NEW YORK – The Nationals left New York on Wednesday knowing they would need to make a roster move before Friday’s series opener against the Rays. Drew Millas departed yesterday’s 11-2 loss to the Yankees in the third inning after he was called for catcher’s interference during an Austin Wells at-bat against Cade Cavalli.

When Wells’ bat made contact with Millas’ catching hand while swinging at a 97 mph fastball from Cavalli, the backstop suffered a fracture and dislocation of his left second finger, putting the rest of his season in jeopardy. So the Nationals will call up C.J. Stubbs from Triple-A Rochester to fill in as the backup catcher, a source familiar with the upcoming move confirmed.

The Washington Post was first to report the news yesterday.

Stubbs’ first appearance with the Nats will be his major league debut after spending the last six seasons in the minor leagues following his selection by the Astros in the 10th round of the 2019 MLB Draft out of the University of Southern California.

The younger brother of Phillies catcher Garrett Stubbs, the 28-year-old backstop signed a minor league deal with the Nationals after the Astros released him in May 2024. In 24 games with Rochester this year following a promotion from Double-A Harrisburg, he is hitting .161 with a .602 OPS, three doubles, a triple, a homer and five RBIs.

NEW YORK – The Nationals can’t get out of New York City fast enough. They entered this afternoon’s finale against the Yankees 0-5 in the Big Apple this year after being swept by the Mets in a three-game series at Citi Field in June and dropping the first two games of this set at Yankee Stadium.

And they will remain winless in New York until their next trip to Queens in September after an 11-2 blowout loss, their third straight to get swept by the Yankees and their fifth straight defeat overall.

Just about everything that could have gone wrong for the Nationals today did. They couldn’t manufacture runs. They couldn’t prevent the Yankees from scoring. And they suffered injuries along the way, adding salt to an already wide-open wound.

If the power differential between these two teams wasn’t on display enough earlier this week, it definitely was in this finale.

The Yankees entered today with a major league-leading 219 home runs, while the Nats only had a measly 125 for the third-fewest. New York had already hit four to score eight of their 15 runs over the first two games. Washington had scored four of their six runs on one swing, Jacob Young’s ninth-inning grand slam Monday night.

NEW YORK – In order for the Nationals to escape The Bronx with at least one win, they’ll need timely hitting and shutdown pitching. It may be too much to ask for both at this point, but either one should give them a decent shot to beat the Yankees this afternoon.

Getting timely hitting might be tough against Yankees starter Max Fried. The All-Star left-hander is 13-5 with a 3.14 ERA over 26 starts in his first season in New York. And he’s coming off an outing in which he shut out the Red Sox over six innings with seven strikeouts. The longtime Brave is 8-5 with a 3.97 ERA in 19 career games (18 starts) against the Nats.

Getting shutdown pitching, on the other hand, may be a real possibility with Cade Cavalli starting on the mound. The right-hander has turned in back-to-back quality starts against the Phillies coming into today. And he has a very nice 2.82 ERA over his first four starts since returning to the majors. The key for Cavalli will be limiting the longball and slugging against this dangerous Yankees lineup.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at NEW YORK YANKEES
Where: Yankee Stadium
Gametime: 1:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB Network (out-of-market only), MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 The Fan, DC 87.7 (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Partly cloudy, 73 degrees, wind 11 mph out to right field

NATIONALS
LF James Wood
SS CJ Abrams
DH Riley Adams
2B Luis García Jr.
RF Dylan Crews
1B Andrés Chaparro
C Drew Millas
3B Brady House
CF Jacob Young

NEW YORK – Needing to play a much cleaner brand of baseball, the Nationals returned to Yankee Stadium trying to put last night’s disastrous loss behind them.

Although they gave themselves more opportunities to hang with the Bronx Bombers, they couldn’t come up with clutch hits to capitalize on them. And it didn’t help that their mistakes on the basepaths continued in a 5-1 loss to the Yankees.

CJ Abrams singled in the first inning to give the Nats their first baserunner early. But that was quickly erased when he was picked off by Yankees starter Luis Gil, with the original safe call being overturned by a New York challenge.

The Nats then got a one-out walk by Riley Adams in the second, but couldn’t move him past first base.

They were more successful in the third, but still left a golden opportunity to score a crooked number. Robert Hassell III led off with a double to the right-center field gap, and after a James Wood walk, he scored on Abrams' single to left to give the Nats a 1-0 lead.

NEW YORK – Daylen Lile continues to be away from the Nationals while dealing with an illness. The young outfielder will miss his third straight game and stay at the team hotel in New York after “throwing up a little bit and not feeling good” over the past couple of days, according to interim manager Miguel Cairo yesterday.

Cairo provided a non-update update on Lile before tonight’s second game at Yankee Stadium, saying the Nats want the rookie to feel 100 percent better before he returns to the field … and to the clubhouse as to not get anyone else on the team sick.

“He was feeling a little better. Still a little under the weather,” Cairo said during his pregame media session. “We just want to give him one more day. Until he feels that he can do something, we're (not) going to bring him over here. We didn't want to get the rest of the team sick. But hopefully he's better and he'll come back tomorrow.”

That leaves the Nationals short-handed once again in The Bronx with the other four young outfielders available and in the starting lineup tonight against reigning American League Rookie of the Year Luis Gil.

James Wood remains in left field, Jacob Young is in center and Robert Hassell III is in right, while Dylan Crews serves as the designated hitter for just the second time in his young career.

NEW YORK – The Nationals need to flush away the first eight innings of last night’s 10-5 loss to the Yankees and really try to build momentum off the ninth, when they scored all of their runs, thanks to swinging at strikes and patient at-bats. Jacob Young’s first grand slam didn’t hurt either.

Now that the initial shock of playing at Yankee Stadium has passed, the young Nats can focus on just playing baseball. They’ve proven that when they can string together good ABs they can go toe-to-toe with anyone.

Their next task is defending American League Rookie of the Year Luis Gil. The 27-year-old right-hander missed most of the year with a lat strain and only returned to the major leagues this month. In his four starts, he’s 1-1 with a 4.26 ERA and 1.684 WHIP. He’s been prone to walks in his career, leading the majors last year with 77 and having already issued 13 in just 19 innings this season. So the Nats really need to be patient against him.

MacKenzie Gore takes the mound for the visiting side, and you know he’s looking forward to facing this Yankees lineup in a tough environment. The lefty is 5-12 with a 4.11 ERA and 1.349 WHIP over his 26 starts. Gore held the Yankees to two runs on six hits and one walk with six strikeouts when he faced them in D.C. last year as part of his strong stretch to finish the season. Hopefully, tonight kickstarts a similar stretch to end this campaign.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at NEW YORK YANKEES
Where: Yankee Stadium
Gametime: 7:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 The Fan, DC 87.7 (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Partly cloudy, 76 degrees, wind 9 mph out to right field

The Washington Nationals, in conjunction with Major League Baseball, announced their 2026 schedule on Tuesday, highlighted by a home-opening series vs. the Dodgers, the traditional July 4 game in the nation’s capital, three games with the Yankees to close out the first half and more. Washington will begin the 2026 season on the road against the Chicago Cubs on Thursday, March 26 – the earliest start to the season in Nationals history (2005-pres.) before opening the home slate against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Ticket Plans for the 2026 season are on sale now and guarantee access to Opening Day. Fans who purchase by Sept. 1 can lock in early bird pricing and receive free tickets to home games in September 2025. More information is available at nats.com/Ticketfinder.

Following the opening series in Chicago, which marks the second time the Nationals have opened a season at Wrigley Field, the Club will travel to Philadelphia to face the Phillies for three games before returning to Washington, D.C. for the home opener against the Los Angeles Dodgers on April 3. The Nationals and Dodgers will square off in a three-game series over Easter Weekend before the St. Louis Cardinals come to the nation’s capital for three games (April 6-8) to complete the homestand.

The annual Beltway Series against the Baltimore Orioles will be played across two weekends, May 15-17 at Nationals Park and June 26-28 at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

The Nationals will host the Pittsburgh Pirates for a three-game weekend series Friday through Sunday, July 3-5, highlighted by the traditional Fourth of July game at Nationals Park. That series marks the start of a nine-game homestand that will include a series against the Houston Astros (July 6-8) and a weekend series against the New York Yankees (July 10-12) – the final series before the 2026 All-Star break.

Washington’s first series following the break will start in Sacramento against the Athletics, July 17-19, followed by a three-game series at Colorado, July 20-22. The Nationals will return home on Friday, July 24 for a six-game homestand against the Arizona Diamondbacks (July 24-26) and Toronto Blue Jays (July 27-29).

NEW YORK – As we count down the final 31 games of the 2025 season, we now get to look ahead to 2026 knowing when and where the Nationals will play during their 22nd season of baseball in our nation’s capital.

The Nationals, in conjunction with Major League Baseball, announced their 2026 regular season schedule this afternoon, with Opening Day slated to take place on Thursday, March 26, at Wrigley Field against the Cubs. It will be the second time the Nats will open the season on the South Side of Chicago after beating the Cubbies 2-1 to begin the 2012 season.

It will be the ninth time since the Nationals relocated to Washington, D.C., that the team opened a season on the road and just the third time since 2017. It’s also the second time in the last three years the Nats’ first opponent will be from the National League Central after they dropped the 2024 season opener 8-2 in Cincinnati.

The Nationals will then play three games in Philadelphia before coming back to D.C. for an off-day on Thursday, April 2, and the home opener scheduled for Friday, April 3, against the Dodgers. The first homestand will consist of three games against Los Angeles and three against St. Louis.

The 2026 schedule includes two homestands that span over 10 days. The Nats will play nine games against the Pirates, Astros and Yankees over the 10 days leading up to the All-Star break from July 3-12. They will then play 10 consecutive home games from Aug. 24 to Sept. 2, with four coming against the Rockies, four against the Marlins and two against the Braves.

NEW YORK – Not all home runs are created equal.

They all count the same on the scoreboard, yes. But their meanings are different.

Consider Ryan Zimmerman’s walk-off home run to open Nationals Park in 2008. Or Jayson Werth’s walk-off homer in Game 4 of the 2012 National League Division Series. Or Howie Kendrick’s longball off the foul pole in Houston to clinch the Nationals’ first World Series championship.

Now consider Jacob Young’s first career grand slam.

Sure, it came with two outs in the ninth inning with his team trailing the Yankees 10-1, the Nats having just got on the scoreboard thanks to Robert Hassell III’s bases-loaded walk. But it still put four runs on the board at Yankee Stadium as the Nats cut their 10-run deficit entering the ninth in half. And it sure meant a whole lot to Young.

NEW YORK – Greetings from the Big Apple! No, we are not in Queens, the Nationals’ usual stomping grounds when they visit New York. (Actually, thankful for that because of all of the U.S. Open tennis traffic that will be going to and from the area surrounding Citi Field). Instead, we are in The Bronx, where the Nats begin a three-game series against the Yankees. And the Nats have actually had success at Yankee Stadium, where they are 7-6 all-time, and against the Bombers, against whom they are 15-14 all-time.

The Yankees are in a tight battle for playoff position, currently sitting 5 ½ games behind the Blue Jays in the American League East. And after dropping three of four at home to the hated-rival Red Sox, they are a half-game behind Boston for the first AL Wild Card spot and half-game ahead of Seattle for the third one. But despite their weekend woes against the Red Sox, the Yankees are winners of eight of their last 12.

As for the Nationals, my colleague Mark Zuckerman pointed out after yesterday’s loss to the Phillies that they have gone 7-2 in games started by Brad Lord, MacKenzie Gore and Cade Cavalli while going 1-7 in games started by Jake Irvin and Mitchell Parker over the last 2 ½ weeks. So luckily for them, those first three pitchers are the ones scheduled to start these three games.

Lord gets the ball tonight, bringing his 4-6 record and 3.46 ERA to the hill. The right-hander was charged with four runs in 5 ⅓ innings in his last start against the Mets, but three of the four runs came in the sixth inning. Since returning to the rotation, Lord is 2-1 with a 3.45 ERA and the Nats are 5-1 in his six starts.

In a battle of right-handed rookies, Cam Schlittler goes for the Yankees. He’s 1-2 with a 3.22 ERA in his seven starts and has not allowed more than three earned runs in an outing. In his last time out, he shut out the Rays over 6 ⅔ innings of one-hit ball with two walks and eight strikeouts.

NEW YORK – Miguel Cairo knows the aura that surrounds Yankee Stadium well. He called the old Yankee Stadium home for parts of three seasons during his 17-year major league career.

His message to his young Nationals team ahead of tonight’s three-game series opener in The Bronx: Embrace it and play clean baseball.

“Just do the little things,” the interim manager said during his pregame media session. “You gotta do the little things better than anyone, and you might have a chance to win games.”

Although the Nats have been playing cleaner ball lately, they by no means did the little things better than the Yankees tonight, dooming them to a 10-5 loss that was more of a shellacking by one of the most dangerous offenses in baseball than the final score assumes.

“That's what we've been preaching. To beat teams like this, you cannot give outs away," Cairo said after the game. "But our team has been playing good. It's just one of those days. So far, I'm proud of how we've been doing. Playing hard, it's just one of those days.”

NEW YORK – The Nationals will be short one of their young outfielders tonight as they begin a three-game series against the Yankees.

Daylen Lile is out of the starting lineup for the second straight game while dealing with an illness, interim manager Miguel Cairo revealed during his pregame media session. James Wood is starting in left field, Jacob Young in center and Dylan Crews in right as Robert Hassell III serves as the designated hitter for the first time in his young major league career.

“We don't have a Lile,” Cairo said. “He's been a little sick, so he's been out yesterday and today because of that. But besides that it's the same lineup.”

Lile was not seen around the Nats clubhouse before tonight’s game, with the Nats probably keeping him away from the rest of the team to prevent the disease from spreading to his teammates. This will be the first game Lile has missed since Tuesday’s opener against the Mets back home.

“He was throwing up a little bit and not feeling good,” Cairo said. “So hopefully he's ready tomorrow. We just want to make sure he's fine.”

PHILADELPHIA – When James Wood grounded into a double play with the bases loaded in the top of the eighth Sunday afternoon, there was plenty of reason for the Nationals slugger to be disappointed in himself. That 4-6-3 twin-killing may have brought home his team’s first run of the day, but it spoiled a golden opportunity to score a lot more than that during what wound up a 3-2 loss to the Phillies.

The real surprise about Wood’s at-bat, though, was the fact he actually made contact yet didn’t record a hit in the process.

In one of the stranger weekend performances you’ll ever see, Wood finished the series 4-for-12 with one walk and seven strikeouts. Do the math, and you’ll figure out the unusual part of this: Every batted ball he produced turned into a hit, until that killer ground ball to second. He struck out in every other at-bat.

Wood has worked hard to snap himself out of the prolonged slump he was mired in through most of July and into the early stages of August. He entered Sunday’s game batting .304 with an .886 OPS over his previous 14 games, looking much more like the best version of himself from the season’s first half.

But he’s not all the way back. Because while Wood is finally hitting the ball hard again, he’s not hitting the ball enough overall, leading to a gargantuan strikeout total.

PHILADELPHIA – Three-fifths of the Nationals rotation is giving them a chance to win right now. The other two-fifths is not, and that has become a real problem.

While MacKenzie Gore, Brad Lord and Cade Cavalli have offered the organization legitimate reason for short-term and long-term encouragement with their pitching performances, Jake Irvin and Mitchell Parker haven’t come close to matching their teammates’ numbers. It would be one thing if those two were at least gutting out five or six innings and keeping the score close, but even that has become a challenge.

It happened to Parker during Saturday night’s loss to the Phillies. And it happened to Irvin this afternoon during a 3-2 loss to the National League East leaders.

It certainly didn’t help matters that the Nats lineup was rendered helpless by Philadelphia left-hander Ranger Suárez, who struck out a career-high 11 batters over seven scoreless innings. But Irvin’s inability to complete even three innings made it feel like this game was much more one-sided than it actually was.

This is the recurring theme for the Nationals at this stage of the season. Over the last 2 1/2 weeks, they’ve gone 7-2 in games started by Gore, Lord and Cavalli while going 1-7 in games started by Irvin and Parker.

PHILADELPHIA – Riley Adams could only laugh when presented with the question: When’s the last time he batted third?

“I don’t know,” the Nationals catcher replied. “Maybe in the minors last year?”

He’s right. Adams actually batted third for the Rochester Red Wings in their final game of the 2024 season, capping off a frustrating season that saw him twice demoted to Triple-A following prolonged periods of struggle in the big leagues.

And the way this season began, Adams could’ve found himself confronting that situation again. As recently as June 23, he was the not-so-proud owner of an .097 batting average and .383 OPS, numbers that could have left his career hanging in the balance.

But with the opportunity to start playing more consistently after Keibert Ruiz landed on the seven-day concussion injured list, Adams has resurrected his season. And it has all come together this month, leading to a .320/.404/.480 slash line in August that has raised his season batting average to .207 and his OPS to .641.

PHILADELPHIA – Good morning from Citizens Bank Park, where the Nationals and Phillies meet for the final time this season. A win today and the Nats would take the series, no small feat. They’d also finish the season series 6-7 against the top team in the National League East. All things considered, that’s not bad at all.

The preeminent storyline today: Can Jake Irvin get himself back on track and give his team a chance? The right-hander is in a serious rut right now, going 2-5 with a 7.36 ERA over his last 10 starts, raising his season ERA from 4.18 to 5.30. Home runs and walks have killed Irvin: He’s served up 2.3 homers and issued 4.2 walks per nine innings during that stretch.

The Nationals haven’t seen Ranger Suárez at all this season, so who knows what to expect when they face the Phillies left-hander? Suárez is having a good season (9-6, 3.25 ERA, 1.168 WHIP), but the Nats did get to him last year for eight runs and 11 hits in eight innings spread over two starts. Something else to consider: If the game is close late, will the Phillies have Jhoan Duran and top lefty reliever Matt Strahm available? Each pitched in the first two games of the series, so it’s possible each is unavailable this afternoon.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES
Where: Citizens Bank Park
Gametime: 1:35 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Partly cloudy, 82 degrees, wind 10 mph out to center field

NATIONALS
DH James Wood
SS CJ Abrams
C Riley Adams
1B Andrés Chaparro
2B Paul DeJong
RF Dylan Crews
3B Brady House
LF Robert Hassell III
CF Jacob Young

PHILADELPHIA – They gave themselves another chance at another dramatic rally inside a sold-out Citizens Bank Park, in spite of the large hole Mitchell Parker dug for his teammates. The Nationals chipped away at the big deficit, got themselves to within two runs and had a chance to tie the game (or even take the lead) late against the Phillies' bullpen for the second straight night.

Perhaps it’s a good reminder just how special Friday night’s come-from-behind win was, though. These things generally don’t happen every night. And, in fact, it didn’t happen again tonight, the Phillies hanging on for a 6-4 victory to even the weekend series and set up a rubber match here Sunday afternoon.

The Nationals, who stormed back in the top of the ninth against Jhoan Duran in the opener, couldn’t make lightning strike twice, though they sure gave it a try. Brady House doubled and Robert Hassell III singled with one out off the All-Star closer, bringing the big boys to the plate representing the go-ahead run. But Duran managed to strike out James Wood and get CJ Abrams to line out to left to end the game and secure his seventh save in eight tries since his acquisition from the Phillies.

Few opponents have proven as tough on Duran as the Nats, though, who have now faced him six times in the last four weeks alone (the first two when he was still with the Twins). They've managed to bat .381 (8-for-21) against him, dramatically better than the .199 mark the rest of the sport has against him this year.

"I think we know we can beat this guy," Hassell said. "We know that anyway, but actually seeing it last night, coming into tonight, we were pretty confident."

PHILADELPHIA – Add another name to the list of Nationals position players getting a crash course at first base: Luis García Jr.

García has been taking grounders and scooping short-hop throws at first base in recent days, learning the nuances of the position from interim manager Miguel Cairo. He’s not ready to appear there in a game yet, but he’s admittedly handled his work there so far well.

“I feel comfortable,” García said, via interpreter Mauricio Ortiz. “Going into it, I think I feel more comfortable than what I expected.”

Originally a shortstop coming up through the minors – and briefly in the majors in 2022 – García made the full-time move to second base later that year and has remained there since. But while his offensive production ticked up, his defensive work diminished. After rating well with 5 Outs Above Average last season, he has plummeted to minus-7 OAA this season, ranking among the worst second basemen in the majors.

With the organization still searching for a long-term answer at first base, García has become the latest current major leaguer to get a look over there. Though Josh Bell has taken over the primary starting job since the Nats designated Nathaniel Lowe for assignment, Cairo has also used utility infielder Paul DeJong and recent Triple-A call-up Andres Chaparro at first base. Catcher Keibert Ruiz, on the 7-day concussion injured list nearly two months, has been getting some work there before games.

PHILADELPHIA – One of the Nationals’ best wins of the season was made possible by Dylan Crews and Daylen Lile’s offensive and baserunning exploits in the top of the ninth, not to mention by PJ Poulin’s two perfect innings of relief to close out an unexpected, 5-4 victory. But none of that would have been possible if not for Cade Cavalli’s quality start, which underscores an important point.

Three of the Nats’ five starters are giving them a chance to win right now. The other two are not. During this nice run against the Phillies and Mets, the team has gone 5-1 in games started by either Cavalli, MacKenzie Gore or Brad Lord, but 0-2 in games started by Mitchell Parker or Jake Irvin. And guess who starts the final two games of this series?

Parker has got to give the Nationals more than he has of late. The lefty has allowed 22 earned runs over his last 16 innings, the team going 0-4 in those starts. His ERA has skyrocketed to 5.83. And when he faced these same Phillies six days ago, he didn’t even make it out of the second inning. Somehow, some way, Parker has to figure out how to at least give his team a chance tonight.

The good news: The Nats beat up on Aaron Nola the same day the Phillies were beating up on Parker. They scored six runs off the veteran right-hander, all of them coming in the third inning, to knock him out of the game. They will be looking to do the same tonight, and perhaps provide enough run support to make up for a potentially shaky start by Parker.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES
Where: Citizens Bank Park
Gametime: 6:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Clear, 80 degrees, wind 12 mph out to center field

PHILADELPHIA – PJ Poulin wasn’t part of the Tigers’ trade package for Kyle Finnegan, but he might as well have been.

When Detroit acquired Finnegan from the Nationals at the trade deadline for minor leaguers Josh Randall and R.J. Sales, another transaction was necessary to clear a 40-man spot for the veteran reliever. The odd man out wound up being Poulin, who was pitching well at Triple-A Toledo but was deemed expendable and thus was designated for assignment.

The Nats, of course, swooped in and claimed the 29-year-old left-hander off waivers, then surprised him by sending him not to Triple-A Rochester but straight to Washington to join a big league roster for the first time in his career.

Poulin, an 11th-round pick of the Rockies in 2018 out of the University of Connecticut, was stunned just to be in the majors. Three weeks later, could he have believed he would find himself on the mound in the bottom of the ninth at Citizens Bank Park, trying to close out a one-run win in front of a sellout crowd of Phillies fans?

“Uh, I mean … no,” he said with a laugh after contemplating how ludicrous that notion would have sounded at the time. “This has been like the best three weeks of my life.”