CJ Abrams and Jacob Young are once again out of the Nationals lineup, leaving the team shorthanded once again with two regulars dealing with injuries.

Abrams, who jammed his left shoulder making a diving play at shortstop Friday night, is sitting for the third straight day. Young, who took a pitch off his right hand Saturday afternoon, is sitting for the second straight day.

Davey Martinez said Abrams has reported improvement in his shoulder each day, but it does continue to bother him when he swings.

“CJ said he felt better today than he did yesterday, so it is getting better,” the manager said. “I figured just give him another day, and hopefully if we need him (off the bench), he’s available.”

Young tried to hit in the cage today and reported his hand remains sore, so the Nationals decided not to push it and gave him his second straight day off.

ATLANTA – The Nationals have another tough pitching matchup in tonight’s game against the Braves. Not because it’s another established major leaguer like Charlie Morton or Max Fried. But because it’s a 23-year-old making his first major league start.

Right-hander Spencer Schwellenbach had his contract selected to the Braves roster this morning to make his debut tonight. It’s not the first time the Nats have faced a young pitcher making his debut, but it still proves to be difficult when there’s only so much to scout beforehand.

“He's new. He's an up-and-coming young prospect,” manager Davey Martinez said during his pregame media session on how his team is preparing to face Schwellenbach. “So we did our due diligence, watched a bunch of videos. But our guys get to face him for the first time. So for me, as a young player, as a team facing a new guy, you should be a little excited. The big thing is we gotta get him in the strike zone. He might have a little nerves. But get him in the strike zone and swing at good pitches.”

Schwellenbach, the Braves’ No. 3 prospect per MLB Pipeline, provides an especially difficult challenge because he doesn’t have a lot of film to study. A second-round draft pick out of Nebraska in 2021, he had Tommy John surgery immediately after the draft and started his minor league career last year, making 16 starts between Single-A and High-A.

He started this season at High-A Rome for eight starts before being promoted two weeks ago to Double-A Mississippi, where he struck out 51 batters in 45 innings and did not allow a run over 13 innings.

ATLANTA – Eight-run outbursts are all well and good. But sometimes you have to win the low-scoring, close games, too.

As much as the Nationals would have liked to replicate their offensive production from Monday’s win, tonight they ran into a pitchers’ duel between their own Jake Irvin and the Braves’ Max Fried.

But despite Irvin’s best efforts, including a career-high 10 strikeouts, the Nationals dropped this game 2-0 after some subpar pitching by the bullpen in the late innings.

After Irvin had completed six scoreless frames on 90 pitches, manager Davey Martinez decided to end his 27-year-old starter’s night and bring in Jacob Barnes to face the heart of the Braves order.

That decision proved costly, as Marcell Ozuna hit his National League-leading 16th homer of the season to break a scoreless tie in the seventh. Barnes left a 92.2 mph cutter right over the plate for Ozuna to hit 413 feet to left-center field and 106.7 mph off the bat.

ATLANTA – Lane Thomas stepped up to the plate in a major league game for the first time since April 23 on Monday afternoon. After missing 29 games with a left MCL sprain, he was finally back in the No. 2 spot in the Nationals lineup for their series opener against the Braves.

Thomas took the third pitch he saw – an inside changeup from right-hander Charlie Morton – and ripped it into the left field corner. He sprinted out of the box, rounded first base and slid into second feet first for a double, his first of the year and just his third extra-base hit.

There was no hesitation. The knee is fine.

“No, if that was the case, I don’t know if I’d be here,” Thomas said yesterday of any mental handicaps coming back from an injury like that. “So I definitely got through all of those barriers with some of our medical staff. I feel good.”

Thomas came around to score easily on Eddie Rosario’s RBI double two batters later. He then doubled leading off the top of the ninth, again taking an off-speed pitch on the inside part of the plate and driving it into the left field corner. In his first game off the injured list, he finished 2-for-5 with two doubles and a run scored.

ATLANTA – The Nationals found the offensive outburst they had been searching for over the weekend. Too often in the games leading up to the Mariners series had strong pitching performances gone to waste due to a shortage of runs scored.

The trick coming into this four-game series against the Braves (oddly, the Nats' first meeting with their National League East rivals this season) was to keep the production at the plate going.

They managed to do just that, scoring early and often against Charlie Morton en route to an 8-4 win over the Braves in front of 38,858 fans at Truist Park.

“I loved it," manager Davey Martinez said after the win, his team's third in their last four games. "We hit the ball really well early on to score some runs. It's a great way to start off, especially with those guys that tend to score some runs. We got off to a good start.”

The Nationals wasted no time jumping on Morton, who entered this start 4-0 with a 2.37 ERA over his last six outings against Washington. The veteran right-hander battled command issues all afternoon and the Nats took advantage.

A game that looked like it might hinge on a controversial fan interference call then looked like it might hinge on a long-awaited clutch homer from the Nationals’ best all-around player. Until it ultimately hinged on the first runs scored off one of the most effective (but also most-used) relievers in the majors in a long time.

Today’s 9-5 loss to the Mariners included some wild swings of emotion over the course of the final hour of play. The Nationals looked lifeless most of the afternoon at the plate, then were brought back to life by CJ Abrams, whose three-run homer in the seventh put them in position to complete a weekend sweep of Seattle.

But Dylan Floro’s shaky top of the eighth – a rarity if ever there was one – flipped the script again and left the Nats to accept a tough loss, though still a series win before they hit the road for Atlanta.

"We put some good at-bats together late in the game," manager Davey Martinez said. "We just couldn't finish today."

Because he had enjoyed such a dominant opening month to the season, it was only natural not to make too big a deal out of Abrams’ miserable follow-up month. Make no mistake, though, Abrams was bothered by his complete drop-off in production from April (when he slashed .295/.373/.619) to May (in which he had slashed .209/.225/.481 entering today’s game.

PHILADELPHIA – MacKenzie Gore put forth one of the best starts of his burgeoning career. CJ Abrams put together four quality at-bats. Jesse Winker delivered the clutch hit that gave the Nationals the lead in the top of the ninth.

So how did they still manage to lose, 4-3, to the Phillies tonight? With a rare, bottom-of-the-ninth meltdown the likes of which they hadn’t experienced in about six weeks, followed by a less dramatic final blow in the bottom of the 10th, all off one of the most dominant closers in the sport.

One out away from pulling off one of their most impressive wins of the season, the Nats instead watched in horror as Kyle Finnegan gave up a game-tying homer to Kody Clemens for his first blown save and first earned run allowed since March 31 in Cincinnati.

"It's just upsetting that I wasn't able to get those last three outs," said Finnegan, who entered with a 1.56 ERA, 0.923 WHIP and league-leading 13 saves in 14 attempts. "We played a great game. We deserved to win. It's my job to go in there and just continue what we had already accomplished and get three outs. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to do that tonight." 

Finnegan managed to escape the ninth without any more damage, even after Eddie Rosario dropped a fly ball that would’ve ended the inning. But when his teammates couldn’t drive in their automatic runner in the top of the 10th, Finnegan retook the mound for the bottom of the inning and proceeded to take the loss.

CHICAGO – Ildemaro Vargas was asked if he could remember the last time he batted third.

“Little League,” the Nationals utilityman said, lowering his right hand to a couple feet off the ground as if to show how tall he was at the time. “Unbelievable!”

That streak ends today, because Vargas is batting third for the Nats in their series finale against the White Sox, the focal point of a highly unconventional lineup card Davey Martinez filled out this morning.

With his team playing its third game in 24 hours following Tuesday’s doubleheader, and with a tough left-hander (Garrett Crochet) starting for Chicago, Martinez decided to sit a number of regulars who rarely get a chance to sit. CJ Abrams, Luis García Jr., Jesse Winker and Eddie Rosario will make up today’s bench.

Abrams, in particular, has been a workhorse. He missed three games in early April with a bruised finger, but otherwise has been in the Nationals lineup every day, starting each of the team’s last 31 games. The dynamic shortstop has perhaps started showing signs of wear and tear in recent weeks: After a dominant April that saw him slash .295/.373/.619, he’s cooled off significantly in May, slashing .196/.222/.235.

BOSTON – The Nationals returned to Fenway Park on Saturday afternoon in search of a series win over the Red Sox. A victory today would lock up their second series win in their last three and third in their last five. Plus, it would put them two games over .500 for the first time since June 30, 2021.

But despite Jake Irvin pitching one of the best starts of his career, a late Red Sox rally buried the Nats in a 4-2 loss.

Robert Garcia entered the eighth inning of a 2-2 game looking to keep the game tied. Pinch-hitter Rob Refsnyder hit a one-out infield single that dribbled up the third base line and never went foul. Garcia got pinch-hitter Romy Gonzalez to hit a ground ball to CJ Abrams, but the young shortstop tried to turn the double play by himself and threw the ball into the Red Sox dugout.

With Gonzalez on second, the Nats intentionally walked the right-handed Tyler O’Neill to bring up the lefty Rafael Devers, who proceeded to end a seven-pitch battle with a two-run double to left to send the 30,995 fans in Boston into a frenzy.

“Tried to throw a slider first pitch and see if I can get him to swing. It wasn't a great one, it moved away," Garcia said after the game. "I fell down 2-0, which was fine. I got right back in the count, evened it out 2-2. I threw a high fastball and he looked very uncomfortable. Surprised, kind of taken aback about, probably, the velo and the way it was thrown. So I figured that we're gonna go there. Because that's my best pitch. Fastball has been my best pitch, we're going right after him in that situation. I didn't execute my location and he beat my best pitch today.”

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.

They turned out in large numbers – 34,078 of them, to be precise – to watch the conclusion of this two-game rivalry series, wondering if the Nationals would be able to duplicate their performance from Tuesday night’s opener and emerge with a sweep over the Orioles.

They didn't duplicate the performance. But they did put on a show that thrilled everyone in attendance, twice producing last-ditch rallies to tie the game before ultimately falling 7-6 in 12 innings.

With a furious rally in the bottom of the ninth, the Nats tied the game and sent it to extras. With another furious rally in the bottom of the 11th, they tied the game again and continued the proceedings deeper into the night. 

The magic ended there. The Orioles scored twice off a wild Jordan Weems in the top of the 12th, and the lineup could only score once in the bottom of the inning.

It was a thrilling ending to a highly captivating series between interleague rivals, who offered the large bipartisan crowd plenty of reason to want to see more of these matchups down the road.

When Jake Irvin last took the mound on Monday, the Nationals ended the day with a .500 record for the first time this late in the season since they were 40-40 entering July 2, 2021. Since then, they have had three chances to get above .500 for the first time since July 1, 2021, including today after last night’s comeback win over the Blue Jays.

So when Irvin took the mound on a cold and damp day at Nationals Park, the Nats must have liked their chances to finally post a record with more wins than losses.

But the Nats defense, which entered the day tied for the second-fewest errors committed in the major leagues, was as sloppy as the weather, handing the Blue Jays an early lead in an eventual 6-3 loss in front of 22,836 fans who endured the elements for “Star Wars” Weekend on South Capitol Street.

The sloppy play began right from the get-go, when Blue Jays leadoff hitter George Springer grounded to Nick Senzel but ended up on second base thanks to a throwing error by the Nats' third baseman. The throw one-hopped Trey Lipscomb, who didn’t do Senzel any favors by stopping the ball while making his third big league appearance at first base.

“It was a little wet. I didn't really have a good grip and didn't make too good of throws," Senzel said after finishing the game with two errors. "It sucks making two errors and not playing good defense behind Irv because he threw the ball well. It's not a great feeling.”

CJ Abrams’ eyes lit up as he prepared to answer a question about his favorite play from Friday night’s game.

“Favorite was the infield in, play at home,” he said with a wide smile. “For sure.”

Hard to argue with his thinking on that one.

With the Nationals trailing 3-1 in the top of the fourth, the Blue Jays’ Ernie Clement tripled to right-center. Unable to concede any more runs at that point, Davey Martinez had the infield play in against George Springer, hoping Patrick Corbin might somehow get the perennial All-Star to hit the ball sharply on the ground to someone.

That someone was Abrams, who had only a split-second to react to Springer’s 107.1 mph scorcher to his left. He made the play, spun around and then fired a strike to Riley Adams, who tagged Clement at the plate for a huge out.

ARLINGTON, Texas – Hello from Globe Life Park, home of the defending World Series champions. The Nationals come to town flying high after a four-game sweep of the Marlins, but the challenge over the next three days will be markedly more significant. If they can pull off another win tonight, though, it’ll be notable for a couple of reasons: 1) The Nats would own a winning record at any point in the season for the first time since July 1, 2021, and 2) They would finish April with a winning record for the first time since 2017 (when Dusty Baker was manager).

The Nationals have been getting excellent starting pitching through this run, so they’ll hope that continues tonight with MacKenzie Gore. Though he didn’t have his best stuff last week, Gore impressively held the Dodgers to only one run in six innings. He should enter this start with confidence.

At the plate, the Nats will try to keep the pressure on by not only getting on base but advancing once they’re on. We saw how effective they could be running over the weekend in Miami. Look for more of the same tonight against Texas starter Jon Gray and catcher Jonah Heim, who has thrown out only 3-of-18 base stealers so far this year.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at TEXAS RANGERS
Where: Globe Life Park
Gametime: 8:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 88.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Indoors

NATIONALS
SS CJ Abrams
LF Jesse Winker
1B Joey Meneses
2B Luis García Jr.
C Keibert Ruiz
DH Nick Senzel
RF Eddie Rosario
3B Trey Lipscomb
CF Jacob Young

MIAMI – The Nationals were in position tonight to do something they haven’t done since Sept. 23-26, 2019 against the Phillies: Sweep a four-game series.

The late rally Friday, the offensive explosion Saturday and the epic comeback Sunday set them up for a special wrap-around series win before continuing the road trip in Texas.

There was nothing jaw-dropping about tonight. No dramatics in the late innings. No grand slam. No improbable come-from-behind victory. Just a well played baseball game by the good guys.

The Nationals beat the Marlins 7-2 in front of an announced crowd of 6,376 at loanDepot park on a beautiful 80-degree evening in South Beach, completing the four-game mop.

Jake Irvin set the tone for the visitors. Looking to bounce back after last week’s rough outing against the Dodgers, the right-hander pitched six strong innings to improve to 2-2 on the year. He’s the first Nats starting pitcher to be credited with a win since Mitchell Parker on April 21 against the Astros.

MIAMI – The Nationals came into this four-game series with the Marlins in search of some offense.

No, this team is not built to hit home runs, with their 26 longballs ranking 21st in the major leagues. They’re built to get on base, use their speed to advance by stealing or taking an extra base on a ball put in play, and then scoring with productive at-bats at the plate.

They have been very good at the first two parts of that formula (they are second in the majors with 48 stolen bases). But not so much with the third (bottom third in runs scored).

They began the weekend with their slash line with runners in scoring position ranking near the bottom of the majors and with their 60 RBIs with RISP last in the National League.

But they have found a good mixture of that formula through the first three games in South Beach, thanks in large part to CJ Abrams, Jesse Winker, Trey Lipscomb and Jacob Young.

MIAMI – You wouldn’t know the Nationals arrived at loanDepot park riding a three-game losing streak and their biggest offensive slump of the young season. They were upbeat and looking positive, especially with rehabbing Cade Cavalli joining them from West Palm Beach.

But when it came time to play the opener of this four-game, wrap-around series against the Marlins, the Nats had some business to take care of offensively.

Coming into tonight and through the first seven innings, the Nats had really struggled with runners in scoring position, going a combined 4-for-25 with 26 runners left on base and four total runs scored over their last 34 innings.

But the big hit finally came tonight in the eighth, thanks to Joey Meneses, to help deliver a 3-1 victory over the Marlins in front of an announced crowd of 10,201.

"Just try to relax and go up to the at-bat focused," Meneses said, via interpreter Octavio Martinez, of his game-winning hit. "Trying to look for a good pitch that I know I can take a good swing at.”

The circus has come to town. For the uninitiated, that’s Shohei Ohtani and the Los Angeles Dodgers, who bring with them as much media as you’ll find for a postseason series. Seriously, the press box here is packed.

The Nationals will have to cope with that, not that they’re likely to care much. They did, after all, just take two of three at Dodger Stadium last week, not to mention three of their last four series, right?

To keep it going, though, they’re going to need something resembling a quality start from Patrick Corbin. And as we know, that’s been quite the challenge. The left-hander enters 0-3 with an 8.06 ERA in four starts, and Los Angeles got him for five runs and nine hits in 6 1/3 innings last week out west.

The Nats lineup will try to score first again, something that group suddenly has become adept at. CJ Abrams and Co. face veteran lefty James Paxton, who has yet to surrender more than three runs in his three starts this year.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs. LOS ANGELES DODGERS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 6:45 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 980 AM, 88.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Partly cloudy, 70 degrees, wind 12 mph out to left field

The Nationals return to action tonight as the Dodgers come to town looking for revenge from last week’s series in Los Angeles.

The Nats will have the opportunity to do something this week they haven’t done since 2014: Win the season series against the Dodgers.

That’s right, since going 4-2 against the Dodgers 10 years ago, the Nats are 0-6-2 in season series against their West Coast foes. The teams split the season series 3-3 in 2017 and 2022, and didn’t play each other in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, in which teams only played their division rivals and the same division in the other league. Overall, the Nats are 15-35 against the Dodgers since 2014.

Also, did you know this week marks Shohei Ohtani’s first trip to D.C.? He has hit .300 with a .697 OPS in eight games against the Nats, all of which came in Los Angeles as a member of either the Angels or Dodgers. And he made one start as a pitcher against the Nats last year in Anaheim, tossing seven shutout innings with one hit, five walks and six strikeouts.

But enough about these upcoming games. Let’s make some observations from the first month of the season …

With much of the 2019 World Series championship roster in the house, the 2024 Nationals took a page from their celebrated predecessors and mounted a late comeback that special group surely could appreciate.

Then they pulled off a feat even the greatest team in Nats history never pulled off: They beat the Astros at home.

With a furious rally in the bottom of the ninth capped by Jesse Winker's two-run single, the Nationals stormed back to force extra innings. Then with one swing from Joey Meneses in the bottom of the 10th, they completed a 5-4 victory over Houston to cap a celebratory afternoon on South Capitol Street.

"I think it's cool, especially with those guys in the stands who had that great run in '19," said Lane Thomas, whose outfield assist in the top of the 10th set the stage for Meneses' game-winning hit. "It's cool to do that in front of them."

Trailing 4-2 with three outs to go, and unable to deliver any clutch hits throughout the game, the Nats finally came through when they needed it against Astros closer Ryan Pressly. Nick Senzel reached on catcher’s interference, then CJ Abrams launched a double high off the wall in right-center to put the tying run in scoring position with nobody out.