Washington Nationals 2025 Season

THE LEAD

As our own Richard Wachtel wrote yesterday, CJ Abrams may be back in a Curly W jersey as soon as this evening’s Battle of the Beltways finale. Abrams played the full nine innings yesterday afternoon for AA Harrisburg in their loss to Erie (he went 0-3 with a sacrifice fly and handled six chances in the field, committing an error but immediately erasing that mistake as part of one of his two double plays), and my assumption would be that if all is well, he will be en route to South Capitol Street by the time you are reading this. He was probably under instruction to let the brain trust (in this case Mike Rizzo, Davey Martinez, and Paul Lessard) know how he felt after waking up this morning, and immediately get a ride to DC (whether via a car or the 9:10 Amtrak departure is unknown - the two take roughly the same amount of time) if all systems were go. Perhaps if Nasim Nuñez were providing anything at the plate right now they would give Abrams another day or two, but alas, Nuñez has looked more lost than ever before at the plate, and in fact was lifted in the bottom of the eighth last night for a pinch hitter - pulling your (in this case stellar defensive) shortstop in the late innings of a close game is very rare. The question when Abrams returns, whether tonight or this weekend, is where Martinez puts him in the lineup. Because, folks - and see more below - James Wood is doing pretty well there.

We will certainly wait longer for the return of Michael Soroka, who threw 46 pitches while recording eight outs a couple days ago. That could potentially present its own conundrum, as by the time Soroka is most likely to return (in another two to three weeks), Brad Lord should be fully stretched out and had a chance to finish a fifth inning or three.

 Washington Nationals 2025 Season

Game Recap

So, about James Wood. He turned on a 3-1 Tomoyuki Sugano fastball to lead off the game for the Nats and submitted the hardest-hit ball of his career to date, a 116.3-mph ICBM that bounced back into right field from the upper deck. Yes, I said right field. Wood doesn’t pull many balls in the air yet, but when he does, oh my. It was his eighth home run of the season, pulling him into a tie for the National League lead with Tommy Edman (???) and Fernando Tatis Jr. (!!!), and a few batters later Josh Bell followed suit with an upper-deck shot of his own to give the Nats an early 3-0 lead.

The Orioles chipped away against Trevor Williams and the bullpen (of course), tying the game in the top of the eighth against Jorge López with a sacrifice fly. Alex Call pinch hit for Nuñez in the bottom half of the frame and singled, followed by Wood calmly walking with a full count. Nathaniel Lowe grounded into what sure looked like a double play but beat the relay to keep it to one out. And then Luis García Jr. flied deep to center to bring in Call. Kyle Finnegan made it interesting as he usually does, putting two men on, but nailed down his ninth save in as many chances, tied for second in the majors.

The win gave the Nationals a series win against their former MASN overlords, and they will go for their first sweep tonight at 6:45 behind MLB strikeout leader MacKenzie Gore.

 Washington Nationals Anaylsis

ISO Another Power Bat

After their crooked number in the first, the Nationals managed but two singles over the next twenty trips to the plate, by Dylan Crews and Lowe. Thus the inconsistent offense continued (the day after a whopping ten extra-base hits), which is the biggest area where Abrams’s return could help the most. Another impact bat would hopefully make the lineup significantly harder for opposing pitchers to navigate as Crews in particular continues to warm up - though his surface rate stats are still ugly he has been tagging the ball into some loud outs, with an expected batting average (xBA) of .285 and and expected slugging percentage of .514, both in the 81st percentile in baseball, and his fifth-inning single came out at 105 mph.

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Speed Reads

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