SEATTLE – A Nationals bullpen that has gone through a number of changes in the last week experienced another one today when the club promoted right-hander Amos Willingham from Triple-A and optioned Paolo Espino back to Rochester.
This move comes only two days after the Nats called Espino up to replace Chad Kuhl, who was designated for assignment. (The club officially requested unconditional release waivers on Kuhl today, making him a free agent.)
Willingham, 24, made a name for himself in the organization early this season, stringing together 10 consecutive scoreless appearances with 14 strikeouts and only one walk for Double-A Harrisburg. That earned him a promotion last month to Triple-A, where he wasn’t as dominant (3.46 ERA, 11 strikeouts, eight walks over 13 innings), but still pitched well enough to earn consideration for another promotion.
“I knew this could be a big year for me,” he said. “I needed to go in and take care of everything I needed to do, and I knew there would be opportunities to move up. I had no idea it would happen this fast. I was thinking at this point in the year maybe get to Triple-A, and then maybe be in Triple-A until September and maybe get a look up here. But it’s all happened so fast, it’s hard to really fathom the entire process.”
The Nationals might have called Willingham up Saturday to take Kuhl’s spot, but he had just thrown 30 pitches over two innings and likely wouldn’t have been available for another couple days. So they instead recalled Espino, who wound up pitching the ninth inning of Sunday’s 8-3 win in San Diego but retired only two of the five batters he faced, prompting manager Davey Martinez to summon closer Hunter Harvey for the final out.
SEATTLE – Hello from the great Pacific Northwest, where the Nationals make only the fourth visit in club history but their second in as many years. They’ve had very good results here, no matter the era, sweeping a three-game set in 2008, taking two of three in 2014 and then splitting a quick two-game series last August. Now they’re back for three with the Mariners, who, like the Padres, had high expectations entering the season but are currently under .500.
Seattle does have a legit ace on the mound tonight in Luis Castillo, who currently ranks sixth in the American League in ERA (2.89), 10th in WHIP (1.053) and seventh in strikeouts (101). The electric right-hander will pose a real test for a Nationals lineup that bust out for nine runs during Sunday’s win in San Diego but as you already know has been in a real rut for quite a while.
Trevor Williams gets the start, looking to build off possibly his best outing of the season, in which he shut out the Cardinals for six innings and earned his fourth win in the process. Davey Martinez let Williams pitch into the seventh in that game, and he may be tempted to push him again tonight because multiple relievers (most notably Hunter Harvey and Mason Thompson) figure to be unavailable tonight after pitching each of the last two days.
The Nats bullpen will have another new face tonight, though: The club called up Amos Willingham from Triple-A Rochester. The 24-year-old right-hander, a 17th round pick in the 2019 draft out of Georgia Tech, has worked his way up the organizational ladder since, and now gets his first promotion to the big leagues. To clear a roster spot for Willingham, the Nationals optioned Paolo Espino back to Triple-A after only one appearance.
WASHINGTON NATIONALS at SEATTLE MARINERS
Where: T-Mobile Park
Gametime: 9:40 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Partly cloudy, 72 degrees, wind 5 mph out to right field
SAN DIEGO – Jeimer Candelario ranks among the league leaders in doubles, on pace now for 50 of them by season’s end. Ask the Nationals’ No. 3 hitter about his offensive approach, though, and his answer has less to do with how he gets to second base and more to do with what happens once he’s there.
“Getting in scoring position, for me, is really, really important,” he said. “Because I’ve got a chance to score. That’s how you win ballgames. We’ve got Meneses hitting fourth, and he’s a guy that can put the barrel on the ball. I want to be able to score for him and for the team.”
Candelario knows of what he speaks. Everybody loves to see him hit doubles, but nobody loves it more than the guy who bats behind him and has gone above and beyond to drive him in as well as anyone in the majors.
Joey Meneses’ season totals may not turn heads. He’s batting a healthy .293, but slugging a mere .381. One of baseball’s best (and most surprising) power hitters after he debuted at age 30 last August, he has managed only two home runs through the Nats’ first 77 games this season.
Meneses, though, is doing one thing exceptionally well this year: He’s driving in runs at a remarkable rate when given the opportunity.
SAN DIEGO – As he stalked off the mound, MacKenzie Gore looked directly at Juan Soto, who was looking directly back at the Nationals left-hander. Words were spoken. Heads were nodded. Competitive juices flowed.
There was no disrespect from either party, just an acknowledgment that one had bested the other on this afternoon and that there surely will be future meetings between these two ballplayers forever connected via trade.
"I like him," Gore insisted. "He talks some junk, and he's competitive. I've never played against him much, but I like him."
If future encounters between the two produce the same results as today, the Nats will happily take it.
Gore’s high-energy strikeout of Soto – his third of the afternoon against the former D.C. star – may have come in the fifth inning of what wound up an 8-3 Nationals victory thanks to a parade of late-game hits by the visitors. But it was still the signature moment of a day that included a number of exciting moments but none as important in the long-term picture for this franchise.
SAN DIEGO – If ever there was a time for Mason Thompson to rediscover his early season form, this was it.
With Carl Edwards Jr. on the injured list with a sore shoulder, the Nationals desperately needed someone else to step up and prove worthy of joining Kyle Finnegan and Hunter Harvey in the back of their bullpen, and manager Davey Martinez specifically mentioned Thompson as the best candidate to do that.
So far, so good.
Thompson has tossed nine innings since June 4, all of them scoreless. He’s allowed only four singles and two walks in that time while striking out 10. And his best performance of this run might well have come Saturday night, when he recorded five outs across 1 2/3 innings in relief of Josiah Gray, bridging the gap to Finnegan and Harvey during a 2-0 victory over the Padres.
“It feels great,” the right-hander said. “For me, I always knew that I was one step away. Physically, I felt pretty good out there. I felt like maybe just one little mechanical tweak might get me back on track. Now I’ve kind of got back in that groove. For me, I just need to keep going out there and keep doing the same thing.”
SAN DIEGO – It’s another beautiful day in beautiful San Diego, and nothing would make this weekend any more beautiful for the Nationals than a surprising series win over the Padres. They put themselves in such a position thanks to Saturday night’s 2-0 victory, in which they got two early solo homers and then rode Josiah Gray and their top three relievers the rest of the way.
A duplicate performance might be too much to ask for, but a quality start out of MacKenzie Gore is not too much to ask for. The young lefty has shown plenty of promise this season, but he hasn’t shown consistency. Gore has allowed two or fewer runs in eight of his 15 starts, but he has allowed five or more in two of his last three outings. Emotions will be high today as he faces his former team (against whom he lasted only 4 2/3 innings last month in D.C.). He’ll have to channel those emotions into a better performance today.
The Nationals will try to score more than two runs off Seth Lugo, who gets the start for the Padres. The 33-year-old right-hander is no stranger to the Nats, having faced them for years as a member of the Mets bullpen. He’s now starting in San Diego, where he’s allowed two or fewer runs in three of his last four outings.
WASHINGTON NATIONALS at SAN DIEGO PADRES
Where: Petco Park
Gametime: 4:10 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Sunny, 70 degrees, wind 12 mph left field to right field
NATIONALS
RF Lane Thomas
2B Luis García
3B Jeimer Candelario
DH Joey Meneses
LF Corey Dickerson
C Keibert Ruiz
1B Dominic Smith
CF Derek Hill
SS CJ Abrams
SAN DIEGO – How’s this for a formula for success on a lovely Saturday evening at Petco Park: Get two early solo homers from your power-starved lineup, then ask your pitching staff to shut out the Padres’ potent bats the rest of the way?
OK, so that may not have been Davey Martinez’s preferred plan entering the day. Given his team's major league worst minus-44 home run differential entering the day, why would it have been? But as this game proceeded, it became clear this would be the only way the Nationals were going to emerge victorious.
And when they pulled it off, topping the Padres 2-0 behind some of the best pitching they’ve seen all year, it felt as sweet as any of their previous 28 victories this season.
"That," Martinez said, "was a good one."
Jeimer Candelario and Lane Thomas provided the early offense, with Candelario homering in the first and Thomas homering in the third to give their team the lead. Josiah Gray turned in 5 1/3 scoreless, if not exactly efficient, innings to maintain that two-run lead. And then Martinez entrusted the game’s final 11 outs to the three remaining healthy relievers he trusts in high-leverage spots: Mason Thompson, Kyle Finnegan and Hunter Harvey.
SAN DIEGO – The Nationals parted ways with Chad Kuhl today, designating the struggling right-hander for assignment and recalling Paolo Espino from Triple-A Rochester to take his roster spot.
The club had been hoping Kuhl might turn things around as a long man in their bullpen, but the 30-year-old was in a sustained rut, his ERA climbing to 8.45 following a four-run appearance during Friday night’s blowout loss to the Padres.
The move was particularly tough for manager Davey Martinez on a personal level, given how much the Nationals have done to help Kuhl’s wife, Amanda, who is currently undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer. The Kuhls established the “Cancer Isn’t Kuhl” campaign in April in partnership with Washington Nationals Philanthropies and have raised tens of thousands of dollars for breast cancer treatment and research since.
“The toughest part of my job is letting guys go when you start building these relationships with them,” Martinez said. “It’s hard. I know he gave it his all. It just didn’t work out.”
Initially signed to a minor league contract in January, Kuhl came to big league camp this spring and earned a spot in the Opening Day rotation after top prospect Cade Cavalli needed Tommy John surgery. A six-year major league veteran with the Pirates and Rockies, he struggled from the get-go and had a 9.41 ERA in five starts before landing on the 15-day injured list with a foot ailment.
SAN DIEGO – The Nationals’ lineup is in a bad place right now. That group has averaged 3.3 runs, 8.6 hits and a measly 1.2 walks over the last 18 games, only three of which the team has won. So what’s the cure for an anemic offense? Maybe a rookie knuckleballer making his major league debut?
That’s the unusual situation the Nats find themselves in tonight, with the Padres giving the ball to right-hander Matt Waldron and hoping for the best. The 26-year-old (who throws a knuckleball about 50 percent of the time) was just 1-6 with a 7.02 ERA and 1.650 WHIP in 14 games at hitter-friendly Triple-A El Paso, but with Michael Wacha dealing with shoulder trouble, San Diego is giving him a chance to see what he can do in the big leagues for the first time. This feels like a game that is either going to go wonderfully or horribly for the Nationals, nothing in between.
Josiah Gray’s task tonight is keep the Padres lineup in the yard, something Patrick Corbin and the bullpen couldn’t do Friday. After showing significant progress in this department in April and May, Gray has fallen back into his old pattern from last season, serving up six homers in his last four starts, including two in five innings Monday against the Cardinals.
Speaking of the Nationals bullpen, there has been a roster change. Chad Kuhl was designated for assignment following another rough performance Friday night, and Paolo Espino has been recalled from Triple-A Rochester to take over as a long man in a bullpen that needs more reliable arms.
WASHINGTON NATIONALS at SAN DIEGO PADRES
Where: Petco Park
Gametime: 8:40 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Clear, 67 degrees, wind 11 mph left field to right field
SAN DIEGO – Very little went right for the Nationals on Friday night. Such is the case when you lose a game like they did, 13-3 to the Padres.
The focus of the game story was Patrick Corbin, whose fifth-inning meltdown turned a competitive game into a blowout. But the left-hander was far from the only reason the Nats were shellacked by San Diego.
The lineup once again did very little for most of the night. Through five innings, they managed three hits and failed to score a run. They did finally get to Joe Musgrove in the sixth on a two-out double by Jeimer Candelario and an RBI single by Joey Meneses. And then they scored two more runs in garbage time in the top of the ninth.
But most telling was Musgrove’s final line: seven innings, six hits, one run, zero walks, seven strikeouts, 90 pitches, 67 strikes.
The Nationals once again drew zero walks, a recurring problem that seems to be getting worse by the day. They’ve drawn a grand total of 22 walks over their last 18 games, barely more than one per game. They haven’t drawn more than two walks in a game since June 13 in Houston. They haven’t drawn more than three walks in a game since May 28 in Kansas City.
SAN DIEGO – If there was one thing the Nationals could cling to as evidence of improvement from Patrick Corbin this season, it was the fact he has almost always pitched well enough to give his team a chance.
That’s admittedly a low bar for acceptable pitching performances. But the Nats had no choice but to set the bar low with Corbin, given his immense struggles the last three seasons. If he was at least doing enough to give them a chance to win, that would have to be considered a success, right?
What, then, to make of Corbin’s performance tonight, in which the left-hander most certainly did not give his team a chance during a 13-3 blowout loss to the Padres?
A six-run bottom of the fifth foiled whatever possibility remained for Corbin to leave the mound with the Nationals in a reasonable position. That frame included every manner of calamity, some of them not the left-hander’s fault but plenty of them still falling on his shoulders.
A four-run bottom of the seventh off Chad Kuhl, now the owner of an 8.45 ERA, didn’t help matters. Nor did the two-run homer Thaddeus Ward surrender to Juan Soto (who reached base four times in five plate appearances) in the eighth.
SAN DIEGO – The path that ultimately brought Joe La Sorsa to the visitors’ clubhouse at Petco Park this afternoon was as follows: Montgomery, Ala., to Durham, N.C., to St. Petersburg, Fla., to DFA Purgatory to Rochester, N.Y., to Washington, where the left-hander spent barely more than 24 hours learning his new surroundings before hopping aboard the Nationals’ charter flight for a nine-game road trip that will take the team from San Diego to Seattle to Philadelphia.
“I haven’t really had more than a month any place. That’s pretty much been it,” La Sorsa said with a hint of both exasperation and appreciation. “But I feel very comfortable here. How I’ve been treated here, and everything with the Nationals so far is leaving a very good first impression.”
Plucked off waivers after the Rays designated him for assignment earlier this month, only two games into his big league career, La Sorsa made four relief appearances at Triple-A Rochester before getting the call to come to D.C. and replace the injured Carl Edwards Jr. in the Nats bullpen.
He didn’t appear in either Wednesday or Thursday’s game, but chances are he’ll make his debut sometime this weekend at Petco Park, perhaps thrown into the fire to face Juan Soto in a big spot late in a game.
Davey Martinez has been wanting a left-handed reliever for nearly two months now since the Anthony Banda experiment was aborted. He’s got one now in La Sorsa, an unassuming, mustachioed, 25-year-old rookie from Westchester County, N.Y., and St. John’s University.
SAN DIEGO – A very pleasant evening to you from one of the most pleasant ballparks in America. Maybe the change in locations will be good for the Nationals, who just endured through a dismal, 1-6 homestand and continue to struggle like crazy in D.C, with a 13-27 record. The story has been much better on the road, where they’re actually 15-19. They better hope that trend continues since they now embark on a long, nine-game trip from San Diego to Seattle to Philadelphia.
The Padres were struggling to find their footing when they played at Nationals Park last month, and they’re still kind of stuck in that same spot, entering tonight’s series opener three games under .500, 9 1/2 games back and in fourth place in the National League West. Juan Soto, however, is feeling just fine, thank you very much. Over his last 14 games, the ex-Nat is batting a healthy .353/.453/.588.
It’ll be Patrick Corbin’s job to try to hold Soto and Co. in check tonight. Corbin didn’t face the Padres last month. He’s kind of in a strange place right now where he’s giving up a ton of hits (11 in two of his last three starts) but still keeping the damage to a relative minimum (3-4 runs).
Joe Musgrove gets the start for San Diego. After a brutal start to his season, he’s been much better, going 4-0 with a 2.15 ERA in his last five starts. A Nats lineup that has had all kinds of trouble scoring runs is going to have to figure out the veteran right-hander.
WASHINGTON NATIONALS at SAN DIEGO PADRES
Where: Petco Park
Gametime: 9:40 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Clear, 67 degrees, wind 11 mph left field to right field
MacKenzie Gore and Victor Robles drew most of the attention Tuesday night, but there were plenty of other factors that contributed to the Nationals’ 9-3 loss to the Cardinals, their fifth straight in this homestand and 13th in their last 15 games overall. …
* Another weak offensive performance was mitigated only somewhat by two late runs scored to put a small dent into an already lopsided margin.
The Nats managed all of one run on four hits against Jordan Montgomery, who had won only one of his previous 12 starts but managed to dominate for seven innings this time. The other two runs came late against Drew VerHagen and Jake Woodford with the game already out of reach.
The Nationals’ average exit velocity off Montgomery was only 80.7 mph. They didn’t have one batted ball hit over 100 mph against the St. Louis left-hander. (For comparison’s sake, the average exit velocity off Gore was 95.4 mph, with eight balls hit at 100 mph or harder against him.)
Equally troubling was the continued lack of patience from the Nats. They drew only one walk in the game (by Stone Garrett). That’s the seventh straight game they’ve drawn two or fewer walks. They’ve drawn a grand total of 20 free passes over their last 15 games (13 of which they’ve lost).
The frustration of a team-wide slump that is now approaching three weeks reached what was perhaps an inevitable low point tonight, when MacKenzie Gore confronted Victor Robles in the Nationals dugout after the latter didn’t make a play on what looked like a routine fly ball to center.
The brief confrontation, which lasted only a few seconds and was relatively tame compared to more dramatic incidents widely remembered from that same dugout over the last decade and a half, was not the reason the Nationals lost the fifth straight game of this homestand, this one by the lopsided count of 9-3 to the Cardinals.
A lack of any sustained offense by the power-starved Nats lineup certainly played a key role. As did Gore’s struggles on the mound on a night the young left-hander gave up a pair of homers and five total runs across six innings. A blowup ninth inning that saw Hunter Harvey serve up a two-run homer and CJ Abrams airmail a throw to first only made things worse.
Suffice it to say, Davey Martinez would seem to have plenty on his plate right now, a number of issues that need to be fixed lest things spiral out of control for a rebuilding Nationals club that legitimately looked like it had turned a corner only 2 1/2 weeks ago but is now reeling from 13 losses in its last 15 games.
The manager's message after this loss, though, wasn't all that different from previous ones. He may have been frustrated by the loss and the factors that contributed to it, but he didn't see reason to publicly scold his team at the end of the night.
Carter Kieboom’s path back to the major leagues has taken another step backward.
The oft-injured former first-round pick is back on the injured list at Triple-A Rochester, this time with a left oblique issue. He’s scheduled to undergo an MRI to determine the extent of the injury, Nationals manager Davey Martinez said.
This latest injury comes barely one month after Kieboom finally started playing every day at Rochester after a long recovery from Tommy John surgery. The 25-year-old third baseman missed all of the 2022 season, then remained at extended spring training throughout April while dealing with a shoulder problem.
After a four-game rehab stint at Double-A Harrisburg, Kieboom was activated off the IL and debuted for Rochester on May 9. In 26 games since, he hit .264 with six doubles, one triple, three homers, 18 RBIs, a .366 on-base percentage and .790 OPS.
“He’s worked really hard to get back to where he’s at,” Martinez said. “He’s had all these little nagging injuries. And then again, people don’t realize how tough it is to play every day (in) this game. It’s tough. When he’s not used to doing it for over a year and he’s playing every day, your body sometimes reacts to it. Hopefully this is just a minor setback and we can get him back on the field, because he’s been hitting the ball really well.”
The Nationals need a win. It doesn’t matter how they get it. It doesn’t matter who makes it happen. They just need to win a game for the first time since Thursday in Houston and for only the third time in their last 15 games.
There are multiple paths toward that outcome, but the best of them would be a top-notch start from MacKenzie Gore. The left-hander shut out the Astros over 5 2/3 innings in that aforementioned game Thursday evening. He faded a bit in the sixth, and with his pitch count rising, Davey Martinez decided not to push him any farther. But the performance was a good one, and the Nats would love to get something like that (or even better) tonight.
Jordan Montgomery is the Cardinals’ starter, and the lefty has been good this month with a 2.00 ERA and 18 strikeouts in 18 innings. The Nationals have been better against left-handers than right-handers this season, but that wasn’t true over the weekend against the Marlins. Martinez has his usual lineup for these matchups, with Stone Garrett in left field and batting fifth. Riley Adams gets the start behind the plate, with Keibert Ruiz sitting.
WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs. ST. LOUIS CARDINALS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 7:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Cloudy, 77 degrees, wind 13 mph in from right field
NATIONALS
RF Lane Thomas
2B Luis García
3B Jeimer Candelario
DH Joey Meneses
LF Stone Garrett
1B Dominic Smith
C Riley Adams
CF Victor Robles
SS CJ Abrams
Not so long ago – 2 1/2 weeks, to be precise – the Nationals appeared to be making real progress.
With an 8-7 win over the Phillies on June 2, the Nats improved to 25-32 overall. They even owned a winning record over nearly one-quarter of a full season, going 20-19 after opening the year a dismal 5-13. They were on pace for a 71-win season, which would be a dramatic improvement from a 55-107 fiasco in 2022.
Josiah Gray and MacKenzie Gore were leading the pitching staff, each making a case for All-Star consideration. The lineup, while still lacking in the power department, was managing to string together rallies with some regularity, scoring six or more runs five times in a span of 11 games. Young potential cornerstones Keibert Ruiz, CJ Abrams and Luis Garcia were making positive contributions.
In that moment, it was fair for anyone who has watched this franchise’s decline from World Series champs to full-scale rebuild to wonder if the worst days of this painful process were now in the past.
Then the Nationals started losing. And losing more. And losing even more.
As he impressed throughout April and May with the best sustained stretch of his young career, one question loomed over Josiah Gray: Could he continue to keep the ball in the yard all summer, avoiding the back-breaking home runs that spoiled his 2022 season?
Four starts into June, the initial answer to that question is not an encouraging one. Gray is serving up homers again, and this afternoon it cost him more than in any previous outing this year.
Despite early support from his teammates to the tune of a five-run lead, Gray gave it all back and more in an 8-6 loss to the Cardinals, the critical sequence coming in the top of the fifth when he surrendered back-to-back homers to turn a game the Nationals once controlled into yet another demoralizing loss.
"The offense has been phenomenal for me out there pitching. I can't applaud those guys enough," Gray said. "I've just got to be better and not squander a five-run lead."
The Nats’ 12th loss in 14 games differed from most that preceded it, because they actually hit well in this one. They jumped all over St. Louis starter Jack Flaherty, jumping out to a 5-0 lead after two innings and putting Gray in prime position to take care of the rest.
Jeimer Candelario is back in the Nationals lineup this afternoon, and while that wouldn’t seem to be a dramatic change, for this particular lineup at this particular time, it is quite significant.
Candelario was scratched from the lineup Sunday about an hour prior to first pitch with a sore right thumb after getting jammed the previous evening. Michael Chavis, who was supposed to be filling in at first base for the day, shifted to third base, with Dominic Smith, who was supposed to have the day off, starting at first base after all.
The end result: The Nats managed only two runs on eight hits in a 4-2 loss to the Marlins, with Chavis going 0-for-4 with three strikeouts and Smith going 0-for-4 with three groundouts to first.
Candelario may not be thought of elsewhere as a premier, middle-of-the-order bat, but he has become critical to the Nationals’ chances of scoring runs as this season has played out. His .788 OPS ranks second among all regulars on the club, behind Lane Thomas’ .822 mark. His 21 doubles rank third in the National League. And he has three Defensive Runs Saved at third base, providing steady play in the field since Opening Day.
His absence Sunday was noticeable.