MILWAUKEE – The jubilation of a come-from-behind 6-5 win over the Brewers had the Nationals clubhouse thumping Saturday evening. So when the team’s relievers were summoned to Davey Martinez’s office about 30 minutes after the final out was recorded, everyone just assumed the manager was going to praise them for the job they did to churn out 8 1/3 scoreless innings after starter Mitchell Parker was pulled in the bottom of the first.

Martinez did praise them for that above-and-beyond effort, but he also had news to share with the group: Hunter Harvey had been traded to the Royals for third base prospect Cayden Wallace and the 39th pick in tonight’s MLB Draft.

The room went silent, Harvey probably the most stunned of the entire group, his baseball life upended in a manner of seconds.

“It was a roller coaster of emotions yesterday, especially with the bullpen,” Martinez said this morning. “Those guys did so well yesterday in the game, and to have to break the news to them that one of their brothers was leaving us to go play somewhere else … they all get it. They understand what the reality is in this game; those things happen. I wish nothing but the best for Hunter. He’s a big part of the Nationals family.”

As it turned out, Harvey wasn’t among the five relievers who pitched Saturday and made an improbable win possible. In the moment, it was easy to assume he was unavailable after pitching the previous two days. After the fact, it was clear he was unavailable not for that reason but because the trade was in the works.

NEW YORK – The Nationals entered Thursday’s matinee finale in Queens needing a win against the Mets to avoid the three-game sweep. More importantly, they needed a win to slow down their two-week slide before the finale series of the first half.

It’s been a mostly positive first half of the season for the Nationals, who have surpassed some preseason expectations, thanks in large part to some impressive performances by their young players.

They reached .500 in late April for the first time since July 2021. And they hovered around that mark for the next couple of months, sometimes even slipping into a wild card spot. But starting with a three-game sweep in San Diego in late June, the Nats have started going in the opposite direction, losing 12 of their last 16 entering today’s game.

Make that now losers of 13 of their last 17 games and five straight to fall 10 games under .500 after a 7-0 shutout loss to the Mets in front of an announced crowd of 25,710 at Citi Field.

The Nationals offense continues to slog through these weeks leading up to the All-Star break. They scored too late in Tuesday’s loss. They scored two early Wednesday, but none after that. And they didn’t score at all today.

NEW YORK – Davey Martinez needed to shake up his lineup. For the most part, it hasn’t been getting the job done as is over the past couple of weeks. Sure there were a few offensive outbursts here and there, but it definitely needed a kickstart to be more consistent.

So what did the Nationals manager do against Mets right-hander Luis Severino? He stacked the first five spots in the batting order with four left-handed hitters and one switch-hitter. And although it was actually the right-handed hitters at the bottom of the lineup that helped give the Nats an early lead, a disastrous sixth inning led to a fourth straight loss.

The Nats fell to the Mets 6-2 in front of an announced crowd of 24,887 at Citi Field, who got very loud during the bottom of the sixth.

With a 2-1 lead, Patrick Corbin returned to the mound to give his team at least one more inning and keep the lead intact. He had been effective up until that point at only 65 pitches, but the third time through the heart of the Mets order proved too much for the veteran lefty to handle.

Three straight hits tied the game at 2-2 and that was enough for Martinez to go to the bullpen to try to keep this one close. In came Derek Law, who has struggled with inherited runners this season, with two runners in scoring position and no outs. What could have been predicted came to fruition.

NEW YORK – James Wood’s movement up the Nationals lineup continues today as he gets bumped up to the No. 2 spot against Mets right-handed starter Luis Severino. In fact, all of the Nats’ left-handed hitters moved up the order for tonight’s second game of this three-game set in Queens.

To face Severino, who held the Nats to one run on seven hits, no walks and four strikeouts over eight innings a month ago, manager Davey Martinez is putting lefties CJ Abrams, Wood, Jesse Winker, Keibert Ruiz (switch-hitter) and Luis García Jr. in the first five spots in the order. That does mean some guys have to move down.

Lane Thomas, who has hit second in 48 of his 63 games, moves down to sixth in the lineup for the first time this season.

“I just wanted to get our lefties up there against Severino, all of them up there, and see if we can score early,” Martinez said during his pregame media session. “I bumped Lane down a little bit just to take his mind off some stuff. Gotta get him ready to hit the fastball again. He's a little late, so I just wanted to get some other guys up there.”

The Nats struggled against left-hander Jose Quintana last night and have struggled to score early lately. They haven’t scored first in any of their last three games.

NEW YORK – This first half has been forgettable for Keibert Ruiz. Ever since he landed on the 10-day injured list, missed 10 games and lost almost 20 pounds with a bad case of the flu in April, his season has been thrown out of whack.

But surely – and albeit slowly – the young catcher is starting to see some consistent positive results at the plate.

Ruiz’s batting average bottomed out at .127 and his on-base percentage at .184 in early May. His slugging and OPS soon followed at .207 and .392, respectively. He was still working to regain the weight and strength he lost while he was sick.

Then he needed to get his timing and feel back at the plate, reverting back to what has been his downfall in the past of using his great bat-to-ball skills to put balls in play that he shouldn’t for easy outs.

He has been the biggest disappointments for the Nationals thus far in 2024.

NEW YORK – What Jake Irvin did against the Mets on Independence Day was nothing short of special. In what turned out to be a career highlight, the right-hander struck out eight over eight shutout innings of one-hit, one-walk ball on 99 pitches.

The task for the 27-year-old tonight: A similar performance to provide the Nationals bullpen some much-needed rest and give his team a chance to win for just the second time since that spectacular outing.

Eight scoreless innings is a lot to ask anyone, nonetheless a young pitcher facing the same team in back-to-back starts. And while Irvin was able to provide the Nats some length, he and the bats weren’t able to overcome a rough second inning and another dominant start by Jose Quintana in a 7-4 loss to the Mets in front of an announced crowd of 31,243 at Citi Field.

“He wasn't as sharp," said manager Davey Martinez. "His breaking ball wasn't as sharp. He fell behind a couple of hitters and made some mistakes just by location. But all in all, he gave us some innings that we needed. So it's just one of those days.”

Irvin only gave up one hit and one walk over eight innings last week against the Mets. He matched that in the first three batters he faced tonight, including a two-bag error on a pickoff attempt to move leadoff man Francisco Lindor to third base. But he got out of the first with a comebacker and strikeout, needing 21 pitches to complete the frame.

NEW YORK – While still slowly progressing in their respective rehabs, Trevor Williams and Joey Gallo are both still a ways away from returning off the injured list for the Nationals.

Williams landed on the 15-day IL on June 4 (retroactive to June 1) with a right flexor muscle strain, a similar injury to what has kept Josiah Gray sidelined for the last three months. Although the right-hander finally began throwing recently, he’s still not near the point of throwing from a mound, nevertheless facing live hitters and starting a rehab assignment.

“No, the same,” said manager Davey Martinez when asked if there is an update on Williams ahead of this series opener against the Mets. “He's still progressing. It's going to be a process. But he's throwing up to like 60 feet and he's getting better.”

Williams was the Nats’ best starter over the first two months of the season: In 11 starts, he went 5-0 with a 2.22 ERA and 1.076 WHIP, while the Nats went 9-2 in those games. After struggling last year, the 32-year-old had made himself the team’s top trade chip ahead of this month’s deadline.

But now it’s unlikely Williams will be able to return to major league mound ahead of the July 30 trade deadline.

The Nationals could have ridden things out with Joey Meneses a bit longer, giving him a chance to snap out of his hitting funk until Joey Gallo is ready to return from the injured list. But with Gallo still weeks away, and with Juan Yepez on a hot streak at Triple-A Rochester, they decided now was the time to make a switch at first base.

Meneses was informed he was being optioned to Triple-A following Thursday’s win over the Mets, and this afternoon the Nats officially purchased Yepez’s contract from Rochester, giving the 26-year-old a chance to play at the big league level.

“It was all really about Joey, trying to get Joey locked in,” manager Davey Martinez said. “He’s got options. He’ll go down and try to work on his swing and just get him back. It’s not like we’ve seen the end of Joey.

“The other guy’s doing really well. Yepez has been hitting the ball really well, playing a good first base. So we wanted to give him the opportunity to come up here and see what he can do.”

Nearly two years removed from his breakthrough two-month debut at 30, Meneses had seen his numbers steadily decline, from a .930 OPS in 2022 to a .722 OPS last season to a .597 mark this season. He was slugging a mere .299 since June 1.

While James Wood’s first two major league games came with all of the deserved hype, the Nationals’ top prospect had yet to really deliver a signature moment.

Sure, he reached base in high-leverage moments in both games, but he hadn't yet scored his first major league run nor recorded his first major league RBI.

So maybe the third time would be the charm for Wood, who was promoted to the No. 1 prospect in baseball by Baseball America earlier today. And sure enough, his first big league moment came tonight in leading the Nationals to victory.

Wood drove in the game-winning run with an RBI single in the seventh inning of the Nats’ 7-5 win over the Mets, their first against their division rival this season.

After rallying from a 5-0 deficit to make it a one-run game entering the sixth inning, the Nationals offense put Wood in position to be the hero.

The Nationals made a switch at their backup catcher position Wednesday afternoon, recalling Riley Adams from Triple-A Rochester and optioning Drew Millas back to Rochester.

Adams, 28, was sent down to Rochester and replaced by Millas on the major league roster a month ago after he hit .215 with five doubles, two homers, six RBIs, seven walks, one stolen base and six runs scored in 25 games with the Nationals.

Now after 22 games with the Red Wings, he’s back in the big leagues with improved timing at the plate and another defensive position in his back pocket to give manager Davey Martinez more flexibility.

“Feels good to be back,” Adams said mere minutes after he returned to the clubhouse at Nats Park. “Obviously I've been here now for 20 minutes and I'm happy to be back. Happy to be here and anyway can help the team and all that stuff, I'm here for. That's what I told Davey. I'm excited to get back to work.”

Adams slashed .288/.396/.550 with a .946 OPS, three doubles, six homers, 13 RBIs, 12 walks and 16 runs scored with Rochester.

James Wood has spent all of two nights in the big leagues. Each time, the Nationals’ top prospect has found himself stepping to the plate to lead off the bottom of the ninth inning in a tie game. Each time, he hasn’t been able to score the winning run.

And each time, the Nats went on to lose to the Mets after a disastrous top of the 10th.

The script was basically the same tonight, New York scoring five 10th-inning runs after exploding for six in Monday’s series opener. The Nationals didn’t have a last-ditch rally in them and thus lost their fifth straight to their division rivals, this time by a more lopsided score of 7-2.

"I think I've kind of been learning quick that how close these games really are," Wood said, "and one play can really make a difference."

Kept off the bases his first three times up tonight, even though he scorched the ball each time, Wood finally got a chance to face a right-hander in his fourth plate appearance of the game, his ninth overall in the big leagues. He saw six pitches from the Mets’ Jose Butto, didn’t swing at any of them, and wound up drawing the walk.

Josiah Gray is unlikely to pitch again for some time after the right-hander experienced elbow discomfort during his last rehab start, prompting the Nationals to schedule an MRI and a consultation with Dallas specialist Keith Meister during the All-Star break.

Though they don’t yet know the extent of this setback, the Nationals and Gray admittedly are worried about the possibility of a serious injury that requires him to miss considerable time after he already spent nearly three months trying to make it back from a flexor strain in his elbow and forearm.

“I’m a little concerned right now,” manager Davey Martinez said. “We got him ramped up, he looked good. Last outing, the velo wasn’t there. He said he just felt tired. His arm, he felt like he had nothing in there. So we’ll wait and see what happens.”

Gray was making his fifth rehab start of the month Sunday, his previous outing Tuesday for Triple-A Rochester going exceptionally well: six innings of one-run ball on 73 pitches. This latest appearance bore little resemblance to that one, with Gray getting roughed up for seven runs in three innings and his fastball topping out at 91.9 mph.

“Honestly, I felt really good going into it,” the 26-year-old said. “And then in between innings, I didn’t feel like I was recovering well. I just felt a little fatigued. Told the trainers, and we tried to get ahead of it. We’ll see what we’ve got when we get the MRI.”

James Wood’s arrival date had been known since Friday. What wasn’t known was the identity of the player whose roster spot the Nationals’ top prospect would take.

That question finally was answered this morning when the Nats designated Eddie Rosario for assignment, bringing an end to the veteran outfielder’s frustrating three months with the organization. The 32-year-old hit just .183 with seven homers, 26 RBIs and a .555 OPS in 67 games.

The Nationals had high hopes for Rosario when they signed him to a minor league deal in spring training, assuming all along he would make the Opening Day roster. He did make the club and earned a guaranteed $2 million in the process, with the potential to earn up to $2 million more via performance incentives.

Rosario actually started Opening Day in center field, ahead of Victor Robles, though he eventually settled into the two corner outfield positions, playing in right field while Lane Thomas was on the injured list and then shifting to left field once Thomas returned.

Rosario labored through a miserable April, finishing that month with only six hits in 68 at-bats, one homer and three RBIs. A notorious slow starter, he and club officials insisted things would turn around as the season progressed.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – The Nationals’ 8-1 victory Saturday was made possible by a six-run explosion in the top of the seventh that turned a tight, low-scoring ballgame into a comfortable rout. But if not for that rally, Luis García Jr.’s bold baserunning play in the top of the fourth might well have been the deciding factor.

Standing on third with two outs in what was at the time a 1-1 game, García watched as Rays starter Aaron Civale bounced a pitch to Jacob Young. Though the ball squirted only a foot away from catcher Ben Rortvedt – and towards the mound, not foul territory – García took off for the plate and wound up scoring easily to give the Nats the lead in impressive fashion.

“I was anticipating, seeing the catcher get on his knees and reading the pitch,” García said, via interpreter Octavio Martinez. “As I saw it leave the hand of the pitcher, and that it was going toward the ground, I read the catcher. And when I saw him actually going after the ball, not the pitcher, I knew I had plenty of time.”

It was an ultra-aggressive move, one the Nationals might normally expect from the fastest players on the team (Young, CJ Abrams, Lane Thomas). But for García, it was about more than athleticism. It was about preparation and instincts in the moment.

“Awesome,” manager Davey Martinez said. “We watched him, and he got a good secondary lead and broke right away. It was a big play for us.”

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – The sting of a 3-1 loss to the Rays was still fresh, not to mention the frustration of a losing streak that has now reached four games and dropped the Nationals from a temporary spot in the National Leauge’s final wild card slot to a spot well below that key standing.

But as Jesse Winker contemplated where this team stood upon reaching the official halfway point of the season – 38-43, four games out of a playoff berth with 81 games still to go – the veteran outfielder couldn’t help but think about the expectations way back in March compared to now.

“If we were to all sit in Palm Beach and you said we’d be right here, right now at this point, I think everyone would be pretty stoked about that,” Winker said. “Keeping that in perspective is obviously a big deal.”

Indeed, most anyone associated with a Nationals club that finished last in the division four years in a row and was happy to win 71 games in 2023 would have to be content with the current state of affairs.

This wasn’t a great first half, nor would anyone try to claim it was. But it was better than most probably expected, and it featured far more encouraging developments than discouraging ones.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Help is on the way for the Nationals’ power-starved lineup. But it’s not scheduled to arrive until Monday, leaving the current group to have to try to get the job done this weekend against the Rays.

And if tonight’s series opener was any indication, it’s going to continue to be tough sledding until James Wood joins the bunch. Especially if Jesse Winker has now been lost to injury.

Hours after news broke they intend to promote one of baseball’s top prospects Monday for the start of an eight-game homestand, the Nats slogged their way through a 3-1 loss to Tampa Bay that was made worse by Winker’s right knee injury in the bottom of the first.

Already reeling from a three-game sweep in San Diego, the Nationals were held to one run on five hits by the Rays’ pitching staff, leaving them with a 38-43 record at the official halfway point of the season.

"We were one game under .500 before we got to San Diego," center fielder Jacob Young said. "So I think we're right there. We've played a lot of teams tough. We've had a pretty tough schedule. I think we've played well. We just need to keep going one game at a time and try to get some victories and get off this little four-game slide we're on."

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – By most conventional measurements, Josiah Gray should be ready to return from the injured list.

The Nationals right-hander, out since mid-April with a flexor strain in his elbow, has made four rehab starts this month, adding one inning each time out and maxing out at six innings Tuesday for Triple-A Rochester. That most recent start also was by far his best of the group, with only one run and four hits allowed, not to mention zero walks issued. He completed those six innings on only 73 pitches, but he got to 79 pitches the previous time on the mound.

So why aren’t the Nats activating Gray yet?

“I want to make sure when he comes back he’s ready,” manager Davey Martinez said. “We cleaned up his mechanics a little bit. The other day he felt really good, and he rebounded really well. So we’ll get him back out there.”

So Gray is remaining in Rochester and is scheduled to start Sunday, when he could throw as many as seven innings and build up his pitch count to 90.

When the Nationals signed Harold Ramírez to a minor league deal two weeks ago, the idea was that he could provide another right-handed bat to face left-handed pitching. He joined the Nats this week leading all major leaguers with a .339 batting average against left-handed pitchers since 2020, which could definitely help a team that ranks in the bottom half of the league in hitting southpaws.

Ramírez wasn’t having a terrible year by league standards, hitting .268 in 48 games with the Rays before they designated him for assignment and released him. There just wasn’t a lot of power (.305 slugging percentage and .589 OPS) or consistency after he hit .300 in each of the previous two seasons.

The question wasn’t really: Could Ramírez recapture his hitting ability? It was more: Where is his mindset after being designated for assignment in the middle of the season?

There was a conversation to be had between the 29-year-old and the Nats brass as he joined the team in San Diego on Monday. And that conversation was all about confidence.

“We just talked about confidence,” Ramírez said. “What can I do when I hit? We feel excited because I'm here. … I always have confidence because that's the most important thing for me.”

SAN DIEGO – In the moment, it was a small maneuver. Even Nasim Nuñez himself was a bit surprised at the timing of it, though he figured it was going to come in an 8-0 game.

But Nationals manager Davey Martinez waited until the last possible moment to let Nuñez know he was going to pinch-hit for CJ Abrams in the top of the ninth to give the starting shortstop a breather.

Jacob Young was already in the midst of drawing a leadoff walk when the Rule 5 pick gathered his things to step onto the on-deck circle. Except Martinez told him so late, he wasn’t even using his things.

“I was mentally prepared for it, but I didn't know if it was actually gonna happen,” Nuñez said of getting the call to get in the game. “So I was like, ‘Oh, man.’ And then I didn't have my batting gloves, so I was like, ‘CJ, let me get yours real quick.’”

Using Abrams’ gloves, the 23-year-old stepped into the batter’s box for his 12th big league plate appearance still in search of his first major league hit. Facing Padres left-handed reliever Tom Cosgrove, Nuñez fell behind 0-2 but battled back to even the count 2-2.

SAN DIEGO – This series between the Nationals and Padres didn’t need any more drama. Not after the extra-inning theatrics on Monday and the extracurriculars on Tuesday.

It felt like both teams got everything off their respective chests last night and could just play a regular ballgame Wednesday.

They were able to do so. Except the Nationals were searching for a victory to avoid getting swept out of San Diego and couldn’t overcome an early deficit in an 8-5 loss in front of an announced crowd of 37,397 at Petco Park.

DJ Herz was tasked with holding the Padres lineup in check after it scored a combined 16 runs over the first two games. But as in his previous start in Colorado, the rookie southpaw couldn’t get out of the fourth inning. Today marked the shortest outing of his five major league starts to date.

Kyle Higashioka snuck a two-run homer down the left field line to give the Padres a 2-0 lead in the second. Herz left an 81 mph changeup right down the middle of the plate for the catcher to smack.