though, is an anomaly during an otherwise rough start for the 23-year-old.

TORONTO – The Nationals have done some things well through their first four games, but not enough things well. Which is why they enter tonight’s contest with a 1-3 record, in search of a win before things really turn upside down on them. Their best path to making that happen? More offense.

Though they’ve actually hit for power so far, with eight homers through four games (fifth most in the majors), they’re not scoring runs the old fashioned way. They’re batting just .121 (4-for-33) with runners in scoring position (fifth worst in the majors). So while the big swings have been nice, a few more clutch hits would be even nicer.

They’ll try to solve that problem tonight against Blue Jays ace José Berríos, who had a rough one on Opening Day. The Orioles got to the right-hander for six runs and nine hits (three of them homers) in five innings.

Trevor Williams makes his season debut as the Nats’ fifth starter. The veteran hopes to prove last year was no fluke, when he finished with a 2.03 ERA and 1.035 WHIP in 13 starts despite missing more than three months with an elbow strain. Williams’ task: Keep the ball down in the zone and keep Toronto’s hitters from getting the ball in the air.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at TORONTO BLUE JAYS
Where: Rogers Centre
Gametime: 7:07 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Indoors

TORONTO – CJ Abrams knew the situation when he stepped to the plate with one out in the top of the sixth. The gigantic scoreboard in center field at Rogers Centre can’t be ignored altogether, and the zero in the Nationals’ hit column was right there in plain sight.

Abrams knew Bowden Francis was no-hitting the Nats to that point. He also knew it would do no good to let that fact creep too deep into his mind.

“I don’t want to think about that at the plate,” he said. “I just want to get a good pitch to hit.”

Abrams did get a good pitch to hit, a 1-1 changeup from Francis that stayed up and over the plate enough to ripe for the taking. And when he proceeded to launch that pitch over the right field wall, Francis’ no-hit bid was over in style.

“The at-bats before, I kind of swung at his pitch,” Abrams said. “I was a little early on the ones I swung at. So I wanted to go to left field, and I got a changeup and I got to pull it.”

TORONTO – They didn’t make their season-opening rotation plans with this in mind, but the fact Michael Soroka’s debut with the Nationals came in his home country was a happy byproduct, something everyone had looked forward to for weeks.

"He's from here. He gets to pitch his first game for the Nats here in Toronto. It's awesome," manager Davey Martinez said of the Canadian right-hander (who is from Calgary). "Long time coming. He's worked hard this whole spring to get himself ready. He hasn't started in a while, but he's excited and we're excited to see him go out there and compete."

That Soroka’s homecoming wound end abruptly in the bottom of the sixth, the 27-year-old waking off the mound alongside a trainer clenching his fist after an errant pitch, turned the whole affair sour.

The Nationals lost to the Blue Jays, 5-2, in their first road game of the season. They also feared they lost their biggest offseason pitching acquisition, putting added strain on a rotation that pitched extremely well over the weekend but is suddenly razor-thin in the depth department. By night's end, there was a more encouraging outlook, with Soroka merely dealing with a biceps cramp and not something more significant.

"I think we'll be OK," he said. "It's just one those things you don't want to feel, and not something that's worth (pitching) through, especially at that point in the game and at this point in the season."

TORONTO – Keibert Ruiz is behind the plate for the Nationals tonight, his fourth straight start to begin the season.

As much as Davey Martinez suggested he might try to give his workhorse starting catcher a few more days off this year, Ruiz’s early production has not only kept him in the lineup. It has bumped him up the lineup.

After batting seventh in each of the Nats’ first two games against the Phillies, Ruiz moved up to the cleanup spot for Sunday’s series finale. And now he’s batting third tonight in the series opener against the Blue Jays.

“He’s getting a chance to hit third today,” Martinez said, not exactly committing to this look long-term. “I wanted to break up our lefties, because (the Blue Jays) do have three left-handed relievers in their bullpen. But he’s swinging the bat well.”

That’s an understatement. On the heels of a miserable 2024 in which he slashed .229/.260/.359, Ruiz homered in each of this season’s first two games, once from the left side of the plate, once from the right. He added another hit and scored two runs Sunday, leaving him 5-for-10 with a double, two homers, three RBIs and a 1.745 OPS to date.

TORONTO – The Nationals’ first road trip of 2025 takes them north of the border for their biannual series at Rogers Centre, longtime home of the Blue Jays. The current wind chill here in 38 degrees (Fahrenheit, not Celsius). Fortunately, the roof is closed and will remain closed.

The guy on the mound tonight isn’t bothered by cold temperatures or metric conversions. Michael Soroka is from Calgary, so his Nats debut is sort of a homecoming for him, even if we’re clear on the other side of the country from his hometown. Soroka looked very good most of the spring before stumbling in his final tune-up start. The Nationals are banking on the right-hander to be a stabilizing force in their rotation. We’ll get our first real look at him tonight against a Blue Jays lineup that boasts a formidable 1-2 punch in Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Anthony Santander.

The Nats lineup, which surprisingly outhomered the Phillies 6-5 in the opening series, will now try to take aim at the hitter-friendly dimensions here. They face an unfamiliar foe in Toronto right-hander Bowden Francis, who went 8-5 with a 3.30 ERA in his first full big league season. Only four members of the current Nationals roster have ever faced Francis before, and only Nathaniel Lowe has more than three plate appearances against him.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at TORONTO BLUE JAYS
Where: Rogers Centre
Gametime: 7:07 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Indoors

NATIONALS
SS CJ Abrams
LF James Wood
C Keibert Ruiz
1B Nathaniel Lowe
DH Josh Bell
2B Luis García Jr.
3B Paul DeJong
RF Dylan Crews
CF Jacob Young

As he watched from the dugout Thursday afternoon as MacKenzie Gore carved up the Phillies with one of the most dominant pitching performances in Opening Day history, Mitchell Parker could’ve felt intimidated. Instead, he felt emboldened.

“I said after MacKenzie’s, seeing the guys do that, it’s contagious,” Parker said. “Everybody wants to keep it rolling. It’s contagious on the whole pitching staff. It’s awesome.”

Whether it was contagious or merely quality pitching by all three of their starters, the Nationals’ rotation was electric this weekend. Gore set the bar awfully high with six innings of scoreless, one-hit, zero-walk, 13-strikeout ball. Jake Irvin followed him up with five gutsy innings of two-run ball. And then Parker finished it off with 6 1/3 scoreless innings to win Sunday’s series finale.

Sure, the Nats only won once in three tries against Philadelphia, but the two losses sure weren’t the fault of their starters. They combined to surrender a grand total of two runs over 17 1/3 innings, striking out 20 while walking only four.

That 1.04 ERA was second-best in the majors through the weekend, trailing only – get this – the White Sox, who did not allow an earned run in three games against the Angels.

Josh Bell and Nathaniel Lowe have understood the assignment from the moment the Nationals acquired them. Yes, they were brought here to do multiple things, but the most important thing was to hit the ball in the air with authority.

It took a few days and more than a few swings to get there, but the big boys in the middle of the lineup got there this afternoon. Behind Bell’s three-run homer and Lowe’s two-run blast, the Nats coasted to a 5-1 victory over the Phillies, avoiding a demoralizing weekend sweep.

Thanks to 6 1/3 scoreless innings from Mitchell Parker and some much-needed, lockdown work from a beleaguered bullpen, the Nationals emerged from their season-opening weekend with one win, boosting clubhouse spirits as they prepare to head north of the border for this week’s interleague series in Toronto.

"It's promising, because we were in position to win all three games against a perennial contender," Lowe said. "We just need to execute, take that as a reminder going forward and have a good series in Toronto."

Parker joined MacKenzie Gore and Jake Irvin in holding down the Phillies lineup for five-plus innings. Bell and Lowe supplied the offensive fireworks to give their team the lead for the third straight game. And unlike the previous two, the Nats bullpen this time finished the job.

Dylan Crews may be young, but he’s played baseball at a high level long enough to know how not to make a big deal out of one bad game, especially one this early in the season.

“It’s the second game,” the Nationals rookie said. “There’s a whole lot of games left. We’re just going to keep stacking these days, put it in the past and keep looking forward.”

Crews’ second game of the season, though, was about as bad as they get at the plate. He opened Saturday’s ballgame against the Phillies with a brilliant play in right field. But he then proceeded to go 0-for-5 with five strikeouts, the at-bats progressively getting worse as the afternoon progressed.

Crews was caught looking in each of his first two at-bats, with plenty of credit going to Phillies left-hander Jesús Luzardo, who painted the corner with a 98 mph fastball in the bottom of the first and then a slider in the bottom of the third. His subsequent three at-bats, though, each lasted only three pitches, the first against Luzardo, the latter two against relievers who exploited his overaggressive approach and got him swinging.

“They’re pounding him a lot with fastballs in, and a lot of sliders down and away,” manager Davey Martinez said. “Yesterday, Luzardo got him to think in and then went hard away. Some of those pitches – I looked at them last night – are tough to hit. They were right on the line.”

The last position the Nationals wanted to find themselves in today is the one they’re in, needing a win over the Phillies to avoid an 0-3 start to their season. They certainly had a chance to win Thursday’s opener before falling in 10 innings. And they briefly had a chance to win Saturday’s game, until the bullpen gate swung open in the sixth and turned a 2-2 game into an absolute mess.

We’ll have to see how the bullpen shakes out today. The best thing the Nats could do to help their case would be to score a good number of runs themselves and take some pressure off the pitching staff. The good news: They’ve hit four homers through two games, two of them off the bat of Keibert Ruiz. The bad news: They’re 3-for-21 with runners in scoring position. That has got to improve.

The challenge today is a stiff one against the Phillies’ Aaron Nola, who has been very good in these matchups in recent seasons. In nine starts against the Nationals since 2022, the right-hander is 4-1 with a 1.70 ERA.

The Nats got a dominant start from MacKenzie Gore on Opening Day and a solid start from Jake Irvin on Saturday. They’ll hope for more that today from Mitchell Parker, who actually gets the third game of the season even though he’s technically the No. 5 starter. Davey Martinez wanted another lefty against the lefty-heavy Philadelphia lineup, so Parker gets the call. He faced the Phillies once as a rookie, and it did not go well: nine runs and 10 hits in only three innings of work.

PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES at WASHINGTON NATIONALS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 1:35 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Mostly cloudy, 76 degrees, wind 13 mph out to center field

Jake Irvin had gutted his way through five innings of two-run ball. Keibert Ruiz had blasted his second homer in as many games to get his season off to a rousing start. Game 2 of 162 was knotted up, and now the Nationals had to place their faith in a relief corps that entered the season as a major question mark and only reinforced those concerns on Opening Day.

As he did Thursday, Davey Martinez entrusted key moments in the game to Colin Poche and Lucas Sims, two experienced big leaguers who nonetheless were still available in February at bargain prices. And as was the case in the opener, the result was tough to watch for the locals.

Poche and Sims combined to give up five runs while recording only one out during a torturous top of the sixth that turned another tight ballgame against the Phillies into another lopsided loss, this one by the count of 11-6.

It made for an agonizing afternoon for many in the bipartisan crowd of 38,446 (the largest second-home-game crowd in club history). Not just because it ruined this game. But because it felt way too much like Thursday’s game, a 7-3 loss in 10 innings.

"You can't walk eight, nine guys in a game and expect to win," Martinez said. "We've got to throw strikes, pound the zone like we normally do. You walk guys, give free passes with a team like that? You're going to get beat. They're going to score a lot of runs."

Luis García Jr. was the Nationals’ surprise No. 3 hitter on Opening Day. Perhaps more surprising is the fact he’s not even in the lineup for Game No. 2.

With left-hander Jesús Luzardo on the mound for the Phillies, García is on the bench this afternoon, with Amed Rosario instead starting at second base and batting fifth.

“It’s early,” manager Davey Martinez explained. “I want to try to get everybody in there, try to get some at-bats to some of these guys. And the reason why we signed Rosario is because he hits lefties really well. So we’ll give him some at-bats today.

García often sat last season against lefties, though he started to get more opportunities later during his breakthrough season. Even so, the 24-year-old was far more effective against right-handers (.796 OPS) than lefties (.641).

Rosario, on the other hand, owns a career .798 OPS vs. left-handers, not to mention a .298 batting average. The Nationals signed the 29-year-old utilityman to a major league deal over the winter, envisioning him as a part-time second baseman who can also play third base, shortstop and the outfield if needed.

After the hullabaloo of Opening Day, after the much-needed rest of an off-day, the actual grind of the 162-game season begins today. The Nationals and Phillies meet in game two of the opening series, and it’s the debut of the Nats’ new City Connect uniforms.

MacKenzie Gore dominated the Phillies’ potent lineup Thursday. You probably can’t as for the same from Jake Irvin in his season debut, but the Nationals do need the right-hander to be on point. He had an excellent spring, until his final start, in which his fastball lost several ticks. Irvin insisted he felt fine physically that day, but we haven’t had a chance to see him since. (He was supposed to pitch Monday’s exhibition finale against the Orioles before that game was rained out.) So keep an eye on him in the first couple innings today, especially the velocity readings. Is he in the low-90s or the mid-90s?

The Nationals lineup sees a familiar left-hander today in the form of Jesús Luzardo, the long-ago organizational prospect who has since faced his original team many times as a member of the Marlins. Now he’s in Philly, going up against some hitters he’s got a book on. One of those hitters, Luis García Jr., is just 2-for-16 in his career against Luzardo. Amed Rosario, meanwhile, is 3-for-8 with a double and a triple. Hence, the different look at second base today. Don’t be surprised, though, if García comes off the bench to pinch-hit against a righty at some point.  

UPDATE: Trea Turner was scratched from the Phillies' lineup with back spasms. Edmundo Sosa will now start at shortstop.

PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES at WASHINGTON NATIONALS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 4:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Mostly cloudy, 83 degrees, wind 11 mph out to center field

MacKenzie Gore set the tone for the Nationals from the get-go on Thursday. He started the 2025 regular season by striking out Trea Turner on a perfectly placed low-and-inside 96 mph fastball.

Little did we know at the time that would be the first of an Opening Day franchise-record 13 strikeouts he would record over his six brilliant innings. Making his first Opening Day start, the 26-year-old left-hander shut out a tough Phillies lineup while holding it to just one hit with no walks.

Complete domination.

But once Gore departed the game with 93 pitches after the sixth, the Nats bullpen could not follow their starter’s lead.

Handed a 1-0 lead in the seventh, a group of five Nats relievers gave up all seven of the Phillies’ runs over the next four frames in the eventual 7-3 extra-inning loss.

If the Nationals had to pick only one player off the roster who most needs to get his season off to a positive start, Keibert Ruiz would reside at the top of almost every list.

After a miserable 2024 season, the young catcher knows he must be better in 2025. And the road to better starts with a good opening month, giving him a chance to set the bar from the outset and not feel like he’s facing an uphill climb right away like he did a year ago.

So consider what Ruiz did Thursday during the Nats’ Opening Day loss to the Phillies a critical first step in the right direction.

“It’s awesome,” manager Davey Martinez said. “He works so hard, over the winter, during spring. He really wants to get off to a good start. My big thing with him is not to put that much pressure on him. Just go out there and play. He did the work. Now just go out there and have fun and play the game. He did that today.”

Ruiz opened his Opening Day by throwing out his first baserunner of the season. Maybe Kyle Schwarber isn’t the biggest threat to steal a base, but when the big Philadelphia designated hitter decided to try to swipe second in the top of the second, Ruiz was ready and fired a strike to nab him.

Whether anyone outside – or even inside – Washington believes it, the Nationals themselves believe they’re ready to take the next critical step in their long rebuild and compete head-to-head with the top three teams in perhaps baseball’s toughest division.

Consider today’s Opening Day extra-inning thriller a first message sent by this talented, young squad, which saw its new ace overwhelm a star-studded Phillies lineup and several key members of their own lineup deliver in key spots late in the game.

Now, they just need to learn how to finish the job and walk away victorious.

Alas, that wasn’t to be on this otherwise glorious late afternoon. Alec Bohm’s two-out, two-run double off Colin Poche and J.T. Realmuto’s two-run triple off Eduardo Salazar in the top of the 10th gave the Phillies the lead for good in a seesaw game, the Nationals ultimately falling 7-3 before a sellout crowd of 41,231 that desperately wanted reason to celebrate at day’s end but was forced to trudge home disappointed.

"It's not the result we wanted, obviously," said second baseman Luis García Jr., via interpreter Kenny Diaz. "But we battled. We continued to battle throughout, and we battled to the end. That's all we can ever ask for."

For a young baseball player, there’s no better moment than learning you’re going to the major leagues on the Opening Day roster. For a baseball manager, there’s no better moment than delivering that message.

For Brad Lord, it was a long road to this moment. For Nationals manager Davey Martinez, the opportunity to mess with the young pitcher was too good to pass up.

The 25-year-old right-hander has been waiting around D.C. for the past couple of days. He joined the Nats on their trip north from West Palm Beach ahead of their opening three-game series against the Phillies.

An exhibition game against the Orioles on Monday was rained out. The Nationals held one final workout at Nats Park on Wednesday, with Lord still unsure if he was staying around or packing his bags for Triple-A Rochester to start the season.

Then he got the call into the manager’s office. An answer was finally waiting for him: He had, indeed, made the Opening Day roster.

DJ Herz is getting a second opinion on his sprained elbow ligament, one that will determine if the Nationals left-hander needs Tommy John surgery or can attempt to come back merely with rest and rehab.

Herz, who was placed on the 15-day injured list Tuesday and then transferred to the 60-day IL on Wednesday, already had an initial MRI taken that revealed a sprain of the ulnar collateral ligament. He’s now scheduled to get a second opinion in Dallas from Keith Meister, the noted orthopedist who has performed a number of Tommy John surgeries and internal brace procedures on other major leaguers. According to a source familiar with the injury, the Nationals don’t intend to wait long if surgery is suggested, preferring Herz get it done now and be able to return for the majority of the 2026 season.

Herz was one of the brightest developments of last season, debuting in June and proceeding to make 19 big league starts, going 4-9 with a 4.6 ERA but also authoring several of the team’s most dominant starts of the year. He came to camp this spring competing with Mitchell Parker and Shinnosuke Ogasawara for the fifth starter’s job but struggled with command and saw his fastball velocity drop into the upper 80s.

Herz told club officials and reporters alike he was physically fine, but that he wasn’t throwing as hard due to a lack of adrenaline. He cited similar situations playing out in previous spring trainings, noting his velocity always showed up during the regular season.

The Nationals saw some better signs during a simulated game Herz pitched late in camp, but still decided to option the lefty to Triple-A Rochester last week, giving him more time to build his arm up. After learning of the demotion, Herz informed the team he wanted to see a doctor in case there actually was something wrong with his arm.

And away we go! Welcome to the 2025 Major League Baseball season and the 21st season of Washington Nationals baseball. That’s right, this ballclub now enters its third decade in the District, pretty remarkable for anyone who remembers the three decades this town spent without baseball.

The Nats have renewed hopes entering this season, perhaps even hopes of a winning record for the first time since 2019. The early schedule, however, is not kind. Their first four series come against the Phillies, Blue Jays, Diamondbacks and Dodgers, though three of those four at least come at home.

It all begins this afternoon against Bryce Harper, Trea Turner, Kyle Schwarber and the Phillies, who have visions not only of a winning season but of a championship parade come November. That lineup will present a good challenge for MacKenzie Gore, who just so happened to shut out that same group over six innings in his final start of the 2024 season.

Gore’s opponent that day was Zack Wheeler, who also gets the start today. The veteran right-hander has established himself as one of the best workhorses in the sport, one with Cy Young Award visions. We’ll have to see how a newly constructed Nationals lineup in search of more power fares in this one.

PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES at WASHINGTON NATIONALS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 4:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Sunny, 59 degrees, wind 9 mph out to right field

Alright, the time has come. We survived a long, cold winter. We endured through six weeks of spring training. We fretted over transactions made and transactions not made. We thought we knew what the roster would look like, then we had to make last-minute adjustments due to injuries and a few surprises.

But there’s no more time to decipher, agonize or evaluate. Opening Day has arrived, and that means it’s time for predictions.

For the 16th consecutive season, we proudly present the Nationals media Opening Day predictions. We’ve got several familiar names here who have been participating through the entire run of this annual tradition. We’ve got several more who have joined us in recent years. And we’ve even got a few new entrants this season who are excited (or is that terrified) to reveal their picks.

The most important thing to remember about this exercise: We will republish all of the predictions at the end of the season and find out who knew what they were talking about and who had no clue. (Spoiler alert: Usually, we’re proven to have had no clue.)

And with that, away we go …