Washington Nationals 2025 Season

THE LEAD

When you are a rebuilding team trying to make the next step into “frisky” before you get to “pseudo-contender,” you have to start by beating the bad teams more often than not, and the Nationals failed to do that on this ten-game road swing against the worst opponents that the National League had to offer, going 4-6 against the Marlins, Pirates, and Rockies. Instead of coming home at .500 or better, they are 9-13 and mostly listless, mired in mediocrity because of an inconsistent offense that is overly reliant on five guys and because of an atrocious bullpen that has four hideously unreliable pitchers in it who have blown up almost every game that they have entered. While there were some positive notes from the trip - most importantly a potential Dylan Crews breakout - the negatives outweighed the positives, and the Nats are taking on more water (especially in the bullpen).

 Washington Nationals 2025 Season

Game Recap

The Nats played two games yesterday on account of a Friday snowstorm in Denver, splitting the doubleheader with the Rockies in a pair of low-scoring games (after a rather typical Coors Field 12-11 special on Saturday). Jake Irvin pitched into the seventh inning in the opener, giving up a pair of solo shots but striking out nine and limiting the bullpen options to the two best ones, Jose A. Ferrer and Kyle Finnegan. All of the offense came courtesy of the Rockies’ backup catcher, Braxton Fulford, whose two third-inning throwing errors (one on a steal attempt and one on what should have been an easy 1-2-3 double play) resulted in all three Nats runs.

The Nats hit no better in the nightcap, managing seven singles but sequencing them such that they only scored a single first-inning run. Brad Lord, making his third start in place of the injured Michael Soroka, gave up a pair of runs in his four innings on the mound before giving way to a procession of relievers that only managed to add one run to the Rockies’ ledger. Dylan Crews singled to start a potential rally in the top of the ninth, but was followed by three consecutive strikeouts to end the game and the road trip. Scoring but one earned run in eighteen innings in Colorado is pretty bad, but that was the Nats’ offense yesterday.

 STORY TYPE

Make Some Changes, Mike

Four relievers with an ERA north of 8.00. At least two of them need to go if Mike Rizzo doesn’t want to lose the clubhouse and the remainder of the fanbase. There is nothing so demoralizing as a decrepit bullpen for a baseball team. Zach Brzykcy has pitched twice so far on his rehab assignment, and Konnor Pilkington seems to have figured something out in Rochester, so they could replace any of Poche, Sims, Sálazar, or López tomorrow and few tears would be shed. If wins actually matter in 2025, the roster needs to be given a better chance to win more games in the late innings. Oh, and sell the team, Mark.

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 WHAT WE THINK THE NATIONALS FRONT OFFICE IS READING

Speed Reads

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