MacKenzie Gore had been waiting for this, longer than he ever wanted. Same for the Nationals. And their fans, as well. From the moment the Nats and Padres consummated one of the biggest trades in baseball history, the notion of Gore making his D.C. debut had been front and center on many people’s minds. Alas, a bout of elbow inflammation delayed that debut until this afternoon.

At last, though, precisely eight months to the day since the trade that sent Juan Soto and Josh Bell to San Diego for a horde of prospects, the premier pitcher in the deal took the mound on South Capitol Street in a regular season game. And then delivered on the promise of what he could be for this franchise for years to come.

With 5 1/3 strong, at times dominant, innings against one of the toughest lineups in the majors, Gore led the Nationals to their first victory of 2023, a 4-1 triumph before an appreciative crowd of 21,440 that finally had reason to cheer for something positive and for someone with the potential to be a cornerstone of this roster rebuild.

"It's been a long time," the lefty said. "I've been looking forward to it. It was a lot of fun."

Gore allowed just one run on three hits. He struck out six. And though he walked four, he still managed to throw 60 percent of his pitches for strikes and show off the dazzling repertoire that has made him a top pitching prospect since the Padres drafted him third overall in 2017.

Though he won’t undergo an MRI until later today, Corey Dickerson was already placed on the 10-day injured list this morning by the Nationals, who couldn’t afford to wait for test results on their veteran left fielder’s left calf.

Needing another healthy outfielder on the active roster for today’s series finale against the Braves, the Nats called up Stone Garrett, who arrived from Triple-A Rochester this morning and reported straight to Nationals Park.

The team is calling Dickerson’s injury a left calf strain for now, pending results of his MRI. The 33-year-old told manager Davey Martinez he first felt tightness as he jogged off the field following the top of the seventh inning of Saturday’s 7-1 loss. Not wanting to take any chances, Martinez had utility man Ildemaro Vargas take over in left field for the final two innings of the game.

“I’d rather it be a shorter stint than try to push it and it becomes a bigger issue,” the manager said.

Dickerson, who signed a one-year, $2.25 million contract with the Nationals this winter, missed one month with a left calf strain last season while playing for the Cardinals.

It’s not particularly fair to MacKenzie Gore, who takes the mound today wearing a Nationals uniform for the first time in a regular season game. The left-hander shouldn’t have to deal with any added pressure in his long-awaited club debut. But make no mistake: The Nats really need him to pitch well.

When you drop the first two games of the season by a combined score of 14-3, you need to ask your Game 3 starter to put together a really nice outing. So the pressure most certainly is on Gore this afternoon against a tough Braves lineup that already torched Patrick Corbin and Josiah Gray.

Gore, one of the centerpiece young players the Nationals received from the Padres in the Juan Soto trade, was unable to pitch for his new team last year due to elbow inflammation. He did make it through the entire spring healthy, and looked quite sharp in his final Grapefruit League start against the Yankees. But as Gray can tell you, there’s a huge difference between spring training and the regular season. Gore will need to be in peak form today.

The Nats could certainly help their young starter out by providing him some early run support for a change. They’ll try to get something brewing against a pitcher none of them have seen before in the big leagues: Jared Shuster. The 24-year-old lefty (a first-round pick in the 2020 draft) makes his major league debut this afternoon; he struck out 145 batters in 139 1/3 minor-league innings last season.

ATLANTA BRAVES at WASHINGTON NATIONALS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 1:35 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Sunny, 52 degrees, wind 16 mph in from left field

It’s never a good idea to infer regular season performance based on spring training numbers, but in the case of Josiah Gray there seemed to be some valid reason to believe what he did in Florida in March could translate into what he would do in Washington in April.

Not the 0.55 ERA Gray posted in Grapefruit League play, as impressive as that looked. No, the primary reason the Nationals were excited about Gray entering his season debut today was the fact he issued only two walks and did not surrender a home run in 16 2/3 innings of exhibition baseball. Given how much of problem both were for the right-hander last year, this felt like a good omen.

Well, it did for all of six pitches this afternoon.

Back-to-back homers to open the game set an ominous tone for Gray, who would allow a third before departing after five roughshod innings during a 7-1 thrashing at the hands of the Braves.

Ronald Acuña Jr. and Matt Olson did the damage in the first two minutes of the first inning, leaving Gray shell-shocked and a still-arriving crowd of 27,529 wondering what exactly just happened.

Davey Martinez admitted this spring he might be trotting out different-looking lineups on a daily basis, based on matchups, lefty-righty splits and other assorted information. Whether the Nationals manager realized all along how different his Game 1 and Game 2 lineups would look is a valid question.

The lineup card Martinez submitted for this afternoon’s game against the Braves features eight of the same names that started on Opening Day, with only Corey Dickerson replacing Alex Call in left field. But only one of those eight players is actually batting in the same location: Joey Meneses, who again gets the No. 2 slot.

“We’re going to have to mix and match a little bit this year,” Martinez admitted during his pregame session with reporters. “The one thing I do like is having Joey in the 2-hole. Because if we do have someone that needs to get that last at-bat (in the ninth inning), I want to make sure he gets it.”

The most notable change from Thursday is at the top of the lineup. Luis García, who batted seventh in the opener, is leading off today, flip-flopping with Lane Thomas.

García did get several opportunities to lead off in spring training, and he also did it eight times last season. A notorious free-swinger who owns one of the lowest walk rates in the league, the 22-year-old doesn’t exactly profile as a typical leadoff man. Martinez, though, specifically liked him batting first today against Braves starter Spencer Strider.

There are few days on the baseball calendar as frustrating as the off-day following Opening Day. It’s unfortunately tradition, though, included to serve as a fallback option for the season opener in case of bad weather. When the weather’s fine, all it does is give everyone way too much time to overanalyze Game 1 before turning attention to Game 2.

The Nationals and Braves can finally focus on that next game now, with first pitch on South Capitol Street scheduled for 4:05 p.m. The Nats will hope to bounce back from a rough 7-2 loss that included bad defense, laborious starting pitching and very little clutch hitting.

Josiah Gray will have to be more efficient than Patrick Corbin was. The young right-hander was outstanding all spring, so he should enter this start with renewed confidence. But he’ll have to work really hard to keep the ball in the yard against a power-laden Braves lineup that will try to take advantage of a strong wind blowing straight out to center field once the rain clears out this afternoon.

The Nationals will hope some familiarity with Spencer Strider leads to some success. The flamethrowing right-hander made two starts in D.C. last summer. He dominated the first one, allowing one hit (a Luis García homer) while striking out 11 in 5 2/3 innings. But then the Nats got to him for five runs in four innings one month later, so perhaps they’ve got a better book on him now.

ATLANTA BRAVES at WASHINGTON NATIONALS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 4:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Rain ending, 73 degrees, wind 21 mph out to center field

Bryce Harper was the first to coin the phrase, way back on Sept. 23, 2012 when the then-rookie outfielder lost a fly ball in the sun during an afternoon game at Nationals Park.

“You can’t catch what you can’t see, you know?” Harper said that day. “Nothing you can do about it. Sun Monster got me.”

And for the last decade, anyone who has closely watched the Nationals has known to beware the Sun Monster every September. He comes out like clockwork, just as the summer humidity dissipates and the afternoon sun moves into a lower position above the upper deck at the ballpark.

In Thursday’s season opener, though, the Sun Monster made an extremely rare, late-March appearance, wreaking as much havoc on players in the field for both the Nats and Braves as perhaps it ever has.

It happened during the Nationals’ very first plate appearance of the season. Lane Thomas’ top-of-the-first popup into shallow center field appeared to make for an easy catch for either shortstop Orlando Arcia or center fielder Michael Harris II. But when Arcia called off his teammate and reached up to make the play, he recoiled in horror when he couldn’t locate the ball, which landed harmlessly on the grass for a cheap single.

Opening Day didn't produce the outcome Nationals fans wanted, but it contained no shortage of storylines. Patrick Corbin's labored start. CJ Abrams' three errors. Joey Meneses' two hits. Victor Robles' two walks. Stephen Strasburg's absence.

And because tradition is to schedule an off-day after the season opener just in case of a rainout, we have nothing to do today but completely overanalyze and overreact to everything that happened Thursday on South Capitol Street.

So let's take the opportunity to look back at Opening Day and what may be coming now the rest of the weekend and beyond. Submit your questions in the comments section below, then check back for responses throughout the morning. ...

If there is going to be a semi-regular formula for the Nationals to win ballgames in 2023, it will almost certainly have to include clean defense from a revamped infield, quality pitching from a deep bullpen and timely hitting from a lineup that hits for contact better than for power.

Maybe they can pull out some curly Ws when they achieve two of those three goals. But to expect it when they only get one of them right? That’s a tall ask, as they learned this afternoon.

Despite hanging around with the defending division champions until things fell apart in the ninth, the Nationals were left to accept a 7-2 Opening Day loss to the Braves that was defined by sloppy defense and a lack of clutch hitting.

"I could tell you now, they were a little bit nervous," manager Davey Martinez said of his relatively inexperienced team. "I was a little nervous. It's part of it."

Three errors by shortstop CJ Abrams proved costly, as did a 1-for-11 showing by Nats hitters with runners in scoring position. Those combined to undermine a strong showing by the bullpen, which churned out five scoreless innings after a laboring Patrick Corbin was pulled in the top of the fourth, with only Kyle Finnegan faltering during a three-run top of the ninth that turned a close game lopsided.

In setting their Opening Day roster this morning, the Nationals officially placed six players on the injured list, including Stephen Strasburg.

Strasburg (thoracic outlet syndrome), Cade Cavalli (Tommy John surgery), Tanner Rainey (Tommy John surgery) and Victor Arano (right shoulder strain) all were placed on the 60-day IL. Those moves cleared up four spots on the 40-man roster, which went to the four players who made the club off minor-league deals: Chad Kuhl, Michael Chavis, Anthony Banda and Hobie Harris.

Carter Kieboom (right shoulder impingement) and Israel Pineda (right finger fracture) were placed on the 10-day IL, though neither is expected to be ready to return in such little time. Kieboom, who is still coming back from Tommy John surgery last year, has only been able to DH in minor league spring games. Pineda, who was struck by a foul ball in early March, has resumed throwing but was not yet hitting when camp concluded.

Though Strasburg’s inclusion on the 60-day IL was no surprise, the transaction does underscore the right-hander’s current predicament. Unable to throw off a mound without discomfort since making his one and only start last season, he is currently not participating in any baseball activities.

General manager Mike Rizzo said he met in person Wednesday with Strasburg, whose locker remains full of gear even though he was not present at spring training and won’t be at the ballpark for the season opener.

It’s a beautiful (if a bit chilly) day for baseball in the nation’s capital, where the 2023 season begins when the Nationals take the field shortly after 1 p.m. to host the Braves. This is expected to be another long season featuring far more losses than wins, but if you can’t be optimistic on Opening Day, what’s the point?

The Nats had all kinds of trouble against the Braves last season, going 5-14 while being outscored 116-67. (To be fair, they had all kinds of trouble with everyone from the National League East last season.) Patrick Corbin in particular was awful in his four matchups with them, going 0-3 with a 9.42 ERA and 2.372 WHIP. Oof. Suffice it to say, the veteran left-hander has his hands full this afternoon. His goal: Go as far as he can, and just keep his team in the game.

On the bright side, the Nationals did have some modest success against Max Fried last season, scoring 10 runs on 20 hits over 18 innings vs. the Atlanta left-hander. They'll hope to continue some of that this afternoon with a new-look lineup that isn't heavy on power but does have some contact and speed to work with.

ATLANTA BRAVES at WASHINGTON NATIONALS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 1:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Sunny, 48 degrees, wind 8 mph in from left field

NATIONALS
RF Lane Thomas
DH Joey Meneses
3B Jeimer Candelario
1B Dominic Smith
C Keibert Ruiz
LF Alex Call
2B Luis García
CF Victor Robles
SS CJ Abrams

It’s Opening Day, and you know what that means? Yes, it’s time for the 14th annual Nationals Beat Writer Season Predictions!

A few of the participants have remained constant through the years. A few have come and gone and come back. And a few are still relatively new to the festivities. All of us, however, will most certainly make fools of ourselves with some of our predictions.

There’s actually a decent range of guesses in most categories this year, with general consensus in only a few of them. (Josiah Gray, apparently, is a lock to win exactly 11 games this season. Who knew?)

Everlasting thanks to my colleagues for subjecting themselves to the humiliation again. Remember, we’ll be republishing these at the end of the season to find out who actually had a clue and who did not.

And if you’re brave enough to put your (screen) name on your own predictions, you are more than welcome to share those in the comments section below …

James Wood and Elijah Green can’t hide in the Nationals clubhouse. With lockers in the back of the oval-shaped room among the veteran position players, the towering prospects already look like they belong on a major league team.

Their pedigrees – Wood as one of the players the Nats received for Juan Soto who shot up prospect rankings over the offseason and Green as the No. 5 overall pick in last summer’s draft – say they’ll be on the major league roster soon. But their limited professional experience – Wood hasn’t reached High-A and Green hasn’t made his Singe-A debut – say they’re still a ways away.

Nevertheless, the Nationals obviously hold them in high regard. They headlined a group of six prospects the team brought with them from Florida to D.C. for Tuesday’s exhibition game against the Yankees. As the Nats broke camp, two of their top prospects got to experience life in the big leagues if only for one day.

“Having Elijah and Wood here is kind of nice to get to see the facility and stuff,” manager Davey Martinez said.

With the major league season kicking off tomorrow, Wood and Green will rejoin their minor league teammates for another week of camp before their minor league seasons start. Green knows he’ll start the season at Single-A Fredericksburg, but Wood has yet to be told where he’ll report, presumably High-A Wilmington after hitting .293 in 21 games with the FredNats to end last year.

In the final spring tuneup before Opening Day on Thursday, two starting pitchers made their first appearances as members of the home team at Nationals Park this afternoon.

Trevor Williams, who signed a two-year, $13 million contract this offseason, and MacKenzie Gore, one of the top prospects acquired from the Padres in the Juan Soto trade last summer, made their Nationals debuts on South Capitol Street during a 3-0 exhibition win over the Yankees in front of 13,012 fans.

The plan for both was to pitch three innings and throw about 50 pitches. But Williams, who had a strong spring, was so efficient, he was able to go out and complete a fourth frame, allowing just one hit, two walks and a hit batter with a strikeout of Aaron Judge and a pickoff at second base on 52 pitches, 30 strikes, over a scoreless outing.

“It was good to complete four. We were shooting for about 50 pitches,” Williams said. “So to get up there, get four ups and have some clean innings was good. It's nice to pitch in a big league atmosphere, a big league stadium. It was a fun first date wearing a white jersey here or white pants here. I took a minute to kind of look around the ballpark from a different angle today and I can't wait to get the regular season started.”

Williams has actually made five appearances (three starts) at Nats Park while being a member of the Pirates and Mets over his seven-year career. But his first appearance with the Nationals, one that still doesn’t officially count, was still about getting ready for when it actually matters.

With just one more exhibition game against the Yankees this afternoon, eyes are starting to look ahead to the start of the regular season against the Braves on Thursday.

We’ve figured for some time how the Nationals rotation would be lined up to start the season: Patrick Corbin was officially announced as the Opening Day starter on Friday, with Josiah Gray, MacKenzie Gore, Trevor Williams and Chad Kuhl (replacing the injured Cade Cavalli) seemingly following suit.

Manager Davey Martinez, keeping his cards close to his chest, confirmed Corbin will get the ball for Opening Day on Thursday and Gray will start the second game of the season Saturday.

“I know who's going to start on Thursday,” Martinez said with a grin during his first pregame meeting with the media back in the press conference room at Nationals Park. “I can tell you Gray will start the second game.”

Williams and Gore are both scheduled to pitch three innings today, with the right-hander getting the start based solely on his veteran status. That means they will both be in line to pitch Sunday for the series finale against the Braves.

Spring training is over. After six weeks of early morning workouts, Grapefruit League games and bus rides all over Florida, the Nationals have returned home for their last tuneup before Thursday’s Opening Day game against the Braves.

Because of the three off-days this week, the Nats’ pitching schedule has been altered a bit. That is why you’ll see two starters – Trevor Williams and MacKenzie Gore – take the mound for about three innings each this afternoon. Although Williams will start the game (based solely on his veteran status, per manager Davey Martinez), Gore is expected to start the Nationals’ third game of the season on Sunday. Williams will then start Monday’s series opener against the Rays.

Even though this game still doesn’t count, it will be nice to see Gore pitching at Nationals Park for the first time. Gore, Williams and whoever follows out of the bullpen will face a dangerous lineup from the Yankees, who are stopping in town before heading up to New York for their season opener against the Giants.

Opening Day rosters don’t have to be announced until Thursday morning, so this will be the last chance for guys on minor league deals and who are battling for spots to make their cases. Although it appears Michael Chavis has earned the last bench spot and the bullpen has taken its shape, nothing has been made official yet.

This will also be the last exhibition tuneup for the MASN broadcast team, as you can watch today’s game coverage starting at noon.

The Nationals won 55 games last season, fewest in club history. They were outscored by an astounding 252 runs. They had the majors’ worst rotation, hit the fewest homers in the National League and gave up the most. They ranked at or near the bottom in most defensive metrics. They also traded a once-in-a-generation, 22-year-old star for prospects.

It was, by any measure, an awful season.

Which means there’s nowhere to go but up, right?

The 2023 Nationals have to be better. The pitching has to be better. The defense has to be better. The lineup has to be … uh, we’ll get back to that topic in a moment.

We don’t know how the next six months are going to play out. There are any number of unpredictable factors that could help or hurt the team’s fortunes. Here’s what we do know: The 2023 Nats are younger. They’re more athletic. They feature more potential pieces to the long-term puzzle than the previous team did.

Spring training is over. The Nationals packed their bags after Sunday’s 2-2 tie against the Marlins and took their charter flight home to D.C. as the somewhat-proud owners of a 12-12-3 record in Grapefruit League play. (Hey, after going 4-11 last year en route to 55-107 in the regular season, any hint of success is ready to be proud.)

There’s one more exhibition to play Tuesday afternoon against the Yankees at Nationals Park. Then the Braves arrive for Thursday’s 2023 season opener, and we’re off and running.

We touched on a whole lot of topics over the last six weeks, some more frequently than others. So consider this something of an exercise in course correction. Too often we pay too much attention to something in spring training that doesn’t matter much in the regular season. And conversely, too often we ignore a subject that absolutely proves significant over the ensuing six months.

So as everyone gets settled in to their homes and apartments and looks ahead to Opening Day, let’s run through some topics we perhaps made too big a deal out of this spring, and some others we might have glossed over …

TOO BIG A DEAL: THE ROTATION
The primary topic of spring training, for better or worse, is always going to be starting pitching. Those are the guys who need the most work to get ready for the season. They’re the ones who are going to draw the most attention. And after the Nationals rotation went a horrific 30-86 with a 5.97 ERA last season, this revamped unit was always going to be the center of attention this spring. In the end, these guys will probably be fine. Yes, Cade Cavalli’s Tommy John surgery was a huge blow. But Josiah Gray looked great this spring, MacKenzie Gore flashed his ability to dominate, Patrick Corbin looked serviceable and Trevor Williams looked like a nice addition. This isn’t going to morph into anything close to a club strength, but it really shouldn’t be a disaster this year like it was last year.

JUPITER, Fla. – The 0.55 spring ERA, to be sure, is really nice. So is the 0.918 WHIP. It would be hard for Josiah Gray and the Nationals to look at those numbers as camp wraps up and not be pleased.

The spring stats that really stood out to Gray, though, were the two that showed dramatic improvement from his 2022 season.

“Walks,” he said. “I think walks are the biggest one. If I can keep those down, that puts me in a really good position early on. … And then we all know the home run ball. Just being able to limit that is obviously going to take away the biggest negative play for a pitcher. So those two are big.”

Gray, for those who don’t remember, surrendered a major-league-high 38 home runs last season while issuing a National League-high 66 walks. It proved to be a deadly combination that turned what at times looked like a promising campaign into a frustrating one for the young right-hander.

It’s spring training, of course, so this comes with all the usual caveats. But over the course of five starts and 16 1/3 innings this spring, Gray issued only two walks and did not surrender any homers.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Matt Adams is going to fly home with the Nationals tonight, play in Tuesday’s exhibition finale against the Yankees and attend the team’s annual charity gala that evening. And then, if he doesn’t get a big league offer from another organization, the veteran slugger will report to Triple-A Rochester and hope he gets called up sometime this season.

Adams came to this conclusion Saturday night after consultation with his wife and his agent, hours after he was informed by manager Davey Martinez he wasn’t going to make the Opening Day roster despite a strong showing at the plate throughout spring training.

“It’s tough to hear, especially coming in and doing everything I possibly could to put myself in the position to possibly have my name called to be on the roster,” the 34-year-old said. “But I totally understand. I can walk away with my head held high. I’m very proud of the way I came in and handled myself, and the way I went about my business, the teammate that I was and all the knowledge I gave to the younger guys. That was a blast. It was a lot of fun. I’m going to just continue to put the uniform on and play the game that I love.”

A member of the Nationals’ 2019 World Series roster, Adams hasn’t been a regular in the big leagues since. He played in 16 games for the Braves in 2020, 22 games for the Rockies in 2021 and then spent the entire 2022 season playing independent ball in Kansas City.

After sending letters to all 30 clubs over the winter, Adams was given a chance to come back to the Nationals this spring as a non-roster invitee. With a new perspective on his career – he said he fell back in love with the game last season – he looked good at the plate, batting .333 (13-for-39) with five doubles and a home run.