ATLANTA - Like a library desperate for an overdue rental, the Nationals were making empty threats, lacking the power to follow through. 

Washington had scored just five total runs and gone a combined 4-for-22 with runners in scoring position over the last three games, all losses. 

But Wednesday in Atlanta, the Nats finally broke through, and all it took was one mighty swing from Joey Meneses. 

The 30-year-old rookie mashed a two-run homer onto the second deck in left field in the seventh inning, turning around what was then a 2-1 game and helping the Nationals (52-97) take the series finale over the Braves (93-56) by a final of 3-2. 

"I can't say enough about what Joey's been doing since he came here," manager Davey Martinez said after the win. "He's been hitting doubles, homers, getting on base, playing good defense."

ATLANTA - Patrick Corbin took an exceptionally long time between pitches. He shuffled his feet, kicked some dirt and adjusted his belt ever so slowly before turning around and motioning to the second base umpire.

Something wasn’t quite right.

Corbin left with back spasms in the first inning of Tuesday’s 3-2 loss to the Braves after throwing just 12 pitches. After throwing a 76-mph slider high and outside to Matt Olson and fidgeting around the rubber, the lefty was greeted by manager Davey Martinez and head athletic trainer Paul Lessard.

Corbin, who leads the Nationals (51-97) in both starts and innings pitched, stretched his back before taking a slow walk to the visitors' dugout.

"He just threw a pitch and (his back) tightened up on him," Martinez said after the game. "We watched him, he started trying to stretch. We went out there and he said it just cramped up on him. ... As he was getting back on the mound, he said he couldn't get loose, so the smart thing to do is just get him out of there."

The Nationals’ offensive issues this season really can be boiled down to a simple disparity in their production at the plate: Plenty of contact, not nearly enough power.

Entering the day, the Nats actually led the National League with 853 singles, which would be meaningful if not for the major-league-leading 130 double plays they had grounded into. And it’s not like they’ve made up for that with extra-base hits; they ranked 13th in the NL (25th in the majors) with 367 of them.

So consider what they did today during a 5-3 victory over the Marlins within the context of the season as a whole. The Nationals launched four home runs (all solo), then added a pair of doubles. They wound up, remarkably, with zero singles in this game, yet proved it’s still possible to win without them for only the fifth time in club history.

"Don't get me wrong; I like homers," manager Davey Martinez said. "But I also like homers the right way. These guys swung the bats well today. We hit some balls hard. We hit some balls that went out of the ballpark, which is really nice."

It certainly helped matters that four relievers combined to toss five scoreless innings after Erick Fedde labored through four long innings. Without the work of Hunter Harvey, Erasmo Ramirez, Carl Edwards Jr. and Kyle Finnegan, the Nats don’t pull off back-to-back wins over the Marlins after opening the season 1-12 against their division counterparts.

Even with two extra spots in September, the Nationals are currently only carrying four true outfielders on their active roster. That’s usually the standard for any team: three starters and one backup on the bench.

But manager Davey Martinez, in fact, has utilized six players in the outfield since the roster shakeup at the trade deadline.

Victor Robles and Lane Thomas have been in Washington all season long. Joey Meneses (typically a first baseman) and Josh Palacios were brought up to fill the holes left by Juan Soto and Josh Bell, with Palacios making a couple of trips back-and-forth between the majors and Triple-A Rochester. Alex Call was selected off waivers from the Guardians on Aug. 7. And utilityman César Hernádez has appeared in left field four times to start September.

This is part of the process for the Nationals to see what they have in these players before the season ends in three weeks.

For the most part, they know what they have in Robles, who you may have noticed has not played since Sept. 7 in St. Louis. He was scratched from the starting lineup with a stiff neck the following day, but has been seen walking around the Nationals clubhouse this week with seemingly no issues.

ST LOUIS – The Nationals were one out away Wednesday night of victory, of securing at least a four-game split here at Busch Stadium and of clinching a winning road trip against two division leaders. And then … well, you know what happened in the bottom of the ninth.

They still have an opportunity today, however, to achieve all of the above and head home 4-3 against the Mets and Cardinals, which would be no small achievement. They’ll attempt to do so in an early matinee, with a 12:15 p.m. local first pitch on a bright, warm September afternoon here.

Josiah Gray gets the start, and he’ll need to be better than he was in New York, when he allowed six runs to the Mets. These final starts of Gray’s season are important. He really wants to finish on a high note and go into 2023 feeling good about his place near the top of the Nats rotation. To do that, he’s going to have to pitch well against some good lineups still on the schedule, including the Cardinals lineup he’ll face today.

The Nationals, who were completely shut down by left-hander Jordan Montgomery until the seventh inning Wednesday night, now go up against the wily old veteran right-hander, Adam Wainwright, who today pairs up with Yadier Molina for the 324th time as a major league battery, tying the all-time record. Notable switch to Davey Martinez’s lineup: Nelson Cruz has been bumped down to the No. 6 spot after struggling out of the cleanup position.

Update: The Nats have a late lineup change: Victor Robles was scratched with a stiff neck. Alex Call replaces him batting ninth and playing left field. Lane Thomas is now in center field.

NEW YORK – More observations and reactions from Friday night’s 7-3 loss to the Mets …

* Victor Robles had another Victor Robles kind of game. Which is to say he was involved in a number of notable plays, some of them producing positive results, some of them producing negative ones.

Positive: Robles led off the top of the third with a triple to right-center, only his second of the season and only the 10th of his career. He then wound up scoring moments later when Mets catcher Tomas Nido tried to pick him off third on a dropped third strike to Lane Thomas, only to throw the ball away ad allow both Robles to score and Thomas to reach first base on a strikeout.

“A very risky play,” Robles said, via interpreter Octavio Martinez. “But he took the risk, and I took advantage of it.”

Negative: Robles broke in too quickly on Brandon Nimmo’s two-out line drive to center in the bottom of the sixth, the ball sailing over his head for an RBI triple that extended New York’s lead.

NEW YORK – The Nationals are still determining when and how much they intend to keep pitching Josiah Gray through the season’s final month, acknowledging the 24-year-old right-hander is fast approaching a workload beyond any he’s handled before.

For now, the club is trying to manage Gray’s innings by giving him extra time between some starts, in this most recent case skipping his last turn in the rotation altogether. The Nats, though, do want to make sure he gets more opportunities to pitch in meaningful games, particularly games against teams playing in a pennant race down the stretch.

All of that brought more significance to tonight’s game at Citi Field than it might otherwise have held. Making his first start in 13 days, in his hometown with friends and family members in attendance, Gray went up against a tough Mets lineup that’s trying to lead its team to a division title and then more come October.

The end result? Despite some encouraging moments along the way, Gray nonetheless was charged with six runs in five-plus innings, turning what was shaping up to be a competitive game into a comfortable 7-3 Mets victory that left the Nats with a 9-43 record against division opponents this year.

"Obviously, I enjoyed pitching back here in New York and getting a little bit of rest," he said. "The results didn't go my way, but I felt really good. It was a lot of fun to pitch here in New York."

The throw from Juan Soto was perfect, probably the best he’s made all year, no matter which uniform he was wearing. The catch and tag by Austin Nola was on point as well, nabbing a late-sliding César Hernández, whose front foot crossed above the plate without touching it. And as Paul Emmel made the out signal, the crowd of 33,661 at Nationals Park groaned in agony, believing their former favorite player had just prevented his old team from taking a lead in the bottom of the seventh.

Davey Martinez, though, immediately yelled out to Emmel from the first base dugout. He wanted the play reviewed, not to see if Hernández had slid under the tag, but to see if Nola had violated Major League Baseball’s controversial rule preventing catchers from blocking the plate before they’re in possession of the ball.

"I always get up to the top (step of the dugout) to look," Martinez said. "And right away, I told (bench coach Tim Bogar): Check that, because I think he blocked the plate for sure."

And after an agonizing wait, Martinez and the Nationals caught a rare break. Officials in New York deemed Nola had indeed impeded Hernández’s path to the plate, so the run counted and the Nats had themselves a 4-3 lead they would hold onto en route to a wild victory over the Padres.

That victory also included dramatic, back-to-back homers by Yadiel Hernandez and Joey Meneses in the bottom of the sixth, plus the 2,000th hit of Nelson Cruz’s career. (He’s the first player ever to reach that milestone while wearing a Nationals uniform.)

CHICAGO – The point has been made, repeatedly, since the day Victor Robles first arrived in the big leagues nearly five years ago. Multiple Nationals managers and countless other coaches have pleaded with the talented-but-reckless outfielder not to attempt to make a throw that has little chance of success.

Five years later, Robles still does it. And on a cloudless August afternoon at Wrigley Field, he played a significant role in costing his team a ballgame.

There were other reasons the Nationals dropped their series finale to the Cubs, 4-2, given that all four runs scored in the bottom of the seventh off Josiah Gray, Steve Cishek and Víctor Arano. But Robles’ inexplicable throw from center field to the backstop arguably had more impact than anything else.

"As we all know, he can be electric out there," manager Davey Martinez said of the 25-year-old. "But once again, it's those little things. Understanding the game, and being in a position where in a situation like that, he knows what he needs to do before it happens. That's the biggest thing: Think before the ball's hit to you, and understand what you need to do if the ball's hit to you."

The situation: With the Nats leading by a run and one out in the inning, runners on first and second, Nick Madrigal singled up the middle. The lead runner, Patrick Wisdom, scored easily from second, but that didn’t stop Robles from unleashing a throw all the way to the bricks behind the plate. Which, in turn, allowed trailing runner P.J. Higgins to advance to third and Madrigal to advance to second.

CHICAGO – Maybe it’s a fruitless exercise to break down specific at-bats in the 111th game of a season that has long since lost its significance. But there was one particular sequence during the Nationals’ 6-3 loss to the Cubs on Monday night that underscored much of what is wrong with this lineup.

Trailing 3-0 in the top of the fifth, the Nats gave themselves a chance to do something with two on and nobody out. And then proceeded to squander it before anyone had the opportunity to hope it might turn into something big.

It began with Maikel Franco getting a 3-2 fastball from Cubs starter Keegan Thompson on the inner half of the plate, thigh-high, and grounding into a 6-4-3 double play. And it ended immediately with a three-pitch strikeout by Victor Robles, who saw only one pitch in the at-bat that might have been called a strike had he taken it.

“We chased,” manager Davey Martinez lamented. “We chased a few times with guys on base. Franco’s got to get the ball up in certain situations, try to keep the ball off the ground there. … With guys on base, we’ve got to do a better job trying to get the ball in the strike zone, get the ball up and try to drive the ball.”

This, of course, was nothing new. It’s been a recurring theme all season for a Nationals lineup that leads the majors with 106 double plays grounded into while ranking 25th out of 30 teams with a .676 OPS with runners in scoring position.

CHICAGO – There’s no kind way to put this: The Nationals are in an awful state right now. This season already was bad before the trade deadline, and it’s only gotten worse since (which, considering who they dealt away, isn’t shocking at all). There was that one inspiring win over the Mets on deadline day, but there have been five straight losses since. In four of those games, they’ve trailed by at least six runs at some point. In three of those, they’ve trailed by at least nine runs at some point.

There’s not a whole lot of reason to be optimistic about what’s still to come over the season’s final 52 games, but maybe the Nats are due to catch a little bit of a break the next three weeks when they face a Cubs team that owns the second-worst record in the National League. If the Nationals can’t give themselves a chance to win two of three here at Wrigley Field, what hope is there?

It’s going to have to start with starting pitching, because the current rotation keeps digging this team into holes it can’t climb out of. And Aníbal Sánchez has been as guilty of that as anybody. The 38-year-old has made four starts to date and is 0-4 with a 7.65 ERA. He’s reached the sixth inning only once, and in that game he still gave up six runs. The home run has been a real problem for Sánchez (six allowed in only 20 innings), but with the wind blowing in from left field tonight, maybe that helps him a bit.

The Nationals lineup faces right-hander Keegan Thompson in the series opener, and he’s been something of a bright spot for the Cubs, entering with an 8-5 record and 3.48 ERA. He has been roughed up in two of his last three starts, though.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at CHICAGO CUBS
Where: Wrigley Field
Gametime: 8:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Cloudy, 71 degrees, wind 16 mph in from left field

Believe it or not, the Nationals only have 52 games left this season. We have hit the home stretch of the summer.

Obviously, this franchise is going in a different direction than it has in the past. Selling your best players in back-to-back trade deadlines will do that.

But with sell-offs come exciting prospects and opportunities for young players to play for a spot on the roster for the remainder of the season and in the future.

Guys are going to get the chance to play and the Nationals will be watching.

“Yeah, I want to see these guys,” manager Davey Martinez said before yesterday’s finale in Philadelphia. “I want to see as many guys as I can play. Like I said, we're building for the future. But that being said, you're also trying to compete today. So I want to see these guys go out there and compete, and see which guys go out there and battle and play the game. It's a time where it's frustrating because we're not winning games. But it's also a time that we can learn a lot about the guys that we have moving forward.”

Davey Martinez submitted a lineup card for Monday night’s game a little after 3 p.m. By that point, the Nationals manager already knew utility man Ehire Adrianza had been traded, with Ildemaro Vargas called up from Triple-A Rochester to take his roster spot. Everything else, as far as he knew, remained the status quo.

Not that Martinez wasn’t acutely aware of the possibility something else could change before first pitch at 7:05 p.m. Any of a number of his regular members from the lineup or bullpen could be dealt away at any moment, so he made sure to consult with bench coach Tim Bogar about all the potential fallback plans should something occur either before, or during, the game against the Mets.

“We’ll see what happens in the next 48 hours,” Martinez said. “But we do have to think about the what-ifs – which I try not to, until it happens – but we’ve got to be prepared.”

By night’s end, there was no need for all that prep work. The Nationals made no more deals on Trade Deadline Eve, withholding everything for the final day, it appears.

If they’re going to part with Juan Soto, Josh Bell, Nelson Cruz, Kyle Finnegan, Carl Edwards Jr., Steve Cishek or anybody else, they’re going to have to do it in a hurry, with the deadline approaching at 6 p.m. Eastern.

Victor Robles is out of the Nationals' lineup for today’s series finale against the Cardinals after his left hamstring cramped during the eighth inning of Saturday night’s 7-6 victory.

Robles hurt himself tracking down Brendan Donovan’s deep flyball to center field for the final out of the top of the eighth, a key play that maintained the Nats’ one-run lead after St. Louis loaded the bases earlier in the inning.

Due up third in the bottom of that inning, Robles was late to get to the plate and then quickly struck out, not looking comfortable in the process. Manager Davey Martinez then decided to remove him from the game, shifting Lane Thomas to center field and inserting utilityman Ehire Adrianza in left field for the top of the ninth.

“He’s OK,” Martinez said. “When I had to take him out of the game yesterday, I figured I’d give him a day (off) today. When he cramps up like that, it knots up pretty good. I talked to him last night and told him: ‘I’m just going to give you a day and get that right.’ ”

It was an eventful game for Robles, who hit his fourth homer of the season (his second in a week), made a diving catch in deep left-center field and also made an ill-advised throw only moments before he was injured.

An inordinate amount of the Nationals’ offensive production this season has come via the bats (and the eyes) of Juan Soto and Josh Bell. Together, those two have accounted for 23 percent of the team’s hits, 28 percent of their runs, 42 percent of their walks and 43 percent of their homers.

So, imagine what this lineup would look like in August and September should Soto and Bell no longer be wearing curly W helmets at the plate. Actually, don’t imagine it. It’s too depressing.

Instead, just appreciate whatever time remains with these two larger-than-life sluggers batting back-to-back in Davey Martinez’s lineup. Just as a boisterous crowd of 34,440 did tonight as Soto and Bell helped lead the Nationals to a 7-6, come-from-behind win over the Cardinals.

Soto did his usual thing, reaching base four times (thrice via walks, once via single). And Bell did the thing he’s done regularly in his 1 1/2 years in D.C.: Deliver a big hit in a big moment, belting a three-run homer in the bottom of the seventh to give his team the lead and elicit a roar from the crowd.

"Awesome. And well-deserved," Martinez said. "I'm not going to think about what's going to happen in the next few days. I just know that today was a great win for us, and he was a big part of it."

LOS ANGELES – There is no greater indignity for a starting pitcher then to see his manager emerge from the dugout steps and make the long, slow walk toward him in the first inning. Unless said starter is injured or dealing with some other abnormal circumstances, the first-inning hook is as humiliating a fate as a big league pitcher will ever experience. Which is why it happens so infrequently.

It had never happened to Patrick Corbin in his career, not in his first start, not in his 100th start, not in his 200th start, not in any of countless other miserable starts during a miserable three-year stretch for the Nationals left-hander.

And then, in career start No. 250, there stood Corbin on the mound, the Dodgers having scored six runs in the bottom of the first, all of them scoring with two outs, his pitch count up to a whopping 45. And here came Davey Martinez to ask for the ball and leave his veteran starter taking the walk of shame back to the dugout as the Dodger Stadium crowd serenaded him.

"He faced 10 hitters. He was behind five of them," Martinez said. "And the guys he got ahead of, he just couldn't put them away. That was the big deal right there. And he had a lot of pitches, so we had to go get him."

Everything that transpired over the remaining eight-plus innings in the Nationals’ 7-1 loss to the Dodgers felt inconsequential. Only hours after pulling off their most dramatic win of the season, the Nats showed up for this early-afternoon matinee with a shot at their first series sweep of the season, their first-ever series sweep in this historic ballpark. Those dreams, for all intents and purposes, were dashed before the first inning even came to a close.

LOS ANGELES – The Nationals have not had a four-game winning streak this season. They have not swept a series against any opponent since June 2020, when they took three straight from the Pirates and then later won a two-game mini-series over the Rays. They haven’t swept a road series over anybody since August 2019, when they marched into Wrigley Field and won three straight against the Cubs.

So, naturally, all of those droughts could end this afternoon at none other than Dodger Stadium. Hey, at this point, why not?

If they are going to pull off the unthinkable, the Nationals will need to continue to hit the way they did Tuesday night (though preferably without waiting until the eighth inning to get going). Davey Martinez is sticking with Victor Robles in the leadoff spot, a look that has certainly worked the last two nights. Nelson Cruz returns to the lineup after pinch-hitting Tuesday and finally snapping an 0-for-15 slump with a two-run double. Tres Barrera gets the start behind the plate against Dodgers lefty Andrew Heaney, giving Keibert Ruiz a well-deserved day off.

Patrick Corbin will start for the Nats, and on paper that doesn’t look like a great matchup against a Los Angeles lineup that again opens with Mookie Betts, Trea Turner and Freddie Freeman. But Corbin does have a few memorable moments in this ballpark in his career. Maybe he can channel some of that old magic and at least give his team a chance today before handing it over to a bullpen that hasn’t allowed a run in its last 15 1/3 innings.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at LOS ANGELES DODGERS
Where: Dodger Stadium
Gametime: 3:10 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Sunny, 78 degrees, wind 4 mph out to center field

LOS ANGELES – What’s that you say? The Nationals have a chance tonight at a three-game winning streak? Why yes, that’s exactly what’s at stake this evening when they face the Dodgers in the second game of this series.

It’s going to take another stellar effort to beat L.A., of course, and that starts with the pitching staff, most notably starter Josiah Gray. After using up five relievers to pull off Monday night’s 4-1 victory – and having now used both Carl Edwards Jr. and Kyle Finnegan on back-to-back days – the Nats need quality and length tonight from Gray, who makes his return to Chavez Ravine.

The former Dodgers prospect made his first two career big league appearances here last summer (prior to the trade) and didn’t fare so well. He also didn’t fare so well when he faced the Dodgers in D.C. earlier this season, giving up seven runs in three innings, with three homers hit off him. Gray feels like he’s been able to shake off those jitters since, and heads into tonight’s start feeling better about the state of things, though he has struggled in two of his last three outings after a fantastic June.

The lineup looks similar to Monday’s arrangement, with Victor Robles batting leadoff again (as Davey Martinez promised). The most notable change, though, is the absence of Nelson Cruz. It’s been a miserable open to the second half for the 42-year-old, who is 0-for-14 with two walks and five strikeouts since the All-Star break. Obviously, he’s a name who has been on the trading block all year, though the way he’s been performing makes you wonder just how much interest there’s going to be in him now.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at LOS ANGELES DODGERS
Where: Dodger Stadium
Gametime: 10:10 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB Network (outside D.C. and L.A. markets), MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Clear, 71 degrees, wind 7 mph out to center field

LOS ANGELES – Davey Martinez has tried all manner of lineup combinations this season, trying to find some arrangement that produces runs in bunches while keeping Juan Soto and Josh Bell in a position to drive in as many runs as possible. Tonight, the Nationals manager decided to go back to an idea he last toyed with in 2021: Victor Robles leading off.

Yes, for the first time this season Robles is the Nats’ No. 1 hitter for tonight’s series opener against the Dodgers. It’s a role the organization has always hoped he would seize, but to date he hasn’t.

Now, on the heels of a solid weekend in Arizona, Robles is getting another shot atop the order.

“I’ve been thinking about it,” Martinez said. “He’s swinging the bat well. You think about what he does when he gets on base. He causes a bunch of havoc. So I talked to him today, and I told him I want you to lead off.”

This isn’t expected to be a one-and-done opportunity for Robles, either. Martinez said he intends to stick with this look for the foreseeable future, hoping the 25-year-old center fielder makes the most of it.

LOS ANGELES – Dodger Stadium has been the site of more than a few memorable moments in Nationals history, both good ones and bad ones. What do the next three days have in store? Probably nothing as meaningful as the night of Oct. 9, 2019, when the Nats got over the hump and won their first playoff series. But hopefully nothing too devastating, either. We shall see.

Juan Soto, of course, will be the center of attention here, just as he was one week ago when he won the Home Run Derby in this very ballpark. It’ll be interesting to see what the crowd reaction is to the young star. Perhaps some Dodger faithful will be cheering him on, hoping to make a good impression on him?

Soto will be batting third tonight, after batting second Sunday in a 4-3 win over the Diamondbacks. Victor Robles has been bumped up to the leadoff spot for the first time this season, with everyone else getting bumped down a spot from where they were Sunday, including Ehire Adrianza at third base instead of Maikel Franco. Will have to ask if anything unusual is going on there.

Paolo Espino gets the ball for his first start of the second half. It’s an awfully tough challenge, facing a Dodgers lineup that opens up with Mookie Betts, Trea Turner and Freddie Freeman. Espino’s best hope for success: Keep the walks to a minimum, and keep the ball in the yard.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at LOS ANGELES DODGERS
Where: Dodger Stadium
Gametime: 10:10 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB Network (outside D.C. and L.A. markets), MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Partly cloudy, 72 degrees, wind 7 mph out to center field