Washington Nationals 2025 Season

THE LEAD

The Nationals were not quite able to complete the sweep of the defending World Series champion Los Angeles Súper-Galácticos, er, Dodgers, even without noted Nats killer Freddie F****** Freeman around for any of the series, but still, taking two of three from them at home for the first time in eleven years is a decent accomplishment. Now they will go on their first long road trip of the season, a ten-game swing through the dregs of the National League: Miami (three), Pittsburgh (four), and Colorado (three).

Before anyone gets too excited about the possibility of an 8-2 romp or anything like that, allow me to remind you that Sandy Alcántara will be pitching for the Marlins on Saturday, and Paul Skenes for the Pirates on Monday (against MacKenzie Gore - that could be fun). And Coors Field can mess with any pitching staff. Hopefully, the Nats’ rotation can spare the bullpen by dominating the Marlins and Pirates, who have two of the most putrid offenses in baseball (.235/.305/.349 and .205/.288/.318, respectively).

 Washington Nationals 2025 Season

Game Recap

Just about everyone’s dreams of a sweep were pretty well banished four batters into the game, as the Dodgers went single, walk, triple, home run to grab a 4-0 lead before Jake Irvin had recorded an out, eventually forcing him to throw 37 pitches in that first inning. Dodgers starter Landon Knack fared no better, however, as the first four Nationals also reached base (home run, walk, single, walk). Two productive outs followed to make it 4-3, with Knack laboring through 40 tosses of his own. While Irvin regrouped and managed to complete six innings, punctuating his outing by striking out Max Muncy with his 103rd pitch, Knack continued to struggle, getting chased by a Luis García Jr. RBI double in the third inning (the Nats took a 5-4 lead courtesy of an Alex Call sac fly - who else? - immediately after Knack hit the showers).

Eventually, however, Irvin did have to depart the game, which meant that someone had to come in from the bullpen. And for the twelfth consecutive game, the bullpen was unable to keep a clean sheet. This time it was Eduardo Sálazar, who seems to spit the bit any time he is put into a high-leverage situation, to do the honors, surrendering an Andy Pages bomb two batters in to tie the game. Four batters later Teóscar Hernández - who hit the home run in the first - singled in Shohei Ohtani to give the Dodgers the lead and an ideal opportunity to use the rest of their (rested) top relief arms, as Tanner Scott, Alex Vesia, and Blake Treinen each threw a scoreless inning to salvage a win for Los Angeles (although Treinen made it interesting by allowing the winning run to reach second base before getting James Wood to bounce out harmlessly to second base for the final out).

 Washington Nationals Season 2025

Young? Forever?

We need to talk about Jacob Young for a minute. After getting shredded over the winter and hitting a home run early in spring training, he has basically stopped hitting, following his .245/.315/.347 spring with a 4-for-24 start now that the games count. He has lost three starts to the more productive Alex Call already, and there is every reason to expect that Davey Martinez will continue to ride Call’s hot hand for the time being - a hot hand that stretches back to his midseason recall last summer.

If Young isn’t hitting (and he also hits into way too many double plays for someone with his wheels), he has to provide value defensively and on the bases in order to justify holding onto a roster spot. While Young’s defense has been good thus far, his base running has not, and it has in fact been pretty bad since getting caught stealing for the first time in his career last May after twenty-five successful attempts dating back to his 2023 call-up. After getting caught stealing yesterday, Young has only been successful once in four tries this season (on the back end of a double steal behind Dylan Crews), and has been nailed in thirteen of his last thirty-five forays for an appallingly bad 62.8% success rate (anything below 75% means you are costing your team more chances to score than you are creating) - even worse when you remember that there might not be five faster players in the majors.

If the fourth outfielder can’t be trusted to hit or pinch run, he might need some time in Rochester to work on reading pitchers and hitting the ball hard enough to do damage. The Nationals might want to think about optioning him in favor of either Juan Yépez (if they feel that they need more thump) or Robert Hassell III (a more similar skill set) if these base running adventures continue.

theFUTURE

Rochester Red Wings Double-Header Recap

Red Wings Split a Doubleheader with the Rail Riders!

In the first game of the doubleheader with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, the Red Wings were victorious seven to four. Alex Jackson hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the first inning with two outs to stake the RailRiders to a 3-0 lead. In the top of the second, Drew Millas came up with two outs and the bases loaded when he drilled his third triple of the year, clearing the bases and tying the game at three. Rob Hassell III had a 3-hit game for the second time this year.

He had one RBI and scored a run in leading the Wings to a 7-4 win and snapping a 5-game losing streak. Konnor Pilkington relieved Chase Solesky with one out in the fourth, with runners at first and third with one out. He struck out the first batter he faced and got the second batter to hit a lazy fly ball to Jackson Cluff at shortstop to get out of the inning. Pilkington pitched a clean fifth inning and pitched 1.2 perfect innings, striking out three and getting his first win as a Red Wing. The second game was a well-pitched game between the Red Wings’ Andrew Alvarez and RailRiders’ Brandon Leibrandt.

They dueled for five innings, and when Andrew Alvarez left the game, the Wings had taken the lead 3-2. This is the second time this season Alvarez left the game in line to get the win, but the bullpen was not able to hold for the victory. Joan Adon came into the game, and between two walks and two errors (11 errors for the season), the Rail Riders tied the game at three. The Red Wings went down in order in the top of the seventh, and Scranton won the game in the bottom of the seventh with a walk-off single by Dominic Smith and a 4-3 win.

Andry Lara will take the ball for the Red Wings for game three of this six-game series. Thursday’s game time is 6:35.

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 WHAT WE THINK THE NATIONALS FRONT OFFICE IS READING

Speed Reads

📌 How to Measure Roster Depth (Fangraphs)

📌 MLB Exploring Licensing MLB TV (The Athletic)

📌 Did the Nats Expose the Dodgers? (Yahoo!)