ST. LOUIS – When Davey Martinez sent Harold Ramírez to the plate to pinch-hit for Jesse Winker in the top of the sixth tonight, it made perfect baseball sense. The Nationals, who had squandered bases-loaded opportunities each of the previous two innings, had yet another opportunity with the bags full in a tight ballgame. And with Cardinals manager Oli Marmol summoning left-hander Matthew Liberatore from the bullpen, of course Martinez would have the right-handed Ramírez bat for the left-handed Winker.

Ramírez proceeded to deliver the clutch hit the Nats had been seeking all night, sparking a seven-run rally that turned a tight ballgame at Busch Stadium into an eventual 14-3 rout. But it turns out the pinch-hit move by Martinez, though purely strategic in the moment, carried far more significance than anyone realized at the time.

Winker, who turned a minor league contract and a spring training invitation into a .793 OPS and a regular spot batting third for the Nats, was traded to the Mets for pitching prospect Tyler Stuart, the club officially announced Sunday morning.

Winker, who is due to become a free agent at season’s end and looked like the team's most logical candidate to be dealt prior to Tuesday’s major league deadline, wound up getting dealt in-game to a division rival for Stuart, a 24-year-old right-hander who was rated New York's No. 17 prospect by MLB Pipeline. The 6-foot-9 starter had a 3.96 ERA, 1.250 WHIP and 90 strikeouts with only 20 walks in 84 innings this season at Double-A Binghamton. He led all qualified full-season starters across the minor leagues last season with a 2.20 ERA split between Single-A and Double-A.

The trade couldn't officially be announced until both clubs received and approved medical info, which didn't happen until Sunday morning. But Winker was informed of the pending deal during the seventh inning Saturday night and spent the rest of the game making travel preparations while also returning to the dugout to enjoy the win with his now-former teammates.

For three months, as he produced decent – but hardly spectacular – numbers in Rochester, Juan Yepez had little reason to believe he was a simple phone call away from Washington. He was, like so many others with big league experience, stuck at Triple-A, trying to make the best of a frustrating situation.

“For sure, I felt like the call felt far,” he said. “Honestly, I was surprised. I wasn’t expecting it. But I think I had trust that I was going to get my opportunity, and I’m just glad I had it.”

The call did finally come July 5, the Nationals deciding they couldn’t wait any longer for Joey Meneses to break out of his season-long slump. Meneses went down to Rochester. Yepez came up and was given the opportunity to prove he deserved to be the starting first baseman.

More than two weeks later, he’s done just about everything in his power to prove he does deserve the job.

Yepez has played 13 games with the Nats. He has recorded at least one hit in all 13 games. He has recorded at least one extra-base hit in eight of those games. He’s the proud owner of a .367 batting average, .437 on-base percentage and 1.008 OPS, the kind of production the team desperately needed from the most offensive-minded position on the field.

The Nationals seemed refreshed coming back from the All-Star break. Although they had just received the news that Josiah Gray will need elbow surgery to end his season, the team was in high spirits in the clubhouse before the second-half opener against the Reds, especially with first-round pick Seaver King and third-rounder Kevin Bazzell officially signing their contracts and spending time with the team.

After ending the first half by losing six of their last eight games, the Nats were looking to start the second half on the right foot. They were able to do so by putting their offensive struggles behind them and exploding for an 8-5 win over the Reds in front of a sellout crowd of 38,402, most of whom were sticking around for the Carly Rae Jepsen postgame concert.

The first challenge for the bats out of the break was Frankie Montas, who spun six shutout innings against them for a win on Opening Day. But this was a very different Nats lineup than the one the veteran right-hander faced in Cincinnati back in March.

Joey Meneses, Joey Gallo and Eddie Rosario were not on the lineup card. James Wood, Juan Yepez and Trey Lipscomb were. And the new faces certainly made a difference.

Wood got things going after Jesse Winker walked and Yepez singled ahead of him in the fourth. The rookie pulled an inside cutter from Montas to drive in two runs with a single to right and give the Nats a 2-1 lead. The second run scored without a play at the plate because Rece Hinds' throw home hit the 6-foot-7 outfielder in the back at first base, bringing some laughs from Wood and the Nats dugout.

The All-Star break offers a time for reflection, a chance to hit the pause button and consider everything that’s happened over the last 3 1/2 months. It’s a lot easier to think about the big picture when you don’t have a game to worry about from the night before or another coming the following day.

And when you take a step back and consider the big picture, you find a lot to be pleased about the Nationals’ first half of the season. There were breakthrough performances, the arrival of several rookies including one of the top prospects in the sport and ultimately a better record (44-53) than at this same point one year ago (39-58).

Which isn’t to say everything went swimmingly in NatsTown. There were disappointing performances from a number of players, disruptive injuries and sloppy play at times. This is a team that felt at times like it could be good enough to win more games than it lost, but the record suggests there’s still a way to go before that feels plausible.

So before we move on to what could be a very entertaining – and newsworthy – second half, let’s look back at the things that went right for the Nationals in the first half and the things that went wrong …

RIGHT: THE YOUNG STARTING PITCHERS
Even the most optimistic club official or fan couldn’t have predicted how well the quartet of Jake Irvin, MacKenzie Gore, Mitchell Parker and DJ Herz would pitch. (Many wouldn’t have even predicted Parker and Herz would be in the big leagues to begin with.) But this turned into the most important story of the first half. Combine their stats, and those four young starters delivered a 3.91 ERA and 1.238 WHIP while issuing only 2.5 walks per nine innings and surrendered slightly more than one homer per nine innings. And those numbers looked even better a couple weeks ago, before all four labored in their final outings leading up to the break. If they can return refreshed and get back to what they did throughout April, May and June, the Nats will have the makings of a strong rotation for years to come.

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.

Hope for the Nationals came on a 97-degree late Saturday afternoon, the kind of afternoon in which the shaded side of the ballpark is packed while the sunny side is vacated. And the kind of afternoon in which the youngest players on the field delivered the promise of what’s to come during what this organization hopes is a rousing second half to this season of transition.

One of the majors’ least-powerful lineups over the last three months torched Lance Lynn and the Cardinals for a season-high 14 runs, thanks in large part to three home runs hit by players ages 25, 23 and 21. And even though their own young starter failed to seize a huge early lead and made things far more interesting than they needed to be, the Nats still had all kinds of reason to celebrate a 14-6 victory on South Capitol Street.

"It's cool, just seeing what we're capable of," rookie James Wood said. "And also just knowing how much more we can grow."

Wood led the way with his first career homer in his sixth career major league game, also adding a two-run double to give him five RBIs in the first three innings alone. He was joined by CJ Abrams and Keibert Ruiz, who also homered during their 11-run barrage against Lynn.

Wood came up one RBI shy of the single-game club rookie record set by Danny Espinosa in 2010. He’s still got 73 games remaining on the schedule to try to top today’s performance.

James Wood was the center of attention Monday night, and he may remain so for the foreseeable future. But a whole lot of other stuff happened during the course of the Nationals’ wild, frustrating, 9-7, 10-inning loss to the Mets.

And it’s worth revisiting some of those other key developments through the course of the game …

* Another rough night for Harvey
There haven’t been many players on the roster this season more consistently reliable than Hunter Harvey, but the right-hander is in a legitimate pitching slump right now. And it’s costing his team games.

Harvey entered Monday’s affair having been scored upon in two of his three previous appearances, not to mention four of his last nine. He endured through an awful 10th-inning meltdown in San Diego last week. And then he basically re-lived it Monday night against the Mets.

Harvey faced six batters and retired only two. The three hits he surrendered were a three-run homer, a two-out double and an RBI triple. He got only two swings and misses out of his 24 pitches. And of the five balls that were put into play against him, four featured exit velocities of at least 101.5 mph, while the fifth still clocked in at 98.6 mph.

SAN DIEGO – Let’s be very clear from the start: The Nationals did not intentionally hit Jurickson Profar during Tuesday’s game. Nor did manager Davey Martinez suggest that they did so during his postgame press conference.

Yes, Keibert Ruiz confronted Profar before his first at-bat last night, leading to both benches and bullpens clearing. Yes, MacKenzie Gore hit Profar with the first pitch. But the left-hander hit the back foot of the switcher-hitter, who was standing in on the right-handed side of the plate. A nearly impossible feat to accomplish on purpose.

And yes, Martinez said he was proud of the way his team – i.e. Ruiz – handled the situation by having a conversation, not by using physical retaliation.

As is commonplace on social media nowadays, some misinformation circulated online this morning speculating otherwise. And that’s the proper word for what happened because Martinez’s quotes were taken totally out of context.

For proper context, the portion of the manager’s postgame session that aired on MASN’s “Nats Xtra” postgame show started after the first couple of questions were already asked and didn’t include the question that Martinez was answering.

SAN DIEGO – There was underlying tension ahead of this second game between the Nationals and Padres.

After Jurickson Profar took exception to two inside pitches that weren’t really close to hitting him then walked off the Nats and directed his celebration toward the visiting dugout last night, some members of the Nationals bench waited around to see if things would escalate.

They didn’t then. But it didn’t take long for it to carry over into tonight’s game.

The Nationals ended up losing 9-7 to the Padres, but not before both benches cleared in the first inning with Keibert Ruiz and Profar getting into it.

“It was nothing crazy," Ruiz said after the game. "We were just having a conversation about what he did yesterday. But it was nothing really crazy.”

SAN DIEGO – The Nationals didn’t make a big deal of this three-game series against the Padres before the opener started. But if you looked at the standings, maybe they should have.

The Nats sat just a half-game behind the Padres for the last National League wild card spot entering tonight’s series opener. And although it’s still only June, the results of these three games will have an effect on those standings.

A victory would have vaulted the Nats into a playoff position with two games left to play at Petco Park. A loss would still keep them within striking distance.

After playing tight ballgames in Colorado, the Nats endured another one tonight in San Diego, this one ending in a 7-6 loss in 10 innings in front of an announced crowd of 39,164.

With two outs in the 10th inning of a 3-3 game, Keibert Ruiz pulled a second-pitch fastball from Padres reliever Enyel De Los Santos to score the automatic runner from second and give the Nats their first lead of the night.

To swing or not to swing at the first pitch? That is the question the Nationals have confronted too regularly this season with a lineup that preaches an aggressive approach but often takes things too far and makes way too many quick outs that make life way too easy on opposing starters.

And for three innings today, it looked like that approach was once again going to be their undoing, with a rapid flurry of outs made against a rookie in his major league debut.

Here’s the thing, though: Across the sport, hitters have better numbers on the first pitch than almost any potential count. And as much as it feels like they struggle in this department, the Nats actually hit .332 on the first pitch, slightly better than the leaguewide average of .330.

So by sticking to the aggressive approach, and most importantly actually making hard contact, the second time around, the Nationals exploded for their biggest offensive inning of the year and went on to beat the Braves 8-5 to complete another series win over their division rivals, this one before an appreciative crowd of 34,282.

"Look, I don't mind being aggressive. We talk about it all the time," manager Davey Martinez said. "But you've got to get the ball in the zone. We can't just swing at everything. It's talked a lot in the dugout about it. And then when they finally do it, the results are a lot better."

ATLANTA – The Nationals offense has averaged a little more than five runs per game over their last eight outings, breaking out of a slump in which they scored two or fewer runs in seven of 11 games.

In order for the Nationals to keep that up tonight, they’ll have to produce against left-hander Max Fried, who is coming off a complete game against the Cubs in which he allowed two runs (one earned), three hits, no walks and nine strikeouts.

Over his last eight starts against the Nats, Fried is 5-1 with a 2.78 ERA.

So manager Davey Martinez is stacking his lineup with right-handers to face the veteran southpaw, leaving some of his left-handed bats on the bench to possibly use late in the game.

“Yeah, definitely,” Martinez said during his pregame media session. “We could do a line switch here. Do something else late in the game, but tried to get as many righties in against Fried as possible. He's been good. He's coming off of a complete game and pitching well. So I tried to get some righties in there today.”

Maybe the Nationals offense just needed an off-day to reset. But they had three this month prior to Thursday’s day off and they didn’t help much.

Whatever they needed to do to get the offense going Friday night against the Mariners, they needed to do it in the worst way before embarking on a stretch of 17 scheduled games over the next 17 days.

Entering tonight’s opener of a three-game series to start this holiday weekend, the Nationals were losers of nine of their last 11 games. In seven of those games, they scored two or fewer runs. They were also 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position over their last two games against the Twins, both losses.

So when an early opportunity to score runs in bunches presented itself tonight, you can forgive the crowd of 23,789 if they weren’t too confident the Nats could capitalize.

But Luis García Jr. proved them wrong, giving them a reason to celebrate with a three-run home run in the fourth inning. Keibert Ruiz then hit a much-needed two-run homer in the sixth. And finally, Eddie Rosario put this one away for good with a longball in the eighth to help propel the Nationals to a 6-1 win over the Mariners.

PHILADELPHIA – The Nationals, fresh off back-to-back shutout losses at the hands of the American League’s worst team, marched into Citizens Bank Park hoping they might somehow break out of their funk against the National League’s best team, which just so happened to be sending its ace to the mound.

That proved to be just as tough a task as it looked like on paper. Though they did manage to keep the Phillies lineup in relative check, especially after a ragged start to the night, their lineup was no match for Zack Wheeler, who cruised into the eighth inning with only minimal resistance.

The Nats’ 4-2 loss in the opener of a weekend series wasn’t all that different from other recent losses. They got decent pitching. They didn’t get enough hitting. Though they actually inflicted more damage on Wheeler than they did Erick Fedde or Garrett Crochet earlier this week in Chicago.

It still resulted in a third straight loss, and in those three losses the Nationals have scored a total of two runs on a total of 11 hits. Not exactly a formula for success.

"I know these guys are battling their butts off at the plate. That's just kind of the way the game plays sometimes," said Jake Irvin, who has been the victim of poor run support. "We just need to keep going out there, giving us a chance to win. And the offense, we have a lot of faith that those guys are going to come up and do big things every game. Even when we're not winning games that we're pitching well, we have faith that those guys are going to step it up. And they will."

CHICAGO – The question was specifically about his strikeout with the bases loaded in the top of the third Wednesday afternoon, and he answered that part of the query with a compliment to White Sox starter Garrett Crochet.

But then Keibert Ruiz continued his answer and began speaking about himself in a broader sense, recognizing that one at-bat wasn’t an isolated incident but rather the latest in a lengthy list of at-bats that have not produced anything close to desired results.

“I know this is a tough situation for me,” the Nationals catcher said. “But I’ve just got to keep my head up, keep working hard and trust that everything’s going to be good.”

It most certainly is not good for Ruiz right now. Not at all. After his 0-for-4, three-strikeout showing Wednesday in a frustrating 2-0 loss, he’s staring at the following offensive slash line: .141/.186/.207.

He doesn’t qualify officially, because of the two weeks he missed dealing with a nasty case of the flu. But among the 270 major leaguers who have taken at least 90 plate appearances so far this season, Ruiz ranks dead-last with a .392 OPS.

CHICAGO – With the season now more than one-quarter complete, we pretty much know how most Nationals ballgames are going to go.

Their starting pitcher isn’t going to dazzle but is going to give them a chance, even if for only five or six innings tops. Their bullpen is going to be effective, especially when handed a lead. And their lineup is going to have chances to score runs, thanks in large part to nearly every player’s ability to steal bases. It just boils down to whether that group can produce the one or two clutch hits that actually score said runs.

When the formula works, it’s fun to watch. When it doesn’t work, it can be maddening. And today’s series finale against the White Sox, just like the nightcap of Tuesday’s doubleheader, most definitely fell into the maddening category.

Despite countless opportunities to break through at the plate, the Nationals could not convert and wound up suffering a 2-0 loss. Combined with Tuesday night’s 4-0 loss to old pal Erick Fedde, they dropped their second straight series to begin this three-city trip and will now need to find a way to take two of three in Philadelphia over the weekend to break out of that slump.

With a lineup lacking several starters who were given a rare day off, the Nats went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position, slightly worse than the 0-for-8 they went Tuesday night.

CHICAGO – Nasim Nuñez sat on the bench on a cold, windy Chicago afternoon for seven innings. Which is nothing new for the rookie infielder. The Nationals’ Rule 5 draftee is going to remain on the roster the entire season for one reason: He’s the ideal pinch-runner.

Nuñez has appeared in only 10 of the Nats’ first 40 games this year. Six of those have come as a pinch-runner. And none of the first five was as meaningful as this one, in which the 23-year-old’s baserunning skills directly set the stage for his team to produce a three-run rally in the top of the eighth and ultimately defeat the White Sox, 6-3, in the opener of today’s doubleheader.

Summoned off the bench to run for Joey Meneses, who had just completed a 4-for-4 afternoon, Nuñez took off on John Brebbia’s pitch to Luis Garcia Jr., watched third baseman Zach Remillard field a grounder and throw to first for the out, and then just kept on going.

"They told me I should go, and it was a perfect situation," he said. "When I got to second and looked up, the third baseman was kind of lackadaisical. He was slow. So the opportunity just presented itself."

Nuñez slid in safely at third base, having just advanced 180 feet on a groundout, and having done it in part while carrying his helmet after it came flying off his head.

It’s easy to draw comparisons between the Nationals and Orioles. The two teams are 35 miles apart, and over the past six years have each undergone their own organizational rebuilds, which are now at different stages.

Of course, the Nationals won the World Series in 2019. The Orioles began their rebuild that year after a 47-115 season in 2018, which led to the hiring of executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias and manager Brandon Hyde, and the drafting of Adley Rutschman with the No. 1 overall selection.

The Nats didn’t start their rebuild until halfway through the 2021 season by trading Max Scherzer and Trea Turner to the Dodgers. Then it really became a reality the following summer when they traded Juan Soto to the Padres for a package of five top prospects while the superstar outfielder was still two years away from free agency.

The time in between the respective rebuilds gave the Orioles a head start, and here they are six years later with one of the best records in baseball fresh off an American League East title and their first postseason appearance since 2016.

That’s where the Nationals hope to be in the coming years. But with the way the first edition of this year’s Beltway Series went – a two-game split with a wild back-and-forth finale last night – the similarities between the two teams are even more striking.

Keibert Ruiz is in the Nationals lineup tonight, the 11th time he’s been in the lineup over the team’s last 13 games. He’s in there despite the career-worst 3-for-51 slump he’s stuck in. It’s quite possible he’s in there because of that slump, most of which has occurred since the 25-year-old catcher returned from a stint on the injured list with a bad case of influenza.

“When you get sick like that and miss 15 days, your timing is going to be off. And he lost a lot of weight,” manager Davey Martinez said. “He’s really working his way back. The only way he’s going to get his timing is by going out there and playing. He’s got to play.”

Ruiz has been playing a lot. Already a workhorse when healthy and productive, he’s getting just as much playing time now, perhaps even more. Last week he started on four consecutive days, though he was designated hitter for one of them.

The results have been tough to watch. Ruiz has one homer, two singles and one walk since coming off the IL. And there hasn’t been a lot of hard contact, with weak grounders and popups far more common.

Martinez believes the slump has to have a direct connection to his illness and recovery. He’s not worried about how Ruiz is holding up physically during this stretch.