In adding several veteran relievers with late-inning experience this winter and even into the spring, the Nationals hoped they were assembling a bullpen that would give Davey Martinez more viable options for tight ballgames and not force the manager to rely too much on his top arms.

So when the situation arose today in the team’s home opener – tie game in the eighth, Kyle Finnegan and Hunter Harvey having both pitched the previous two days – Martinez entrusted it to Matt Barnes, a 33-year-old former All-Star closer with the Red Sox trying to bounce back from an injury-plagued 2023 with the Marlins.

The ensuing results suggested there’s still some work to be done figuring out who else can be trusted to be part of the so-called "A" bullpen.

Allowing four of the first five batters he faced to reach base, Barnes turned a tie game into a three-run deficit and eventually an 8-4 loss to the Pirates, who are off to a surprising 5-0 start to their season and have left the Nats at 1-3 for the sixth consecutive year.

"It's a long season, and obviously a handful of things haven't started out the way we want to," Barnes said. "But we've got 158 games to go. Hiccups like this are going to happen. You clean them up and work on getting better."

The Nationals’ home opener showcases a lot of new features to the young 2024 season.

As the home schedule on South Capitol Street kicks off, there are new things all around Nationals Park to experience. New concessions. New scoreboard. New lights. And a new lineup in just the fourth game of the year.

The Nationals will take on the first left-handed starting pitcher they've faced this season in the Pirates’ Marco Gonzales, meaning manager Davey Martinez will trot out his first right-handed-heavy lineup of the year.

Left-handed hitters Eddie Rosario, Joey Gallo and Luis García Jr. are on the bench. In their places, Victor Robles is playing center field, Joey Meneses is at first base and Ildemaro Vargas is at second, while rookie Trey Lipscomb stays at third. Catcher Keibert Ruiz is serving as the designated hitter while Riley Adams sets up behind the plate to catch the Nats’ own lefty starter in MacKenzie Gore.

“It wasn't that hard of a decision, it really wasn’t,” Martinez said ahead of this afternoon’s opener against the Pirates. “I want to get everybody in the game and get everybody involved. Keibert, who has swung the bat really well right-handed. Keep Meneses (in the lineup with Ruiz at DH) today. I wanted to get Riley back behind the plate today. Bump Lipscomb up a little bit because he's been swinging the bat well. He's done really well since he's been with us. But I want to get everybody involved. So we got some great options as far as if they make a switch and bring a righty in. We got some lefties on the bench. But I like the way we match up against this lefty today.”

In a perfect world, the Nationals would have come home from Cincinnati with a winning record to a sun-splashed ballpark for today’s home opener. Alas, this isn’t a perfect world. The Nats lost Sunday’s series finale to the Reds with a gut punch of a bottom of the ninth. And the sun will not be shining on South Capitol Street today, with lots of rain in the forecast.

The glimmer of hope? The percentage chance of rain goes down during the mid-to-late afternoon hours, so perhaps it will be dry enough to play as scheduled at 4:05 p.m. If the Nats knew Tuesday looked better, they absolutely would have postponed today’s game well in advance. Unfortunately, Tuesday’s forecast looks worse, so they really have no choice but to attempt to play today. It’s not ideal, but it’s the best they can do with what Mother Nature is throwing their way.

The Nationals come home to face a Pirates team that just swept a four-game series in Miami, two of those wins coming in extra innings. This is a team filled with young talent, making for an intriguing series here the next few days.

It’s MacKenzie Gore getting the ball for the home opener, an honor Davey Martinez wanted the young lefty to have. After less-than-dominant showings from Josiah Gray, Patrick Corbin and Jake Irvin in Cincy, it would be lovely to get some quality out of Gore today.

MASN has all the proceedings today, with a special hour-long pregame show beginning at 3 p.m. and concluding with all of the player intros, the anthem and flyover. If you can’t be here in person, be sure to tune in!

They would’ve come home flying high, having just won the season’s opening series on the road against a team with October aspirations, and having done it on the backs of some of their most important young players.

They would’ve taken the field at Nationals Park to a thunderous roar from a large crowd excited to welcome them home for the first time in 2024, enthusiasm soaring after such an uplifting start to the year.

They would’ve been the proud owners of a winning record for the first time since – get this – July 1, 2021, a night that saw a Nationals team loaded with star power fall to 40-39 after a loss to the Dodgers in which emergency second baseman Alex Avila strained not one but both of his calves. By month’s end, they would trade Max Scherzer, Trea Turner and a host of other veterans in the first act of a long and painful roster rebuild.

The Nats won’t take the field with a winning record today, though. They’re 1-2, not 2-1, after Kyle Finnegan’s swift and painful, bottom-of-the-ninth meltdown late Sunday afternoon in Cincinnati sapped all the goodwill out of the clubhouse and left a dejected ballclub to quietly shower, dress and head to the airport.

But does that loss, agonizing as it was, really change the overall state of the Nationals on this date? Does a blown save on March 31, ghastly as it was, erase everything else that preceded it?

CINCINNATI – The stage was set for another uplifting victory. Trey Lipscomb would be the hero. Other key young building blocks would have contributed. The Nationals just needed one more pitch from Kyle Finnegan.

And then, in what felt like a matter of seconds, it all collapsed.

One strike away from locking up the save, Finnegan instead surrendered a two-out double to Jonathan India, then back-to-back homers to Will Benson and Christian Encarnacion-Strand to deal the Nats a crushing 6-5 loss in the finale of their season-opening series.

"That's tough," manager Davey Martinez said. "Three-two, two outs. And then double, homer, homer. That's how the game ended. That's tough."

Handed a two-run lead for the bottom of the ninth, Finnegan seemed to be in complete control. He retired the first two batters he faced, then just needed to retire India to end it. But the Reds leadoff man kept battling, fouling off five straight fastballs before lining the 10th pitch of his at-bat into the left-field corner for a double.

CINCINNATI – The Nationals didn’t do a lot of things well in Thursday’s season-opening loss to the Reds, but high on the list was their lack of patience at the plate, leading to zero walks during the 8-2 loss.

They flipped the script Saturday, taking advantage of Hunter Greene’s wildness to draw four walks off the Cincinnati starter, then another two off closer Alexis Diaz during their ninth-inning rally to win 7-6.

Davey Martinez hopes the message sunk in for his players.

“If we accept our walks and not chase, we’ll hit the ball hard,” the manager said. “That’s what we’ve got to do always. We talked a lot about it this spring, we worked on it. These guys have to understand that taking your walks, good things happen. We saw that yesterday with CJ.”

Indeed, CJ Abrams was the biggest beneficiary of all of plate discipline. The 23-year-old shortstop drew three walks during the game, immediately stealing second base after each of them and ultimately scoring three runs.

CINCINNATI – It was quite pleasant here on Opening Day. It was unseasonably warm and windy Saturday. Now it’s cold and rainy for today’s series finale at Great American Ball Park. Gotta love Midwest weather.

No matter the conditions, the Nationals are feeling hot after their rousing, come-from-behind win less than 24 hours ago. They’ll try to keep the momentum going and leave town with a season-opening series win over the Reds in advance of Monday’s home opener against the Pirates, and they’ll do so with their most effective pitcher from spring training on the mound.

Jake Irvin didn’t get the attention others in the rotation did, but he was unquestionably the best of the group down in Florida. Over his final 15 innings of work, the right-hander did not allow a run, scattered four hits and two walks and struck out 13. He enters his second big league season brimming with confidence, and a solid outing today would only bolster that belief.

The Nationals wound up scoring seven runs on 11 hits and six walks Saturday, but five of the runs and eight of the baserunners came from the seventh inning on. They had chances earlier but could not convert with runners in scoring position (2-for-10 through the fifth). Let’s see if they can produce better in key situations early against Reds starter Nick Martinez today and actually play with a lead instead of forcing themselves to come from behind again. Davey Martinez is trotting out the same lineup, so that means three straight starts behind the plate for Keibert Ruiz and three straight starts in center field for Eddie Rosario.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at CINCINNATI REDS
Where: Great American Ball Park, Cincinnati
Gametime: 1:40 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Chance of rain, 58 degrees, wind 3 mph in from right field

CINCINNATI – The Nationals got major contributions from a number of young building blocks this afternoon, whether in the form of Trey Lipscomb’s solid all-around play in his major league debut, CJ Abrams’ three walks and three steals and triple or Keibert Ruiz’s latest clutch homer.

But when they needed one last contribution to pull off a rousing, come-from-behind win, they turned to one of the veterans they signed during spring training for moments just like this.

After Lipscomb, Abrams and Ruiz did their thing, Eddie Rosario did his, producing the sacrifice fly that capped a three-run rally in the top of the ninth and propelled the Nats to a stirring, 7-6 victory over the Reds that required all sorts of performances to make possible.

"Any game is fun to win," Abrams said. "But we all came and had each other's back, and we had fun getting the win today."

Having already rallied to tie the game the previous two innings, the Nationals were forced to do it again in the ninth after Hunter Harvey gave up a two-run double to new Cincinnati cult hero Nick Martini. They came through in impressive fashion against closer Alexis Diaz.

CINCINNATI – Trey Lipscomb had just completed his first workout Thursday at Innovative Field in Rochester and was preparing to board a bus with his Triple-A teammates for Syracuse, the site of the following day’s season opener. First, though, Red Wings manager Matt LeCroy wanted to let his players know who they would be sharing hotel rooms with on the road, so he pulled names out of a hat and announced as he went along.

Lipscomb’s name, as it turned out, was the last one drawn. The 23-year-old figured that meant he would get his own room in Syracuse. Instead, LeCroy announced to everyone in the clubhouse he was heading to Cincinnati to join the Nationals.

“He drew my name and he said: ‘You get your own hotel room, and you’re going to The Show,’” Lipscomb recalled this afternoon from the dugout at Great American Ball Park, where tonight he’ll make his major league debut. “It was pretty cool. Pretty cool.”

Lipscomb nearly made the Nats’ Opening Day roster, surviving the entirety of spring training and traveling with the team to D.C. for Tuesday’s exhibition finale. In the end, the club decided to keep Luis Garcia Jr. at second base and Rule 5 draftee Nasim Nunez on the bench, so Lipscomb was to begin the year with Rochester and spend most of his time at second base.

Then Nick Senzel fractured his right thumb trying to field a bad-hop grounder during batting practice before Thursday’s game, and the Nationals were left to scramble and call Lipscomb up before he ever had a chance to play his first Triple-A game.

CINCINNATI – Despite their limited action in free agency over the winter, the Nationals’ payroll has gone up a bit this year, a product almost entirely of returning players whose salaries increased via arbitration.

The Nats’ Opening Day payroll (counting 26 active players, plus five more who began the season on the injured list) is $107,566,629, according to Spotrac, which ranks 21st among all major league clubs. One year ago, that figure was about $94.5 million, which ranked 22nd.

Those totals count all money owed to players during the upcoming year, not any money that will be paid at a later date via deferrals.

The Nationals did very little in free agency during the offseason, signing only three players to major league contracts: Joey Gallo ($5 million guaranteed), Dylan Floro ($2.25 million) and Nick Senzel ($2 million). They did sign four more veteran free agents to minor league deals during spring training who wound up making the roster: Eddie Rosario ($2 million guaranteed), Jesse Winker ($1.5 million), Matt Barnes ($1.5 million) and Derek Law ($1.5 million).

All told, the Nats spent only $15.75 million on free agents, down from $18.25 million the previous offseason.

CINCINNATI – The Nationals had a plan all mapped out for Trey Lipscomb.

Lipscomb, the last player demoted from the spring training roster, would report to Triple-A Rochester, where he would get the bulk of his playing time at second base. There would be occasional starts at both shortstop and third base, but manager Davey Martinez wanted the versatile infielder to start getting comfortable at the position he has played the least coming up through the minors.

“It was a new position for him coming into the spring,” Martinez said around 1:45 p.m. Thursday, shortly before his team took the field at Great American Ball Park for batting practice. “So that was a big reason why we sent him over there, to get him accustomed to turning two all the time. And to be ready when he’s called upon.”

Maybe 30 minutes after making that statement, Martinez saw Nick Senzel leave the field with his right hand in a cup of ice. A short while late, the Nationals got the official word: Senzel had fractured his thumb trying to field an errant grounder during pregame warmups.

And just like that, the plan for Lipscomb was thrown out the window.

CINCINNATI – A season of renewed optimism ran headfirst into a brick wall this afternoon. Opening Day saw Josiah Gray get lit up by a 33-year-old journeyman, the Nationals lineup get shut down by a 31-year-old making his first start in two seasons and their starting third baseman get taken out by a pregame ground ball.

An 8-2 loss to the Reds – a game that essentially was over after three innings – was demoralizing enough. The injury to Nick Senzel might as well have been a kick to the groin, one that came 90 minutes before the season’s first pitch was even thrown.

Senzel, the former Cincinnati first-round pick who signed for a modest $2 million over the winter in hopes of resurrecting his career, was fielding grounders during batting practice when a ball struck him on the thumb. Instead of trotting out of the dugout with his new teammates in his old ballpark for player introductions, he was getting an X-ray, which revealed a broken right thumb, according to manager Davey Martinez.

"It's awful," Martinez said. "He was in a good spot, and we were in a good spot with him. He was excited for today. And then just a freak accident."

"I was warming up in the training room, and I see him roll in," Gray said. "I'm not really paying attention, but I hear him saying something happened. I feel terrible for him, because obviously the significance of coming back here - he had a long career here - and for it to happen in pregame as well, that's a tough blow for him. I feel for him."

CINCINNATI – And away we go!

Forget about anything that happened last season. Forget about anything that happened over the winter. Forget about anything that happened during spring training. It all made for great conversation and debate, but it doesn’t matter anymore. Starting today, we have actual baseball to watch and evaluate.

The 20th season of Washington Nationals baseball begins on the road. It’s actually the first time the Nats have opened on the road since 2018, when rookie manager Davey Martinez debuted with a win in … Cincinnati! This is the eighth road opener in club history, and it’s strange to think the only repeat towns during that time are New York and Cincinnati of all places.

This is also only the fourth Opening Day against someone from outside the National League East. The others: at the Cubs in 2012, home against the Yankees in the bizarre 2020 season. Among division foes, the Nationals have faced the Mets and Braves five times apiece, the Marlins four times and the Phillies twice.

The last 12 season openers have seen only three starting pitchers take the mound: Max Scherzer (six times), Stephen Strasburg (four) and Patrick Corbin (two). But today, the Nats pass the ceremonial baton to someone new: Josiah Gray, who makes his first career Opening Day start, against the franchise that drafted him in 2018 (and then traded him to the Dodgers six months later).

CINCINNATI – Victor Robles is on the Nationals’ Opening Day roster for the sixth straight year. He is not, however, in the starting lineup for the first time.

Opting for what he hopes will be a better offensive matchup, manager Davey Martinez decided to start veteran Eddie Rosario in center field, with Jesse Winker in left field, for today’s season opener against the Reds.

“They’re both really good against right-handed pitching,” said Martinez, whose team is facing Cincinnati righty Frankie Montas. “I looked at the matchups, and I like the matchups. … This is the matchup I wanted to go with today.”

It’s an alignment the Nationals tinkered with during spring training, after Rosario signed a minor league deal in early March. The 32-year-old has played almost exclusively in left field throughout his long career with the Twins, Guardians and Braves, but he does have 58 games of big league experience in center field (albeit none since 2019).

Martinez, though, didn’t want to sit Winker, another mid-spring acquisition who struggled last season in Milwaukee but produced a .942 OPS in Florida over the last month to earn a spot on the team. And with Joey Gallo (a two-time Gold Glove Award outfielder) starting at first base, Joey Meneses is forced to be the designated hitter.

CINCINNATI – The day has come. The 2024 baseball season begins later today, here in Cincinnati where the Nationals face the Reds in the opener of a three-game series. And for the first time in a while, there’s some genuine optimism surrounding the team.

Not enough optimism for anyone to predict this season will extend into October, mind you. But consider this: A year ago, four of us predicted the Nats would lose at least 100 games. This year, nobody is that pessimistic about their chances. Progress!

This is, hard to believe, the 20th season of Nationals baseball. And it’s the 15th season of Opening Day predictions by the beat crew. Most of the names have changed. Some left for a few years and then returned. All are convinced they’re smarter than anyone else in the group. Time will tell.

As always, I’m grateful to every one of them for participating in this exercise. And as always, we’ll revisit every one of these predictions at season’s end and cringe at how little we actually knew …

WHICH NATIONALS WILL BE SELECTED FOR THE ALL-STAR GAME?
Bobby Blanco (MASNsports.com) – CJ Abrams
Jessica Camerato (MLB.com) – CJ Abrams
Craig Heist (106.7 The Fan) – Josiah Gray, Keibert Ruiz
Chelsea Janes (Washington Post) – CJ Abrams
Andrew Golden (Washington Post) – MacKenzie Gore
Bill Ladson (MLB.com honorary) – Josiah Gray, Jake Irvin
Spencer Nusbaum (Washington Post) – MacKenzie Gore
Mark Zuckerman (MASNsports.com) – Kyle Finnegan

Davey Martinez is about to begin his seventh season as the Nationals manager, by far the longest tenured skipper in team history.

He’s managed teams that have won a lot (2019) and teams that haven’t won a lot (2022). He’s managed veterans and youngsters alike. And he’s managed while making changes to his coaching staff over the years.

But to start the 2024 season, Martinez did something he hasn’t done much since donning a curly W cap: Be more vocal and hands-on during spring training.

Why after seven years did the 59-year-old suddenly decide to speak up more? The young prospects in major league camp had a lot to do with it.

“For me right now, it's about teaching and having these moments where I can get them and talk to them a little bit more,” Martinez said. “Maybe one-on-one, maybe in a group. I have been more vocal. … I preach so much about the little things, that the little things do matter. They've been great. They really have. It's been great conversations.”

It was a fun day on South Capitol Street, as the Nationals played the first-ever “On Deck: Nationals Futures Game” for their final exhibition outing before starting the regular season Thursday in Cincinnati.

The Nationals’ major leaguers were set to play a team full of the organization’s top prospects, many of whom spent the majority of spring training in big league camp. There were smiles all around this morning as the youngsters prepped for the game in the visiting clubhouse at Nationals Park, while the major league team got settled into the home locker room with bags packed for tomorrow’s early morning flight to Cincy.

But once the game started, the niceties between organizational teammates disappeared for the next 2 hours and 35 minutes as the major league team flexed its muscles while dominating the Futures Team 13-1 in front of an announced paid crowd of 10,294 at Nats Park.

“It was good,” said major league manager Davey Martinez. “We had some good at-bats. I thought we played really well. The key was to get some at-bats, see some pitches. We had a day off yesterday, but I saw some really good things. And the young kids, they stood up there and they weren't afraid. The guys that we had, they swung the bats well. Our kids got up there and they got their swings. So it was a good day.”

MacKenzie Gore set the tone early in his final tune-up before taking the ball Monday for the Nats’ home opener against the Pirates. Facing top prospects Robert Hassell III, Dylan Crews, James Wood and Trey Lipscomb, the left-hander recorded three strikeouts in the first frame while only surrendering an opposite-field double to Wood.

Today is going to be an exciting day for the Nationals organization. For the first time, the team will host an exhibition game at Nationals Park with its major league players facing the top prospects from the minor league system.

It will be the big league team’s final tune-up before Opening Day on Thursday in Cincinnati, while the organization gets to showcase numerous talented young players in front of its fans who showed up on South Capitol Street and are watching from home on MASN.

After this afternoon’s game, players and staff members – both minor and major league – will attend the club’s annual Homecoming Gala this evening at The Anthem on the Southwest waterfront before dispersing to their respective starting points for the regular season.

One of the biggest names on the prospects team is Dylan Crews, last summer’s No. 2 overall pick out of Louisiana State University and the Nats’ top-ranked prospect, who revealed today he will start the season with Double-A Harrisburg after going back to the team’s facility in West Palm Beach for a couple of days.

“I'm gonna go to the gala and then go to West Palm after that,” Crews said this morning in front of his locker in the visitors clubhouse at Nats Park. “So probably be there for maybe a little less than a week and then head out to Harrisburg.”

The Nationals have broken camp. With spring training coming to a close, the team has left the warmth of West Palm Beach and returned to cold, damp Washington, D.C.

Ah, it must feel so good to be home.

Well, at least it must feel good to get the regular season started. The Nats have just one more exhibition game to play before heading to Cincinnati to face the Reds on Thursday for Opening Day. And the best part … they get to face some of their own teammates.

Yes, for the first time since the Nats have hosted an exhibition game on South Capitol Street right before the start of the season, they will face a lineup of their own top prospects instead of another major league team beginning the year on the East Coast.

Among the top prospects expected to participate in today’s game are:

From the moment they traded Max Scherzer, Trea Turner and six others in July 2021, the Nationals stopped paying attention to their won-loss record.

Managers, general managers and players can say all they want about competing every single day and believing they’re going to win far more than they lose, but deep down everyone associated with the Nats knew at that moment the organizational priority no longer involved winning percentage at the major league level.

That continued through the 2022 season, which also saw the club deal Juan Soto in the biggest trade of them all, and then through the 2023 season, even though the Nationals’ win total ultimately did improve by a healthy amount from 55 to 71.

Now, as the rebuild enters its third full season, with several core players already on the roster and several more coming soon, it’s fair to ask for the first time in a long time: Should the Nats be judged primarily by their record?

“I think we’re at a point right now where it’s wins and losses,” right-hander Josiah Gray said. “We want to improve on last year.”