ANAHEIM, Calif. – The Nationals arrived in Southern California way back on July 19, fresh off a walk-off win over the Rockies that finally snapped their losing streak at 11 games. Today, they finally wrap up this nine-game trip through all three major league cities in the region, having lost two of three to both the Dodgers and the Padres and needing a win today against the Angels to avoid the same fate.

The good news: Davey Martinez should have his top bullpen options available to him after not having them Saturday night. So if Mitchell Parker can get the Nats through five or six quality innings, Brad Lord, Jose A. Ferrer and Kyle Finnegan are all raring to go, with Finnegan in particular available for more than one inning given how little he has pitched during this road trip.

The Nats also need to score more than the two runs they scored Saturday, only one of them coming off starter Kyle Hendricks. Today they face right-hander Jack Kochanowicz, who is 3-8 with a 5.49 ERA in 16 starts. The key: He has walked 4.2 batters per nine innings while striking out only 6.5. Patience, patience, patience from a lineup that includes all of the recent regulars with one exception: Drew Millas gets the start behind the plate after Riley Adams caught the majority of five straight games following Keibert Ruiz's head injury.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at LOS ANGELES ANGELS
Where: Angel Stadium
Gametime: 4:07 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Sunny, 85 degrees, wind 8 mph out to center field

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

ANAHEIM, Calif. – Friday night’s wacky win over the Angels may have seen the Nationals explode for 15 runs, their best offensive output in four years, but it also came at a cost. When Jake Irvin couldn’t contain Los Angeles’ offense, Davey Martinez had to lean hard on two of his few trusted relievers in order to close out an eventual 15-9 win.

Brad Lord and Jose A. Ferrer got the job done, but each was pushed to record more than three outs, with Lord totaling 36 pitches. Which left both guys unavailable tonight when the second game of the series reached the bottom of the seventh with the Nats clinging to a 2-1 lead.

Michael Soroka had already completed six innings for only the fourth time this season. And Martinez wasn’t about to send his starter back out there for the seventh for the first time. So the game fell into the hands of Zach Brzykcy. And when Brzykcy faltered, Eduardo Salazar. And when Salazar faltered, Ryan Loutos.

The end result wasn’t pretty.

The three right-handers combined to allow six runs during a nightmare inning that turned a tight, low-scoring ballgame into an 8-2 rout by the Angels, spoiling the 162nd game of James Wood’s career. With a chance to clinch their first series win in eight tries, the Nats now find themselves needing to win Sunday’s finale in order to pull that off.

ANAHEIM, Calif. – Andrew Chafin is facing live hitters again and could be ready to come off the injured list during the Nationals’ upcoming homestand.

Chafin, out since June 8 with a strained right hamstring, threw a simulated game Friday at Angel Stadium and emerged feeling good about himself after the 30-pitch session.

There is a caveat, of course, given the nature of the left-hander’s injury.

“As you know, there’s nothing wrong with his arm,” manager Davey Martinez said. “It was his hamstring. So, he threw the ball well.”

The more important test for Chafin will come as he attempts to simulate running plays off the mound.

ANAHEIM, Calif. – The Nationals enjoyed their best offensive night in four years to open this series, blasting 15 runs on 19 hits in a slugfest victory over the Angels on Friday night. So, what should we expect tonight?

The way this lineup has operated all season, it feels like they’re more likely to be shut out by Kyle Hendricks than put up big numbers again. Hendricks has long been a master of soft contact, and we know many of the Nats’ regulars struggle with sinkers and changeups down in the zone. They’re going to have to show the kind of patience they haven’t often shown this season to have some success against the crafty veteran.

Michael Soroka, meanwhile, will look to continue what he did last weekend in Los Angeles, and then finish strong. It’s the finishing part that has given the right-hander so much trouble. Soroka’s sixth inning ERA this season is a ridiculous 22.85. His ERA in all other innings is 3.49. Clearly, he has the ability to be good. He just needs to sustain it through the conclusion of his starts.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at LOS ANGELES ANGELS
Where: Angel Stadium
Gametime: 9:38 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Clear, 80 degrees, wind 8 mph out to center field

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

ANAHEIM, Calif. – The wildest game of the Nationals’ season was knotted at 9 in the bottom of the sixth Friday night at Angel Stadium. Nobody who had taken the mound for either team had enjoyed any substantive level of success, and now here came Brad Lord out of the bullpen to face Mike Trout with nobody out and a runner in scoring position.

It was arguably the biggest head-to-head matchup Lord has faced yet in his rookie season. The trick for the young right-hander: Don’t think of it that way.

“Coming into any close game like that, you feel the pressure of: ‘I’ve got to shut them down, throw up a zero,’” he said. “I just try to treat it like any other outing. Execute the game plan, and go right after these guys.”

And then he did exactly that. Lord retired Trout on a sharp grounder to second, with Luis García Jr. making a nifty play on the ball hit to his left. He got Taylor Ward to ground out to short, a drawn-in CJ Abrams able to hold the go-ahead runner at third. Then he got Jo Adell to ground out as well and end the inning.

And then he went right back out there in the bottom of the seventh and recorded two more outs before finally departing having thrown 36 total pitches across 1 2/3 scoreless innings. And thanks to his teammates’ best offensive night in four years, Lord emerged from it all the winning pitcher in the Nats’ 15-9 thumping of the Angels.

ANAHEIM, Calif. – The Nationals may not have played a sloppier game all season. Tonight’s series opener against the Angels included defensive mistakes, baserunning gaffes and poor starting pitching.

So how was it the Nats were the ones celebrating at the center of the diamond at the end of a wacky, 15-9 victory at Angel Stadium? Because on a night in which they did so many things wrong, they also enjoyed their best offensive performance in four years and got just enough quality work from the back of their bullpen to pull off an escape act.

They easily established new season highs in runs (15) and hits (19). They scored in seven of their nine offensive innings, including six straight from the fourth through the ninth. All nine starters delivered at least one hit and at least one RBI. All nine reached base multiple times, with seven players delivering multiple hits.

"We outslugged them," manager Davey Martinez said with a laugh when asked about the rare combination of explosive offense and sloppy defense and baserunning. "Look, we came out victorious. We didn't play all that good the first six innings. It was a little sloppy. But we hung in there, and we hit the ball."

The 15 runs are the most the Nationals have scored in a game since they plated 18 against the Marlins on July 19, 2021, a month that did not end well for a franchise that decided to tear down the remnants of its championship roster and embark on a rebuild that continues four years later.

ANAHEIM, Calif. – Keibert Ruiz has been transferred to the seven-day concussion injured list after a recent diagnosis spurred by continued headaches for the Nationals catcher.

Ruiz was watching from the dugout Monday night in San Diego when teammate Josh Bell hit a foul ball that whizzed past several players and then ricocheted back toward Ruiz, striking him on the right side of the head. Initial tests taken that night did not reveal a concussion, so he was placed on the 10-day IL with a head contusion.

Ruiz was still experiencing headaches in the days after the incident, though, so he was examined again by another doctor, who determined he had suffered what manager Davey Martinez referred to as a “mild” concussion.

The Nats made the transaction to move Ruiz to the 7-day concussion IL, which actually makes him eligible to return Tuesday when the team opens a homestand against the Tigers and Red Sox, three days earlier than he would have been eligible to come off the 10-day IL. He’ll still need to be cleared by a doctor before returning.

“If everything continues to go well, he’ll take that another test in seven days, and hopefully he’s OK to play,” Martinez said.

ANAHEIM, Calif. – Hello from the Big A and the final leg of this three-city Southern California swing for the Nationals. They lost two of three in Los Angeles. They lost two of three in San Diego. They really hope not to lose two of three here against an Angels team that is playing good baseball and has reached the .500 mark but just learned today manager Ron Washington will miss the remainder of the season while on medical leave. Bench coach Ray Montgomery takes over managerial duties.

The Nationals were shut out Wednesday by the Padres, so they’ll be looking to bounce back offensively against José Soriano. The right-hander has a good ERA (3.39) but so-so peripherals (1.419 WHIP, 7.7 strikeouts per nine innings, 4.2 walks per nine innings). That final number needs to be implanted in the Nats’ brains. They did not draw one walk during Wednesday’s loss. They have to show more patience tonight.

On the mound, Jake Irvin is coming off a really solid start at Dodger Stadium (two runs, seven strikeouts, zero walks) in 5 1/3 innings. He makes his first career start against the Angels, so this will be the first time he ever faces Mike Trout (and vice versa).

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at LOS ANGELES ANGELS
Where: Angel Stadium
Gametime: 9:38 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Clear, 74 degrees, wind 8 mph out to center field

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

SAN DIEGO – When the Nationals enjoyed their record-setting, 10-run first inning four weeks ago in Arizona, they simultaneously wrapped up a 15-12 record for May, the team’s first winning month since August 2023 and only its second winning month at all since the rebuild began in earnest in July 2021.

It was cause for mild celebration, but it wasn’t the end-all, be-all. It was only the start of something bigger, the Nats believed at the time.

“I would encourage this group to get used to winning,” first baseman Nathaniel Lowe said that night in Phoenix, “because that’s what we strive to do every day. But we’ll take this month and obviously keep going into June and look for another winning month.”

The Nationals won’t finish June with a winning month. They won’t even come close. Even if they sweep the Angels this weekend in Anaheim, they’ll merely improve to 8-18 for the month. That would still be tied for the eighth-worst month in club history. If, god forbid, they get swept, they’ll finish 5-21. That would represent the single worst month in club history.

Suffice it to say, things have taken a decided turn for the worse around here over the last four weeks.

After just six starts following his promotion to High-A Wilmington, Travis Sykora, the top prospect in the Nationals’ farm system, is being promoted to Double-A Harrisburg.

The promotion, confirmed by a source familiar with the move, comes after the 21-year-old right-hander dominated the South Atlantic League by going 3-0 with a 1.21 ERA, 0.674 WHIP, 47 strikeouts and only eight walks over 29 ⅔ innings with the Blue Rocks.

He only surrendered 12 hits (zero home runs) and had a stellar 14.3 strikeouts per nine innings and 5.88 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

Sykora earned his first promotion to High-A after only two starts with Single-A Fredericksburg following his return from offseason hip surgery. He held opponents to one hit, one run and one walk while striking out 14 in just five innings with the FredNats before moving up to Wilmington.

The Nats selected Sykora out of high school in the third round of the 2023 MLB Draft, signing him overslot to keep him away from his commitment to the University of Texas. He was named Carolina League Pitcher of the Year in 2024 after going 5-3 with a 2.33 ERA, 0.906 WHIP, 129 strikeouts and 13.7 strikeouts per nine innings across 20 starts.

SAN DIEGO – The Nationals left town following Wednesday afternoon's agonizing 1-0 loss to the Padres and are spending their off-day up the road in Orange County before opening a weekend series Friday against the Angels. Your trusty beat writer chose to remain in San Diego for this off-day, because ... well, do I really have to explain this to you? It's San Diego, for crying out loud!

There will be time to relax later. Before then, it's time to answer your questions about the Nats. It's been quite the eventful few weeks for the team, from the 11-game losing streak to Brady House's debut to the start of a West Coast trip that has included some legitimately big moments but unfortunately has also included four more losses in six games, three of them by one run.

I'll do my best to tackle whatever subjects you propose today (with reason and good taste, of course). And keep in mind the 3-hour time difference, so I may get started a bit later than usual. If you've got something you'd like to ask, just submit it in the comments section below, then check back for my replies ...

SAN DIEGO – MacKenzie Gore has pitched like an ace this season. He leads the National League in strikeouts. His ERA resides in the low-3.00s. Only five major leaguers have totaled more than his 11 quality starts.

So how come Gore now sports a 3-8 record? Because no matter how well he’s pitched, his teammates can’t seem to consistently provide him the kind of support the left-hander needs to emerge victorious.

That troubling trend reached a new low this afternoon at Petco Park, where Gore was good once again and once again got no help from the rest of the Nationals during a disheartening 1-0 loss to the Padres.

"That's on us. That's on the lineup," center fielder Jacob Young said. "He keeps us in almost every game, and we just haven't been able to score the runs, especially in games like this where it's one or two. We haven't been able to scrap them together and get him some more wins. But he's had our back on the mound. Hopefully in the second half of the year, we can have his."

Gore allowed only one run over six innings, rarely surrendering loud contact. But San Diego’s Nick Pivetta allowed zero runs over seven innings, and that was the difference in the game.

SAN DIEGO – As was the case Sunday in Los Angeles, the Nationals have an opportunity today to win a series against a good opponent. They put themselves in that position by thumping the Padres on Monday night before coming up just short Tuesday night. So it will require a victory this afternoon to win the series and improve to 3-3 on the West Coast trip heading into a much-needed day off before the Southern California jaunt concludes this weekend in Anaheim.

The good news: MacKenzie Gore is on the mound, facing the team that drafted and then traded him. Gore has pitched here each of the last two seasons, so this is nothing special for him. The lefty just wants to go out there and do what he’s doing through the majority of the season’s first half: provide length with minimal damage and a lot of strikeouts. The Padres' lineup is no joke, but he’s plenty motivated to deliver for his team today.

At the plate, the Nationals will try to get to Nick Pivetta the way they did to Ryan Hergert on Tuesday night, while perhaps converting a few more times in clutch situations. (They scored three early runs but went 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position, missing some golden opportunities to extend their lead.) Pivetta, of course, is the long-ago Nats prospect who was traded to the Phillies for Jonathan Papelbon nearly a decade ago. He’s fashioned a solid career since and has been more than solid so far in his first year with the Padres, entering today 7-2 with a 3.64 ERA and 1.083 WHIP in 15 starts.

One important note to consider as the game plays out: Robert Suarez dropped his appeal of the three-game suspension MLB handed down to him last week for intentionally throwing at the Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani, once the league reduced the sentence to two games. So the Padres will be without their closer this afternoon, should this game be close come the ninth inning.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at SAN DIEGO PADRES
Where: Petco Park
Gametime: 4:10 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Sunny, 71 degrees, wind 10 mph left field to right field

SAN DIEGO – When he was called up to the big leagues the last two seasons, Drew Millas found himself walking through the Nationals' clubhouse introducing himself to a good number of unfamiliar faces. When he arrived at Petco Park on Tuesday afternoon, the 27-year-old catcher assumed it would be more of the same, until he looked around the room and realized he already knew almost every single player on the current roster.

“I came in and expected to do the usual, like: ‘Hey, I’m Drew. I’m Drew. I’m Drew. I'm Drew,’” he said. “I was just like: ‘Hey, what’s up? Good to see you!’ It’s a good thing to have familiar faces here, and it makes me really comfortable.”

With so many young players who have come through Triple-A Rochester in recent years on the Nationals’ major league roster now, Millas is plenty comfortable in these surroundings. It’s now up to him to take advantage of whatever playing opportunities he gets to convince the organization he should stick around for more than a week or two.

Summoned from Rochester when Keibert Ruiz was placed on the 10-day injured list with a head contusion after getting struck by a foul ball in the dugout Monday night, Millas is now the clear backup to Riley Adams, who takes over as the team’s No. 1 catcher. Manager Davey Martinez said he expects Adams to start the bulk of the games behind the plate, and sure enough he’s back in there for this afternoon’s series finale against the Padres only hours after catching Tuesday’s game.

Millas will probably get one start this weekend in Anaheim, at which point he’ll hope to show the strides he’s made both at the plate and behind it. He opened his season at Triple-A with a disappointing .229/.287/.344 slash line in his first 35 games. In 17 games since, he’s put together a much better .288/.348/.441 slash line, getting back to what he believes he does best.

SAN DIEGO – Even as they put together a bunch of quality at-bats and jumped out to an early three-run lead tonight at Petco Park, the Nationals knew deep down they had squandered some opportunities to put the game away and had let the Padres keep it close enough to set up a potential comeback.

Sure enough, that early three-run lead evaporated over the course of the middle innings. And when they couldn’t mount any kind of late rally against one of the league’s best bullpens, the Nats found themselves on the wrong end of a 4-3 loss to San Diego.

The Padres scored all four runs from the fourth through the sixth innings, all of the runs charged to Trevor Williams even though the last of them crossed the plate after he departed. The Nationals, who totaled six hits through their first four innings at the plate, managed only one more the rest of the way.

With one last shot at rallying in the ninth, they went down quietly against All-Star closer Robert Suarez, who reportedly dropped his appeal of a three-game suspension - which Major League Baseball imposed on Friday after Suarez intentionally threw at the Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani on Thursday - after it was reduced to two games. Suarez won’t be available for Wednesday afternoon’s series finale, but he was still allowed to take the mound tonight in a one-run game.

"They've got a really good bullpen," manager Davey Martinez said. "We knew that coming in. The objective for us is to try to score first and get on the board, beat the starters up a bit earlier. Once they get into that bullpen, it's tough."

SAN DIEGO – The Nationals placed Keibert Ruiz on the 10-day injured list this evening with a head contusion, the result of an errant foul ball that struck the catcher on the right side of his head as he watched Friday night’s game from the dugout.

Drew Millas was recalled from Triple-A Rochester to take Ruiz’s roster spot and will back up Riley Adams, who takes over the team’s No. 1 catcher for now.

Ruiz was standing next to Adams during the top of the fourth Friday night at Petco Park when teammate Josh Bell scorched a foul ball toward them from close range. The ball whizzed past everyone but ricocheted off the back wall of the dugout and struck Ruiz on the head. He immediately retreated to the clubhouse alongside director of athletic training Paul Lessard and was taken to an area hospital for a CT scan.

That scan showed no evidence of a concussion or any fractures, but Ruiz has a lump on the side of his head and has complained of headaches and dizziness since the incident, prompting the team to place him on the 10-day IL rather than the 7-day concussion IL (which requires an official concussion diagnosis).

“I don’t feel 100 percent, and I don’t feel good enough to catch today,” Ruiz said. “If I get another foul ball in my head, I don’t think that would be good. I have two kids that need me. I’ve got to take care of my health.”

SAN DIEGO – The Nationals showed up Monday night at Petco Park, blasting a couple of home runs and delivering a flurry of clutch hits en route to a 10-6 win over the Padres. They’re 2-2 so far on this West Coast trip, and they’ve had a real chance to win every game, which isn’t too shabby, all things considered. The key now is sustaining that, and they’ll attempt to do it tonight in the second game of their series.

At the plate, the Nats will be facing an unknown opponent in Ryan Bergert. The rookie right-hander, drafted in the sixth round in 2021 out of West Virginia, makes his ninth career appearance, his fifth career start. He’s been pretty good to date in this role, delivering a 2.25 ERA through those four previous starts. He’s reached the sixth inning three times, though he has yet to complete that frame. He features a mid-90s fastball and two breaking balls in the mid-to-high 80s, plus an occasional changeup to left-handed batters.

Trevor Williams returns to his hometown of San Diego, hoping to turn in his third consecutive solid start. The veteran right-hander held both the Marlins and Rockies to two runs over 5 1/3 innings, but he’s facing a much more imposing Padres lineup tonight.

The Nationals have put Keibert Ruiz on the 10-day injured list after he was struck by a foul ball into the dugout last night. The team has recalled Drew Millas from Triple-A Rochester to fill the roster spot.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at SAN DIEGO PADRES
Where: Petco Park
Gametime: 9:40 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Clear, 66 degrees, wind 8 mph left field to right field

SAN DIEGO – Keibert Ruiz never had time to react, nor could he have anticipated what happened in the top of the fourth Monday night at Petco Park.

The Nationals’ 10-6 victory over the Padres was marred somewhat by the freak incident that forced Ruiz to an area hospital for a CT scan after he was struck by Josh Bell’s errant foul ball on the left side of his head.

Ruiz was watching the game from the top railing of the dugout when Bell fouled off Stephen Kolek’s pitch and sent the ball on a direct line toward the third base dugout. Nationals players and coaches barely saw it whiz past their heads, and nobody saw it carom off the dugout’s back wall and strike Ruiz on the side of his head.

The 26-year-old wasn’t wearing his catcher’s gear, because his spot in the lineup was approaching. He immediately grabbed his head and headed down the dugout steps and toward the visitors’ clubhouse as director of athletic training Paul Lessard followed close behind.

“When he went down, we kind of got scared a little bit,” manager Davey Martinez said. “He had a nice lump on his head.”

SAN DIEGO – It seems to be defying logic, because the opposing pitching staffs are much better than what they faced last week and the ball isn’t supposed to carry better in the cool Southern California air than it does in the hot and humid nastiness back home.

But sometimes you have to throw logic out the door and just embrace what you’re seeing with your own eyes. And four games into what should be a tough West Coast trip for a previously reeling team, the Nationals are putting together the kind of offensive performances they desperately needed last week when they were losing to the Marlins and Rockies.

They scored 6.3 runs per game over the weekend at Dodger Stadium. And in tonight’s series opener on a 64-degree late-June evening at Petco Park, they took it a step further, blasting their way to a 10-6 win over the Padres behind three hits a piece from two of the young stars they acquired from San Diego three years ago.

"I just think we were kind of due," left fielder James Wood said. "We've been hitting the ball hard, just right at people. I feel like not much has changed, maybe a few more homers. But I just think the balls we've hit hard are finding gaps."

CJ Abrams went 3-for-5 and scored three runs. Wood went 3-for-5 and drove in four runs, three of them coming on his latest towering home run, this one clanging off the right field foul pole for the 22-year-old’s 22nd round tripper of the season.

SAN DIEGO – As he watches his teammates play every night from the dugout, Dylan Crews tries to trick his mind into thinking he’s still a part of the active roster. Deep down, he knows he’s not, and there’s nothing he can do on the field to help the Nationals win. But it’s the only way the rookie outfielder knows how to keep his mind in the right place as he navigates his way through rehab from a strained oblique.

“I’ve been good,” he said today as the Nats prepared to open a three-game series against the Padres. “I’m trying to stay locked in as much as I can. It’s all new to me. I try to stay locked in as if I was playing the game every day. But right now, it’s a different chapter in this whole story. I’m just trying to stay locked in and win my day every day.”

It’s been nearly five weeks now since Crews suffered the injury on a check-swing. The good news: He was finally cleared to travel with the rest of the team on this nine-game West Coast trip, and he recently began taking some very light swings to test his core.

It’s not much. Crews isn’t allowed to take full swings or hit an actual baseball. He’s running at about 85-to-90 percent, he surmised, but only on a treadmill. He’s not doing any kind of work on the field yet.

But he’s making progress, and the prospect of ramping things up looms in the not-too-distant future.