There are far loftier goals on the Nationals’ checklist, certainly once the calendar flips to 2024. This is a franchise that won’t consider the rebuild it embarked on two years ago a true success until it’s playing in October again.

But it takes steps to get there, and today the Nats took a meaningful step on their projected path back to contention: With a 10-7 victory over the Red Sox that proved far more tenuous than it should have been, they secured their 55th win, matching their total from last season with 40 games still remaining on the schedule.

Nobody ever deemed another 55-107 season acceptable. Improvement was always expected this year. But at this rate, the improvement is going to be significant, the kind not often found from one year to the next.

The Nats are now on pace for 73 wins this season, an 18-game improvement. That would match the best one-year improvement in club history, one that came from 2011-12 when an 80-win upstart turned into a 98-win division champion.

"It's fun, because I preach all the time about keeping things simple, doing the little things," manager Davey Martinez said. "The baserunning. Throwing strikes. Getting outs. Playing good defense. And it's come to fruition. When you can do those things, you have a chance to win consistently. And we've been doing that for the last month. It's been a lot of fun."

Victor Robles wandered through the Nationals clubhouse Wednesday afternoon, a familiar face but in many ways a forgotten one.

It’s been nearly two months since Robles last played, and he has appeared in only five games since early May, a persistent back injury having sidelined him for the better part of the season now. And given the lack of progress he’s made to date, time may be running out for him to make it back in 2023.

“I worry that we’re definitely getting closer to … I mean, he’s still got to go out and rehab,” manager Davey Martinez said. “He’s got to play. He’s missed a lot. But hopefully we can get him playing again before this year’s up. That will be the goal.”

Robles initially hurt himself sliding into second base on May 6 in Arizona and spent the next six weeks on the injured list. His return to the active roster was short-lived, with only five games played in mid-June before it became clear he wasn’t fully healthy yet and needed to go back on the IL.

The 26-year-old has split his time between D.C. and West Palm Beach, Fla., getting treatment and doing what he can to try to get better. But it’s still an extremely limited rehab program.

The Nationals have already gone 4-1 on this homestand. They’ve got a chance to add to that today and reach a significant milepost for the season. Their next win will be No. 55, which would match their 2022 total. Yeah, there are still 40 games to go after today. That would be quite the accomplishment by mid-August.

It’s a couple of veteran left-handers who have seen better days on the mound against each other. Patrick Corbin enters with a 4.85 ERA and league-high 162 hits allowed, but he comes off a really weird start in Philadelphia in which he walked a career-high seven batters but allowed only one (unearned) run on one hit over five innings. He’ll need to be more around the strike zone today to have a chance against Boston.

Chris Sale, meanwhile, enters with a 4.52 ERA and only returned last week from a two-month stint on the injured list. The 34-year-old was good in his return, though, holding the Tigers to two runs on one hit while striking out seven in 4 2/3 innings.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs. BOSTON RED SOX
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 4:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Partly cloudy, 88 degrees, wind 10 mph out to left field

NATIONALS
RF Lane Thomas
1B Joey Meneses
DH Keibert Ruiz
LF Stone Garrett
C Riley Adams
2B Michael Chavis
3B Ildemaro Vargas
CF Alex Call
SS Jeter Downs

CJ Abrams has been better lately. Lane Thomas has been better over the course of the entire season. Joey Meneses has been better with runners in scoring position. But there may be nobody the Nationals would rather see at the plate in a big spot late in a close game right now than Keibert Ruiz.

The proof is there for everyone to see, and it was again Wednesday night, when Ruiz launched a three-run homer in the bottom of the eighth to give the Nats the lead for good en route to a 6-2 win over the Red Sox.

This only four days after Ruiz hit the first walk-off homer of his career, beating the Athletics on Saturday night. Which only continued a longstanding trend for the young catcher of delivering big home runs in big spots.

Ruiz has now hit 15 homers for the season. Ten of those have come in the seventh inning or later. And four of those have either given the Nationals the lead or tied the game.

“I honestly think he’s more engaged, as far as getting the ball in the zone. And attacking the baseball,” manager Davey Martinez said of Ruiz’s approach in those late innings. “He’s been awesome. He’s knocked in some big runs for us.”

There have been some notable bumps along the way, some duds every once in a while when he takes the mound. But there have been more than a few really good nights for MacKenzie Gore in his first full season with the Nationals.

And none as good as the one the crowd at Nationals Park witnessed tonight. Even if it did end abruptly and earlier than anyone would’ve preferred. Though the final outcome more than pleased the home team and its fans.

With a devastating combination of precision, power and efficiency, Gore put together his best start as a big leaguer, overwhelming the Red Sox for 6 1/3 scoreless innings before departing with a blister on his left middle finger, an early departure that prefaced a wild finish that saw Boston rally to tie the game but the Nats respond with back-to-back homers by Keibert Ruiz and Stone Garrett for a 6-2 victory.

"That was frustrating," Gore said of the blister forcing him from the game. "But it's something I deal with. There's no panic button or anything. There was a lot of good tonight. We got ahead of guys. Keibert was awesome. We turned a lot of double plays. And we hit some big homers."

Jordan Weems, who replaced Gore on the mound, gave up a game-tying homer to Pablo Reyes in the eighth. No problem, because his teammates were ready to pick him up. Ruiz launched a three-run homer to right-center off reliever Garrett Whitlock, the young catcher’s latest clutch blast in a season full of them.

Two more injured Nationals relievers are ready to begin pitching in competitive games.

Tanner Rainey and Mason Thompson will both begin minor league rehab assignments Friday, manager Davey Martinez announced prior to tonight’s game against the Red Sox. Rainey will pitch for Single-A Fredericksburg, with Thompson joining Double-A Harrisburg, which is playing at Richmond this week.

For Rainey, this marks the most significant step in his long recovery from Tommy John surgery. The 30-year-old right-hander is more than a year removed from his procedure to replace the ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow, and though he has faced live hitters in West Palm Beach, Fla., and here at Nationals Park in recent days, he’s now ready to compete in an actual game.

The club wants Rainey to take things slow, recognizing he’s allotted up to 30 days on his rehab assignment before he must be added to the active roster. If things go, he’ll likely join the Nationals in mid-September and make a handful of appearances before season’s end.

“Just continue to remember where he’s at,” Martinez said. “And we’re still building up.”

So for the first time in a while, the Nationals did not mount a late rally Tuesday night. As such, they dropped their series opener to the Red Sox, 5-4, that score holding up from the fourth inning all the way through the ninth. They’ll look to bounce back tonight, whether taking and holding an early lead or rallying again, in the middle game of the interleague series.

After watching Josiah Gray record only nine outs Tuesday, Davey Martinez needed to use five relievers for six innings to finish out the game. So some length from MacKenzie Gore tonight would be very welcome if the left-hander can provide it. Like Gray, Gore has dealt with some high pitch counts and early exits. He’s also surrendered home runs, three of them in his last start against the Phillies.

The Red Sox also send a lefty to the mound in James Paxton, the veteran who hasn’t pitched much since 2019 due to injuries. Paxton has been good since returning healthy this season, though, with a 3.36 ERA in 15 starts. He just tossed 5 1/3 scoreless innings against the Royals last week.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs. BOSTON RED SOX
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 7:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Partly cloudy, 82 degrees, wind 4 mph out to right field

NATIONALS
SS CJ Abrams
RF Lane Thomas
DH Joey Meneses
C Keibert Ruiz
LF Stone Garrett
1B Dominic Smith
3B Ildemaro Vargas
2B Michael Chavis
CF Alex Call

Ask Davey Martinez to evaluate Josiah Gray’s recent struggles, and the Nationals manager doesn’t have to think for long before answering.

“The command of the fastball just hasn’t been there,” Martinez said following Tuesday night’s 5-4 loss to the Red Sox. “And he’s trying to rely on too many secondary pitches.”

If you want to boil Gray’s troubles down to a single diagnosis, that might well be it. He knows his fastball has been his least effective pitch since he reached the big leagues two years ago. But his occasional abandonment of it altogether only seems to lead to more trouble.

“We’ve got to get him to understand that the use of his fastball has got to be better,” Martinez said. “He’s really good when he throws his fastball down for strikes; it’s got some run to it. And then he can go to his secondary pitches. But his pitch count is getting way up there.”

Gray’s pitch count was astronomical Tuesday night. He needed 31 just to face five batters in the top of the first. He finished with a whopping 83 across only three-plus innings, averaging more than five thrown per batter faced.

The way things have been going around here lately, it was perfectly fair for anyone inside the Nationals dugout – or anywhere inside Nationals Park, for that matter – to reach the bottom of the ninth tonight and just assume the home team was going to rally once again and pull off another walk-off win.

So when it didn’t happen and the Red Sox were the ones congratulating each other following a 5-4 victory, nobody quite knew how to react.

Despite trailing by that same score since the fourth inning, the Nationals never could mount one final rally to get over the hump. They had walked off the Athletics both Saturday and Sunday. They could not walk off the Red Sox tonight.

"They were making good pitches," catcher Keibert Ruiz said. "Sometimes it's hard."

In the end, the Nationals were left to contemplate the latest abbreviated start by Josiah Gray, who labored more than he has in any previous outing and wound up surrendering all five runs Boston would score, all of them coming in the game’s first four innings.

Hunter Harvey believes he could’ve returned from his elbow strain at least a week ago, maybe sooner than that. Given the right-hander’s lengthy injury history, the Nationals weren’t about to rush him back from the 15-day injured list.

But once they saw him throwing 97-99 mph against live hitters over the weekend, there wasn’t much reason to wait any longer. So today the Nats activated Harvey off the IL and are eager to add him to a bullpen that still managed to dominate as a group in his absence the last three weeks.

“They’ve been great,” Harvey said. “I’ve heard (manager Davey Martinez) say guys needed to step up, and I think a lot of guys had a good opportunity and ran with it. … Everybody’s been pulling their weight, and it’s been good.”

Harvey first felt something wrong in his arm during the Nationals’ mid-July series in St. Louis and immediately spoke up, recognizing he hasn’t always been great at reporting physical ailments during his career. The team sent him home to get an MRI but was relieved to learn the injury wasn’t anything more serious.

Harvey was back throwing again within a week and was able to return without going on a minor league rehab assignment. His IL stint might’ve been even shorter, he believes, if his wife hadn’t given birth to their first son earlier than expected, drawing his undivided attention away from baseball.

It’s been a good stretch for the Nationals over the last several weeks, as we’ve outlined here. Now, can they keep it up against some postseason contenders? We’re about to find out with a run of series against the Red Sox, Phillies, Yankees, Marlins and Blue Jays.

It begins tonight against Boston, which enters play three games back in the American League wild card race, needing to get on a roll to catch Toronto and Seattle. So it’s a good test for Josiah Gray, who struggled to keep his pitch count down last week in Philadelphia and was knocked out after allowing four runs in only 4 2/3 innings.

The Nationals go up against a familiar face tonight. Well, not familiar to anyone who is still here, but familiar to anyone who knows their organizational history. Once upon a time (aka July 2015), Mike Rizzo traded a Single-A pitching prospect named Nick Pivetta to the Phillies for Jonathan Papelbon. We all know how that worked out, more so because of Papelbon’s tumultuous tenure here. Pivetta, now 30, makes his 147th career start tonight, owner of a 48-56 record and 4.92 ERA. He hasn’t been great, but he has lasted for a while in the big leagues.

The Nats have a familiar face back in their bullpen tonight: Hunter Harvey. The right-hander was activated off the 15-day injured list and will be available if needed. Joe La Sorsa was optioned to Triple-A Rochester to clear a spot for Harvey.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs. BOSTON RED SOX
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 7:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Chance of rain, 81 degrees, wind 6 mph out to right field

The Nationals, you may have heard, are playing winning baseball right now.

After a weekend sweep of the Athletics, they improved to 15-8 since July 21. They’re 19-12 since July 8, which is the best record in the National League East during that time, third-best in the NL.

Something clearly has to be going right for this team that wasn’t going right earlier in the season. Or last season. Or the season before that. But what exactly is going so right for them to cause such a dramatic turnaround?

You can find improvement in just about every aspect of play, from a lineup that is scoring more runs to a defense that is committing fewer errors to a bullpen that has dramatically become one of the most effective in the league in recent weeks. And all of that is true.

But if you really want to boil it all down to one key factor, here it is: The Nationals are winning the late innings.

Well, it was a rather interesting week here in NatsTown, was it not? It began with a sweep in Cincinnati. Then it included a no-hitter in Philadelphia. Then it concluded with another sweep over Oakland. All of a sudden, the Nationals have gone 19-12 since July 8, best in the NL East and third-best in the NL during that prolonged span.

Now another potentially momentous week awaits. There's a three-game series with the Red Sox beginning Tuesday. Then a three-game series with the Phillies that begins Friday in D.C. but concludes Sunday in Williamsport, Pa.

You've probably got questions about the current state of affairs around here, or maybe what the future has in store for the Nats, both short-term and long-term. If so, submit them in the comments section below and then check back throughout the morning for my responses ...

When Jeter Downs stepped to the plate to lead off the bottom of the ninth this afternoon, he had no realistic reason to believe he was about to jumpstart a game-winning rally.

The Nationals trailed the Athletics by five runs, having slogged their way through a mostly lifeless series finale that saw Trevor Williams get roughed up again while their lineup failed to deliver with runners in scoring position again. They would just have to accept a Sunday loss to Oakland but a weekend series victory.

But in the dugout, Dominic Smith was trying to keep his teammates engaged, no matter the score. “We’ve got three outs,” the first baseman told them. “Don’t give any at-bats away. They all matter.”

So by the time Downs somehow found himself stepping back to the plate some 25 minutes later, now with a chance to drive in the winning run, the young infielder had every reason in the world to believe he and his team were actually going to pull this thing off.

And when he delivered the final hit to cap a stunning, six-run rally, Downs could only soak in the moment as teammates mobbed him in the middle of the diamond following the most inexplicable, 8-7 victory most of them had ever experienced.

Though the depleted group has performed remarkably well in his absence, the Nationals bullpen is about to get one of its key members back.

Hunter Harvey, out the last four weeks with an elbow strain, is on track to come off the injured list early this week, according to manager Davey Martinez.

Harvey faced live hitters before Friday’s game at Nationals Park, then threw off the bullpen mound prior to today’s series finale against the Athletics. Barring any complications, the right-hander should be ready to come off the 15-day IL, foregoing a minor league rehab assignment.

“I think Hunter should be ready here in the next couple days,” Martinez said.

Ready for what?

Hello from Nationals Park. Yes, I’m back to work. In person. Many thanks to Bobby Blanco for jumping in to cover in my absence during what proved to be a very eventful week. And many thanks to all of you who offered well wishes while I was recovering from COVID.

The Nationals, as you know, are playing their best baseball of the year. Really, their best baseball in more than two years. They’ve gone 14-8 over the last 3 1/2 weeks, and today they have a chance at their third series sweep in that time, having already disposed of the Giants and Reds.

To do the same to the Athletics, they’ll need a bounce-back start from Trevor Williams, who was roughed up in Philadelphia on Tuesday to the tune of six runs and eight hits in only 4 2/3 innings. The home run has become Williams’ biggest problem; he enters today’s start having surrendered 25 of them this season, second-most in the National League.

The Nats lineup came through with two big hits during Saturday night’s win – Lane Thomas’ game-tying RBI single in the eighth, Keibert Ruiz’s walk-off homer in the ninth – but overall that group went 2-for-15 with runners in scoring position. That’s not usually a recipe for success. They’ll hope to convert in the clutch more this afternoon against A’s left-hander Ken Waldichuk, who enters with a 6.30 ERA and a whopping 5.2 walks issued per nine innings.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs. OAKLAND ATHLETICS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 1:35 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Partly cloudy, 88 degrees, wind 11 mph left field to right field

When the Nationals left Wrigley Field on July 19, they did so with a bullpen in shambles.

Hunter Harvey had just joined an injured list that already included Carl Edwards Jr. The rest of the group featured one established late-inning arm in Kyle Finnegan, a once-promising setup man now in the midst of massive slump in Mason Thompson and a bunch of other inexperienced and ineffective pitchers who had just endured through a nightmare of a series.

Over the course of their last two games against the Cubs, Nationals relievers had collectively surrendered 20 earned runs on 18 hits and seven walks in only 5 2/3 innings of work. They twice turned competitive, low-scoring games into lopsided blowouts.

At that point, all Davey Martinez could do was acknowledge the situation he was in, and hope things would improve with time and experience.

“They’re going to get another opportunity,” the manager insisted after an embarrassing 17-3 loss. “Many more opportunities. Hopefully they bounce back and learn from today.”

CINCINNATI – In order to sweep the Reds and win for the 11th time in their last 16 games overall, the Nationals merely needed to hit back-to-back homers on the first two pitches of the afternoon, then entrust an overworked, unproven, still-effective bullpen to hang on in one of baseball’s toughest pitchers’ parks.

When things are going your way, things are going your way. And they are most certainly going the Nats’ way right now.

Today’s 6-3 victory capped off an impressive weekend sweep at Great American Ball Park by an upstart visiting ballclub that made up for the sweep it suffered at the hands of the Reds last month in D.C. And it continued this club’s best sustained stretch in more than two years.

Owners of an 11-5 record since July 21, with sweeps of the Giants and Reds and a series win over the Brewers, the Nationals are giving themselves and their fans more reason to be optimistic than at any previous moment since the roster teardown and franchise rebuild began in July 2021. At 49-63 overall, they’re now on a 71-win pace that would represent a healthy 16-game improvement from last season’s 107-loss nadir.

"It's a long season. To do that consistently is hard," right fielder Lane Thomas told reporters afterward. "Otherwise, a lot of teams would do it. We've just got to keep doing what we're doing, and control what we can control. I think we do good things when we do that."

CINCINNATI – The Nationals cut ties with Paolo Espino today, requesting unconditional release waivers on the veteran right-hander in one of a series of transactions prior to their series finale against the Reds.

The Nats also reinstated Trevor Williams from bereavement leave and activated Israel Pineda off the 60-day injured list and subsequently optioned the now-healthy catcher to Double-A Harrisburg. They already had cleared a spot on the active roster for Williams, optioning reliever Amos Willingham to Triple-A Rochester following Saturday’s game. But they needed to make another move to open a spot on the 40-man roster for Pineda, and Espino was the unfortunate victim.

“It’s always hard, because I’ve known Paolo for quite some time now,” manager Davey Martinez told reporters at Great American Ball Park. “He’s done everything we’ve asked him to do. He’s been really good, a very positive guy. Working with these guys, getting to know them, getting to know their families, it’s always tough when you have to let them go.”

Espino was on the 15-day injured list with a sprain in his right ring finger after a ragged relief appearance in Chicago three weeks ago. In three big league games this season, the 36-year-old right-hander was charged with 11 runs and 14 hits in only four innings, a disappointing final act for what had been an uplifting story when he first joined the team.

A journeyman who had pitched for four different organizations from 2007-19 but appeared in only 12 major league games for the Brewers and Rangers during that time, Espino was called up from the Nationals in September 2020 to make two late-season appearances. He then was called up again in April 2021 to make a spot start for an injured Stephen Strasburg and wound up staying on the big league roster through the end of the 2022 season.

CINCINNATI – Well, well, well. Look at what we’ve got here. The Nationals have won 10 of 15 for the first time since June 2021. They’ve won four of their last five series, three of those coming against playoff contenders San Francisco, Milwaukee and Cincinnati. And they have a chance today to pull off their second three-game sweep in less than a month, if they can beat the Reds one more time.

Jake Irvin gets the start, facing the same Cincinnati club he held to three runs over six innings last month in D.C. The rookie right-hander continues to give his team a chance most times he takes the ball, even if his 4.86 ERA doesn’t exactly scream high-quality. Davey Martinez is probably going to need some length from Irvin today, because the back end of his bullpen may be burned up and unavailable, with Kyle Finnegan, Jordan Weems and Andrés Machado each having pitched each of the last two days.

It would help, then, if the Nationals lineup can score runs in bunches and provide some cushion for the pitching staff. That group will be facing an unfamiliar foe today in Lyon Richardson, a 23-year-old right-hander making his major league debut. A second-round pick in 2018, Richardson missed all of last season following Tommy John surgery. He burst through the Reds organization this year, producing a 1.86 ERA and a whopping 81 strikeouts in only 58 innings across three levels of the minors. But he made only one start at Triple-A before getting this promotion, and he has yet to pitch more than four innings at a time. So look for the Reds to pull him early, regardless of the result, and go to their bullpen.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at CINCINNATI REDS
Where: Great American Ball Park
Gametime: 1:40 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Partly cloudy, 83 degrees, wind 14 mph out to left field

NATIONALS
SS CJ Abrams
RF Lane Thomas
DH Joey Meneses
C Keibert Ruiz
1B Dominic Smith
2B Jake Alu
3B Ildemaro Vargas
LF Blake Rutherford
CF Alex Call