MINNEAPOLIS – It’s a new day, and another opportunity for the Nationals to do something they haven’t done in either of their last two games: Score a run. Yes, they’ve been shut out twice in a row. They haven’t scored a run of any type since Riley Adams’ two-run single in the bottom of the sixth Tuesday night against the Reds. Even if they get on the board early tonight, it would snap a roughly 96-hour scoreless streak.

Miguel Cairo certainly needs more from the top two guys in his lineup. CJ Abrams is 1 for his last 21, with one walk and seven strikeouts. James Wood is 4 for his last 38, with five walks and 19 strikeouts. It’s tough for this team to be good offensively when its top two offensive players aren’t producing.

The Nationals will be facing an All-Star tonight in Joe Ryan, the 29-year-old right-hander who is 10-4 with a 2.63 ERA and 10.2 strikeouts per nine innings. Ryan’s name has come up in trade rumors, so this could be a particularly big start for him leading up to Thursday’s leaguewide deadline.

Mitchell Parker gets the ball for the Nats, coming off a quality start against the Padres and having had a full week of rest, with MacKenzie Gore bumped up to start Friday night’s series opener here.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at MINNESOTA TWINS
Where: Target Field
Gametime: 7:10 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Clear, 89 degrees, wind 9 mph out to left field

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.

MINNEAPOLIS – Hello from Target Field, where they fly pennants honoring the 1924, 1925 and 1933 Washington Senators, just as they do at Nationals Park. I’ll let you all decide on your own which franchise you believe has the right to claim those titles, or perhaps you believe both do. It does make for a fun debate, though.

The Nationals are in town to face the Twins this weekend, hoping to build off their series win over the Reds. To get this one off on the right foot, they’ll need MacKenzie Gore to get himself back on track after his worst start of the season. Gore was roughed up by the Padres on Sunday to the tune of eight runs and eight hits in only 2 1/3 innings, his worst outing as a member of the Nats. A return to form would certainly be nice.

The lineup is facing an unknown opponent in Zebby Matthews, a 25-year-old right-hander with a career 6.53 ERA despite 11 strikeouts per nine innings. The key stat, it would appear: Opponents are batting a ridiculous .406 and slugging .531 off Matthews’ four-seam fastball, a pitch he throws 44 percent of the time. The Nationals typically are a good fastball-hitting team. You’d like to think this should be a favorable matchup for them.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at MINNESOTA TWINS
Where: Target Field
Gametime: 8:10 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Partly cloudy, 84 degrees, wind 8 mph out to left field

NATIONALS
SS CJ Abrams
LF James Wood
2B Luis García Jr.
DH Josh Bell
1B Nathaniel Lowe
3B Brady House
RF Daylen Lile
C Riley Adams
CF Jacob Young

Interim general manager Mike DeBartolo has already conceded the Nationals will be sellers at next week’s trade deadline. And he also mentioned he’s not looking to trade the team’s top young players, such as MacKenzie Gore, though he said he would answer the phone if another team called to ask.

That likely just leaves veterans on expiring contracts to be traded as two-month rentals. The price tags for such players are usually low, but teams may become desperate as they look to reload their rosters ahead of playoff runs.

Luckily, the Nats have a handful of such players. And even more fortunately, those players are trending in the right direction at the right time.

Perhaps the most positive development has been Josh Bell’s recent surge.

After slashing just .151/.254/.289 through his first 45 games this season, the switch-hitter is now slashing .298/.374/.497 with an .871 OPS, nine doubles, seven home runs, 23 RBIs and 17 walks to 19 strikeouts over his last 43 games. Even better, he’s slashing .309/.389/.491 with an .880 OPS over his last 32 and has homered in back-to-back games.

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.

Good morning and welcome to a rare combination around these parts. First, we have a getaway game starting at noon. But even more rare is the Nationals’ chance at a three-game sweep.

Yes, the Nats have not swept a three-game set since mid-May against the Orioles in Baltimore. And their opponent, the Reds, have not been swept at all this year. The Nationals held on after an offensive outburst to win Monday’s series opener. Then they used timely hitting and an impressive collective effort from Brad Lord and a makeshift bullpen to take Game 2 last night.

How will they fare today?

On the bump will be Michael Soroka, who is 3-7 with a 5.10 ERA and 1.147 WHIP in 14 starts. He didn’t get to face the Reds in Cincinnati back in early May, but he was strong in his first start of the second half, holding the Padres to just one run in five innings.

Nick Lodolo will go for Cincy. The southpaw is 7-6 with a 3.33 ERA and 1.082 WHIP in 20 starts this year. But the Nats knocked him around for seven runs (six earned) on 10 hits in 5 ⅓ innings on May 3 at Great American Ball Park.

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.

The Nationals actually won a series opener Monday night, outlasting the Reds 10-8, thanks to their best offensive performance in a while. Which means they’ve now got two chances to win one game and win the series. That’s easier said than done, of course.

To pull it off tonight, the Nats will need to piece together nine innings from a pitching staff that’s not in great shape. Miguel Cairo had to burn up everybody in his bullpen the last two days after MacKenzie Gore failed to get out of the third inning and Jake Irvin failed to get out of the fourth inning. This would normally be the time to ask for length out of tonight’s starter, but Brad Lord is making his first start May 6. He’s been an effective reliever, but he hasn’t thrown more than 38 pitches in any appearance since then, so don’t count on more than three or maybe four innings from him tonight.

With that in mind, the Nats made a roster move today. They called up left-hander Konnor Pilkington from Triple-A Rochester, giving them a reliever who can provide some length behind Lord if needed. Mason Thompson was optioned to Rochester and Dylan Crews was transferred to the 60-day injured list to clear a spot on the 40-man roster (but that doesn’t change Crews’ eligibility to return once he’s deemed ready).

The Nationals would love to bust out for 10 runs again, but they’ll have to do it against one of the most dynamic young starting pitchers in the game. Chase Burns, the No. 2 pick in last summer’s draft, makes his fifth career start for the Reds. The right-hander throws an upper-90s fastball and a low-90s slider, so that’s what the Nats have in store tonight at the plate.

CINCINNATI REDS 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: Partly cloudy, 83 degrees, wind 7 mph in from right field

Back in May, when his batting average was in the low .130s and his OPS dipped below .500, Josh Bell made a conscious decision to stop doing what he intended to do all season for the Nationals.

His plan all along was to seek more home runs, believing a high slugging percentage was more important than any other stat at this stage of his career and in this current baseball environment. The results were ugly, so the veteran designated hitter revamped his swing in-season with hitting coach Darnell Coles and decided to forget about home runs and just focus on hitting the ball hard on a line.

“I just tried to lower my launch angle, tried to focus on squaring up the ball as best as I can, try to get my OPS over .600,” he said. “So I’ve done that. Now I’m fighting for seven. We’ll see where we go from there.”

As Bell spoke late Monday night following the Nationals’ 10-8 win over the Reds, his OPS for the season officially resided at .695. What he may not have realized was that he did actually get it over the .700 for a brief while a couple hours earlier after he launched a solo homer into the second deck in right field. It may have been his first homer since June 27, but it was just one of many well-struck base hits for the 32-year-old over a sustained stretch.

The infamous Josh Bell early season slump has long been replaced by the infamous Josh Bell midseason surge. After slashing just .151/.254/.289 through his first 45 games this season, he’s now slashing a very healthy .297/.371/.480 over his last 42 games.

OK, so maybe this victory wasn’t as smooth and convincing as it appeared it might be when the home team busted out with seven early runs against the Reds tonight.

The Nationals, though, haven’t won nearly enough games this summer to get picky about how they win. Any win is a good win right now, and tonight’s 10-8 slugfest on South Capitol Street should be considered as beautiful as any crisply played ballgame.

Thanks to an early seven-run explosion keyed by the resurgent James Wood and Josh Bell, then some much-needed tack-on offense in the middle innings and a surprisingly effective bullpen performance after Jake Irvin endured through his shortest start in two seasons, the Nationals won a series opener for the first time since June 26 in Anaheim, long before Miguel Cairo replaced Davey Martinez as manager.

"You see when it's coming," Cairo said. "Those were good at-bats today. We didn't score and just stop. We kept going, and we put good at-bats together. It was beautiful to get 10 runs today."

This game, of course, still included a harrowing top of the ninth from Kyle Finnegan, the slumping closer who allowed three of the first four batters he faced to reach, two of them scoring, before finishing it off with the tying run standing at the plate.

There doesn’t appear to be much left for Dylan Crews to do before he can begin a rehab assignment.

The Nationals’ rookie outfielder participated in all baseball activities this weekend without issue, the club said. That included ground balls, fly balls, full batting practice and baserunning, the first time he had done all of that since suffering a left oblique strain two months ago.

So, when will Crews begin playing in minor league games on a rehab assignment?

“When the trainers tell me that he’s ready to go and do the rehab,” interim manager Miguel Cairo said. “The good news is that he’s feeling good. He’s anxious. And he’s been doing everything they ask. We’ve just got to wait for the trainers to let us know.”

Aside from repeating the same drills he’s now been able to complete in recent days, there doesn’t appear to be anything else Crews can do that doesn’t include game situations. With all minor league teams off Mondays, there’s a chance the Nats will send him out to begin a rehab assignment Tuesday. Triple-A Rochester, Double-A Harrisburg and Single-A Fredericksburg are all playing at home this week, offering the club its choice of affiliates.

The Nationals have lost 11 of their last 13 series, including each of their last four. That’s how you wind up falling from two games under .500 to 21 games under .500 in a relatively brief amount of time. Suffice it to say, there’s a lot of work to be done just to reverse course and get this ship floating again. The road continues tonight with the opener of a three-game series against a Reds team that is smack dab in the middle of the National League Wild Card race and just took a series from the Mets at Citi Field.

Jake Irvin makes his first start of the second half, having been given seven days off since his last outing in the first-half finale. The right-hander has been OK so far this month, posting a 3.71 ERA, but he’s still looking to recapture the more consistently effective form he displayed earlier this year and for a large chunk of last year. He faced the Reds twice last season, and though he took no-decision in each case, he did pitch well (five runs in 12 innings).

Brady Singer has not faced the Nationals since 2023, when he was still pitching for the Royals. The 28-year-old right-hander has allowed three runs or fewer in 10 of his last 11 starts.

CINCINNATI REDS 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: Partly cloudy, 84 degrees, wind 7 mph in from center field

REDS
CF TJ Friedl
2B Matt McLain
SS Elly De La Cruz
LF Austin Hays
DH Gavin Lux
1B Spencer Steer
3B Noelvi Marte
RF Jake Fraley
C Jose Trevino

If it happened to anybody else, it would’ve been notable. Because it happened to James Wood, it was downright shocking.

A prolonged slump? By one of the most consistent offensive players in Nationals history, one of the most consistent 22-year-olds the sport has ever seen?

“It’s just baseball,” Wood insisted. “It can’t all be rainbows and sunshine all the time. It happens. You’ve just got to work your way out of it.”

Since the day the Nationals called him up from the minors 1 year and 3 weeks ago, Wood has never been through any slump that lasted more than a handful of days. His longest 0-fer made it to only 15 at-bats during a four-game stretch in late-July 2024.

This one, though, made it to 20, stretching over more than five games sandwiched around the All-Star break. When it began, Wood was batting .287 with a .939 OPS. By the middle of Sunday’s game, those numbers were down to .271 and .895.

Having already seen MacKenzie Gore and Nick Pivetta engage in a 1-0 pitchers’ duel last month in San Diego, Miguel Cairo sounded confident about what would be in store in this afternoon’s rematch at Nationals Park.

"It’s going to be another good game today," the interim manager said. "Pivetta’s an ace. We’ve got an ace on our side, too. And whoever does the little things better, I think, is going to come out on top. Hopefully that’s us. But it will be a good game to watch. You’ve got two aces pitching today, and it will be awesome."

It took all of four batters for any notion of a pitchers’ duel to remain viable. And it took fewer than three innings for the Padres to blast Gore from the game and make the rest of this sticky Sunday a cakewalk for Pivetta, who coasted through six innings of one-run ball to an 8-1 victory.

This was no repeat of the June 26 series finale at Petco Park, another afternoon game that saw Pivetta outduel Gore to a 1-0 win. The Padres right-hander remained in peak form, carrying a shutout into the sixth. But Gore wilted in a manner not previously seen during the first All-Star season of his career.

"I think I was just bad today," he said. "I think it was more that I just wasn't very good. They put the ball in play and got a lot of hits, and they were able to hit two homers. But I just wasn't very good."

The Nationals have found themselves in this position plenty of times over the last month-plus, having lost the first game of a series before bouncing back to win the next night, leaving the finale as the decisive rubber game. And in five of the last seven such instances, they’ve lost the finale and thus lost the series.

One of those series came last month in San Diego, where the rubber game featured a pitching matchup of MacKenzie Gore vs. Nick Pivetta. Gore was outstanding that afternoon, allowing one run over six innings. And Pivetta was better, tossing seven scoreless innings with only three batters reaching base. Thus did the Padres win the game, 1-0.

Here we are again with the same pitching matchup in the series finale between the same two teams, this time at Nationals Park. Can Gore duplicate his efforts from that outing? More importantly, can the Nats mount more of an offensive threat against Pivetta and provide their ace with some desperately needed run support? That’s what’s at stake this afternoon.

SAN DIEGO PADRES 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, 87 degrees, wind 11 mph out to right field

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

Mike DeBartolo’s first week on the job as the Nationals’ interim general manager was consumed with the Major League Baseball Draft. His second and third weeks on the job are now focused on MLB’s upcoming trade deadline, and a critical question he must confront: How committed is the organization to its current group of young players?

The Nats will be sellers at the deadline for the fifth straight year, that much DeBartolo concedes. Veterans on expiring contracts like Kyle Finnegan, Michael Soroka, Josh Bell, Amed Rosario and Paul DeJong will be shopped.

But the asking price for those two-month rentals isn’t likely to be steep. If DeBartolo is interested in making more significant changes and acquiring more prominent prospects before July 31, he would need to consider dealing players still under club control beyond 2025.

First baseman Nathaniel Lowe, who has one year of arbitration eligibility remaining, is one possibility. But what about MacKenzie Gore, one of the key prospects acquired in the 2022 Juan Soto blockbuster and a first-time All-Star, yet one who only has 2 1/2 years left of club control (same as Soto at the time of that trade)?

DeBartolo didn’t straight up shoot down the possibility when asked Saturday in a session with reporters following No. 1 draft pick Eli Willits’ introductory press conference. But he did make it fairly clear he’s not interested in breaking up what he believes is a solid foundation of young players already at the major league level.

Kyle Finnegan said he couldn’t wait to get back on the mound tonight and erase the sting of Friday night’s disastrous ninth inning. The Nationals closer got his wish. And made the most of the opportunity.

Handed a two-run lead in the top of the ninth, Finnegan shut down the Padres and finished off a 4-2 victory before a boisterous Saturday night crowd of 31,136 that waited out a 1-hour, 5-minute rain delay and was rewarded for its patience with a much-needed victory by the home team.

Finnegan needed it as much as anyone. The slumping closer entered with a 4.37 ERA and zero saves (with three blown saves) since June 6. He avoided any drama this time, retiring the side and giving his teammates a chance to celebrate at the center of the diamond.

"Any pitcher will tell you: After a bad one, you don't want to stew on it for too long. You want to get back out there and put it behind you," Finnegan said. "So I was excited for the opportunity to do that tonight. Happy that they had the faith in me to go back out there and get the last three outs."

"I told him right now: It doesn't matter who's coming up to hit, you're my closer," interim manager Miguel Cairo said. "Go out there and just do your job. And he did it today."