An average crowd of just over 30,000 turned out for a battle for fourth place over the weekend in our nation’s capital. The Washington Nationals won the first game of a three-game set to briefly tie the Philadelphia Phillies in the NL East division at 25-32. But the Phillies used eight home runs to win two of the three games. The Nats hit only two homers and are now back in sole possession of fifth place.
The Nats salvaged the series finale with a road comeback victory over the best team in the National League.
The Washington Nationals made their first trip to Kansas City since 2016. But after winning the first two games, the Nats could not complete the sweep.
On a day that was more like classic San Diego weather, the Nats let the rubber game slip away in crushing fashion. Padres INF Rougned Odor hit a ninth inning two-out 3-run HR that sliced through Nats fans’ hearts.
The Washington Nationals won the last two games of a three-games series versus the Detroit Tigers over the weekend. After losing their fourth game in a row on Friday night, the Nats righted the ship and won their second series out of the last four.
The Miami Marlins took all three games from the Washington Nationals in Florida this week. Washington got swept for the first time since the second series of the season versus the Tampa Bay Rays. The Nats lost three straight for the first time since April 27 to April 29.
Miami enjoyed a little bit of luck here and there throughout the series. In taking the first two games by just a run, the Marlins are now 14-1 in one run games on the year. With a -52 run differential, that record in tight games is not sustainable.
But a three-game losing streak stings no matter how you slice it. The losses seemed like a “garden variety” sweep at the hands of a division rival. However, not being able to sustain momentum from series to series remains a troubling trend for these Nats. Too many strikeouts and not enough hits in the clutch doomed the Nats in South Florida.
The Nats record fell to 18-26. They haven’t been eight games under .500 since May 1. They got very close to crawling within four games of .500 in game 1 of the series.
In the last week, the Washington Nationals won two straight road series versus good teams (Twins, Mets). In taking the first two games of each series the Nats finished a very productive road trip at 4-2. The Nats road record now stands at 7-6. If those numbers sound good, the team’s quality of play was even better. The National League leading Pittsburgh Pirates (18-8) roll into town for a three-game set over the weekend.
Thanks to a double shutout sweep, the Baltimore Orioles now lead the all-time “Beltway Series” 53-39 over the Washington Nationals since the Montreal Expos relocated to the District in 2005. Going forward, I’ll be referring to these matchups as the “MASN Baseball Classic (MBC).”
In a series that contained ex-teammates on both sides, Cleveland’s Josh Bell had the better of Alex Call and the Nats as the Guardians took 2 out of 3 games from Washington.
The Angels outplayed the Nationals in the series even though Trout and Ohtani combined did next to nothing with their bats. After pitching the night before, Ohtani was not in the lineup on Thursday afternoon for Los Angeles. Trout went hitless (0-11) in the series and struck out 4 times, while Ohtani was 1-7 with 4 strikeouts.
