Saturday night’s decision to designate struggling right-hander Aaron Sanchez for assignment was prompted by the Nationals’ need to clear a 40-man roster spot in order to account for the fill-in starter they’ll need Wednesday in New York.

Manager Davey Martinez said the club will have someone not currently in the rotation start Wednesday’s series finale against the Mets, an outing that became necessary due to Friday night’s rainout and Saturday’s subsequent day-night doubleheader against the Rockies.

Martinez insisted the decision hasn’t been made yet and likely won’t until Tuesday, but acknowledged it played a role in Saturday night’s DFA decision with Sanchez.

“We felt like we’re going to need a spot here next week,” the manager said prior to today’s series finale against Colorado. “We felt like right now was a good time to start thinking about what we’re going to do for Wednesday. I can tell you right now, we have a lot of different options and things we’re thinking about. We won’t have a decision until probably Tuesday.”

The schedule does limit the team’s options to some extent. The organization’s top two pitching prospects, Cade Cavalli and Cole Henry, each had dominant starts Saturday night, with Cavalli tossing seven scoreless innings for Triple-A Rochester and Henry pitching four perfect innings for Double-A Harrisburg. Neither would be ready to come back and pitch Wednesday, though, removing them from the equation for now.

They say you can start drawing legitimate conclusions about a ballclub on Memorial Day, with nearly one-third of a season’s worth of data available by then. So as we commemorate this holiday weekend, here’s one thing we can say with some certainty about the 2022 Nationals: When they win, they score a bunch of runs.

The Nats don’t have a great lineup. They don’t hit for power. They don’t consistently cross the plate night in and night out.

But when they do cross the plate, they do it in droves. And today’s 13-7 victory over the Rockies in the opener of a split doubleheader was merely the latest evidence of it.

The Nationals, who now have their first three-game winning streak of the year, have won only 11 of their last 34 games overall. But in those 11 wins, they’ve scored an average of 8.8 runs, blasting the competition and rarely needing to sweat those victories out.

And would you believe they're one of only four teams in the majors (joining the Dodgers, Yankees and Cardinals) to score 10 or more runs six times this season?

OK, let’s try this again. The Nationals and Rockies came oh so close to playing Friday night, only to have the game postponed about 25 minutes before scheduled first pitch and rescheduled as part of a day-night doubleheader today. So get ready for a long day (and night) of baseball on South Capitol Street, beginning at 12:05 p.m. with the makeup for Friday night’s postponed game.

Aaron Sanchez, who started to get loose in the outfield but never made it to the bullpen for warmups, will go ahead and make this start. As noted before, the right-hander gave up seven runs in 4 1/3 innings when he faced the Rockies at Coors Field earlier this month. He’ll need to be better today, especially when you consider the Nationals need as many innings from their starters as possible to ease the workload on a bullpen that will have to cover innings in both games.

Austin Gomber, who did throw some warmup pitches in the bullpen prior to the postponement announcement, will start for Colorado. The lefty held the Nats to two runs in 6 2/3 innings a few weeks ago.

The Nationals decided to use the allotted 27th roster spot for the doubleheader on reliever Andres Machado, who will be available for both games. The right-hander has a 6.43 ERA in six appearances for Triple-A Rochester since his demotion last month.

COLORADO ROCKIES at WASHINGTON NATIONALS (Game 1)
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 12:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Partly cloudy, 75 degrees, wind 10 mph out to right field

Despite initial hopes of being able to play tonight before an expected storm arrived, the Nationals’ game against the Rockies was postponed once it became clear the rain would likely hit earlier than anticipated.

The announcement didn’t come until about 25 minutes before the scheduled 7:05 p.m. first pitch, with many in the crowd for Juan Soto Shuffle Bobblehead Night having already settled into their seats and no rain in the immediate vicinity yet. Both teams’ starters – the Nats’ Aaron Sanchez, the Rockies’ Austin Gomber – were already getting loose in the outfield as the game was officially postponed.

The clubs will play a split, separate-admission doubleheader Saturday, with the makeup game starting at 12:05 p.m. and the original 4:05 p.m. game now moved to 6:05 p.m.

Fans who held tickets and parking passes for tonight’s game can use them for admission to Saturday’s 12:05 p.m. game or call the Nationals ticket office to exchange them for a future available date. Fans who hold tickets and parking passes for Saturday’s 4:05 p.m. game can use them for the rescheduled 6:05 p.m. nightcap.

The evening forecast looked dicey all day, with a first round of storms sweeping through the Washington area around noon and another round expected to arrive sometime in the 8-9 p.m. range tonight. There was consideration given to postponing the game earlier, but Major League Baseball did not give the official approval until about 6:40 p.m.

There’s a ballgame scheduled tonight at Nationals Park. Whether it’s played on time, with or without interruption, or played at all, remains to be seen. The storms that have been rolling through town all day are certainly a threat, but at this point there’s been no proclamation about the status of the game between the Nationals and Rockies.

If they play, the Nats are seeking to do something they haven’t yet done in 2022: Win three games in a row. Yep, they’ve won back-to-back games several times, but they have not managed to win back-to-back-to-back games. So there’s your motivation this evening.

The Nationals will need to keep the offense rolling after scoring seven runs in Thursday’s series opener. They’ll need to do so against a Rockies starter they struggled against a few weeks ago: Austin Gomber, who held them to two runs in 6 2/3 innings May 4 at Coors Field. That game included a home run by Lane Thomas, so unsurprisingly Tomas is in tonight’s lineup.

One night later, Aaron Sanchez started for the Nats and gave up seven runs in 4 1/3 innings. He’s back on the mound tonight, looking for better results and hoping to pick up where he left off last weekend in Milwaukee when he allowed only two runs in five innings thanks in large part to three double plays induced.

COLORADO ROCKIES at WASHINGTON NATIONALS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 7:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Storms, 72 degrees, wind 9 mph out to left field

MILWAUKEE – Now that the quarter mark of the season has passed, storylines have been firmly established. When they happen a few times in April, they’re merely trends. When they keep happening through May, they’re full-blown narratives, destined to hold up for the next four months.

The Nationals entered today’s series finale with plenty of them to go around. Juan Soto can’t drive in runs as a No. 2 hitter. They don’t string together hits to produce big rallies. They ground into way too many double plays. They bunt too much and have nothing to show for it. They’re the only team in the majors that ever has a batter called out for running outside the baseline.

And then over the ensuing three-plus hours, they proceeded to take every one of those seemingly set-in-stone narratives and flipped them on their heads. During an 8-2 thrashing of the Brewers, the Nats provided a case study in trying the opposite approach for a change.

And like George Costanza famously experienced nearly three decades ago on Seinfeld, sometimes the opposite really does work.

Whether any of this will hold true beyond today’s game remains to be seen. But for at least one glorious Sunday afternoon under the open roof at American Family Field, it all worked to perfection for the Nationals.

MILWAUKEE – The Nationals have found themselves in this position far too often this season, desperately needing to win a series finale to avoid a sweep. It’s happening today for the fifth time in 13 series to date, the second in a row after they found themselves in the same situation in Miami to begin this road trip. Without a win today here in Milwaukee, they’ll head home 1-5 on the trip and 13-29 overall on the season.

Given how much they’ve struggled to score runs, Davey Martinez has decided to try something different with his lineup. For the first time this season, Juan Soto will bat third instead of second. Rationally, it shouldn’t make any difference. Emotionally, maybe it will feel more comfortable for Soto to hit in his more traditional spot in the lineup, perhaps getting a chance to bat more with more runners on base.

The choice to take over the 2-spot for today is Keibert Ruiz, and that feels warranted given how productive the young catcher has been recently. Ruiz is batting a robust .370/.482/.522 this month, and he’s reached base in eight of his last nine plate appearances. Hopefully, he can keep the same mindset batting higher in the lineup for the first time.

The pressure’s also on Aaron Sanchez to try to contain the Brewers lineup, which scored five runs in five innings off Patrick Corbin Saturday night. Sanchez lasted only 3 2/3 innings in the first game of this road trip, allowing four runs on eight hits and three walks to the Marlins.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at MILWAUKEE BREWERS
Where: American Family Field
Gametime: 2:10 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Partly cloudy, 59 degrees, wind 13 mph out to center field

If you turned off tonight’s game after four batters, disgusted by what you saw from the Nationals from a pitching and defense perspective, well, you certainly were justified in being disgusted.

You also wound up missing quite the turnaround by the home club, which managed to come all the way back (and then some) before the first inning even ended.

Yep, after surrendering three runs to the Mets in the top of the first, the Nationals stormed back to score five in the bottom of the inning, then three more in the bottom of the second to take an 8-3 lead that would hold up for the rest of the night.

It was an unexpected, but welcome, comeback in rapid fashion for the Nats, who in the process snapped a nine-game home losing streak that stretched all the way back to April 19, when they eked out a 1-0 win over the Diamondbacks.

"We kept everybody together, we kept the energy," right fielder Juan Soto said. "It always feels good winning games like that and coming from behind. We showed what we have, and it feels great."

The Nationals have been playing better baseball, getting much better starting pitching. That hasn’t necessarily translated into a lot of wins, though. After going 3-1 to start their recent West Coast trip, they’ve gone 1-5 since entering tonight’s game against the Mets.

Aaron Sanchez gets the ball for his fourth start as a member of the rotation. All three previous outings have come against National League West opponents (the Giants twice, the Rockies once). Sanchez has his work cut for him in a Mets lineup that ranks first in the league in hits and on-base percentage and fourth in runs scored and OPS.

The Nats also have their work cut out facing right-hander Tylor Megill, who has been surprisingly dominant so far. Megill, you’ll remember, was the emergency opening day starter after both Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer were unavailable, and he proceeded to shut them out over five innings.

Alcides Escobar remains out after being scratched from last night's lineup with an infection under his left pointer finger nail. Dee Strange-Gordon is back playing shortstop and batting eighth.

NEW YORK METS at WASHINGTON NATIONALS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 7:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: The Team 980, MLB.com
Weather: Mostly cloudy, 66 degrees, wind 9 mph in from right field

DENVER – For 48 hours, the Nationals experienced Coors Field like they’d never experienced it before. Quality pitching. Quick games. No late-inning drama. Nothing about the first two games of their series against the Rockies felt typical for this unique baseball setting.

Ah, but you can’t leave the Mile High City without experiencing the true Coors Field at least once. And sure enough, today’s sun-splashed series finale provided a far more typical affair.

It took 3 hours, 25 minutes to play 8 1/2 innings. It featured five combined homers. And it ended in a 9-7 loss to the Rockies that was defined both by the Nationals’ inability to keep the ball in the yard and their inability to do the little things right.

"Two costly mistakes," manager Davey Martinez lamented.

Those two mistakes each resulted in a three-run homer, with Garrett Hampson taking starter Aaron Sanchez deep to left in the second and Brendan Rodgers taking reliever Josh Rogers deep to center in the fifth.

DENVER – After a cold, rainy Wednesday night here at Coors Field, it’s a beautiful Thursday afternoon for the series finale between the Nationals and Rockies. The Nats have a chance to win their second straight road series, which would be no small feat under the circumstances.

They’ll hope to get the bats going again after getting shut down by left-hander Austin Gomber on Wednesday. Today they face right-hander Antonio Senzatela, who has only a bit of experience against Nationals hitters during his career. César Hernández (3-for-9, double), Josh Bell (3-for-5, double, two walks) and Maikel Franco (2-for-5, triple) have enjoyed the most success against Senzatela.

Aaron Sanchez, meanwhile, makes his third start since joining the Nats rotation. The 29-year-old right-hander faced the Giants each of his previous outings, losing to them once and then beating them in the follow-up game. Today he faces a Rockies lineup that really hasn’t done much so far this series, scoring five of its seven total runs in the bottom of the fourth Tuesday night, an inning that would’ve ended with a zero on the scoreboard if not for Alcides Escobar’s error on a tailor-made double play grounder.

Friendly reminder: Today’s game is available only on YouTube. It’s free and requires no login, only a computer, tablet, phone or smart TV of your choice. Here’s the link to watch it.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at COLORADO ROCKIES
Where: Coors Field
Gametime: 3:10 p.m. EDT
TV: YouTube
Radio: 106.7 The Fan, MLB.com
Weather: Mostly sunny, 62 degrees, wind 8 mph in from center field

In 17 seasons since Major League Baseball returned to Washington, the number of Nationals players who have been booed by home fans can possibly be counted on one hand. It’s just not a regular occurrence in these parts.

The number of players from the 2019 World Series roster that have ever been booed? Well, that number stood at zero until 7:53 p.m. tonight, when Patrick Corbin handed the ball over to Davey Martinez and made the long walk back to the dugout having just surrendered seven runs in 1 2/3 tortured innings to set the tone in what would end up a 7-1 loss to the Giants.

A crowd of 23,751, many of whom probably stood behind Corbin throughout his struggles in 2020, 2021 and his first three starts in 2022, finally decided not to hold back any longer. It wasn’t a thunderous round of boos from everyone in attendance – that was reserved for a questionable upholding of a third inning call that saw Juan Soto ruled out trying to stretch a double off the wall into a triple – but neither was it a smattering of boos from a few rogue individuals.

This was the moment those fans chose to voice their displeasure for Corbin, who may have won Game 7 in Houston with three scoreless innings of relief but since that glorious October night 2 1/2 years ago has been unequivocally the worst starting pitcher in baseball.

Corbin has now made 46 starts over the last three seasons. He has delivered 26 losses, most in the majors. He has produced a 5.81 ERA, highest in the majors. And he has compiled a 1.554 WHIP, worst in the majors by a longshot.