Nats rally, then lose on familiar controversial call in ninth (updated)

HOUSTON – That tonight's game, with the Nationals back at Minute Maid Park for the first time since the 2019 World Series, would end the way it did defied all common sense and logic. How could the baseball gods concoct such a scenario – a potential obstruction call on a bang-bang play at first base – with a game between these two teams in this ballpark, and have that call yet again go against Davey Martinez's club? Was this some kind of cruel cosmic joke?

It was not. It was all too real, and it cost the Nats in a way none of the previous similar plays that have befallen them did. This one ended the game. This one gave the Astros a 5-4 walk-off victory moments after the visitors had staged a dramatic, three-run rally to tie the game in the top of the ninth.

And this one left Martinez as steamed as he's ever been at the end of a loss.

"I'm over this play!" the sixth-year manager bellowed as he held up a just-printed piece of paper showing a still frame of Houston's Jake Meyers clearly running in fair territory toward first base as catcher Keibert Ruiz prepared to make a throw from the plate that would hit Meyers' helmet and Michael Chavis' glove right as he arrived at the bag. "Seriously, they need to fix the rule. If this is what the umpires see, as he's running down the line? I'm tired of it. I'm tired of it. Fix it! We lost the game, and (plate umpire Jeremy Riggs) had nothing to say about it, because he can't make the right call. Brutal! Brutal!"

In the exact location where Trea Turner infamously was called for obstruction in Game 6 of the World Series, leading to Martinez's ejection, Meyers was not called for it tonight. As the ball squirted away from Chavis, José Abreu waltzed home with the winning run as the crowd of 39,796 rejoiced, fireworks exploded overhead and Martinez stormed out of the dugout to accost Riggs.

Nats' big bats hoping to start carrying offense

When the Nationals constructed their lineup over the offseason, they were relying on two new signings and a 31-year-old second-year player to carry much of the offense.

Jeimer Candelario and Dominic Smith were brought in to help Joey Meneses supply some power to Davey Martinez’s lineup.

Candelario led the major leagues with 42 doubles in 2021. Smith had a .993 OPS in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. And Meneses caught the sport’s attention with an impressive two months to end last season, his first taste of the majors.

Not a bad plan. But through 65 games, it’s had some mixed results.

Most of the struggles have come from Smith, who has just two home runs, 16 RBIs, a .263 average and .654 OPS through his first 62 games. But a big two-run homer that traveled 444 feet (the longest of his career) in the sixth inning of Sunday’s win over the Braves hopefully will kickstart Smith’s offensive production.

Corbin effective in Houston, but Nats can't take advantage (updated)

HOUSTON – Minute Maid Park has always been kind to Patrick Corbin, and we’re not just talking about Game 7 of the 2019 World Series here.

While that epic, three-inning relief appearance may have represented the pinnacle of the left-hander’s career and proved essential to the Nationals’ championship victory that night, Corbin has enjoyed pitching in this supposedly hitter-friendly park for years.

When he took the mound for the bottom of the fifth tonight, Corbin was the proud owner of a 16 2/3-inning scoreless streak at the home of the Astros. He hadn’t surrendered a run here since Aug. 18, 2012 as a rookie with the Diamondbacks.

This place, for whatever reason, just brings out the best in him.

Then Corbin began pitching the bottom of the fifth, at which point the streak ended, the Astros reminded him just how powerful they still are and the Nationals reminded everyone how much has changed since the night of Oct. 30, 2019.

Nats flip script to end losing streak, blast past Braves (updated)

ATLANTA – It was raining heavily here this morning. There was a point when the forecast didn’t look conducive to playing baseball.

But the rain cleared out, the tarp was removed from the infield and this afternoon’s finale between the Nationals and Braves went off without a hitch.

And as the clouds cleared out for sunny skies, so did the clouds that have been hovering over this Nationals team this last week.

The Nats snapped their six-game losing streak, and in the process also snapped the Braves’ seven-game winning streak, with a 6-2 victory in front of 36,744 fans at Truist Park.

Just as I wrote this morning that the Nats were in search of more power, they found it.

Smith gets rare day off, Chavis gets first start at first

ATLANTA – After last night’s tough 3-2 loss in the series opener, the Nationals are making some significant changes to their lineup for this afternoon’s second game against the Braves.

Against rookie left-hander Jared Shuster, who the Nats knocked around for four runs on six hits and five walks in their first meeting on April 2, lefty bats Dominic Smith and CJ Abrams and switching-hitter Keibert Ruiz are all out of today’s starting lineup.

In their places: Michael Chavis is starting at first base and batting seventh, Ildemaro Vargas is playing shortstop and batting eighth and Riley Adams is catching and batting ninth. And as has been typical against a lefty starter, Stone Garrett is starting in left field instead of Corey Dickerson, batting fifth.

“It was just the plan coming into the series,” manager Davey Martinez said during his pregame meeting with the media. “I'm trying to keep everybody involved. Get some guys days off. We're getting to a point where it's starting to warm out there. It's tough to play 162 games, so I want to keep these guys fresh and get these other guys in and get them some at-bats. So we'll see how they do. Riley has been playing well. I wanted to get Chavy in there and Vargas has been playing well as well. And Garrett, he platoons with Corey in the outfield, so he gets a chance to play today.”

It’s Smith’s first day off since April 27 against the Mets in New York, when Joey Meneses started at first and Garrett was the designated hitter. The veteran first baseman has struggled to the tune of a .265/.347/.301 slash line, .648 OPS, five doubles, one home run and 14 RBIs in 59 games. And while he has played strong defense for the majority of the season, he was unable to make a run-saving play on a chopper last night, which allowed the tying run to score in the eighth inning.

Gray battles command issues, Finnegan battles fortune in loss to Braves (updated)

ATLANTA – The Nats are in the middle of a brutal stretch. Tonight began the fifth of six straight series in which they are facing division leaders, defending pennant winners and reigning world champions.

No one is going to feel sorry for them. But this 3-2 loss to the Braves in front of 40,297 at Truist Park felt pretty painful, with a one-run lead turning into a one-run deficit in the bottom of the eighth.

“Tough loss," manager Davey Martinez said after the game. "We played well 'til the bottom of the eighth. As I always say, when you give good teams extra outs, they're gonna get you. And that's what we did in the bottom of the eighth.”

With the Nationals six outs away from a series-opening victory, Kyle Finnegan ran into some tough luck in the bottom of the eighth as the Braves scored two runs (one earned) to take the lead and extend Atlanta’s streak of five straight come-from-behind victories and six straight wins overall.

Finnegan took a liner from Sean Murphy off the lower half of his body for a leadoff infield single. Then another single by Eddie Rosario just got past Luis García and the batter advanced to second on an error by Lane Thomas in right field to put two in scoring position.

Abrams gets another day off, Smith stays in lineup

CJ Abrams is starting to get more regular days off as Nationals manager Davey Martinez tries to give his young shortstop more opportunities to rest his body and mind in his first full big league season.

Abrams, who started 31 of the Nats’ first 32 games this season, is not in the lineup for today’s series finale against the Phillies. It’s the fifth time he hasn’t started in the team’s last 27 games. It’s also the second straight Sunday he’s had off.

“Just kind of let him relax a little bit,” Martinez said.

It’s been an eventful stretch for Abrams, who played a key role in recent road wins in Kansas City and Los Angeles but also committed three errors in his last five games, a couple of them particularly costly ones.

With the team off Monday, this gives Abrams a chance for an extended rest before he returns to the lineup Tuesday night against the Diamondbacks.

Nats finding success against high volume of lefty starters

The Nationals have had a rough go to the start of the season in terms of opposing starting pitchers. They’re facing left-handed starters at a higher rate than usual, which early on led to some inconsistencies in their lineup constructions.

When the Nats face the Padres’ Blake Snell in this afternoon’s series finale, it will be their 19th time in their first 50 games facing an opposing lefty starter. That’s almost a 40 percent rate, unusually high over the first two months of the season, with possibly more on the way.

“Yes,” manager Davey Martinez answered during his pregame media session when asked if this amount of opposing left-handed starters is unusual. “We've seen a lot of lefties. I think we'll get another one too in Kansas City. So yeah, we have seen quite a bit of lefties. But the thing about it is our left-handed hitters are not doing bad against them, it's kind of nice.”

It’s almost ironic that the Nationals have faced this many southpaws to start the year. Over the offseason, the focus was on acquiring a left-handed-hitting corner outfielder and possibly a backup lefty first baseman to fill out the roster. They were able to get both and then some.

Corey Dickerson was the left corner outfielder and Dominic Smith was the starting left-handed first baseman, allowing Joey Meneses to shift to designated hitter full time. Add switch-hitter Jeimer Candelario and the Nats could actually have more lefty bats than righty in their lineup on a given night.

Smith spends Saturday with young ballplayers in D.C.

It’s common during homestands to find Nationals players out and about in D.C., getting active in the community. The organization has been committed to giving back to the area for a long time, centered around its Youth Baseball Academy.

But the players don’t have to be at the academy to get involved in youth baseball around town. That’s why Dominic Smith and other Nats players found themselves in Livingston Park in Chevy Chase yesterday morning with a group of Capitol City Little League kids – my 8-year-old nephew Jack included – ahead of their late-afternoon game.

“I had a great time today,” Smith said Saturday before the Nats’ 5-2 win over the Tigers. “Over there, Capitol City Little League, got to see a bunch of different age groups from like 8 to like 12. And just to see them, see the energy that they brought, I kind of fed off of that and I had a great time. Those kids are very competitive. They got some really good coaches out there because some of those swings were really impressive, especially for the age groups. And it was just fun. It was a great day to just spend some time with them and get to show them who I am as a person because sometimes they don't get to see stuff like that.”

Smith and the kids went through typical baseball drills like hitting balls off a practice tee. It must feel good as a kid to get a couple of good hacks in and have a major leaguer be impressed by your swing.

And the kids should be impressed by Smith’s swing as of late. Before yesterday’s 0-for-4 outing, he had been hitting .343 over his previous 20 games to raise his batting average by 54 points.

Walk-off homer off Harvey dooms Nats against Marlins (updated)

MIAMI – The Nationals have found enough offense to play .500 ball since the first week of the season. Without a lack of a true power source, it was a serious question of how they would generate runs this season.

Since that 1-6 start, they have found that their style of baseball is good enough to win games and score runs in a variety of ways, even without a lot of longballs.

That style was on full display tonight in what appeared to be a 4-2 win over the Marlins. But a walk-off two-run home run by Jorge Soler off Hunter Harvey in the ninth turned it into a 5-4 loss in front of an announced crowd of 8,811 at loanDepot Park.

Pitching against a team for whom his father recorded 51 saves, Harvey entered the ninth trying to protect the Nats' two-run lead that they had built in the previous inning. He recorded a flyout and a strikeout on 10 pitches, needing just one more out for his second career save.

But a double by Garrett Cooper and an RBI single by Luis Arraez made it a one-run game, too close for comfort. Pinch-runner Jon Berti stole second base to put the tying run in scoring position, which was ultimately unnecessary thanks to Soler's 10th homer of the season.

Abrams gets planned day off, Smith's bat starting to come around

SAN FRANCISCO – Given the way things went for him Tuesday night, it would be natural to wonder if CJ Abrams was given today off as a reaction to his shaky performance both at the plate and in the field. Davey Martinez insists that’s not the case and that Abrams was going to have the Nationals’ series finale against the Giants off no matter what.

“It was a planned day off for him,” Martinez said this morning. “Looking at the schedule, it gives us an opportunity to give him two days off. He’s been really playing well. For me, this is just an opportunity to get him off his feet. As I always say, if we need him for today’s game, he’s definitely going to be in there. But if he gets half of today, maybe all of today, and then tomorrow, he’ll be fresh to go on Friday.”

The Nationals are off Thursday following their red-eye flight home tonight. They’re scheduled to return to action Friday night in D.C. against the Mets.

Abrams had his shakiest game in the field in weeks Tuesday, committing an error on the first batter in the first inning, then making several more low throws through the remainder of the game. He also went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts at the plate, stranding seven runners on base in the Nats’ 4-1 loss to San Francisco.

Ildemaro Vargas starts at shortstop in Abrams’ place, facing Giants left-hander Sean Manaea. Abrams, meanwhile, will spend the afternoon sitting alongside run prevention coordinator (and former big league infielder) Ricky Gutierrez in the dugout, with specific instructions.

Irvin dazzles in second start, earning first win (updated)

SAN FRANCISCO – Jake Irvin took the mound at Oracle Park tonight, already the proud recipient of a five-run lead thanks to a sudden barrage of hits from his teammates in the top of the first, and went to work. With a purpose.

Irvin worked fast. He threw strikes. He changed speeds. He bounced off the mound every time he recorded a strikeout or induced a double play.

And the rookie right-hander did it all as well as anyone else who has taken the mound wearing a Nationals uniform so far this season. And better than anyone who has ever taken the mound wearing a curly W cap with so little experience under his belt.

With a crisp, 6 1/3 innings of scoreless ball, Irvin mowed down the Giants lineup. And thanks to that early barrage from his teammates against opposing starter Anthony DeSclafani, the Nats rewarded him with his first career win in a 5-1 game that saw the Nats score all of their runs in the top of the first.

In a game that required a scant 2 hours, 14 minutes to be completed, the Nationals improved to 14-14 since a ragged 1-6 opening week to the season. They did it tonight behind a most unlikely pitching prodigy in Irvin, who in his second major league start looked every bit like an established veteran who had a plan to beat an opposing lineup and executed it to perfection.

After six seasons with Mets, Smith "thankful" in return to Citi Field

NEW YORK – Dominic Smith is familiar with Citi Field. It’s the only home major league ballpark he’s ever known. That is at least until this season.

For the first time in his career when he arrived at Citi Field yesterday for the Nationals’ opener against the Mets, he came down the tunnel from the team bus in the left field corner and entered the visitor’s clubhouse instead of going all the way around to the first base-side home clubhouse, like he had during his six seasons with the Mets.

“It feels good, it was good. It feels good to be back,” Smith said yesterday in front of his new locker at Citi Field.

“Going in the back way was definitely a different way for me to go in. The tunnel, everything was a little bit different today. But yeah, you definitely do have memories when you come back here. Obviously, I was drafted here and I remember coming here after I got drafted 17, 18 years old, so it's pretty fun still being able to come back here and play baseball.”

Smith was the Mets’ first-round draft pick (No. 11 overall) out of Junipero Serra High School in Gardena, Calif., in 2013. He would make his major league debut with the Mets four summers later on this very field as one of the organization’s top prospects.

Thomas gets first day off, Meneses back to DH

MINNEAPOLIS – Two members of the Nationals lineup started each of the season’s first 20 games. Only one of them will have started each of the first 21 games.

Lane Thomas is not playing today’s series finale against the Twins, the right fielder finally getting a chance to rest more than three weeks after Opening Day.

“Just felt like giving him a day off today,” manager Davey Martinez said. “I’ve been wanting to give him a day off, so I thought today would be a good day for him.”

Thomas has been perhaps the team’s most consistent hitter so far, though he has cooled off in recent days. Owner of a .323 batting average through the first 16 games, he’s gone two for his last 17 with seven strikeouts, including three during Saturday’s 10-4 win at Target Field.

The 27-year-old talked this spring about his desire to get off to a strong start, recognizing how streaky he was last season. He’s been pleased with the way he’s put together quality at-bats for the most part this month.

Gray and Cavalli working fast and attacking hitters

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – It was a rare day – and probably the last of this spring – when you saw two Nationals starting pitchers appear in the same game.

Luckily for Nats fans, it was two-thirds of the young Big Three they’re hoping leads this rotation for years to come.

Because of Sunday’s split-squad games and Monday’s off-day, Josiah Gray's and Cade Cavalli’s next scheduled times to pitch a game both landed today, in what would end up as a 9-6 loss to the Cardinals in front of 3,260 fans. They both had the same plan: Complete two innings and throw between 35 and 40 pitches, with Gray starting the game and Cavalli following out of the bullpen.

They both completed their objectives, in similar yet somehow different ways.

Gray started the game with a three-pitch strikeout of Brendan Donovan. He then gave up back-to-back singles before getting a popup and groundout to finish the frame on 12 pitches, nine strikes.

Bogar affirms that Nats value versatility

The writing has been on the wall all offseason. Baseball has changed over recent years, and the Nationals have committed to adapting to it.

Versatility is the name of the game.

Gone are the days managers would trot out the same eight defenders in their same designated positions along with a starting pitcher expected to go seven or eight innings every day over the course of a 162-game season.

Now it’s all about getting more bang for your buck. Can a player fill multiple roles? Can he play all over the infield, or both the infield and the outfield? Can a fringe starting pitcher also be a swing man out of the bullpen?

Find a way to keep your best players fresh and on the field as much as possible based on what the matchups dictate.

Smith looking forward to "fresh start" in Washington

Rebuilding teams and reeling veterans are perfect matches for each other. Bring experience and leadership to a young clubhouse while playing every day to rejuvenate your career while the team develops prospects.

It’s often a mutually beneficial relationship.

The Nationals are certainly banking on that being true as this is how they’ve filled holes on their roster with three of their major league signings so far this offseason.

Jeimer Candelario, signed to a one-year deal in November, was non-tendered by the Tigers after six seasons. Trevor Williams, signed to a two-year deal last month, entered free agency knowing his role with the Mets was limited, either in the rotation or bullpen.

And Dominic Smith, who signed a one-year deal this week, was looking for a fresh start after being non-tendered by the Mets.