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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Washington Nationals named Miguel Cairo the club’s Interim Manager on Monday. Washington Nationals Interim General Manager Mike DeBartolo made the announcement.

Cairo joined the Nationals as the team’s bench coach in 2024 after spending the previous season as the Minor League infield coordinator for the New York Mets. He was the bench coach with the Chicago White Sox from 2021-22 and was the Club’s acting manager for the final 34 games of the 2022 season, posting a record of 18-16. He also served as acting manager on Aug. 12, 2021 vs. New York (AL) at the Field of Dreams Game (W, 9-8) and September 7, 2021 at Texas (W, 7-2).

“Miguel is well-respected in our organization and around baseball,” said Nationals Interim General Manager Mike DeBartolo. “A diligent worker and student of the game, he has a proven track record of showing strong leadership in a variety of situations, and I believe that his voice and energy will serve as a catalyst to our team and our fan base in the second half of the season.”

From 2018-20, Cairo worked as the Minor League infield coordinator for the New York Yankees. Following his retirement as a player in 2013, he was a special assistant to the general manager for the Cincinnati Reds until 2017.

A native of Anaco, Venezuela, Cairo is a veteran of 17 Major League seasons, with playing experience at every infield position as well as left field and right field. He made his Major League debut with the Toronto Blue Jays in 1996 before stints with the Chicago Cubs (1997, 2001), Tampa Bay Rays (1998-2000), St. Louis Cardinals (2001-03, 2007), New York Yankees (2004, 2006-07), New York Mets (2005), Seattle Mariners (2008), Philadelphia Phillies (2009) and Cincinnati Reds (2010-12).

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

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

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

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

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

A massively disappointing first half to a season that was expected to feature significant on-field progress four years into a franchise rebuild has cost the two most prominent people in the Nationals organization their jobs.

Both general manager Mike Rizzo and manager Davey Martinez were fired by ownership this evening, shortly after the team was swept by the Red Sox to fall to 37-53. In a statement announcing the stunning changes, managing principal owner Mark Lerner said longtime assistant general manager Mike DeBartolo will take over as interim GM in Rizzo’s stead. An interim manager to replace Martinez will be named Monday.

“On behalf of our family and the Washington Nationals organization, I first and foremost want to thank Mike and Davey for their contributions to our franchise and our city,” Lerner said. “Our family is eternally grateful for their years of dedication to the organization, including their roles in bringing a World Series trophy to Washington, D.C. While we are appreciative of their past successes, the on-field performance has not been where we or our fans expect it to be. This is a pivotal time for our club, and we believe a fresh approach and new energy is the best course of action for our team moving forward.”

Though the long-term fates of both Rizzo and Martinez were very much up in the air after a dismal month of June that included an 11-game losing streak, the decision to make changes at both positions right now, one week shy of the All-Star break and the MLB Draft – with the Nats holding the No. 1 overall pick – was unexpected.

Both Rizzo and Martinez had 2026 contract options that needed to be picked up sometime this month. Had they not been picked up, it was assumed both would still finish out the rest of the season before changes were made, perhaps more so in the case of the GM position than the managerial position.

Washington Nationals left-handed pitcher MacKenzie Gore and outfielder James Wood will represent the organization in the 2025 Major League Baseball All-Star Game in Atlanta. Both are making their first All-Star Game appearance and both were selected by player voting. The 2025 All-Star teams were unveiled earlier this evening during the “2025 MLB All-Star Selection Show” on ESPN.

Gore, 26, entered Sunday ranked second the National League with 131 strikeouts (5^th in MLB) and 11.30 strikeouts per 9.0 innings (4^th in MLB). He ranks eighth in the National League with 104.1.0 innings pitched and he's tossed at least 6.0 innings 13 times this season, tied for the fourth-most in the National League.

Gore has pitched to a 2.44 ERA (13 ER/48.0 IP), a .213 opponents’ batting average, 47 strikeouts and just three home runs allowed in his last eight starts dating to May 23. He opened the season with a career-high and franchsie Opening Day record 13 strikeouts on March 27 against the Philadelphia Phillies. He added another 13-strikeout performance on April 19 at Colorado. Gore’s strongest outing of the first half came on June 4 vs. Chicago (NL) in which he tossed a season-high 7.0 scoreless innings with seven strikeouts and three hits allowed in Washington’s 2-0 victory.

Wood, 22, was one of the top hitters in the National League through the All-Star break. Entering Sunday, he led National League outfielders and ranked in the National League in OPS (3^rd, .943), wOBA (4^th, .399), win probability added (3^rd, 3.22), wRC+ (5^th, 158), OPS+ 4^th, 167), RBI (4^th, 67) and home runs (5^th, 23). He ranked second among National League outfielders in slugging percentage (.553), on-base percentage (.391) and walks (57).

Wood is one of five players in Major League Baseball with at least 20 home runs and 10 stolen bases, joining Shohei Ohtani, Pete Crow-Armstrong, Corbin Carroll and Juan Soto. According to Baseball Savant, Wood is in the 99^th percentile in hard hit rate (57.2%), the 98^th percentile in batting run value (26) and 97^th percentile in average exit velocity (94.0 mph). According to FanGraphs.com, Wood leads all National League left fielders with seven defensive runs saved.

The Washington Nationals today announced the replacement of longtime President of Baseball Operations and General Manager Mike Rizzo and Manager Dave Martinez, citing the need for a fresh approach and new energy. Washington Nationals Managing Principal Owner Mark D. Lerner made today’s announcement.

“On behalf of our family and the Washington Nationals organization, I first and foremost want to thank Mike and Davey for their contributions to our franchise and our city,” Lerner said. “Our family is eternally grateful for their years of dedication to the organization, including their roles in bringing a World Series trophy to Washington, D.C. While we are appreciative of their past successes, the on-field performance has not been where we or our fans expect it to be. This is a pivotal time for our Club, and we believe a fresh approach and new energy is the best course of action for our team moving forward."

Senior Vice President & Assistant General Manager, Baseball Operations, Mike DeBartolo has been named Interim General Manager. DeBartolo will oversee all aspects of baseball operations, including the upcoming MLB First-Year Player Draft, alongside other key members of the department. An announcement will be made on the interim manager sometime on Monday.

“Mike DeBartolo is a smart and thoughtful executive, and we’re fortunate to have him as part of our organization,” Lerner said. “As we hold the No. 1 overall pick in this year’s MLB Draft and look ahead to the trade deadline, we are confident in his ability to lead the baseball operations staff through these next, important months.”

DeBartolo has worked across the organization to aid in decisions affecting all facets of baseball operations, assisting with contract and trade negotiations, MLB rules, player evaluation, salary arbitration and other operations. Originally from Bedford, Mass., DeBartolo joined the Nationals in 2012 as an intern and has worked in an Assistant General Manager capacity since 2019.

The first inning of Shinnosuke Ogasawara’s major league debut suggested a very long day ahead for the Nationals and the first Japanese free agent in club history. Five batters in, the left-hander had surrendered four runs to the Red Sox, his pitching repertoire looking very much not ready for prime time.

By day’s end, Ogasawara’s lackluster start was only part of the equation that led to the Nats’ 6-4 loss. He was pulled during the top of the third without surrendering any more runs. His bullpen did an admirable job to keep the game within reach despite the heavy workload asked of it. The home team’s lineup, on the other hand, squandered several golden opportunities to get to Boston ace Garrett Crochet, who escaped five harrowing innings with only two runs charged to his name.

And so the Nationals were swept by the Red Sox during a three-game series in which they never once led. Today’s loss wasn’t nearly as lopsided as the two that preceded it (11-2 on Independence Day, 10-3 on Saturday) but in some ways it stung more because it appeared to be there for the taking, despite a pitching matchup that looked overwhelmingly lopsided on paper.

"We had them on the ropes there a couple of times," manager Davey Martinez said. "We just couldn't capitalize."

Ogasawara’s debut start wasn’t some kind of grand event. The Nationals didn’t leak out advance notice in an attempt to drum up interest like they have with several recent top prospects. There were several Japanese media outlets in attendance to cover the game, but nowhere close to the throngs of reporters who typically follow around the country’s top stars.

Two more players acquired in the Juan Soto trade are now All-Stars: James Wood and MacKenzie Gore.

Wood and Gore were officially named to the National League All-Star team today, each of them selected by their fellow players to represent the Nationals at next week’s Midsummer Classic in Atlanta.

CJ Abrams, who played in last year’s game in Texas, was not selected this time from a deep class of NL shortstops, but there’s still a chance he could find his way to Truist Park as roster replacements are announced in the coming days.

For Wood and Gore, today’s announcement is further validation of their respective career ascensions, culminating with their performances through the first half of this season. Wood, who already accepted an invitation to the Home Run Derby last week, entered the day with a .944 OPS, third-best in the NL. Gore ranks third in the league with 131 strikeouts and 12th with a 3.11 ERA.

“Those two guys have played really well this half, and I hope they keep it going,” manager Davey Martinez said. “But it says a lot about this organization. We’d love to win some more games moving forward, but the progress for our young players has been a lot better. We’re excited about that.”

For the first time this season, the Nationals are adjusting the order of the top of their starting rotation, giving MacKenzie Gore an extra day of rest prior to his next outing.

Jake Irvin will now start Tuesday night’s series opener against the Cardinals in St. Louis, a standard five days after the right-hander pitched Thursday against the Tigers. That bumps Gore to Wednesday night’s game at Busch Stadium, a full week following his most recent start last Wednesday against Detroit.

Gore has pitched in front of Irvin throughout the season, beginning with Opening Day, and has firmly established himself as the staff ace. But on the heels of an outing in which he had to extend himself more than usual, manager Davey Martinez thought it would be a good time to give the lefty more time than usual to recover.

“He threw 111 pitches the last outing,” Martinez said. “So this gives him an extra day to kind of recuperate a little bit.”

The swap also puts Gore in a better position to pitch in the All-Star Game, if he’s selected. (The official roster announcement is coming later this afternoon.) If Gore stayed on turn and started Tuesday, he would line up to start again next Sunday in Milwaukee in the second-half finale. Major League Baseball rules prohibit players who pitch on that day to appear in the All-Star Game two days later.

We’re going to see a major league debut today, one that may not compare to other recent ones for the Nationals, but one that carries some significance nonetheless. Shinnosuke Ogasawara is the first player the Nats have ever signed directly out of Asia. The Japanese left-hander may not have come to America as highly touted as plenty of others who have come here over the decades, but today represents a dream come true for the 27-year-old nonetheless.

What can we expect from Ogasawara against the Red Sox? His fastball, we know, is not elite. He needs to command it exceptionally well, and then he needs to rely heavily on his deep arsenal of off-speed pitches to try to keep the hitters off-balance. He did have a bit of success in a couple of his early season starts for Triple-A Rochester. But he then missed two months with an oblique strain, so it’s hard to know what exactly to expect today.

On the flip side, the Nationals would love to provide their rookie starter with some run support. They’ve got quite a challenge in that regard facing Garrett Crochet. The Boston lefty enters with a sparkling 2.34 ERA and league-leading 144 strikeouts in a league-leading 115 1/3 innings. That said, he did give up five runs in his last start against the Reds (while also striking out nine over six innings).

BOSTON RED SOX 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 sunny, 87 degrees, wind 8 mph out to left field

RED SOX
3B Nate Eaton
2B Romy Gonzalez
RF Roman Anthony
DH Rob Refsnyder
SS Trevor Story
LF Jarren Duran
1B Abraham Toro
C Connor Wong
CF Ceddane Rafaela

The Washington Nationals recalled left-handed pitcher Shinnosuke Ogasawara from Triple-A Rochester on Sunday and optioned right-handed pitcher Ryan Loutos to Triple-A Rochester on Saturday. Nationals President of Baseball Operations and General Manager Mike Rizzo made the announcement.

Ogasawara, 27, who will start and make his Major League debut today, is in his first season in American professional baseball after he became the first player signed by the Nationals directly from Japan on January 24, 2025. He went 1-1 with a 4.50 ERA and 24 strikeouts and six walks in 24.0 innings in six Minor League games between Triple-A Rochester, High-A Wilmington, and the FCL Nationals. In his final rehab outing on June 25, Ogasawara struck out five in 4.0 innings of two-run ball for the Wilmington Blue Rocks against the Hudson Valley Renegades (NYY).

Ogasawara pitched 6.0 innings of one run ball with six strikeouts against Lehigh Valley (PHI) in his Triple-A debut on April 1. He allowed just one run on two hits in 5.0 innings with four strikeouts 12 days later against Scranton-Wilkes Barre (NYY).

Ogasawara turned professional at 18 years old and pitched to a 54-72 record with a 3.67 ERA in nine seasons for the Chunichi Dragons of the Nippon Professional Baseball League. He was named an NPB All-Star in 2023 after he went 7-12 with a 3.59 ERA and 134 strikeouts in 160.2 innings. In his final season in the NPB in 2024, Ogasawara issued just 22 walks in 144.1 innings while pitching to a 3.12 ERA.

Loutos, 26, was 1-0 with a 9.82 ERA in 10 games for the Nationals this season.

Some of the Nationals’ worst qualities converged today and made for another lopsided loss in a season that already had included too many of those.

Mitchell Parker’s propensity for early struggles was on full display. So was his continued inability to field routine comebackers toward the mound. Add some more sloppy infield defense to the mix, and you’ve got the perfect recipe for a game that was well out of hand before many in the crowd of 34,319 had a chance to get settled in at Nationals Park.

This 10-3 loss to the Red Sox ranks right up there with the ugliest of the season. It’s the ninth time in 89 games the Nats have lost by seven or more runs, the third time in five games on this current homestand.

To win Sunday’s finale and avoid a sweep at the hands of Boston, they’re going to have to get a whole lot better of a performance from the pitcher they promote from their farm system to take over the rotation spot Trevor Williams held until landing on the 15-day injured list this week with a sprained elbow: Shinnosuke Ogasawara.

Manager Davey Martinez announced this evening the Japanese left-hander will be promoted from Triple-A Rochester to make his major league debut, selected over top prospect Cade Cavalli (who gave up seven runs over three innings in his most recent minor league start). Ogasawara, the first free agent the Nationals have ever signed directly out of Asia, opened the season at Triple-A but only recently returned from a two-month stint on the injured list with an oblique strain. The 27-year-old, who signed a two-year, $3.5 million contract, faces a stiff challenge in his debut.

Just as they’re getting one reliever back from a major elbow surgery, the Nationals are worried another key reliever may have a serious problem with his elbow.

On the same day they activated Mason Thompson off the 60-day injured list, the Nats transferred Derek Law to the 60-day IL and revealed the veteran right-hander will be getting an MRI on his elbow after experiencing a recurrence of pain following his most recent rehab appearance.

Law has been attempting to work his way back since late March, stymied by setbacks on several occasions along the way. The 34-year-old, who made 75 appearances while totaling 90 innings as the workhorse of the Nationals bullpen last season, already was shut down a week recently before coming back to pitch for Triple-A Rochester on Wednesday.

Though that outing (one scoreless inning, one walk, one strikeout) went well, he told team officials he had a recurrence of elbow pain the next day, prompting them to shut him down again and bring him back to D.C. for a new MRI.

“I’m more concerned for him,” manager Davey Martinez said. “Because he wants to come back and help us. The big thing is to figure out what’s really going on. We thought we were over the hump there, but his elbow started barking again. We’ll go get an MRI and we’ll see what the MRI says.”

Friday morning’s game pretty much stunk for the Nationals, who were routed by the Red Sox and gave little reason for a big crowd to get excited about the home team. But if there’s anything we’ve learned about this particular group, the previous day’s result rarely seems to foretell what’s going to happen the next day. So perhaps that means the Nats are in store for a bounce back later this afternoon in the second game of the weekend series.

Mitchell Parker will need to be on point to give his team a chance, and the left-hander has generally been much better of late, allowing three or fewer runs in five of his last six starts. He’s been much better in the first inning in recent outings, with his struggles more often coming near the end of his starts. The Red Sox, for what it’s worth, have been better against lefties than righties this season.

On the flip side, the Nationals will be facing a struggling opposing starter in Walker Buehler. The veteran right-hander has a 6.45 ERA and 1.582 WHIP, having walked a career-high 4.3 batters and allowed a home run to a career-high 2.0 batters per nine innings. He hasn’t made it out of the fifth inning in four of his last five outings, with a hefty 14 walks issued in his last 11 1/3 innings.

BOSTON RED SOX 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, 87 degrees, wind 8 mph out to left field

RED SOX
3B Nate Eaton
2B Romy Gonzalez
RF Roman Anthony
DH Rob Refsnyder
C Carlos Narváez
SS Trevor Story
LF Jarren Duran
1B Abraham Toro
CF Ceddane Rafaela

Things were a little different around here the last time Lucas Giolito started a game at Nationals Park.

On Aug. 28, 2016, the Nationals were 20 games over .500, well on their way to a division title under new manager Dusty Baker. Trea Turner was the leadoff-hitting center fielder. Daniel Murphy hit third and owned a .994 OPS. Oliver Pérez, Koda Glover and Matt Belisle came out of the bullpen in relief.

Giolito, of course, was one of the top pitching prospects in baseball at that time, viewed internally as the next great member of a rotation that already featured Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg and Gio González.

And then a few months later, he was gone, one of three pitching prospects dealt to the White Sox in exchange for outfielder Adam Eaton, a trade that sent shockwaves through the Winter Meetings at National Harbor and revealed that perhaps the Nats didn’t view Giolito quite as favorably as everyone assumed they did.

We can debate the merits of that trade for eternity. Giolito and Reynaldo López certainly went on to have some success elsewhere, even if it took a while to materialize. Eaton played an important role on a Nationals team that won the World Series in 2019. Maybe it all worked out in the end.

For the second straight season, Trevor Williams is going on the injured list with an arm issue. And the veteran right-hander didn’t sound overly optimistic about his latest ailment.

The Nationals placed Williams on the 15-day IL with a right elbow sprain, the most significant of a series of transactions the club made this morning prior to its Fourth of July matinee against the Red Sox. The team also activated catcher Keibert Ruiz off the 7-day concussion IL, optioned Drew Millas to Triple-A Rochester and recalled reliever Ryan Loutos only one day after sending him down.

The Williams injury revelation comes two days after the 33-year-old labored through the worst of his 17 starts this season, one in which he threw 54 pitches in a six-run top of the first against the Tigers and then returned to toss two more innings before manager Davey Martinez pulled him in the first game of a day-night doubleheader.

Williams said his arm didn’t respond as it normally does after a start, so he notified club officials about it Thursday and underwent an MRI. He suggested the team is still waiting to fully decipher the results of that test before determining a course of action, but the right-hander concedes he’s going to miss some time.

“It’s hard to pinpoint exactly,” he said. “It could be a mechanical deficiency. It could be a grip thing. Who knows? The unfortunate part is that the MRI showed I’m not going to be able to start this weekend. We’ll see what happens and what the next steps will be.”

It’s the Fourth of July in our nation’s capital, and that means the return of one of the great annual traditions around here: morning baseball! Every Independence Day since 2012 (except for 2020), the Nationals have taken the field at 11:05 a.m. for the only major league game played during that early window. They’ve gone 6-6 all-time in the morning game, including a dramatic 1-0 victory over the Mets last year.

This year’s opponents are the Red Sox, who also played here on July 4, 2018, and won the game 3-0 behind a combined shutout from Eduardo Rodriguez, Matt Barnes, Joe Kelly and Craig Kimbrel. Boston’s starter today: Lucas Giolito, the long-ago Nats prospect who finally makes his first career start at Nationals Park for the opposition after six appearances for the home team as a rookie in 2016. Finally healthy after missing the 2024 season following Tommy John surgery, the right-hander is 4-1 with a 3.99 ERA. He’s not striking out as many batters as in the past, but his velocity remains at pre-surgery levels (93.4 mph fastball).

Michael Soroka (who is Canadian) gets the honor of starting today for the Nationals. As rough as June was for the team, the right-hander enjoyed a strong month, delivering a 3.49 ERA with an 0.812 WHIP and impressive 36-to-9 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

The Nationals announced a flurry of roster moves this morning: Trevor Williams was placed on the 15-day injured list with a sprained right elbow (more on that coming shortly), with Ryan Loutos recalled from Triple-A Rochester only one day after he was sent down. And Keibert Ruiz was activated off the 7-day concussion IL and will start behind the plate today, with Drew Millas optioned to Rochester.

BOSTON RED SOX at WASHINGTON NATIONALS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 11:05 a.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv, MLB Network (outside D.C. market)
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Sunny, 81 degrees, wind 7 mph in from left field

There was already plenty of energy surrounding South Capitol Street ahead of the Nationals’ series finale against the Tigers. People were making their way to Nationals Park to start their holiday weekend early. And about five hours before first pitch, James Wood announced he will participate in the Home Run Derby.

The icing on the cake would be a victory at the end of the night to clinch a series win over the best team in the American League.

It was a rocky start, but the Nats indeed were able to tame the Tigers one more time for an 11-7 win to allow the crowd of 31,599 fans to enjoy the postgame fireworks, kicking off the Independence Day celebrations. It was especially enjoyable for manager Davey Martinez, who earned the 500th win of his managerial career, all with the Nationals.

“Hey, I can't do what I do without those guys in there. So I appreciate what they do," Martinez said after his milestone victory. "Thank you to the Washington Nationals for giving me an opportunity to do what I love to do. I'd trade it all in for another World Series, I can tell you that. But let's keep doing what we're doing. We're playing well right now.”

Indeed, they are. The Nationals offense carried over the momentum it built up in last night’s late-inning rally to win the doubleheader nightcap. Facing an early 3-0 deficit in the first, the Nats immediately rallied to take the lead with five runs in the bottom frame.