Can the Nationals score a run tonight? That’s what’s at stake in the finale of this two-game series against the Orioles. OK, so maybe that’s a little too harsh of a preview, but after Tuesday night’s 1-0 loss, it’s hard not to think about such seemingly trivial matters.

A lineup that couldn’t score a run off Dean Kremer will now attempt to do it against Kyle Bradish, who comes off the 15-day injured list to rejoin the Orioles rotation. The right-hander was knocked out in the second inning of his season debut at Texas when he was struck in the foot by a comebacker. The injury turned out not to be severe, though, and Bradish was able to make a rehab start for Double-A Bowie five days ago, so he’s good to go tonight with no real concerns.

MacKenzie Gore starts for the Nats, looking to bounce back from his first rough start of the season last week in Anaheim. Gore had been excellent his first two times on the mound, but he lost all semblance of command against the Angels and was pulled after throwing 88 pitches in only 3 2/3 innings. This will be another good challenge for the lefty, facing a tough Baltimore lineup that was nonetheless held in check Tuesday by Josiah Gray.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs. BALTIMORE ORIOLES
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 7:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Clear, 73 degrees, wind 6 mph out to center field

NATIONALS
CF Alex Call
1B Dominic Smith
3B Jeimer Candelario
DH Joey Meneses
2B Luis García
C Keibert Ruiz
LF Stone Garrett
SS CJ Abrams
RF Lane Thomas

The low point of an April that hasn’t gone according to plan for Dominic Smith came in the bottom of the third Tuesday night at Nationals Park.

Standing at the plate with one out and runners on second and third, with a chance to drive in at least one – if not two – teammates and give starter Josiah Gray some desperately needed run support, Smith saw three pitches from Orioles right-hander Dean Kremer.

The first was a 97-mph sinker that sat right over the plate, belt-high. Smith swung and missed. The second was a four-seam fastball, also 97 mph, this one at the letters. Smith swung and missed. The third was another 97 mph, four-seam fastball, this one well above the strike zone. Smith swung and missed.

It was perhaps the worst moment in a failed rally that featured too many frustrating moments to keep track of. And it loomed large at night’s end when the Nationals were trudging off the field having suffered a 1-0 loss to Baltimore.

“You’ve just got to try to do what you can to get the job done,” Smith said afterward. “We haven’t been able to do it as often as we like. We just have to keep working, keep battling, keep grinding and the ball will bounce our way.”

Josiah Gray has unquestionably gotten off to a good start this season, especially once he overcame some early home run foibles in his first outing of the year. That’s important to the Nationals in the grand scheme, because improvement from the 25-year-old right-hander is high on their list of goals for 2023.

It would be nice, though, if the Nats could reward Gray for his efforts by getting him at least one win at some point. Or, you know, providing at least one run of support for him.

Alas, that isn’t happening at all, and the disturbing trend continued tonight during a frustrating, 1-0 loss to the Orioles in the opener of this year’s Battle of the Beltways on South Capitol Street.

Despite another strong start from Gray, the Nationals lineup was once again rendered helpless, shut out for the third time this season. Notably, all three shutouts have come during Gray’s last three starts.

"You go through some tough luck like this, when you do have good starters make some good pitches and pitch well, and it sucks," first baseman Dominic Smith said. "It sucks that we weren't able to push across a couple runs for him, especially with how well he's been pitching."

The first round of this year’s Battle of the Beltways begins tonight, and though the roles of the two participants have changed somewhat at this stage in each franchise’s development, there’s still reason to believe the baseball played the next two nights on South Capitol Street will be compelling.

The Nationals have been playing compelling baseball for nearly two weeks now: Nine of their last 10 games have been decided by one or two runs, the lone outlier a 10-5 win at Colorado. They’re also playing relatively low-scoring games, the average score this season checking in at 5.1-3.9 in the opponents’ favor. The Orioles have been playing a more varied brand of baseball so far. Nine of their 16 games have been decided by three or more runs, and their average score has been 5.9-5.4 in their favor.

Josiah Gray’s task tonight: Keep a potent lineup that ranks first in the American League in on-base percentage and second in slugging percentage and homers in check. He’s been pretty good at that so far, especially after his ragged opening inning to the season: He’s allowed only two homers in 15 innings since, while walking only five batters in 16 2/3 innings overall.

The Nats will have to try to hit the ball in the air against Dean Kremer, who has allowed five homers in only 12 1/3 innings to date, completing five innings only once in three starts. They got power from Jeimer Candelario and Luis García during Sunday’s win, so perhaps that will carry over into this week.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs. BALTIMORE ORIOLES
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 7:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Clear, 65 degrees, wind 14 mph left field to right field

Of the many aspects of baseball for which we can produce statistics, for me, defense is the hardest to quantify and hardest to find reliable stats. There may be some numbers – advanced or otherwise – that some fans swear by, but I have often struggled to find any to really suit myself.

Many defensive metrics are hard to understand and which one (s) should we rely on? That is not easy to determine either.

But one defensive stat that seems more in the norm now or one used more often now is Defensive Runs Saved (DRS). Maybe O’s fans will like this stat even more when they realize that while their team ranked among the worst in baseball in that stat in the most three recent full seasons, this year Baltimore ranked tied for ninth in team DRS in MLB.

Here are the top 10 teams in DRS from 2022:

129 – New York Yankees
84 – Los Angeles Dodgers
77 – Cleveland Guardians
70 – St. Louis Cardinals
67 – Houston Astros
55 – Arizona Diamondbacks
51 – Milwaukee Brewers
43 – Toronto Blue Jays
38 – Baltimore Orioles and Seattle Mariners

Hunter Harvey had taken the mound 55 times in a big league game, and aside from perhaps the first time three years ago, he did so feeling like he was completely in control of the situation. Until the Nationals right-hander found himself jogging in from the bullpen during the fourth inning Tuesday night, tasked with pitching out of a jam created by starter Cory Abbott, against the Orioles team that drafted him in 2013 and gave him his first big league appearance in 2019.

“That was like debut adrenaline,” he said afterward. “It don’t come around very often.”

And he didn’t mean it in a positive way.

By the time he departed one inning later, Harvey had suffered through perhaps the worst of his 30 appearances with the Nats this season, giving up both the tying and go-ahead runs in what would end up a 4-3 loss. Making matters worse, the tying run came via the first home run he’s surrendered this year, and it just so happened to come off the bat of one of his best friends: Ryan Mountcastle.

After escaping the fourth-inning jam with one inherited runner scoring but his team’s lead intact, Harvey prepared to return for the fifth. He knew Mountcastle would be leading off, and both guys knew they were about to square off for the first time in an actual game after years of imagining just such a scenario.

The way they jumped out to an early lead, this felt like a night that would see the Nationals keep putting runners on base and keep threatening to add to that lead. Turns out they wouldn’t score again, and the one time they seriously threatened, their rookie shortstop ran himself out of the inning.

This 4-3 loss to the Orioles was frustrating, though for different reasons than many previous losses were. There was no bullpen meltdown. There was no critical defensive mistake. There was no disastrous outing by the starting pitcher.

Instead, this one-run loss saw the Nationals lineup go cold after the third inning, then botch its last best chance to tie the game when CJ Abrams tried to advance to third base on a ground ball right in front of him to kill a sixth-inning rally.

"He's young and wanting to get to third base, knew he had to get to third base," manager Davey Martinez said. "But that situation, you've got to see the ball through. You've got to get back to second and see what happens. It's just a young mistake. He knew right away: He should've gone back."

Abrams, whose play of late has mostly been sensational, led off the inning with a double to the gap in left-center, knocking Baltimore starter Dean Kremer from the game. But when reliever Dillon Tate immediately got Israel Pineda to hit a sharp grounder to short, Abams took off for third, an ill-advised gamble.

Luis García has excelled at his new position in the field. How will he handle a new position in the Nationals lineup?

García finds himself batting cleanup tonight for the first time in his career, penciled in by manager Davey Martinez as his No. 4 hitter for the Nats’ series opener against the Orioles.

It’s both a reflection of García's performance at the plate and the state of the rest of the lineup, which has seen Nelson Cruz struggle mightily and get bumped out of the cleanup spot, plus Keibert Ruiz land on the injured list likely for the remainder of the season.

“I wanted to try to break up our lineup with some of those righties and get him in there,” Martinez said. “He matches up well with (Orioles starter Dean Kremer) in there today. I thought we’ll give it a shot, see how he reacts to it. When he hits the ball, he hits it hard. I like the way he’s swinging the bat. So we’re going to put him at cleanup and see how he does.”

García has enjoyed a sustained stretch of success at the plate, batting .312 with four doubles, two homers, nine RBIs and an .809 OPS over his last 14 games. That coincides with his return from a minor groin strain and his move from shortstop to second base following CJ Abrams’ arrival from the Padres.

And we’re back at Nationals Park for the first time in 12 days. The Nats return to town following a long, three-city road trip that included series wins at New York and St. Louis but then a sweep in Philadelphia, which left a sour taste in everyone’s mouths. Now they begin a five-game homestand against the Orioles and Marlins as the final 21-game stretch of the season arrives.

The two interleague rivals split their two-game series at Camden Yards in June, one of those a rain-shorted loss. At that point, the Orioles were just starting to push their way into the American League postseason picture. They remain in the mix now, but they’ve taken a few steps back in the last week and enter this week 5 1/2 games behind the Rays for the final wild card berth.

Cory Abbott makes the start tonight as the Nationals give Josiah Gray and Paolo Espino extra rest before their next starts. The right-hander has done a solid-if-unspectacular job as a swingman, bouncing between the rotation and the bullpen. We’ll see how he does tonight against an emerging Baltimore lineup.

BALTIMORE ORIOLES at WASHINGTON NATIONALS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 7:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Clear, 76 degrees, wind 7 mph out to right field

NATIONALS
CF Lane Thomas
RF Joey Meneses
1B Luke Voit
2B Luis García
DH Nelson Cruz
LF Alex Call
SS CJ Abrams
C Israel Pineda
3B Ildemaro Vargas

BALTIMORE – The Nationals and Orioles knew it was going to start raining at some point tonight, it was just a matter of when. And once it began, whether it would stop for any reasonable length of time.

So that turned tonight’s game into something of a three-way battle between Patrick Corbin, Tyler Wells and Mother Nature. And in the end, Mother Nature (and, as it turns out, the Orioles) won, though they both managed to prolong the misery.

With Baltimore leading by three runs after 4 1/2 innings, making this an official game, the skies over Camden Yards finally opened. But the rain eased up enough to allow play to resume after a 44-minute delay, giving Austin Hays the opportunity to hit for the cycle and the Orioles to extend their lead to 7-0 before the game went into another delay at the end of the sixth inning, this one lasting 1 hour, 2 minutes before the game finally was called.

"The grounds crew was really good," manager Davey Martinez said. "They did a good job to try to get us back out there. But we were going to battle the weather all night. The field, even though it could've been playable later on, it's going to rain. The outfield was pretty soaked. So I think they did a good job by calling it."

So it was the Nats were left to suffer a blowout loss and spend more time than they wanted to at the ballpark before boarding a late flight to Texas for this weekend’s series against the Rangers.

BALTIMORE – Though none of them are ready to return yet, several rehabbing Nationals pitchers are moving closer to rejoining the active roster, a potential boon for an overworked staff this summer.

Mason Thompson began a rehab assignment for Triple-A Rochester today and tossed a scoreless inning, with a strikeout during the frame. The right-hander, out since mid-April with a biceps strain, is scheduled to make several more minor league appearances to build his arm up but could be added to the bullpen as soon as he reaches that point.

Sean Doolittle, meanwhile, has been throwing from 120 feet, a significant progression as he attempts to return from an elbow sprain suffered in late April after making only five appearances. The veteran lefty seems to be benefitting from the effects of a platelet-rich plasma injection he received last month, though he still needs to throw off a mound before knowing he’s on the full road to recovery.

“He says he feels really good,” manager Davey Martinez said today, “which is great.”

Aníbal Sánchez and Josh Rogers are now in West Palm Beach, Fla., throwing to live hitters. Sánchez, out since opening day with a nerve impingement in his neck, pitched two innings for the organization’s Rookie-level club and could head out to join one of the higher-level minor league affiliates soon to build up his pitch count before potentially coming off the 60-day injured list.

BALTIMORE – After a beautiful, unseasonably mild Tuesday evening here, it’s a very seasonable, hot and muggy and wet Wednesday afternoon here as the Nationals and Orioles prepare to wrap up their two-game interleague series. It began raining a short while ago, and the Camden Yards grounds crew rolled out the tarp, canceling batting practice. More is expected tonight, so it’s anybody’s guess whether this game will start on time or be completed at all. Stay tuned.

If they’re able to play, it’ll be Patrick Corbin on the mound trying to continue the suddenly dominant ways of the Nats rotation, which hasn’t allowed an earned run in any of its last three starts. Corbin has made it through only one of 14 starts so far this season without allowing a run, and he gave up nine (only two earned) in his last outing. So he’s not exactly primed to pick up where Erick Fedde left off Tuesday night, but we’ll see.

The Nationals get their first look at Tyler Wells as a starter. The Baltimore right-hander did pitch two innings in relief last May in D.C., but he’s blossomed into an effective member of the rotation this season. He’s allowed three or fewer runs in all but one of his 13 starts, though he’s yet to top six innings or 88 pitches.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at BALTIMORE ORIOLES
Where: Camden Yards
Gametime: 7:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Rain, 76 degrees, wind 10 mph in from right field

NATIONALS
2B César Hernández
RF Juan Soto
1B Josh Bell
DH Nelson Cruz
SS Luis García
CF Lane Thomas
LF Yadiel Hernandez
C Riley Adams
3B Erhire Adrianza

BALTIMORE – Four days ago, the Nationals pitching staff – specifically the rotation – was a mess. A series of unfortunate events left Davey Martinez scrambling to find somebody to start each night, then a bunch of guys to come out of the bullpen after said starter failed to complete even four innings. It was, to put it mildly, an unsustainable situation.

And then Josiah Gray tossed six scoreless innings Saturday against the Phillies, and Jackson Tetreault tossed seven innings without allowing an earned run Sunday against the Phillies and now here was Erick Fedde walking off the mound at the end of the sixth tonight at Camden Yards with nothing but zeroes on the board.

Just like that, the worst rotation in the majors had authored not only three straight quality starts, but three straight starts without allowing an earned run. And that allowed the back end of Martinez’s bullpen to come into this game fresh and finish off what Fedde started, completing a 3-0 victory over the Orioles to open this two-game portion of the Battle of the Beltways.

"That's pretty impressive," Martinez said. "After everything we've been through, we come out today and the pitchers throw a shutout."

Some opportunistic early offense staked the Nats to a two-run lead, and though they certainly would’ve liked to take advantage of more scoring opportunities to add to that lead, they ultimately didn’t need it. (Though they happily accepted Lane Thomas’ tack-on homer in the top of the ninth.)

BALTIMORE – Hello from Camden Yards, which looks different than the last time the Nationals were here. The left field wall has been pushed way back and up, turning what used to be one of the best hitter’s parks in the majors into one of the best pitcher’s parks (at least on that side of the field).

We’ll see how that impacts the Nats, but certainly Erick Fedde (tonight’s starter) and Patrick Corbin (Wednesday’s starter) won’t be complaining at all. Fedde will try to keep the recent run of quality starts by this rotation going, following in the footsteps of Josiah Gray on Saturday and Jackson Tetreault on Sunday. If he doesn’t, at least the bullpen is fresh following a much-needed off-day.

The lineup will try to pick up where it left off Sunday, when it exploded for nine runs against the Phillies. Juan Soto, Nelson Cruz and Josh Bell will be going up against right-hander Jordan Lyles, who has a 5.10 ERA and has allowed four or more earned runs in fewer than six innings in each of his last three starts.

As expected, the Nats activated Alcides Escobar off the 10-day injured list today. Escobar, out since May 31 with a hamstring strain, will assume a utility infielder spot, with Luis García remaining the everyday shortstop for now.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at BALTIMORE ORIOLES
Where: Camden Yards
Gametime: 7:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Partly cloudy, 84 degrees, wind 7 mph out to center field

After fielding questions for several minutes late Sunday afternoon about the Nationals’ 9-3 victory over the Phillies, Davey Martinez was asked how he would sum up the entire 14-games-in-13-days stretch that had finally concluded.

“I can’t wait for the off-day tomorrow,” he said with a smile.

He wasn’t alone. The entire Nationals organization had been counting down the hours to their first day off in two weeks. (The last one came on June 6, in between series in Cincinnati and Miami, if you can remember that far back.)

How’d they do during that 14-game stretch? Not well. They went 3-11, with an eight-game losing streak in there, and were outscored 91-59. They lost Stephen Strasburg to a rib injury and Josiah Gray to a rain delay. They made 21 transactions, bringing three pitchers up to D.C. for the first time: Jackson Tetreault, Reed Garrett and Cory Abbott. They activated Strasburg off the IL and placed him back on the IL. They both recalled and optioned Sam Clay, Joan Adon, Andres Machado and Abbott during that time.

The day off was desperately needed, especially for the pitching staff. Now, though, Martinez has the ability to hit the reset button and align his starters as he prefers.

ANAHEIM, Calif. – After their latest well-pitched game on Friday and with a 4-4 record over the last eight games, the Orioles continue their road trip tonight at Angel Stadium. The Orioles (5-9) play the Los Angeles Angels (8-6) in the second of a three-game series.

With Friday’s 5-3 win, the Orioles improved to 2-3 on this road trip and to 3-2 in series-opening games. If they can win one of the next two, they will have their second series victory of 2022.

Left-hander Bruce Zimmermann and three relievers teamed up for an eight-hitter with just one walk and nine strikeouts last night. Zimmermann allowed two earned runs over six-plus innings and is 1-0 with a 1.20 ERA. Then Félix Bautista, Cionel Pérez and Jorge López combined for three scoreless out of the ‘pen. Catcher Robinson Chirinos drove in three of the five Baltimore runs.

One of the more improbable things that happened last night was how the Orioles handled Shohei Ohtani, the 2021 American League MVP and the 2021 AP Male Athlete of the Year.

A player who last year had a .965 OPS and 46 homers. A player who in ’21 became the fourth player all-time and first American Leaguer to tally 45 homers, 100 RBIs, 100 runs and 25 stolen bases in a single season.

Austin Hays was 2-for-3 on Tuesday night, but was one of just two Orioles with hits in the game.

The Orioles fell to the Marlins 4-0 on Tuesday night.

John Means allowed just one run in the 4.2 innings in a 4-0 loss to the Marlins.

After a handful of positive COVID-19 tests, the Marlins have been scrambling to put together a roster for their series with the Orioles.