WEST PALM BEACH, FL - The Nationals played their first split-squad doubleheader of the spring this Saturday, featuring an afternoon matchup in Jupiter with the Cardinals and a home nightcap against the Marlins. Despite having two close-to-even-quality groups, the two games could not have gone any more different from one another.

In the road contest with St. Louis, pitching proved to be key for both teams. The Nationals lineup, headlined by Jacob Young, Robert Hassell III, Nathaniel Lowe, Josh Bell, and recent free agency pickup Paul DeJong was only able to muster three hits and two runs against veteran righty Miles Mikolas. The Cardinals used five bullpen arms after his 2.2 innings, and they held the Nats to no runs and just three hits for the rest of the game. Ultimately, the lack of further pressure would slowly do the Nationals in.

Another right-handed veteran, Michael Soroka, took the bump for the Nats. He tossed three shutout, no-hit innings against a lineup that featured Lars Nootbaar, Willson Contreras, and Nolan Arenado before handing the ball off to Lucas Sims for the bottom of the 4th inning. Sims went on to give up two runs off of a Contreras homer, but Joan Adon, Clay Helvey, Tyler Stuart, and Jarlin Susana were able to keep things tied going into the bottom of the ninth. Marquis Grissom Jr. took the ball and recorded two outs before surrendering a walk-off single to Thomas Saggese, dropping the Nats’ spring record to 3-4.

On the bright side, both of Washington’s runs came from a Josh Bell home run in the top of the first. While it may not have been the case today, early tone-setters like that can go a long way toward picking up a Curly W., specifically a homer like Bell’s, which went 414 feet to dead center field with a 30-degree launch angle. All runs but the last of today’s game were hit by guys who will be in the Majors, off of Major League pitchers. The main difference was that the Nationals did not bring all their big guns to Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium. Most notably absent from the afternoon lineup were CJ Abrams and Dylan Crews, who stayed in West Palm to play the night game as well as James Wood, who got the day off.

The 6:00 showdown in West Palm went a bit differently, though it started off looking dire. Luis Garcia Jr. was scratched pregame with an illness, and MacKenzie Gore opened with a four-pitch walk to Xavier Edwards. However, Gore was able to settle down and thrive just like he did in the first half of last season. After opting to sit out the first week of games so that he could pitch for multiple innings in his first start, Gore threw three shutout innings just like Soroka had hours prior, allowing just two hits while striking out four.

Following his departure, Eduardo Salazar, Jose A. Ferrer, Jackson Rutledge, and Orlando Ribalta picked each other up by going at least an inning each. Salazar threw for 2.0, as did Rutledge on the way to a shutout win.

Early on, things did not look much better than they had against St. Louis or any other game throughout the past week. The offense had been struggling to put bat to ball, and adjustments looked very much needed. Finally, the lineup broke through in the bottom of the third. A string of small-ball hits from Jose Tena, CJ Abrams, Dylan Crews, and Juan Yepez scored two runs. Andres Chaparro and Alex Call worked walks, giving Riley Adams a golden opportunity that he took to hit a grand slam and give the Nats a 6-0 lead. Crews drove another run in during the fourth inning, and that was all she wrote as the Nationals won a 7-0 slugfest after dropping a pitcher’s duel earlier in the day. The spring record will stay at .500 for another day.

Up next:

The Nationals will face off with the Astros today in what is technically a road game in West Palm. Trevor Williams will face off against Ronel Blanco at 1:00. It will be broadcast on 106.7 The Fan, but not on TV, for either team. The team will then get Monday off before facing St. Louis in Jupiter yet again.