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

MILWAUKEE – Much as they might want to convince themselves otherwise, the Nationals can’t win baseball games without scoring runs. Oh, they’ve put this theory to the test for more than a week now, and night after night they have been proven wrong.

Perhaps some teams have the pitching staff to win with one run of support. This team doesn’t.

Six times in their last nine games the Nats have either been shut out or scored one run. They have, unsurprisingly, lost all six of those games, including tonight’s 5-1 loss to the Brewers.

Not that they don’t have the ability on any random night to explode at the plate. In their 13 wins to date this season, the Nationals have averaged 7.7 runs.

Alas, in their 28 losses, they’ve now averaged 2.1 runs. That’s a tough way to live life in the big leagues.

MILWAUKEE – The Nationals intended all along for Ehire Adrianza to hold a key role on their opening day roster, serving as something of a super-utilityman for the club who could bounce around between multiple positions and give regulars some days off along the way.

But when Adrianza strained his left quadriceps during the final week of spring training, those plans had to be put on ice for a while. At last, though, the Nats have reason to believe he’s close to joining the active roster and making the difference they thought he would from the outset.

Adrianza has been playing in simulated games in Florida over the last week or so, and most recently played seven innings with no significant issues, manager Davey Martinez said before tonight’s game against the Brewers.

That means the 32-year-old is just about ready to go on a minor league rehab assignment, the final step before he’s activated off the injured list.

“He’s been playing three innings, four innings, five innings. We’ve built him up now to seven innings,” Martinez said. “Now he feels good, so we’re going to send him out shortly.”

MILWAUKEE – If you’re not excited about tonight’s tilt at Not Miller Park Anymore, perhaps the postgame concert will pique your interest: Vanilla Ice, Naughty by Nature and Rob Base. Hey, if the Nationals get shut out again, “Ice Ice Baby” might be an appropriate tune to blast in the clubhouse afterward.

The Nats need to score some runs, in case you haven’t been paying attention. Five times in their last eight games they’ve either been shut out or held to one run. That’s just not going to cut it. The crazy thing is, this lineup has been all-or-nothing so far this season. In their 13 wins to date, the Nationals have scored an average of 7.7 runs. In their 27 losses, they’ve scored an average of 2.1 runs.

The bad news is, they’re facing two-time All-Star Brandon Woodruff tonight. The good news is, Woodruff enters with a 5.35 ERA and 1.336 WHIP. So perhaps he’s more hittable than he’s been in the past. (Either that, or he’s due to dominate for the first time this year.)

Patrick Corbin starts for the Nationals, looking to continue his recent improvements but actually emerge with his first win of the season. The lefty was great for four innings Sunday afternoon against the Astros, then served up three late homers to spoil the start. He’s got to find a way to sustain success, finish strong and give his team a chance.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at MILWAUKEE BREWERS
Where: American Family Field
Gametime: 7:10 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Indoors

MILWAUKEE – The ball came off Luis Urias’ bat, headed down the third base line and bounced directly to a charging Maikel Franco, at which point anybody watching immediately must’ve had the same thought.

Could this be a triple play?

And when Franco stepped on third, fired to second and watched as teammate César Hernández made a smooth turn to get the ball to Josh Bell at first base in plenty of time to retire Urias, it almost felt too good to be true.

Has a triple play in a big league game ever looked as easy as the 5-4-3 triplet-killing the Nationals pulled off during Friday night’s loss to the Brewers?

“It’s not easy,” Franco insisted afterward. “But you know, sometimes the play tells you what you have to do. I know I’ve been on the line and the ball was (hit) hard on the line, and I just catch the ball and I think about go to second, and César made the good turn.”

MILWAUKEE – The worst thing a team struggling to win – and, more specifically, struggling to score runs – can do is try too hard to make something big happen.

The Nationals have been trying too hard for several weeks now, committing unforced errors in the field, on the bases and at the plate. It seems to be happening on a nightly basis during their current road trip. And tonight it may have come to a head in absolutely agonizing fashion.

Trailing the Brewers at the time 2-0 with one out in the top of the seventh, Lane Thomas drove a ball off the wall in deep right-center. And when it caromed to the side a bit, Thomas had himself an easy triple.

Except third base coach Gary DiSarcina wanted more. He waved Thomas around, shooting for an unlikely inside-the-park home run. And when the Brewers successfully relayed the ball to the plate to nail Thomas for the second out of the inning and the home crowd of 29,609 roared with approval, all the Nationals could do was watch in disbelief as it happened yet again.

"He thought he may have had a shot," manager Davey Martinez said of DiSarcina. "But when you don't score any runs, you try anything you can to get a run across the plate."

MILWAUKEE – Carter Kieboom hoped he’d be spending the next week building up his arm, resuming baseball activities and making plans to rejoin the Nationals’ active roster sometime in June, the elbow sprain that landed him on the 60-day injured list to begin the season finally behind him. Instead, the club’s longtime third baseman of the future will be preparing for Tommy John surgery that will sideline him until 2023.

Kieboom will have that major procedure Friday to repair his ulnar collateral ligament after the same pain he experienced in spring training cropped up again recently as he attempted to resume his throwing program in Florida. It’s a significant blow for the 24-year-old, who for the third straight season won’t have been able to secure the starting third base job the Nationals have long hoped he would seize when given the opportunity.

“We tried to do it conservatively, which he wanted to try first, and he felt really good,” manager Davey Martinez said of the rehab process Kieboom had endured over the last two months. “And then he started throwing and tried to really get it going, and he said the pain came back. At this point, we thought it was best, and he thought it was best, that he does have the surgery to fix it. This way, he comes back and there’s no other issues.”

The specter of Tommy John surgery has loomed since Kieboom first injured himself making a throw in spring training. An MRI at the time revealed both a flexor mass strain and a sprain of the UCL, though he and the Nats initially hoped he would be able to avoid surgery and return in a few months with rest and rehab.

All along, though, the club knew surgery might be needed if that rehab plan didn’t work. And sure enough, during a follow-up exam in Washington last week, the decision was made to schedule the ligament-replacement surgery.

MILWAUKEE – Hello from the stadium formerly known as Miller Park. It’s now American Family Field, and yes, that’s going to take a while to get used to. The Nationals come to town for a three-game weekend series with the Brewers, hoping for some better results than they experienced during the first half of this trip in Miami, which required some extra-inning drama to avoid a sweep at the hands of the Marlins.

At this point, we kind of know what needs to happen for the Nats to have a realistic shot at winning: They need to hit. Or, more specifically, they need extra-base hits. Though they rank fourth in the National League with a .250 batting average and sixth with a .317 on-base percentage, they’re only ninth in runs scored with 158. Most of that is due to a lack of power; their .360 slugging percentage ranks 11th.

So that’s the challenge tonight against Brewers left-hander Eric Lauer, who enters with a 2.60 ERA and 0.981 WHIP but has allowed a hefty 1.8 homers per nine innings, including three in his last start (against the Marlins). Boy, this would be a good night for Nelson Cruz to get a hold of a pitch on the inner third of the plate, wouldn’t it?

Erick Fedde starts for the Nats, and it’s been some kind of wild ride for him of late. Fedde issued five walks May 8 in Anaheim, yet emerged without allowing a run. He issued three first-inning walks Saturday against the Astros but escaped the jam without any damage before giving up three runs later. Plain and simple, the right-hander needs to have an early feel for more than one of his pitches, keep the ball in the zone and keep his pitch count down against a Milwaukee lineup that’s 10th in the NL in batting average (.233) and on-base percentage (.311) but fourth in runs (179) because … they hit for power (.408 slugging percentage ranks fourth)!

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at MILWAUKEE BREWERS
Where: American Family Field
Gametime: 8:10 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Indoors

As so much else within their organization has undergone massive change over the last two years, two of the Nationals’ most important employees have remained right where they’ve wanted to be all along and provided some much needed stability: Mike Rizzo and Davey Martinez.

Even as they traded away or lost countless players from their 2019 World Series roster, even as members of the coaching and front office staffs were shuffled around, even as ownership shockingly expressed its intent to explore a sale of the franchise, the Nats could point to their general manager and their manager as hallmarks of continuity.

There’s something to be said for that. The two people charged with assembling and then leading the product on the field have been here a while now – Rizzo as GM since 2009, Martinez as manager since 2018 – and there’s been no reason until now to spend too much time wondering how much longer they’re going to be around.

Then came Wednesday evening’s report by The Washington Post that the contract extensions Rizzo and Martinez each signed late in the 2020 season only guaranteed their employment through 2022, not 2023 as was widely believed. Their contracts don’t expire yet, but the club holds 2023 options on each, according to the report, and that suddenly paints their situations in a whole new light.

This isn’t any new revelation to ownership or Rizzo or Martinez, mind you. They’ve certainly known the terms of those contracts all along. It’s just now known by everyone else, which of course does change the public perception of the situation.

Quick quiz: Who leads the Nationals in RBIs? It’s Josh Bell, right?

Yes, but it’s not only Bell. Also checking in with 21 RBIs through the season’s first 36 games is an unexpected contributor: Maikel Franco.

While Bell’s offensive exploits have been front and center since opening day, Franco’s contributions have been delivered in a bit more quiet fashion. But sure enough, the veteran third baseman’s two-run homer during Saturday night’s blowout win over the Astros brought him up to Bell’s RBI total and the team lead.

Some of this is a reflection of Juan Soto’s struggles to drive in runs – he has only 11, despite eight homers and an .890 OPS – but it’s also a credit to Franco, who surprisingly finds himself on pace for 95 RBIs at the moment, a total that would shatter his previous career-high of 88.

 “He’s been great,” manager Davey Martinez said. “He’s worked really hard. He and (assistant hitting coach Pat Roessler) have built a really good relationship. They work hard in the batting cages. He’s got a really good routine going on right now.”

It had all the trimmings of a classic pitchers’ duel, Justin Verlander and Patrick Corbin matching zeros in the run column while Verlander maintained a zero in the hits column as well.

For Verlander, though, this was par for the course. He just carried a no-hit bid into the eighth inning in his previous start.

For Corbin, this was uncharted territory for 2022. And 2020 and 2021, for that matter. The pressure rested squarely upon the left-hander’s shoulder to keep up with his more accomplished counterpart. And though he did best Verlander in the length of his start, Corbin came nowhere close to beating him in the only department that actually counts.

Three late homers by the Astros spoiled Corbin’s afternoon. And with the Nationals unable to push a run across in five innings against Verlander or the next four innings against Houston relievers, the end result was an 8-0 loss that didn’t really convey the type of ballgame this actually was.

"Look who we faced today," manager Davey Martinez said. "We've been swinging the bat well. Regardless of whether or not we score runs, we've been getting five, six, seven, eight hits a game. Today, that guy was good."

Tanner Rainey is the Nationals’ best reliever. Or, at least, they’re handling him like he’s their best reliever, using him as their closer when the opportunity presents itself.

Trouble is, there just haven’t been many of those opportunities to date.

The Nats have held a lead of three or fewer runs in the ninth inning only four times through the season’s first 35 games. And it’s happened, remarkably, only once in their last 22 games. (The team’s last six wins all have come by at least four runs, often many more.)

Which has left Rainey frequently doing nothing but watching games from the bullpen without ever taking the mound himself. He has appeared only 10 times overall this season, only four times so far this month.

So when the latter innings of Saturday night’s 13-6 rout of the Astros came around, manager Davey Martinez felt he had no choice but to go ahead and pitch Rainey, no matter the score. It was the 29-year-old’s first outing since his lone blown save Sunday in Anaheim, the third time already this season he was pitching on five days’ rest.

The Nationals were held to one run during Friday night’s loss to the Astros. They exploded for 13 runs during Saturday night’s win over the Astros. So what should we expect from them during today’s series finale against the Astros?

As much as you’d love to see another offensive explosion, you’ve got to think the odds are stacked against them, with Justin Verlander taking the mound for Houston. The 39-year-old right-hander has been phenomenal so far this season, with a 4-1 record and league-leading 1.55 ERA and 0.639 WHIP. And he’s doing this in his return from Tommy John surgery. Like his former rotation mate in Detroit, Max Scherzer, Verlander is a freak of nature.

There are several Nationals with considerable experience against Verlander. Nelson Cruz is 15-for-57 with four doubles, three homers and 11 RBIs. Alcides Escobar is 18-for-88 with four doubles and four RBIs. And, of course, Juan Soto is 2-for-6 with a double and a titanic home run off Verlander during the 2019 World Series.

Runs are probably going to be at a premium today, though, so the pressure’s on Patrick Corbin to deliver another quality start. The left-hander seems to have turned his entire season around over his last three starts, producing a 2.37 ERA and 1.158 WHIP. The challenge today against the Astros lineup will be tougher, but success in this one might be the most legitimate evidence to date that Corbin actually has turned a corner.

HOUSTON ASTROS at WASHINGTON NATIONALS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 1:35 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Chance of rain late, 79 degrees, wind 5 mph out to left field

No major league club has played better, or particularly pitched better, this month than the Astros. The Houston staff that walked into Nationals Park tonight had surrendered a grand total of 12 runs over the last 11 games. Not surprisingly, all 11 resulted in victory for Dusty Baker’s squad.

So consider what the Nationals just did on this Saturday evening, and try to explain it. Scoring a run in the first and then multiple runs in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth innings, they torched the Astros’ previously ironclad pitching staff during a 13-6 win that kind of defied logic.

The same Nats lineup that has struggled so mightily to produce extra-base hits got five of them in this game, including Yadiel Hernandez’s three-run homer, Nelson Cruz’s three-run double and Maikel Franco’s two-run homer.

All told, the Nationals crossed the plate more times tonight than they did their previous four games combined, putting an end the Astros’ winning streak with emphasis and giving a crowd of 22,949 plenty of reason to cheer, something that has been in woefully short supply this season.

"Just good at-bats," Cruz said. "We were patient. We hit strikes. We were facing pretty good pitchers, from their starters to their relievers. To be able to score that many runs, it shows how good of a lineup we have."

Stephen Strasburg and Joe Ross are ready to shift into a regular, five-day pitching routine that could prepare them to join the Nationals’ rotation sometime next month after completing their latest simulated games with no issues.

Strasburg, who is recovering from last summer’s thoracic outlet surgery, and Ross, who is recovering from March’s surgery to remove a bone spur in his elbow, each tossed two innings during a simulated game Friday in West Palm Beach, Fla. Strasburg threw 27 pitches, reaching 92 mph with his fastball, according to manager Davey Martinez. Ross threw 33 pitches, topping out at 95 mph.

“They’re feeling really good,” Martinez said. “We hope that continues.”

This session came four days after both right-handers pitched their first simulated games at the club’s spring training complex. They’ll now shift to a standard, five-game schedule between outings, further evidence they are transitioning from rehab mode to preparation mode.

Both Strasburg and Ross still need time to build their arms back up. They’re essentially now treating this final stage of rehab as if they were in spring training, with no significant restrictions due to their prior injuries.

Very little went right for the Nationals on Friday night. They trailed 5-0 in the top of the first, and though Josiah Gray did right the ship after that, the lineup did nothing of consequence to try to mount a comeback. They’ll hope for a much better outcome tonight against the Astros, really hoping they can start stringing together some hits. (Or, even better, some extra-base hits.)

The challenge standing in their way: A Houston pitching staff that has allowed a grand total of 12 runs during the current 11-game winning streak. That’s almost impossible to believe, but it’s true. Cristian Javier, tonight’s starter, has been part of this run himself, and will take the mound with a 2-0 record and 0.83 ERA, though four of his six appearances to date have come out of the bullpen and he’s yet to top 87 pitches in either of his starts.

Davey Martinez has two changes from Friday night’s lineup. Yadiel Hernandez, who sat against Astros left-hander Framber Valdez, is back in there batting fifth and playing left field. And Dee Strange-Gordon gets the start at shortstop instead of Alcides Escobar, who actually had a strong night in the field but had another 0-fer at the plate.

Erick Fedde gets the ball for the Nationals. He managed to shut out the Angels’ potent lineup for five innings in his last start, but he found himself having to pitch out of trouble that entire outing. He’ll need to be more efficient tonight if he wants to go deeper in the game and take some load off the bullpen’s shoulders.

HOUSTON ASTROS at WASHINGTON NATIONALS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 7:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Rain ending, 70 degrees, wind 4 mph right field to left field

There are any number of ways to articulate how well Josh Bell has hit for the Nationals so far this season. The .342 batting average is an obvious one, as is the .434 on-base percentage. Each ranks third among all qualifying National League hitters.

There’s another, less obvious way to underscore Bell’s success to date: His lack of strikeouts.

Consider that the 29-year-old first baseman has struck out only 15 times in 138 plate appearances so far this season. Only four qualifying NL hitters have struck out fewer times, and they’re all contact-happy middle infielders: Jose Iglesias, Miguel Rojas, Nico Hoerner and Jeff McNeil.

Bell? He’s one of the most intimidating physical presences in the batter’s box in the majors, a 261-pound slugger who seems to want to hit the ball as hard as he can every time he swings.

Looks, however, can be deceiving.

The crowd at Nationals Park had just had an opportunity to welcome Dusty Baker back to town, standing and applauding the former Nats manager in his first appearance here since October 2017. Then, within seconds, the applause morphed into boos as the visitors’ starting lineup was announced, the first such appearance here for the Astros since October 2019.

Thus was the stage set for the start of an emotional weekend, one that plenty of folks had eagerly anticipated for some time.

And then Jose Altuve blasted Josiah Gray’s very first pitch of the game off the top of the center field fence for a leadoff home run, and the mood instantly changed.

And then Michael Brantley followed with a double off the wall, and Alex Bregman followed that with a double down the line, and Yordan Alvarez followed that with an RBI single and then – with a quick break for an actual out to be recorded – Yuli Gurriel crushed Gray’s 14th pitch of the night deep to left and the Astros already led by five runs and all life had been sucked out of the crowd.

It would never really return by the end of the night, Houston cruising to a 6-1 victory that for all purposes was resolved before the Nationals even came up to bat in the bottom of the first.

The first thing Dusty Baker noticed was the neighborhood. Navy Yard now looks a whole lot different from the last time he came here, in October 2017.

“Man, I sure wish I was invested in a couple buildings. Or in some big cranes,” he said with a laugh. “I’m telling you, this has really, really picked up. I stopped by on the way here today to see a friend, and I’d been over there many times, and I couldn’t find it. They’ve certainly built this area up.”

Once that initial shock of urban development wore off and he walked through the bowels of Nationals Park, past the home clubhouse he resided in for two years, and made his way to the visitors’ clubhouse he hadn’t set foot in since 2013 when he managed the Reds, the memories started coming back.

Good memories, even if it didn’t end the way he wanted it to.

“I had great memories here,” he said. “The people were great. I enjoyed the town. Like I’ve said many times, I enjoyed the diversity, the educational level here. For a two-year period, this is probably as good of a period as I’ve had anywhere.”

The Nationals are facing the Astros this weekend, if you haven’t heard, and that means it’s going to be a weekend filled with nostalgia. This is, of course, the first matchup between the two clubs since the 2019 World Series (non-spring training matchup, that is). So you’re going to see a lot of highlights from that glorious 10-day stretch in late-October 2019 all weekend, for better or worse.

It’s also Dusty Baker’s return to D.C. for the first time since he was let go by the Nationals following the 2017 season. At the time, it was reasonable to think Baker would never get another chance to manage in the big leagues. As it turned out, he did get another chance, and not only that but a chance to manage a World Series contender. We’ll see what kind of reception he gets this weekend from Nats fans, but I would imagine it will be a resoundingly positive one.

As for tonight’s series opener, Josiah Gray gets the ball against a tough Houston lineup. It’s the latest big test for the young right-hander, who in the big picture has impressed this season. He shut out the Giants over six innings two starts ago, then held the Angels to three runs over 5 1/3 innings last time out in a start that looked better than that final line would indicate.

The Nationals lineup, meanwhile, has to try to solve an Astros pitching staff that has been lights out. Those arms have allowed a total of 11 runs during the 10-game winning streak they carry into this series. Yes, only 11 runs allowed in 10 games. Left-hander Framber Valdez, who starts tonight, has been somewhat less effective than his rotation mates, allowing five total runs over his last two starts. Still pretty good, though.

HOUSTON ASTROS at WASHINGTON NATIONALS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 7:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 980 AM, MLB.com
Weather: Chance of rain, 71 degrees, wind 7 mph in from right field