Behind Williams' latest effort, Nats finally clear .500 hump (updated)

Three times in the last week, the Nationals put themselves in a position to get over a hump that for three years now had felt more daunting than the October hurdle they waited years to clear. They kept getting themselves to the .500 mark. They could not get themselves over it.

And then on attempt No. 4 tonight, they finally did it. The Nationals, for the first time since July 1, 2021, are a winning baseball team.

All it took? A 3-0 shutout victory over the Orioles, with Trevor Williams outdueling Corbin Burnes, the lineup manufacturing a few runs and the bullpen continuing its lights-out ways.

Yes, the Nats are 18-17, over the .500 hump at last. And happy not to have to talk about that longstanding negative fact anymore.

"I think it's the mentality that nobody sees us coming," closer Kyle Finnegan said. "We're kind of lurking in the shadows. And we know how good we are. Maybe the league will start to take notice." 

They didn’t even need to come from behind this time. That’s because they never gave up a run to the highest-scoring team in the American League, thanks to another standout five innings from Williams and the four relievers who followed, all of them combining to allow three hits with zero walks issued.

"We're playing tremendous baseball right now," Williams said. "We had a tremendous road trip. And to come in and beat a team tonight like we did that's playing really good baseball ... is huge for us. And to be over .500 for the first time since 2021, I think, is a huge step forward for this team. I'm thankful that I'm part of it."

Because of the sour taste he left in everyone’s mouth – including his own – at the end of 2023, it’s been perfectly appropriate to doubt Williams’ ability to keep up his outstanding start to the 2024 season. The carriage has to turn back into a pumpkin one of these nights, right?

Six nights ago, it was OK to wonder if it might happen in Texas against the defending World Series champs. Williams proceeded to toss five scoreless innings, twice pitching his way out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam.

So it was OK to wonder tonight if it might finally happen against the Orioles, owners of the best record in the American League, not to mention a lineup loaded with pop. And then Williams went out there and did it all over again, actually outdoing himself this time.

The right-hander was in complete control every step of the way. He allowed only three batters to reach base, two of them via single, the other via a CJ Abrams error. Only one of them ever advanced beyond first base, with Adley Rutschman stealing second in the top of the first. It didn’t matter, because Williams immediately retired the next two batters to strand him there.

There were no bases-loaded jams to escape this time. Nor were there even that many batted balls. With an assortment of 90-mph sinkers, changeups, sliders and sweepers, Williams mowed down the Baltimore lineup like it was nothing. He finished with eight strikeouts, matching his career high, and he did so without issuing any walks and compiling only 77 pitches. His ERA at that point: 1.96, down just slightly from his 5.55 mark one year ago.

"They're a tremendous lineup," Williams said. "The home run threat is there. The power threat is there. If you start pitching around these guys, they're going to make you pay for it. I think the game plan going in was just attack these guys with everything. And thankfully, we were missing bats today." 

For many – maybe most – big league starters, the fifth inning wouldn’t have been the end of the road. For this starter, on this team, facing this lineup in a 1-0 game, it really wasn’t a question for Davey Martinez. He’s made it clear he’s not going to ask for more than five innings or 80 pitches out of Williams unless the situation is right. And with the top of the Orioles lineup set to bat a third time, Martinez didn’t hesitate to pull his starter and give the sixth to Robert Garcia.

"No, he already had 77 pitches," the manager said. "We've talked about that 80-pitch mark, for me, is where he needs to be. He gave us five really good innings. I didn't want to send him back out there."

Fresh off a brief stint on the injured list after a nasty case of the flu, Garcia gives the Nationals a left-handed reliever they’ve sorely needed the last couple weeks. And he was the perfect choice for the top of the sixth tonight, retiring the side and striking out both the left-handed Gunnar Henderson and switch-hitting Rutschman before retiring the left-handed Ryan O’Hearn on a weak grounder back to the mound.

The Nats needed perfection from the first two pitchers they used, because just as was the case last week in Texas, the margin for error was as small as it gets. They scored one early run, and that’s all they scored against Burnes through six innings.

To manufacture that lone run in the bottom of the second, the Nationals needed a leadoff single from Jesse Winker, who then stole second to put himself in scoring position for Joey Meneses. Then with a 2-2 count on the batter, Winker surprisingly took off for third, with Meneses swinging at the pitch and lining a single to right. Thus did the Nats score on a highly unconventional hit-and-run with a man on second.

"Trying to score early in the game against a guy like that, I think, gives the team some confidence," Meneses said, via interpreter Octavio Martinez. "It kind of lets us know we can score off this guy."

They did little else against Burnes until the seventh, when they finally broke through for some much appreciated insurance. It began with a double from Meneses. It continued with an opposite-field RBI single from Eddie Rosario (now 4 for his last 10 following a wretched 0-for-31 slump). And then, after Rosario stole second, Trey Lipscomb singled to right and Rosario (following an aggressive send by third base coach Ricky Gutierrez) scored to make it 3-0 and give the back of the Nationals bullpen (Derek Law, Hunter Harvey, Finnegan) some breathing room.

"We knew coming into the game, Corbin's a really good pitcher. We had to push the envelope a little bit," Martinez said. "We felt like if we can take a base, get to third base with less than two outs, we'd have a better chance to score. That's what we pretty much tried to do all night."

And the reward at the end of the evening for all that? A winning record at last.

"This one, for whatever reason, felt a little more meaningful," Finnegan said. "It's been a while since we've been over .500. We've been putting all the necessary work in behind the scenes. To see it starting to come to fruition is exciting. And to do it against Baltimore, in this series, is special. We're looking to build off it tomorrow."