PITTSBURGH – And we’re back. After Friday’s rainout – FYI, it didn’t even start raining until about 9 p.m. – the Nationals and Pirates reconvene for what’s going to be a very long Saturday afternoon and evening. It’s a day-night doubleheader, the first game starting at 1:35 p.m., the nightcap starting at 6:40 p.m. as initially planned.

Both of Friday night’s scheduled starters will be on the mound for today’s opener. So it’s DJ Herz, again looking not only to get his outing off to a good start but also to have a strong finish, pitching for the Nats. The rookie left-hander might need to be pushed a bit harder in this one, because Davey Martinez has to make sure he’s still got enough relievers available for the nightcap.

(For what it’s worth, the teams don’t get to call up an extra player for the doubleheader, because rosters are already expanded for September. So it’s a 14-man pitching staff, no changes.)

At the plate, the Nationals will try to get something going against right-hander Luis Ortiz, who didn’t give up a run in either of his previous two outings. Martinez was hopeful Friday night that the return of CJ Abrams to the top of the lineup would help jump-start the offense, believing Abrams could fare well against Ortiz’s fastball. We’ll see how that goes.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at PITTSBURGH PIRATES
Where: PNC Park
Gametime: 1:35 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 88.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Partly cloudy, 65 degrees, wind 10 mph out to center field

PITTSBURGH – Tonight's game between the Nationals and Pirates has been postponed due to a line of storms expected to arrive about an hour after scheduled first pitch and linger throughout the night.

The two teams will now play a split doubleheader Saturday, with the makeup game at 1:35 p.m. followed by the originally scheduled game at 6:40 p.m.

After a brief period of rain this afternoon, the skies over PNC Park actually cleared up and looked to remain that way until approximately 7:30 p.m. In theory, this game could have started on time at 6:40 p.m., with officials hoping to get as many innings as possible in before the rain arrived.

But with the storms expected to be strong and last throughout the night, the Pirates decided not to take any chances and announced the postponement about 30 minutes before first pitch.

DJ Herz, who was supposed to pitch tonight, will now start Saturday's 1:35 p.m. game. Mitchell Parker will start the 6:40 p.m. nightcap as planned.

PITTSBURGH – There wasn’t much for the Nationals to get excited about out of Thursday night’s game, a 9-4 loss to the Pirates in the opener of a four-game series. They didn’t get good starting pitching. They didn’t get good relief pitching. They got a couple of big hits in the top of the first, then nothing else the rest of the way.

So the Nats will hope to hit the reset button tonight and get back on track. If the weather cooperates. There is a line of storms approaching from the west, and it’s scheduled to arrive at some point this evening, potentially lasting into Saturday morning. No idea yet if it will prevent this game from starting on time, being disrupted or even being played at all. Stay turned.

Whenever they play, it’ll be DJ Herz on the mound for the Nationals. The rookie left-hander had a string of solid outings disrupted last weekend when the Cubs got to him for four runs in 4 2/3 innings, all of those coming in the top of the fifth. Herz has typically done better in the early innings than the late innings; something to keep an eye on tonight.

Right-hander Luis Ortiz starts for Pittsburgh, and he has been outstanding of late. Ortiz has tossed six scoreless innings each of his last two starts and gave up only one hit to the Guardians last Saturday.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at PITTSBURGH PIRATES
Where: PNC Park
Gametime: 6:40 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 88.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Storms arriving, 80 degrees, wind 7 mph out to left field

PITTSBURGH – The ball would have cleared the fence in any major league park, as any 419-foot blast to left-center field should. But if there’s one left-center field gap in baseball that might be big enough to keep such a drive in play, it’s this one at PNC Park, with its “North Side Notch” just to the left of the two bullpens.

So when Andrés Chaparro made contact in the top of the first Thursday night, he didn’t want to assume anything.

"As soon as I hit it, I knew I hit it well," the Nationals first baseman said, via interpreter Octavio Martinez. "I knew I made hard contact. I wasn't sure if it was going to go out or not, but luckily it did and I was able to contribute to the scoreboard."

Chaparro’s blast indeed was deep enough – barely – to reach the stands and give the Nats a 3-0 lead they thought would hold up better than it did during what eventually became a 9-4 loss to the Pirates.

And it was merely the latest such blast from the 25-year-old rookie, who continues to make the most of his unexpected playing opportunity and try to convince the Nationals he should be part of their 2025 plans.

PITTSBURGH – The 162-game season is unforgiving. It rewards those who have both the physical and mental fortitude to deal with some adversity along the way and right their ship. It penalizes those who can’t bounce back when things start to go south.

A number of prominent Nationals are experiencing the latter these days, stellar first halves undone by subpar second halves. There are still 21 games left to try to salvage things and end on a positive note. But time is running out for them, and Jake Irvin is very much on that list.

A potential All-Star on Independence Day, the right-hander is now just hoping to get his ERA back under 4.00 by season’s end. His last two starts, each of them undone by one really bad inning, have left him in such an unexpected position.

With six runs allowed overall tonight, five of them in the bottom of the second alone, Irvin turned what the Nationals hoped would be a good series opener against the Pirates into an unsightly, 9-4 loss. Plenty more calamities befell them over the rest of the game, but that ugly second inning loomed largest.

"The big innings stink, and they're going to kill you," Irvin said. "We've lost two games in a row that I've started now because of those innings. We're just trying to do whatever we can to avoid those situations in the future."

PITTSBURGH – Davey Martinez has already tried moving CJ Abrams down in the lineup. Now the Nationals manager is trying to get his slumping shortstop some more rest in an attempt to get his hitting stroke back on track.

Abrams is not in the Nats’ lineup for tonight’s series opener against the Pirates, the third time that’s been the case in the team’s last 12 games. Rookie Nasim Nunez instead is starting against left-hander Bailey Falter.

It’s an unfamiliar situation for Abrams, but it has become harsh reality for the 23-year-old All-Star after two months of diminished production.

“We all know that he’s struggling a little bit,” Martinez said. “And against a lefty, I’ll give him a day off, let Nasim play. We’re trying to get him going again. I know he’s been struggling lately. So just another day. We got in pretty late (from Miami). Give him a day off his feet. He’ll be ready to go later on.”

Abrams’ two-month decline has been steep. He sported a .282/.353/.506 slash line on July 7, only a few days after he was named an All-Star for the first time in his career. In 46 games since, he’s slashing .163/.231/.270, with only five doubles, four homers and nine walks while striking out 46 times.

PITTSBURGH – It would be hard to find a more striking difference in ballpark vistas than the one the Nationals just saw in Miami and the one they’ll see the next four days at PNC Park. And the weather here looks great, as well, aside from a chance of rain Friday night into Saturday morning.

The Nats arrive in Pittsburgh after splitting their two-game series with the Marlins, a series that absolutely was there for the taking if they had simply converted in the ninth or 10th innings when they had the chance. Oh well, maybe it was too much to expect a season sweep of a division opponent.

The Nationals haven’t seen the Pirates since way back in early April, the first homestand of the season. A lot has changed for both teams since then, perhaps most notably the promotions of the top two picks in last summer’s draft, the former LSU teammates. Dylan Crews will get plenty of action this weekend, but unfortunately Paul Skenes will not. The Pirates, looking to keep Skenes in the rotation through season’s end, are going to a six-man rotation, so he won’t start again until Monday.

So tonight it’s Jake Irvin for the Nats and Bailey Falter for the Pirates. Irvin needs to bounce back from his bizarre start against the Cubs, when he was torched for seven runs in the top of the second but didn’t give up anything else the rest of his outing. This is an important month for Irvin, who is trying to make sure his outstanding first half doesn’t become an afterthought. He’s facing a Pittsburgh lineup that was no-hit by Shota Imanaga and two Cubs relievers Wednesday night at Wrigley Field.

Falter faced the Nats four times over the last two seasons as a member of the Phillies, and was quite successful, going 2-0 with a 2.57 ERA. The left-hander has been pretty mediocre for the Pirates this year, and he enters this one having allowed four or more runs in three of his last four starts.

The Nationals are getting their most durable reliever back for the season’s final month.

Derek Law, the workhorse setup man who landed on the injured list two weeks ago with a flexor strain in his right elbow, was activated Monday and will be available for tonight’s series opener in Miami.

Law was confident all along his IL stint would be short, and indeed he was back throwing within a week of being shut down. He threw 20 pitches to live hitters Saturday and pronounced himself ready to return. The Nats acquiesced, activating him without first requiring a minor league rehab stint.

Even with the time missed, Law still leads all National League relievers with 75 2/3 innings pitched. If he returns to his normal work rate, he would become the Nationals’ first reliever to reach 90 innings pitched since Tyler Clippard in 2010. And if he can throw 17 2/3 innings in the season’s final 25 games, he will eclipse Saul Rivera’s club record of 93 relief innings pitched in 2007.

Needing to clear a spot on the active roster for Law, the Nats optioned right-hander Orlando Ribalta to Triple-A Rochester following Sunday’s game. The rookie has struggled in four big league appearances over the last several weeks, allowing five runs and 10 hits in only 3 1/3 innings.

As he stood before a locker with his nameplate, a Nationals jersey with his name on it, inside a big league clubhouse for the first time, Zach Brzykcy was asked what he would’ve thought if someone predicted this outcome for him four years ago when he was a junior at Virginia Tech.

“I would’ve laughed at them,” he said. “Like, no way is this going to happen.”

That Brzykcy did find himself at Nationals Park on Sunday was a remarkable story. Undrafted out of college. Owner of a 5.20 ERA in his first professional season. Sidelined for his entire third pro season following Tommy John surgery. And now a big league reliever, officially promoted from Triple-A Rochester as one of the Nats’ two September call-ups.

“Speechless,” the 25-year-old right-hander said of his reaction to learning the news Saturday from Rochester manager Matt LeCroy. “I’m kind of a quiet guy, so I didn’t even know what to think. I internalized it, and I was just mind blown. I’ve been working for this since I was 4 to be here, and I’m here. It’s just surreal. There’s no words to describe the feeling.”

Brzykcy (pronounced “BRICK-see”) might seem an unlikely addition to the Nationals bullpen, but he earned his way here. He was a casualty of the COVID pandemic, both because his junior season at Virginia Tech ended in mid-March with only nine appearances and because Major League Baseball reduced the 2020 Draft to a mere five rounds.

If managers preach to their teams they can’t give the opposition more than 27 outs, what do they say about giving them 32 outs?

Truth be told, it probably never comes up, because how often does a team make five defensive gaffes in one nine-inning game? At the major league level, nonetheless.

What, then, will Davey Martinez have to say to his players after today’s 14-1 dismantling by the Cubs, one that was defined not by the hits the Nationals gave up or failed to produce themselves but by the five misplays they made in the field during their least aesthetically pleasing game of the season?

"We're going to pound the same message: We've got to catch the baseball," the manager said in one of the more animated postgame sessions of his seven-year tenure here. "It was awful today. I can't say nothing about it. Our defense was not there. I thought (Mitchell Parker) threw the ball really well. We've got to play defense behind him. You can't drive in runs and let in three or four more runs. You've got to catch the baseball. Defense is a big part of the game. I say that all the time. We've got to catch the ball."

Martinez has had to confront these questions before, but usually as it pertains to one or maybe two plays during the course of a game. Five? This was unprecedented, leaving him to answer how he planned to deliver the aforementioned message to his players.

Darren Baker didn’t need an alarm to wake himself up this morning. He didn’t need a GPS to find his way to Nationals Park. And when he entered the clubhouse, he didn’t need to introduce himself to many people.

If ever a rookie felt at home on his first day in the major leagues, this was it.

“I think it does feel comfortable, especially this one,” he said. “I knew how to get here. I didn’t have to put it into my phone or anything. So I felt comfortable just showing up.”

Baker, who along with reliever Zach Brzykcy was promoted from Triple-A Rochester this morning as the Nationals’ two allotted September call-ups with rosters expanding to 28, has been a familiar face around Nationals Park since 2016. And he’s been a familiar face around big league ballparks and clubhouse since 2002.

Such is life when you’re Dusty Baker’s son. With a famous father who spent most of the last two decades managing in San Francisco, Chicago, Cincinnati, Washington and Houston, Darren Baker has been immersed in the baseball world his whole life. Fans first knew about him in the 2002 World Series, when as a 3-year-old Giants batboy he memorably had to be scooped up J.T. Snow before getting run over on a play at the plate.

It’s September, which means there are only four weeks to go in the season and rosters now expand from 26 to 28. For the Nationals, that means the major league debuts of infielder Darren Baker and reliever Zach Brzykcy, who both are being called up from Triple-A Rochester today and joining the active roster. There may not be much playing opportunity for Baker, who plays second base and a little bit of outfield, but Brzykcy (pronounced BRICK-see) should get a good look out of the bullpen the rest of the way.

As for today’s game, the Nats need a win to avoid what would be a very frustrating sweep. Each of the last two games were there for the taking, but they couldn’t avoid one big inning on the mound and then couldn’t deliver one more clutch hit in the ninth inning. They’ll hope to get out to a lead today and then maintain it, perhaps even get the ball to Kyle Finnegan.

Mitchell Parker gets the start, and he had an erratic August. He allowed one or fewer earned runs in six or more innings in three of his starts. But he was torched for nine runs in Philadelphia, and lasted only four innings (despite giving up only two runs) last time out against the Yankees.

The Nationals will be facing left-hander Jordan Wicks, who returns from a long stint on the injured list after having an oblique strain.

To clear space on the 40-man roster for Baker, the Nats transferred Trevor Williams to the 60-day IL. That doesn't change the right-hander's timetime for potentially returning before season's end.

There unquestionably is more young talent on the Nationals roster right now than there has been in years, and that alone is reason for more optimism than this franchise has offered in years.

Talent alone, of course, doesn’t win ballgames. Execution is required, especially in the moments that matter the most. And for some talented young players, that second part takes time to develop. If it ever does.

Today’s 5-3 loss to the Cubs was a game that was there for the taking. Alas, it slipped away from the home team because of a bad ending to a great start by DJ Herz, two more outs made on the bases at a time when the Nats needed baserunners, a particularly bad error by a rookie catcher and another inspiring but ultimately unsuccessful ninth-inning rally.

Put it all together, and you get a second straight narrow loss to Chicago, even if there have been several positive developments the last 24 hours by key young players.

"These things are worked on. It's just, the game speeds up," manager Davey Martinez said. "To me, we did make some mistakes today. But the big thing is, yesterday, one inning we gave it up. Today, one inning we gave it up. They’re going to have to learn how to get through these innings and limit the damage. That’s the big thing. The other things will clean up with time. ... Right now, we’re just making small mistakes. And as they play a little more, and play more and play more, they’ll start learning those mistakes become big mistakes in games like this."

Derek Law appears ready to return from his brief stint on the injured list. Trevor Williams needs some more time but took a big step in his return from the IL today.

Law and Williams each faced live hitters this afternoon prior to the Nationals’ game against the Cubs, the first time each right-hander had done that since going on the 15-day IL with flexor strains in their elbows.

Law, out since Aug. 17, threw 20 pitches over one simulated inning against teammates Ildemaro Vargas and Nasim Nuñez. He said everything felt strong and that he believes his two-week layoff helped give his arm and body a rare chance to rest after a workhorse season. (His 75 2/3 innings pitched lead all major league relievers.)

“Think about it. This is like the first time your body’s getting a full amount of time off,” Law said, citing advice he got from pitching strategist Sean Doolittle. “It’s almost like you’re in spring training again, instead of the grind of the season, where you’re trying to manipulate your body to throw how it should be throwing.

“I was definitely throwing different ways to try to get around the elbow (before going on the IL). So it’s nice to feel free, I guess.”

Friday night was a wild one for the Nationals, who saw Jake Irvin give up seven runs to the Cubs in the top of the second, then Irvin and a parade of relievers give up nothing the rest of the way, then the lineup rally to score three runs in the ninth and put the winning run on base with two outs and Dylan Crews at the plate … only to watch him strike out to end the game. Enough drama for you?

So, what does today’s game have in store? There’s an obvious storyline to watch: DJ Herz facing the Cubs. The rookie left-hander came up through Chicago’s system before he was dealt to the Nats last summer for Jeimer Candelario, and now he gets to face his former team for the first time. Herz has been solid this month, with a 2.22 ERA and 1.192 WHIP, though he’s averaging fewer than five innings per start.

Davey Martinez again has a lineup with Dylan Crews and James Wood at the top and CJ Abrams not near the top. Abrams does move up one spot today, from seventh to sixth, against Cubs right-hander Javier Assad. But clearly his drop down the order Friday night wasn’t simply a matchup situation against a left-hander. This is going to remain this way a while longer until Abrams gets himself back on track.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs CHICAGO CUBS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 4:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 88.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Mostly cloudy, 86 degrees, wind 8 mph out to left field

NATIONALS
RF Dylan Crews
LF James Wood
2B Luis García Jr.
DH Andrés Chaparro
3B José Tena
SS CJ Abrams
1B Joey Gallo
C Drew Millas
CF Jacob Young

The month of August is about to wrap up this weekend, which means it’s been a full month since the trade deadline. Which means enough time has passed to start evaluating how trades worked out.

Of course, it takes years to know if a trade truly was worth it or not. But in the Nationals’ case, it’s worth checking in on the results of Mike Rizzo’s four deadline deals to see how they look at this point.

(Spoiler alert: They look pretty good at this early stage of the process.)

HUNTER HARVEY to ROYALS for CAYDEN WALLACE and CALEB LOMAVITA
Rizzo surprised everyone by making this deal 17 days before the July 30 deadline, but there was a good reason for it. He wanted Kansas City’s “Competitive Balance A” pick in the following night’s Draft. So in addition to Wallace, a promising-but-injured third base prospect, the Nationals also got the No. 39 pick, which they used on Lomavita, an intriguing catcher from Cal.

Wallace, who was dealing with a fractured rib at the time, just finally made his organizational debut Thursday night, delivering an RBI single and drawing a walk for Single-A Wilmington. He’ll look to finish the season strong and then come to spring training next year trying to move up the organizational ladder.

It was undoubtedly the best development of the first half of the Nationals season, a young starting rotation that seemed to break through as one, four potential building blocks all succeeding at the big league level and offering real hope for the near future.

And things turned south for all four of them as the summer progressed. MacKenzie Gore and Jake Irvin no longer looked like All-Stars. Mitchell Parker and DJ Herz looked like rookies with a lot of things that still needed to be ironed out.

So consider the last week-plus a key turning point for that group, which along with veteran Patrick Corbin has turned dominant again.

Over their last nine games, Nationals starters have combined to post a 1.94 ERA and 1.098 WHIP, striking out more than one batter per inning and never once allowing more than two earned runs.

Everyone in the quintet has contributed to the resurgence, but Gore’s part in this play – capped off by Wednesday night’s win over the Yankees – has been the most encouraging.

It's too soon to know if the events of the last 72 hours represent a critical turning point in what the Nationals hope is among the last steps they need to take to close out a long and arduous rebuild and finally start thinking about winning again. They could come back to earth this weekend, or next month or even when they all reconvene next spring.

But for anyone who has endured the pain of the last three years believing there would be a light at the end of the tunnel, these last three nights were for you. It’s not just that the Nationals won a series against the Yankees, capped off by tonight’s 5-2 triumph on South Capitol Street. It’s that they did it with a roster loaded with talented young players, nearly every one of them a potential piece to the long-term puzzle.

For the most part, these weren’t stopgaps performing well against the Bronx Bombers. They were building blocks. And they delivered about as well as anyone could have hoped.

"I think we all understand that we're talented, to be honest with you," left-hander MacKenzie Gore said. "But it's one of those 'You either do it, or you don't' kind of things. This is where we're at. We don't want to be just like: 'Oh, we're going to be good in a couple of years, as a player or a team.' It's our job to be good right now."

Tonight’s victory included the first home run of Dylan Crews’ career (which began Monday). It included two more hits and three more stolen bases by James Wood, fully living up to the hype in his first two months in the majors. It included six standout innings from Gore, who in his last two starts has looked far more like the potential All-Star he was in April and May than the shaky left-hander he had been since.

The Nationals keep running into walls trying to find out if Joan Adon can become a regular member of their bullpen.

Adon was placed on the 15-day injured list this afternoon with a right shoulder biceps strain, removing the erratic reliever from the active roster again and replacing him with rookie Orlando Ribalta, who was recalled from Triple-A Rochester.

The Nats are awaiting MRI results on Adon, who had not pitched in six days but did briefly warm up during Monday night’s game against the Yankees. Teams cannot backdate IL moves more than three days, so Adon won’t be eligible to return until Sept. 10.

The 26-year-old, a starter throughout his professional career, was moved to the bullpen in Rochester earlier this season, with the Nationals thinking he might develop into an effective long man. But he’s appeared in only eight big league games across three stints with the club, and he has yet to record more than four outs in any relief appearance.

Ribalta returns to the majors only eight days after he was optioned to Triple-A, a move that came only seven days after he made his big league debut. The 6-foot-8 right-hander was scored upon in each of his two appearances for the Nats but sported a 2.64 ERA, 1.154 WHIP and 69 strikeouts in 47 2/3 innings at Rochester and Double-A Harrisburg.

It’s been a fun couple of nights at Nationals Park. Monday night saw the debut of Dylan Crews and the Yankees outplaying the home team during a tight, 5-2 win. Tuesday night saw Crews record his first hit, Andrés Chaparro record his first home run, Patrick Corbin outpitch Gerrit Cole and the Nats emerge with a tight, 4-2 win. The atmosphere in the ballpark has been outstanding, the kind of thing that used to be common around here but hasn’t been common for several years.

Now it’s the rubber game of the series, and a big start for MacKenzie Gore. It’s been a ragged summer for the young left-hander, but he hopes he turned a corner over the weekend in Atlanta, where he held the Braves to one run over six innings without issuing a walk. This is obviously a tough lineup Gore has to face tonight, but he’s unquestionably got better stuff than Corbin, who was hugely successful. It’s up to Gore to make his stuff work against Juan Soto, Aaron Judge and Co.

The Nationals would love to give Gore some significant run support. It’s been a strange few days, because they’ve hit the ball hard quite a bit, and they’ve recorded four homers and four doubles, but they’re a staggering 0-for-17 with runners in scoring position. (The Yankees, by the way, are 0-for-13 in the series.) They’ll go up against left-hander Carlos Rodón, who has been hit-or-miss of late, and try to convert at least a few times in clutch situations to provide Gore some support.

The Nats did make a roster move this afternoon: Orlando Ribalta has been recalled from Triple-A Rochester, with Joan Adon placed on the 15-day injured list with a right shoulder biceps strain. So it's a swap of right-handed relievers.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs NEW YORK YANKEES
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 6:45 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 88.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Partly cloudy, 95 degrees, wind 8 mph out to right field