Nats follow up meltdown with another stinker

After a gut-wrenching loss like the Washington Nationals suffered against the San Francisco Giants recently its always interesting to see how a team responds.

On Wednesday, the Nats were cruising to an easy victory, leading 9-1 entering the bottom of the eighth inning on the road when disaster struck. The Giants scored 5 runs in the eighth and another 5 runs in the ninth, capped by a walk-off grand slam, for the win.

The Nats were one win away from a sweep, but for the fifth time in their last five opportunities, Washington failed to win the getaway game.

While their record may not reflect it, the team´s offensive day/night splits are drastic.

In 34-day games, the Nats have 261 hits, 34 home runs, with a .229 batting average. In 36 night games, the team has 326 hits, 57 home runs, with a .258 average, according to ESPN stats. But despite the glaring offensive difference, the team is still 16-18 during day games compared to 19-17 at night.

But this day game was different. The Nats scored nine runs, which should have been more than enough to secure the win, but if an overtaxed bullpen led to last week's collapse, the blame for Thursday's equally embarrassing loss was teamwide.

Nationals follow up embarrassing loss with another stinker

While the Washington Nationals play much better at night than they do during the day, they also play much better on the road than they do at home, so their homecoming against the Seattle Mariners had a chance to be an outright disaster, and after the first game, it looked like it would be.

The Mariners trounced the Nationals 10-2 in the series opener Friday night after a 3-hour rain delay.

The Mariners jumped on the Nationals early, scoring five runs in the second inning on their way to chasing starting pitcher Zack Littell from the game after just 1.2 innings pitched.

But the story of the game was on the other mound as Mariners young pitching phenom Bryce Miller continued to have the best season of his career at the expense of the Nationals' high-powered offense.

Miller's ERA actually rose slightly to 1.54 for the season after he allowed just two runs on four hits across eight innings pitched while striking out 7 batters. It was the first time the 27-year-old had gone 8 innings in his four-year big league career.

If Miller hadn't been on the injured list for the first seven weeks of the season, he would probably be the frontrunner for the AL Cy Young Award. That's how good he's been this season.

And the Nats' bats had nothing for him.

Nats rebound in game 2, look to win the series Sunday

Despite the rough outing on Friday, the Washington Nationals' offense was resurrected on Saturday, allowing the team to top the Mariners 8-3 behind clutch situational hitting from left fielder Daylen Lile, three hits and two runs driven by shortstop CJ Abrams, and a home run from the suddenly red-hot first baseman Luis Garcia Jr.

Cade Cavalli once again was pitching a gem before the wheels came off in the fifth inning when he allowed 3 runs, including a monster two-run homer to Colt Emerson, the Mariners nine-hole hitter who has 6 home runs on just 17 hits all season.

That ended what looked like a promising start that could have gone much deeper into the game early for him. PJ Poulin, Orlando Ribalta, Richard Lovelady and Brad Lord combined to get the final 12 outs for the convincing Nats victory.

Sunday afternoon, the team has a chance to win its third series in a row and the sixth out of its last seven.

But the team will have to get over its day game offensive jitters to do so.

Related: Cade Cavalli Throws Nationals Crucial Lifeline

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This story was originally published June 14, 2026 at 5:28 PM.