ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – By most conventional measurements, Josiah Gray should be ready to return from the injured list.

The Nationals right-hander, out since mid-April with a flexor strain in his elbow, has made four rehab starts this month, adding one inning each time out and maxing out at six innings Tuesday for Triple-A Rochester. That most recent start also was by far his best of the group, with only one run and four hits allowed, not to mention zero walks issued. He completed those six innings on only 73 pitches, but he got to 79 pitches the previous time on the mound.

So why aren’t the Nats activating Gray yet?

“I want to make sure when he comes back he’s ready,” manager Davey Martinez said. “We cleaned up his mechanics a little bit. The other day he felt really good, and he rebounded really well. So we’ll get him back out there.”

So Gray is remaining in Rochester and is scheduled to start Sunday, when he could throw as many as seven innings and build up his pitch count to 90.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Obviously, there’s already big news about what’s coming Monday when the Nationals return home. But before James Woodapalooza, there’s a three-game series to be played this weekend at Tropicana Field, where there’s no fear of any rain delays (thank god).

The Nats need to get themselves back on track after a brutal series in San Diego. Most importantly, they need to get their pitching back on track. That group has surrendered 6.3 runs per game on this road trip after allowing only 3.8 over the previous 26 games. So the spotlight tonight is on Mitchell Parker, who struggled in Colorado but actually finished quite strong with five straight strikeouts.

At the plate, the Nationals actually have been productive on the trip, scoring an average of 6.3 runs per game after averaging just 3.8 runs the previous 34 games. Some of that, though, has come too late, as was the case Wednesday in San Diego, when they were one-hit until a five-run top of the ninth that came too little too late. They’ll go up against veteran right-hander Zach Eflin, the former Phillie who has a 4.20 ERA this season but has issued a remarkable six walks in 81 1/3 innings.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at TAMPA BAY RAYS
Where: Tropicana Field
Gametime: 6:50 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 88.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Indoors

NATIONALS
SS CJ Abrams
RF Lane Thomas
LF Jesse Winker
1B Joey Meneses
2B Luis García Jr.
C Keibert Ruiz
DH Eddie Rosario
3B Nick Senzel
CF Jacob Young

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – The Nationals plan to promote outfielder James Wood to make his major league debut Monday night against the Mets, two sources familiar with the decision confirmed, calling the top prospect up for their final homestand prior to the All-Star break.

Wood is still scheduled to play this weekend for Triple-A Rochester, according to one of the sources, where the 21-year-old surely will be monitored closely in hopes of keeping him healthy before he travels to D.C.

Wood’s planned promotion, which was first reported by 106.7 The Fan’s Grant Paulsen, figures to be the Nationals’ most-hyped debut in years, certainly since the franchise embarked on its roster rebuild three summers ago. One of the centerpiece prospects acquired in the August 2022 trade with the Padres for Juan Soto and Josh Bell, the 6-foot-7 outfielder currently is rated baseball’s No. 3 prospect by MLB Pipeline, two spots ahead of fellow outfielder Dylan Crews, who was just promoted to Rochester last week.

Wood has dominated at the Triple-A level since the season began and was on target to debut earlier this summer until he suffered a hamstring injury May 23. He spent nearly four weeks on the minor league injured list, then returned to action June 18 (the same day Crews made his Triple-A debut).

In six games since coming back from the injury, Wood is 5-for-19 with one homer, three RBIs, four walks and four strikeouts. In 51 total games this season, he’s batting .346 with a .458 on-base percentage, 10 homers, 34 RBIs, 10 stolen bases and a 1.036 OPS.

DENVER – Jake Irvin had never pitched at Coors Field before. The Nationals’ trip here last season came right in between the right-hander’s major league debut in D.C. and his second start in San Francisco, so he had no personal experience to go off as he prepared for Sunday’s outing against the Rockies.

So Irvin sought out a teammate with loads of experience pitching at high altitude: Patrick Corbin, who has made 13 career starts here. (All three as a member of the Nationals were quality starts, to boot.)

As he stood at his locker following a dominant performance late Sunday afternoon, Irvin noted the words of wisdom he received from Corbin.

“Obviously the elements are a little different than any of the other parks we play in,” he said. “I’ve got to give a lot of credit to Pat, because coming in here I asked him – he had pitched in Arizona for a while, so he played here a lot. He said you can’t really be intimidated by the ballpark and the conditions. Just pitch your game. That advice really helped.”

Irvin certainly stuck to his usual gameplan, relying primarily on fastballs and curveballs. And he executed that plan brilliantly, striking out 10 over six innings of one-run ball to keep the game close before the Nats rallied to win 2-1 in the ninth.

DENVER – For two nights, the Nationals shrugged off their hitting woes and took full advantage of Coors Field and everything it has to offer. And then when it came time for today’s series finale in the best hitter’s park in America, they reverted right back to the form they displayed earlier in the week when they swung at almost everything the Diamondbacks threw at them and emerged with very little to show for it.

Until it mattered most at day’s end and the bats finally woke up just enough to do the impossible.

Held to one hit for eight innings, the Nationals strung together three of them in the ninth, getting clutch RBI knocks from Lane Thomas and Joey Meneses to storm back and beat the Rockies, 2-1, with Kyle Finnegan atoning for his disastrous bottom of the ninth Saturday night to notch the save on Sunday afternoon.

"You look at the last few games and know that the last few innings ... you feel like no one's going to win 1-0," Thomas said. "I think at no part in that game did we think we weren't going to score at least one. We were able to get it done." 

Unable to do anything at the plate for nearly the entire day, aside from Jacob Young’s sixth-inning infield single, the Nats finally put it together in the ninth against Colorado left-hander Jalen Beeks. Young got it started with another infield single, and though he was wiped out on CJ Abrams’ chopper to third, Abrams got himself into scoring position on a wild pitch.

DENVER – The 2024 Nationals established their offensive identity way back in April. Knowing they couldn’t match most other clubs in the power department, they decided to take advantage of their above-average speed and try to become the majors’ best baserunning team.

And for eight good weeks, they delivered in that department. The Nats racked up an astounding 77 stolen bases through their first 47 games, getting caught only 14 times for an impressive 84.6 percent success rate.

Since then, the numbers have plummeted and left the Nationals as the majors’ least effective baserunners. Over their last 29 games, they’ve stolen 27 bases but have been thrown out 24 times, a hard-to-believe 52.9 percent success rate that ranks far and away at the bottom of the league during the last month.

And it perhaps reached a low point Saturday night during an agonizing 8-7 loss to the Rockies that garnered attention for Kyle Finnegan’s walk-off pitch-clock violation in the bottom of the ninth but featured plenty more miscues along the way.

The Nats attempted four stolen bases in the game and were thrown out three times, including CJ Abrams and Lane Thomas in back-to-back plate appearances in the top of the seventh, just as the team was taking a 7-5 lead.

DENVER – It’s a new day at Coors Field, and the Nationals are grateful for that, because it means they don’t have to dwell on Saturday night’s disastrous, 8-7 loss to the Rockies, a game that saw them run into four outs on the bases, then give up runs in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings, the last of them scoring on the first walk-off pitch clock violation in major league history. Good times.

The good news: In spite of all that, the Nats still have a chance to win the series this afternoon. Jake Irvin gets the ball, and he’ll take his crack at trying to keep the ball in the yard here on what is going to be a hot, dry afternoon made for offense. Irvin had his first rough outing in a while last time out, allowing four runs in five innings to the Diamondbacks. He makes his first career start in Colorado, having missed this assignment last year right after he was called up for his debut.

At the plate, the Nationals will try to keep the good offensive vibes going against Kyle Freeland, just activated off the 60-day injured list after missing two months with an elbow strain. The veteran left-hander was awful in his first four starts in April, going 0-3 with a 13.21 ERA before landing on the IL. You would think he’ll be limited today.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at COLORADO ROCKIES
Where: Coors Field
Gametime: 3:10 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 88.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Sunny, 93 degrees, wind 6 mph out to left field

NATIONALS
SS CJ Abrams
RF Lane Thomas
LF Ildemaro Vargas
1B Joey Meneses
DH Nick Senzel
C Keibert Ruiz
3B Trey Lipscomb
2B Luis García Jr.
CF Jacob Young

DENVER – The Nationals and Rockies engaged in a good, old-fashioned Coors Field Saturday Night Special. The kind of night when anything can and will happen, and whatever happened in the first six innings doesn’t mean diddly squat because there’s still too much time for too much else to happen the rest of the way.

This game had five home runs. It had four runners caught stealing. It had multiple substitutions, either for injury or strategy. It had an ejection over one of countless erratic calls by plate umpire Hunter Wendelstedt. And it ultimately had the Nats’ top two relievers desperately try to replicate what they’ve done with ease everywhere else in Coors Field, the toughest pitcher’s park in America.

And then it ended in the most unimaginable manner possible: a pitch clock violation by Kyle Finnegan with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth, handing the Rockies an 8-7 victory in historic fashion.

It was the first major league game to end on such a violation since baseball adopted the rule last year.

"It sucks," Finnegan said. "We played a great game and deserved to win, and I wasn't able to do my job."

DENVER – Tanner Rainey knew the significance of what he had just done. In closing out the Nationals’ 11-5 win over the Rockies on Friday night, he not only had been given the chance to pitch at the end of a victory instead of a loss for the first time in months. He also was given the chance to pitch multiple innings for the first time in nearly two years, his final appearance before undergoing Tommy John surgery.

“It’s not necessarily a milestone,” the reliever said, “but it’s something cool to have back under my belt.”

It’s been a painful season to date for Rainey, and not because his surgically repaired elbow has hurt at all. In his long-awaited return from that 2022 procedure, the 31-year-old former closer had seen himself plummet to the bottom of the Nats’ bullpen depth chart.

Rainey hadn’t pitched in a game the Nationals won since April 27 in Miami. And though this wasn’t exactly the definition of a high-leverage situation, a six-run lead in Colorado is probably more akin to a three- or four-run lead elsewhere.

Rainey took the mound for the bottom of the eighth and promptly retired the side, striking out a pair and needing only 13 total pitches to do it. So when he returned to the dugout, manager Davey Martinez asked how he felt about going back out for the ninth as well.

DENVER – The Nationals exploded for 11 runs on a season-high 19 hits Friday night against the Rockies. Can they carry any of that success over into tonight’s game and keep the positive offensive vibes going?

Davey Martinez’s bunch seemed to find the right balance between aggressively hitting fastballs in the zone and working the count when there wasn’t the perfect pitch waiting for them. They went 7-for-8 with 15 total bases when they put the first pitch of an at-bat in play, but they also drew five walks, showing the kind of patience they didn’t have the previous series against the Diamondbacks.

The Nats are facing statistically the Rockies’ best starter tonight in Cal Quantrill. The right-hander boasts a 3.43 ERA in 15 starts, which is no small feat pitching in this ballpark. He doesn’t strike a lot of guys out (6.3 per nine innings) but he doesn’t give up homers either (only eight in 84 innings). His two primary pitches are a sinker and a splitter, so the Nationals have to make sure they’re not chasing him down in the zone and pounding the ball into the ground.

Mitchell Parker makes his 13th major league start tonight, hoping to keep his streak alive by limiting Colorado to three or fewer earned runs. The lefty was really good against the Marlins last time out, allowing one run over six innings without walking anybody. Parker’s challenge tonight: Don’t leave the curveball or splitter up in the zone in the thin air.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at COLORADO ROCKIES
Where: Coors Field
Gametime: 9:10 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 88.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Partly cloudy, 84 degrees, wind 9 mph in from left field

DENVER – DJ Herz’s start Friday night bore no resemblance to his previous outing, when he took Nationals Park by storm and struck out 13 Marlins batters over six innings of one-hit, shutout ball.

In this game at Coors Field, the rookie left-hander lasted only 3 2/3 innings, giving up four runs (three earned) on seven hits, all while throwing 76 pitches before getting the hook from manager Davey Martinez.

There was one similarity, though, and it was an important one that could bode well for future starts. As he did against Miami, Herz did not issue a walk against Colorado. He forced the Rockies to beat him, not giving them any help along the way.

“I thought it was good for the most part,” he said after the Nats’ 11-5 victory. “I’m happy about the amount of strikes, and the no walks again. Every time they scored, we answered, so it was good to see the run support and everybody hitting the ball tonight. It was really fun.”

Herz was hit hard, serving up three homers during a seven-batter span between the third and fourth innings. But two of those were solo shots, and the other was a two-run homer only because of third baseman Nick Senzel’s throwing error moments earlier. Herz didn’t create jams by losing control.

DENVER – Nobody in the clubhouse wanted to admit it this afternoon, but surely everyone was thinking it. If ever there was a place built to snap a moribund lineup out of its funk, it had to be Coors Field, right?

The Nationals arrived in the Mile High City reeling from a three-game series against the Diamondbacks in which they scored a total of five runs and saw a grand total of 287 pitches. (Somehow, they still won one of those three games.) But spirits remained high, because a weekend set with the Rockies felt like just what the doctor ordered.

And indeed it was, because in the series opener in the best hitter’s park in America, the Nats put forth one of their best offensive performances of the year, cruising to an 11-5 victory behind a season-high 19 hits.

"They responded really well," manager Davey Martinez said. "We talked a lot about know yourself. Know who you are. Know what pitches you want to attack. Stay on the fastball. We did well today."

Everybody in the lineup reached base once, and all but Nick Senzel reached multiple times. But Lane Thomas led the way with an RBI single, a two-run double and an RBI triple, the red-hot right fielder coming up just short of his first career cycle when he grounded out and then struck out in his final two at-bats.

DENVER – CJ Abrams is back in the Nationals’ lineup tonight, his left wrist taped up as he tries to protect a ganglion cyst that developed earlier in the week and kept him from playing the last two days.

“I’m not really sure what that is,” he said. “But it can’t get worse, so I’m good for tonight.”

The cyst is on the palm side of Abrams’ wrist, under the skin but pushing up slightly to create a small bump. He first noticed it prior to Wednesday’s game, at which point the Nats scratched him from the lineup. He also sat out Thursday’s series finale against the Diamondbacks but was showing signs of improvement that led him to believe he’d be OK for tonight’s game against the Rockies.

Because the cyst is on his left wrist, Abrams has no issues throwing. He simply has to deal with a little bit of discomfort when he bats.

“I still don’t know,” he said when asked how it occurred. “Just swinging, I guess. That’s when it hurts the most.”

DENVER – The Nationals couldn’t hit a lick in three games at home against the Diamondbacks. Maybe a three-game series at Coors Field against the Rockies will do the trick.

If ever there was a ballpark – and an opposing pitching staff – that could snap a team out of its offensive funk, this is that combination. There’s no better place to hit in baseball, and the Rockies give up a major-league-worst 5.87 runs per game (leaps and bounds more than the next-worst pitching staff: the White Sox, at 5.17).

As of this writing, we’re still waiting to see tonight’s lineup, so we don’t know if CJ Abrams is ready to return or if he still needs another day off due to the cyst on his left wrist. Obviously, the Nats would love to have their leadoff man and shortstop playing for them. Whether Abrams plays or not, they’ll still need much more production from others in the lineup, including Lane Thomas, Jesse Winker and Keibert Ruiz.

DJ Herz takes the mound for the Nationals, and it will be fascinating to see how he does tonight on the heels of his brilliant, 13-strikeout gem against the Marlins. It really does seem to boil down to Herz’s ability to keep the ball in the strike zone. And that’s all the more important here, where you simply can’t afford to give away free passes and allow small rallies to turn into big rallies.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at COLORADO ROCKIES
Where: Coors Field
Gametime: 8:40 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 88.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Slight chance of rain, 80 degrees, wind 7 mph in from left field

For 14 innings across nearly 23 hours, they swung and swung and kept swinging and kept making outs. And then with one mighty swing, Jesse Winker changed the agonizing narrative that had defined the first half of the Nationals’ series against the Diamondbacks and got his team back on track.

Winker’s two-run homer in the bottom of the sixth snapped the Nats out of their scoreless funk. And thanks to a tack-on run provided by Ildemaro Vargas, another effective start by Patrick Corbin and another strong showing by the back end of the bullpen, they emerged with a cathartic 3-1 victory.

"Good teams, that's what they do," manager Davey Martinez said. "They're not going to hit every day. I talk about it all the time: Hitting is hard. And you're going to go through those lapses where it's like that, where you score two or three runs but you've got a chance to win. That's what I love about this team: They don't give up."

It wasn't a perfect day at the yard for the Nationals, who had to scratch shortstop CJ Abrams from the lineup shortly before first pitch with a left wrist issue. Martinez said Abrams, who isn't sure how he hurt himself, is getting an MRI to determine the extent of the injury.

Shut out on four hits and no walks Tuesday night even with a healthy leadoff man, the Nationals totaled just two hits and one walk through five innings this afternoon against Arizona starter Brandon Pfaadt, whose pitch count remained ridiculously low thanks to another string of first-pitch outs made by an overly aggressive lineup.

The sun was blazing, straight overhead, no shade in sight, as Mitchell Parker fired pitches from the mound and then reacted to field bunts and other assorted ground balls hit to his left and right.

No other Nationals pitchers were out there this afternoon. This was a personal PFP (pitchers’ fielding practice) session for Parker alone, a response to three misplays he made during his last two starts.

When he was done, Parker walked out to right field for his standard between-starts throwing session in the bullpen. And by the time he returned to the clubhouse, his shirt was completely soaked through.

“There was no negative to it,” the rookie left-hander said afterward. “During the (last misplay Sunday), I kind of figured this was going to be happening. Luckily, we’re going to get to it before it becomes a bigger issue. I appreciate the work to get out there and work on it. It’s a good thing.”

Parker has been perhaps the biggest positive surprise to the Nats’ season to date. In 12 starts to date, he’s 5-3 with a 3.06 ERA and 1.079 WHIP, having yet to be charged with more than three runs in any outing.

Tuesday’s series opener against the Diamondbacks has to be considered one of the Nationals’ worst games of the year. They weren’t blown out, but they put forth almost zero offensive punch, totaling three singles, one double and zero walks against Slade Cecconi and two relievers, seeing a grand total of 96 pitches during a 5-0 loss. It wasn’t much fun to watch.

So the Nats can only hope it gets better today, especially on the offensive side of things. They face D-backs right-hander Brandon Pfaadt, who doesn’t walk many batters (1.9 per nine innings) and strikes out a lot (9.0 per nine innings). Pfaadt, though, enters with a 4.38 ERA in 14 starts, having allowed four or more runs in three of his last four outings.

The Nationals might need to score some runs today with Patrick Corbin taking the mound for them in what could be a critical start for him. The lefty was good last time out against the Tigers, but he’s still 1-7 with a 5.84 ERA overall. And with Josiah Gray making another rehab start tonight for Double-A Harrisburg, the identity of the Nats’ starter when this spot in the rotation comes up next time is very much in question.

Update: CJ Abrams was a late scratch for today's game. Nasim Nuñez will now make just his third major league start, playing shortstop and batting ninth.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs. ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 4:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 88.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Partly cloudy, 90 degrees, wind 9 mph out to left field

On a night when hardly anyone in the Nationals lineup did anything of consequence, Jesse Winker did more than anyone else. Not bad for a guy who wasn’t able to play the team’s last game after hurting his knee.

Winker went 2-for-3 in the Nats’ 5-0 loss to the Diamondbacks, recording the team’s lone extra-base hit (a fourth-inning double) as well as a single in his final at-bat. The veteran left fielder did so with no apparent lingering issues in his right knee.

Winker hurt himself rounding second base and slamming on the brakes to dive back into the bag Saturday against the Marlins. He went to get an MRI that night, hoping it wasn’t anything serious but a bit worried it could have been something bad.

When the MRI came back clean, Winker and the Nationals were relieved. He sat out Sunday’s game, then enjoyed the team’s day off Monday before returning to work Tuesday, back in the lineup batting third and playing left field.

Winker ran the bases fine and had no problems in the field. Afterward, he was asked if he thinks he can jump right back into playing every day, or if he might need to manage his knee a little and take some days off.

It’s still too early in the season to call a series truly meaningful, not with the calendar still showing June and with more games left on the schedule than have been played to date.

But the Nationals haven’t been in this position in a while, so why not get a little excited about a mid-June three-game set against the defending National League champs, both teams smack dab in the middle of a wild card race that features a host of teams sitting just below the .500 mark, waiting for someone to make a move.

The result of tonight’s game doesn’t necessarily portend anything about what’s still to come over the next 3 1/2 months, but it wasn’t exactly a positive showing by the home team. A 5-0 loss to the Diamondbacks was about as unexciting as it gets, with Jake Irvin laboring early and a punchless lineup completely rendered ineffective by three Arizona pitchers.

The Nats (35-37) didn’t much look the part of a surprise contender, not on this night. The Diamondbacks (36-37) looked much more like the team that squeaked into the 2023 postseason with 84 regular season wins and then rode the wave all the way to a World Series loss to the Rangers.

Davey Martinez can only hope for a better showing the next two afternoons.

James Wood and Dylan Crews are teammates again. And for the first time, they’re teammates one step away from the major leagues.

Wood was activated off the minor league injured list today, just as Crews was promoted from Double-A Harrisburg, putting the Nationals’ top two prospects together in tonight’s lineup for Triple-A Rochester. Crews will lead off for the Red Wings and start in center field. Wood will bat right behind him and start in left field.

“They’re part of our big future here, and the future’s looking bright,” Nats manager Davey Martinez said. “The fact they’re up at the highest level in the minor leagues only tells me that they’re getting close.”

Wood was already dominating Triple-A pitching and seemed on the cusp of a final promotion to D.C. when he suffered a hamstring strain May 23 and landed on the 7-day IL. He returns just shy of four weeks later, healthy and hoping to pick up where he left off before getting hurt, when he was batting .355 with a .465 on-base percentage and 1.062 OPS in 45 games.

Crews, meanwhile, got his much anticipated promotion to Triple-A after a strong month-plus in Harrisburg following a slow start to his season. The No. 2 pick in last summer’s draft had a .664 OPS with only three extra-base hits in April. Since then, he has produced an .834 OPS with 16 extra-base hits in 39 games.