Give the Nationals lineup a chance to face a left-handed starter and take an early lead. Give Trevor Williams a chance to pitch into the sixth inning and retain that lead. Then hand over the rest to the trusted portion of Davey Martinez’s bullpen and watch them finish the job.

It’s a nice formula for success, and it worked quite well for the Nats tonight during a 5-3 victory over the Padres.

The lineup put up a four-spot in the bottom of the second against San Diego starter Ryan Weathers, the latest lefty to be hit around by this group. Williams surrendered a pair of homers but otherwise was strong during his 5 2/3 innings on the mound.

All of which allowed Martinez to deploy his bullpen in his preferred manner. He had Carl Edwards Jr. get out of the sixth (on one pitch) and then record the first two outs of the seventh. He had Hunter Harvey face the top four members of the Padres lineup, and retire all four to finish the seventh and complete the eighth. And then he had Kyle Finnegan pitch the ninth and emerge with his 10th save in 12 attempts.

"Every series, I do my work before everybody comes in," Martinez said. "And I pick groups of (hitters) based on information that I get, where I feel guys match up best late in games. The (top of the San Diego lineup) was where I really felt comfortable with Harvey. ... It worked out really well. These guys came in and shut the door down."

Six times in their last 16 games, the Nationals have entered the ninth inning with a lead of three runs or fewer. Here, in order, is the name of the pitcher who took the mound in those save situations:

May 5 at Diamondbacks: Kyle Finnegan

May 6 at Diamondbacks: Hunter Harvey

May 13 vs. Mets: Finnegan

May 16 at Marlins: Harvey

Tuesday night’s series opener had some extra emotions attached to it, what with Juan Soto returning to D.C. and MacKenzie Gore facing the Padres for the first time. Tonight’s game shouldn’t carry quite the same vibes, even though Soto obviously will still be playing in D.C. And he’ll be facing a guy who hasn’t pitched for the Padres before but is from San Diego.

Yes, Trevor Williams grew up there, so it’s always a bit of a big deal for the right-hander to face the Padres. More than anything, Williams wants to give the Nationals some length tonight and take some pressure off the bullpen, which wasn’t great in the wake of Gore’s 4 2/3-inning start Tuesday night.

The Nats will look to get something going offensively against Ryan Weathers, yet another left-hander. They’re currently in a stretch of facing nine opposing lefties in 15 games. The good news: They’ve hit much better against lefties, to the tune of a .299/.359/.441 slash line (it’s only .247/.307/.358 against righties).

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs. SAN DIEGO PADRES
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 7:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Mostly clear, 79 degrees, wind 6 mph out to left field

NATIONALS
RF Lane Thomas
2B Luis García
DH Joey Meneses
3B Jeimer Candelario
LF Stone Garrett
1B Dominic Smith
C Keibert Ruiz
CF Alex Call
SS CJ Abrams

While MacKenzie Gore’s laborious start Tuesday night – three runs, seven hits, four walks, 103 pitches in 4 2/3 innings – put the Nationals in a rough position, the young lefty wasn’t the pitcher of record in a 7-4 loss to the Padres. That distinction went to Erasmo Ramírez, who was charged with four runs in one-plus innings of relief, a ragged outing by the veteran right-hander to say the least.

Ramírez, such a bright spot in 2022, continues to struggle in 2023. He now owns a 5.18 ERA and 1.397 WHIP in 19 appearances. Opponents are batting .300 off him.

“It’s tough as a pitcher, no matter what, starting or relieving, every time you go to the mound you just want to do the best you can,” said the 33-year-old, who finished with a 2.92 ERA and 1.077 WHIP in 60 games last season. “And when things don’t come out right, you know you have to try to forget it and move on, execute better and work on stuff.”

Ramírez has struggled, to be sure. But the fact he was even pitching in that particular situation Tuesday night says more about the current state of the Nationals bullpen as a whole. In short, it’s not in a great state at the moment.

When Gore’s pitch count crossed into triple-digit territory, manager Davey Martinez decided to pull his starter with two on and two out in the fifth. He summoned Andrés Machado, who did a nice job to strike out pinch-hitter Matt Carpenter and prevent either inherited runner to score.

The baseball gods brought Juan Soto, MacKenzie Gore and CJ Abrams together tonight as only they can, three of the primary figures in one of the biggest trades in history converging at Nationals Park for a series opener that was anticipated more than most because of their participation.

The game – a 7-4 loss by the Nationals to the Padres – ultimately was decided during a couple of critical sequences in the sixth and seventh innings. But those three still were front and center on this night, in ways both uplifting and discouraging.

Abrams and Soto each homered, the former to help the Nats storm back to tie the game in the fifth, the latter to help the Padres extend the lead they retook in the seventh.

Soto, who doffed his helmet to an appreciative crowd of 21,438 when he stepped to the plate in the top of the first, finished 3-for-4 with the aforementioned homer, two singles and a walk in his second D.C. appearance since last August’s trade.

Abrams reached base only once in four tries, but that one was a big one: a two-run homer off Yu Darvish to spark the Nationals’ mid-game comeback.

When he stepped to the plate at Nationals Park nine months ago for the first time as a member of the Padres, Juan Soto was greeted with a sustained standing ovation from the crowd.

Anecdotally, it felt like the loudest and warmest ovation any former Nationals player has received in his return with another team. Louder than the ovation for Max Scherzer as a Met. Louder than the ovation for Trea Turner as a Dodger. Certainly friendlier than the reaction for Bryce Harper.

That moment stuck with Soto, who only 10 days earlier had been traded to San Diego along with Josh Bell for six players in a deal that altered both franchises.

“It means a lot,” the 24-year-old slugger said today. “It means I did a good job over here. It feels great to hear those cheers for you. That means they’re really proud of the championship that we bring back.”

Soto will forever be remembered for playing a major role in delivering Washington its first World Series title in 95 years. Scherzer, Turner, Anthony Rendon, Stephen Strasburg and countless others were vital to the cause as well, but Soto for some reason stands out from the rest, perhaps because he had only just turned 21 during the series but performed like a seasoned superstar.

Hey, have you heard Juan Soto is back in town? OK, so it is of course a big deal that the 24-year-old slugger is back in D.C. for the first time since mid-August, the second time since he was traded to the Padres. We’ll see what kind of reaction he gets from the crowd when he comes up to bat in the top of the first tonight … against one of the guys he was traded for.

Yes, adding some spice to tonight’s series opener is the presence of MacKenzie Gore on the mound for the Nationals. This will of course be Gore’s first career start against San Diego, and he’ll be challenged to keep his emotions in check and not get too amped up about the matchup.

Yu Darvish starts for the Padres, and that’s always a challenge for any lineup, let alone one with as little experience as the Nats have. Given how many different types of pitches Darvish throws, guys will have to be patient and focus on swinging at good pitches, not just anything that looks like a strike (especially early in the count).

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs. SAN DIEGO PADRES
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 7:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Hazy, 72 degrees, wind 11 mph in from right field

NATIONALS
RF Lane Thomas
2B Luis García
3B Jeimer Candelario 
DH Joey Meneses 
LF Corey Dickerson 
C Keibert Ruiz 
1B Dominic Smith 
CF Alex Call 
SS CJ Abrams

When Juan Soto takes the field at Nationals Park tonight in a Padres uniform, it will still sting for any number of people who still have a hard time fathoming the 24-year-old slugger wearing anything other than a curly W on his head.

It might, however, sting a little less if MacKenzie Gore and CJ Abrams do their part to lift the home team to victory, reminding all those suffering souls why Soto was traded in the first place and why the Nationals could emerge from the wreckage in a better place when it’s all said and done.

This isn’t Soto’s first trip back to D.C. That already happened last August, only 10 days after he was dealt to San Diego along with Josh Bell for six players, five of them promising young prospects. The emotions were still raw at that time, and the image of perhaps the greatest player in Nats history coming up to bat against them was tough for everyone to take.

The passage of time eases some of the pain. But perhaps even more than that, the emergence of the first two of the prospects acquired in the trade at the big league level helps make it far more tolerable. No, neither Gore nor Abrams has come close yet to matching Soto’s status. But each has offered up enough this season to make you believe stardom is on the horizon.

Gore, in particular, has stood out. Unable to make his Nationals debut last season because he was still recovering from an elbow injury in August and September, he’s now nine starts into his Nats career. And the results, while erratic, have been overwhelmingly positive in the big picture.

Lane Thomas knows his reputation. He’s been a streaky hitter ever since arriving in Washington at the 2021 trade deadline.

It really became noticeable last season, one that saw Thomas finish with a .705 OPS but only after experiencing the following month-by-month roller coaster: .496, .661, .864, .587, .775, .724. So the Nationals right fielder vowed to try to be more consistent this year, recognizing the importance of avoiding the long streaks (good or bad) that had come to define him.

And how has he done with that? Well, the .629 OPS he posted in April followed by the .944 mark he has delivered so far in May suggests he’s on his way to another roller-coaster season.

Unless Thomas can capture what he’s done this month and sustain something like it throughout the summer and into the fall. Which, of course, is easier said than done.

“I feel like I’m trying to be a little more consistent this year,” he said. “That’s something I wanted to focus on: What got me into a streak? I felt like I was a little streaky. I’d get a few hits one series last year, and then no hits. I’m just trying to be more consistent in approach and with at-bats late in games. Hopefully that’s paying off a little bit and I can keep doing it.”

Much as major league managers wish it wasn’t so, the path to victory on any given day isn’t always going to be a straight one. The Nationals made life easy on Davey Martinez during Saturday’s low-drama win over the Tigers, getting a quality start from Patrick Corbin and clutch hits from the lineup to take the lead, allowing the skipper to use his traditional bullpen alignment late to close it out.

This afternoon did not afford Martinez such luxuries. Though the Nationals stormed out of the gates to take a five-run lead and ultimately rapped out 18 hits, they still needed several escape acts from their top relievers – some of them in unfamiliar roles – to emerge with a 6-4 win over Detroit.

In order to capture this weekend series, the Nats not only needed home runs from backups Riley Adams and Ildemaro Vargas, plus another four-hit game from Jeimer Candelario against his former team. They needed Josiah Gray to gut his way through five innings of one-run ball despite six walks. And then they needed Kyle Finnegan (owner of nine saves) to pitch out of a jam in the sixth and return for the seventh, ultimately setting up Carl Edwards Jr. and Hunter Harvey to close out perhaps the weirdest win of the season.

"It was definitely weird," Martinez said. "We did some things just to get out of some jams."

Edward, Harvey and Finnegan each pitched Saturday, in that order, with Finnegan earning his ninth save of the season in a 5-2 victory. Not 24 hours later, Martinez was summoning Finnegan out of the bullpen to clean up a sixth-inning jam created by Andres Machado, then asking him to return for the seventh as well.

Luis García’s day off Saturday was somewhat significant, though hardly big news. But when García’s name again wasn’t in the Nationals’ lineup for today’s series finale against the Tigers, it raised eyebrows.

Is the Nats second baseman hurt? Is he being benched for lack of performance?

“No,” manager Davey Martinez said this morning. “I had a conversation with him. This is just kind of a reset for him.”

García certainly merited a break after starting 21 consecutive games and appearing in 33 straight games since missing four days with a tight hamstring early last month.

More than that, Martinez noticed the 23-year-old showing signs of pressing in recent days. García was 1-for-11 with five strikeouts over his last three games. He also committed his first error of the season during Friday night’s loss, a costly mistake that prolonged the top of the third inning for starter Jake Irvin, who wound up not even completing the inning.

The Nationals ended a four-game losing streak Saturday with a solid, 5-2 victory over the Tigers. They’d love to make it two in a row today and take the weekend series in the process.

The Nats have Josiah Gray on the mound, and that usually means they’re going to have an excellent chance of winning. The right-hander really has become their most reliable starter, having allowed three or fewer runs in each of his eight starts since his rough season opener and two or fewer runs in all but one of those starts. He’s also completed seven innings each of the last two times he’s pitched, further evidence of his growth since last year.

The Nationals have faced a bunch of lefties recently, and they get another one today in Detroit’s Joey Wentz. The 25-year-old impressed as a rookie last season, posting a 3.03 ERA and 1.102 WHIP in the first seven starts of his career. He’s been far less successful so far this season, with a 6.38 ERA and 1.445 WHIP through eight starts. Strangely enough, Wentz’s strikeout and walk rates have remained almost the same. The biggest difference from last year: He’s giving up a lot more hits, especially home runs (seven in only 36 2/3 innings).

Davey Martinez is going with a different look in his lineup this afternoon. Stone Garrett will bat cleanup against the lefty, and Riley Adams is giving Keibert Ruiz a well-deserved day off. But the most notable difference is that both CJ Abrams and Luis García are on the bench (García for the second straight day). So it’s Ildemaro Vargas and Michael Chavis up the middle of the infield.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs. DETROIT TIGERS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 1:35 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Sunny, 74 degrees, wind 11 mph in from left field

When the bottom of the sixth arrived at Nationals Park on Friday night, a zero still showing in the home team’s hit column, Lane Thomas decided to just go ahead and say what surely others in the ballpark were thinking at the time.

“I just started screaming: ‘He’s throwing a no-hitter!’ the outfielder said. “I think nobody really knew. I was like: ‘Hey guys, we’ve got to get one here soon!’”

Indeed, the Nationals had not been able to make any dent into Tigers starter Matthew Boyd, who through five scoreless innings had walked one batter and plunked another but had not surrendered anything close to a clean base hit and had faced the minimum thanks to a couple of double plays.

This was rare territory for the Nats, who remarkably still have not been no-hit in club history. The streak actually dates all the way back to July 18, 1999, when David Cone tossed a perfect game against the Expos at Yankee Stadium. The only franchise to enjoy a longer streak without being no-hit: the Athletics, who haven’t had it happen to them since four Orioles pitchers stymied them on July 13, 1991.

The Nationals have had a few close calls over the years, none closer than Sept. 24, 2013, when Cardinals rookie Michael Wacha was one out away from a no-hitter at Busch Stadium when Ryan Zimmerman narrowly beat out an infield single to save his team from suffering that ignominy.

When Chad Kuhl landed on the 15-day injured list at the beginning of the month, the Nationals decided to promote Jake Irvin from Triple-A Rochester and see what they had in this 26-year-old right-hander.

After a solid, though flawed major league debut against the Cubs, there was enough reason to want to see more of Irvin. After an eye-opening, 6 1/3 innings of scoreless ball in San Francisco, there was reason to wonder if Irvin might really be legit. And though his third start ended with a nightmare fifth inning, Irvin performed well enough against the Mets up to that point to warrant another look.

So, now what?

Irvin’s fourth career start didn’t come close to producing the promising moments of his previous three. Rocked by the weak-hitting Tigers for six runs in only 2 2/3 innings, he dug the Nationals into a deep hole they nearly climbed all the way out of before falling 8-6 in the opener of a weekend interleague series.

"Tomorrow, we've got to come out ready to play," an unusually perturbed Davey Martinez said. "From the first pitch on."

Joey Meneses was hesitant to leave Washington with the rest of his Nationals teammates following Monday’s win over the Mets, given what was going on in his personal life. Though Meneses’ wife, Mitzy Guzman, wasn’t due to give birth to the couple’s first child until later in the month, she went to the hospital that day with some discomfort, only to be sent back home when doctors told her nothing appeared imminent.

So Meneses went to Miami and played in Tuesday night’s loss to the Marlins, going 0-for-3 with a walk. Then his phone rang at 4 a.m., and he heard the news: Guzman’s water had broken, and she was going back to the hospital in labor.

Meneses scrambled to get on the first available flight back home Wednesday morning. He did not, however, make it in time to witness the birth of Joseph Meneses Guzman.

“Unfortunately, the baby was born around 12:30, and I didn’t get there 'til about 2 o’clock,” Meneses shared today, via interpreter Octavio Martinez. “By the time I landed and got through the airport and everything, I got here a little later than I wanted.”

“That’s OK,” Meneses added in English with a wide smile. “He’s healthy and good.”

It was a frustrating three days for the Nationals in Miami, where they lost three straight to the Marlins by a grand total of four runs. They continue to play close games, but they’re still learning how to consistently win a majority of those games.

They’ll give it another try this weekend with an interleague series against the Tigers, a team that’s also rebuilding and is also performing a little better than expected so far this season. Detroit is 19-22 despite a run differential of minus-48. (For comparison’s sake, the Nats are 18-26 with a run differential of minus-24.)

Like the Nationals, the Tigers don’t hit a lot. They’re last in the American League in runs, hits and on-base percentage, second-to-last in homers, walks, slugging percentage and OPS. Catcher Jake Rogers leads the team with five homers. Shortstop Javier Báez leads the team with 19 RBIs. Veteran left-hander Matthew Boyd, in his second stint with Detroit, is on the mound tonight. He was roughed up by the Mariners in his last start, allowing five runs and failing to get through the second inning.

Jake Irvin makes his fourth career start for the Nats, hoping to do what he’s done through the majority of his first three and just avoid the one bad inning that plagued him last week against the Mets.

Joey Meneses is back from his paternity leave and the Nationals have optioned Jake Alu back to Rochester to make roster room.

No, Joey Meneses hasn’t come close to duplicating his remarkable two-month debut for the Nationals late last season. But the 31-year-old hasn’t come close to falling completely flat, either.

It may have taken him a while to find his swing again, but Meneses is now producing at the plate in a manner that suggests his out-of-nowhere August and September of 2022 wasn’t a total mirage. With a four-hit, three-double, four-RBI performance Monday in a 10-3 thumping of the Mets, he raised his batting average to an even .300, his OPS to a respectable .722.

“That’s what I’m looking for,” Meneses said, via interpreter Octavio Martinez. “I’m just getting that confidence that I had last season and I’m helping the team on the offensive side.”

Meneses still isn’t hitting for a ton of power. The man who wowed the baseball world with 13 homers and a .563 slugging percentage in his first 56 major league games has hit only two balls out of the park while slugging .394 in his first 40 games this season.

But there are encouraging signs, and they keep growing in number each day. Over his last 27 games, Meneses is batting .345 with 20 RBIs and an .809 OPS. He is starting to pull the ball in the air with some consistency for the first time this year, from his go-ahead homer 10 days ago in Arizona to two of his run-scoring doubles in Monday’s win.

There is little reason to believe that, come season’s end, the Nationals and Mets will be anywhere near each other in the National League East standings. The rebuilding Nats are supposed to finish at the bottom of the division. The $330 million Mets are supposed to challenge for the division title and play deep into October.

But the season is now 25 percent complete, and the difference between the two clubs is 1 1/2 games. In part because the Nats have now beaten the Mets in four of their seven head-to-head matchups after today’s 10-3 thumping in the finale of a wraparound series on South Capitol Street.

"It was a good series," manager Davey Martinez said. "These guys, they've been playing hard. Let's forget about the first week of the season (when they went 1-6 against the Braves and Rays). We've been playing really well. I want them to take that into consideration. Not just playing one team. But understanding where we're at and what we're doing. It's been fun. They're playing with a lot of energy."

The Nationals have more than held their own against New York, taking two of three last month at Citi Field and now splitting this four-game series. They’ve done so with quality pitching, some improved offensive punch and a whole lot of CJ Abrams.

Abrams was back at it this afternoon, launching a solo homer into the second deck in right field in the sixth inning, his latest blast in a recent power surge by the 22-year-old shortstop. Abrams now has hit four homers this season, three of them against the Mets, two of them in the last two days. He’s suddenly tied with Lane Thomas and Jeimer Candelario for the team lead in homers, and he leads the team with 22 RBIs despite typically batting ninth.

The Nationals entered the season planning to utilize Corey Dickerson as their starting left fielder, certainly against opposing right-handers. More than six weeks later, they’ll finally be able to implement that plan.

Dickerson was activated off the 10-day injured list this afternoon, and though he’s not in the lineup for the team’s series finale against the Mets, he is eligible to play for the first time since straining his left calf on April 1. Utility man Jake Alu was optioned to Triple-A Rochester to clear a spot on the active roster.

Dickerson hurt himself in the season’s second game, his first start after signing a $2.25 million contract with the Nationals over the winter. The veteran outfielder, who turns 34 next week, spent more than a month rehabbing the injury, then departed Friday for a quick rehab assignment in Rochester, where he went 2-for-10 with a double, a walk and four strikeouts over three games.

Owner of a career .287/.331/.504 offensive slash line against right-handed pitching – those numbers have dropped a bit to .280/.326/.418 over the last three seasons – Dickerson will get a chance to be the player the Nats believed they were getting all along when they signed him.

“What I’ve known of him, he’s such a streaky hitter that he can go on a roll where he can hit in the middle of the lineup, or even the top of the lineup,” manager Davey Martinez said. “I’ve seen him work unbelievable at-bats, 10-, 12-pitch at-bats, and then rocket a ball to left field. He also has a little juice. Right now, having his bat against right-handed pitching is very nice.”

It’s been a long, often frustrating weekend at Nationals Park. And yet, there’s still a chance for the home team to emerge with an encouraging end result.

If the Nationals can win today’s finale of their four-game, wraparound series with the Mets, they’ll have continued their trend of playing .500 baseball over an extended stretch. They would split the series and improve to 17-17 since their 1-6 start to the season. Nothing to complain about there, right?

They’re going to need to do more in the clutch today than they did yesterday, when CJ Abrams drove in all four of their runs across 16 innings of play while the rest of the team went 0-for-15 with runners in scoring position. They won’t be facing Max Scherzer today; it’s left-hander David Peterson, who enters with a 1-5 record and 7.68 ERA.

Speaking of 1-5 records, Patrick Corbin starts for the Nats. That record isn’t entirely indicative of how he’s pitched. Over his last five starts, the lefty has a 3.56 ERA, 1.088 WHIP and 21 strikeouts to only three walks. And yet he’s gone 0-3 in those games, with the Nationals winning his two no-decisions.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs. NEW YORK METS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 4:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Sunny, 75 degrees, wind 8 mph out to center field