ARLINGTON, Texas – One month into the season, the hierarchy of the Nationals bullpen is pretty clear. Kyle Finnegan and Hunter Harvey are at the top of the list. Tanner Rainey is at the bottom.

That’s not how Davey Martinez hoped things would go. The Nats manager wanted to believe Rainey would recapture the late-inning role he held before tearing his elbow ligament in 2022, joining Finnegan and Harvey as his most-trusted arms at the end of games.

Rainey’s performance to date has made it clear he doesn’t deserve to pitch in situations of consequence. Right now, he’s clearly the team’s mop-up man.

The numbers aren’t pretty. Rainey has made 11 appearances and sports a 9.82 ERA and 2.818 WHIP. He has only eight strikeouts in 11 innings. He has allowed a staggering 32-of-63 batters faced to safely reach base.

And after three straight blowups in the last week, all of them coming late in games with lopsided scores, it’s fair to wonder where the Nationals turn from here with the 31-year-old right-hander.

ARLINGTON, Texas – The opener of this interleague series was one to forget. The Nationals had only three baserunners (all via single, two of them never leaving the infield). MacKenzie Gore pitched well, but then the bullpen turned it into a rout by night’s end. A bad day all around.

The Nats will try to shrug that off and get back on track (and get back to .500) tonight, hoping for a lot more offense against left-hander Andrew Heaney than they got against right-hander Jon Gray. They’ve fared worse against lefties than righties this season, but they’ve actually won five of their last seven games against a southpaw starter, so perhaps they’re in line for another strong performance.

Speaking of strong performances, Trevor Williams has had a bunch of them to begin his season. The veteran has completed at least five innings in each of his five starts to date, and he’s never allowed more than three runs in any of them. (He’s only allowed one run in three of the starts.) We keep wondering if the magic dust is going to fade at some point, and perhaps it will. But if he can keep this up a bit longer, maybe you do have to start believing it’s legit.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at TEXAS RANGERS
Where: Globe Life Park
Gametime: 8:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 88.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Indoors

NATIONALS
SS CJ Abrams
DH Nick Senzel
LF Jesse Winker
1B Joey Meneses
2B Ildemaro Vargas
RF Alex Call
3B Trey Lipscomb
C Riley Adams
CF Jacob Young

ARLINGTON, Texas – Eddie Rosario led off the top of the fifth with a single to center field, a relatively nondescript moment that meant even less moments later when he was wiped out on a 5-4-3 double play off the bat of teammate Riley Adams.

That was April 17, the finale of the Nationals’ series at Dodger Stadium. Thirteen games have passed since then. Thirteen games in which Rosario has not delivered another base hit.

He’s taken 25 at-bats since. He has produced zero hits. He’s now batting .088 for the season, his OPS an abysmal .299.

“It’s probably the worst month of my career, by far,” he said, via interpreter Octavio Martinez. “I’ve never felt like I’ve been in this position. I’ve hit balls very well, and it seems like every time I hit a ball well, it’s right at someone. I keep working hard, going out there and try to have good approaches. But I just can’t wait for this month to be over with.”

Rosario has never hit well in April. It’s by far the worst statistical month of his long career. He’s a .206 hitter with a .620 OPS in April. In no other month is his OPS worse than .735.

ARLINGTON, Texas – Whether they realized it or not, a win tonight by the Nationals would’ve been rather significant. Not because the outcome of their series opener against the Rangers would make or break this season, but because of what it would’ve meant on a psychological level.

A win would’ve made them 15-14 to wrap up the month. It would’ve marked the first time they owned a winning record at any point in a season since July 1, 2021 (the night Alex Avila strained both his calves playing second base in an emergency). And it would’ve marked the first time they ended April with more wins than losses since 2017, when Dusty Baker was still managing and Davey Martinez was still Joe Maddon’s right-hand man with the Cubs.

So tonight’s 7-1 loss to the Rangers, while hardly devastating in the big picture, was nonetheless disappointing for a club that arrived in town flying high after a four-game sweep of the Marlins.

"You look back, and there's some games we could've won and been above .500," Martinez said. "But overall, we're playing good baseball. We're playing hard. ... It's nice to win games in April. Now we're going into May. I break the season down, and I always tell myself: If we win 15 games a month, that's pretty good. So, let's win 16 next month."

The Nationals did get another strong start from MacKenzie Gore, who struck out seven in five innings and was charged with only two runs. But they could not supply their emerging ace with more than minimal run support, scoring in the top of the first against Jon Gray but not again after that.

ARLINGTON, Texas – Nick Senzel is on the kind of power streak most players only dream about. Trey Lipscomb has been red-hot since returning from Triple-A. So how do the Nationals keep both players in the lineup?

For now, the answer is to have Senzel serve as designated hitter while Lipscomb handles third base.

That’s the alignment again tonight for the Nats’ series opener against the Rangers, the fourth straight lineup card Davey Martinez has filled out with Lipscomb at third and Senzel as DH.

“It works out really well for us right now,” Martinez said. “Nick’s starting to swing the bat really well. Lipscomb’s playing really well both sides of the ball. So we’ll keep it like this for a while.”

Senzel, whose season debut was delayed by a fractured thumb suffered during pregame drills on Opening Day, enters tonight with five homers in his last six games. And he nearly hit another homer Monday night in Miami, the ball landing at the wall in deep left-center for a double.

ARLINGTON, Texas – Hello from Globe Life Park, home of the defending World Series champions. The Nationals come to town flying high after a four-game sweep of the Marlins, but the challenge over the next three days will be markedly more significant. If they can pull off another win tonight, though, it’ll be notable for a couple of reasons: 1) The Nats would own a winning record at any point in the season for the first time since July 1, 2021, and 2) They would finish April with a winning record for the first time since 2017 (when Dusty Baker was manager).

The Nationals have been getting excellent starting pitching through this run, so they’ll hope that continues tonight with MacKenzie Gore. Though he didn’t have his best stuff last week, Gore impressively held the Dodgers to only one run in six innings. He should enter this start with confidence.

At the plate, the Nats will try to keep the pressure on by not only getting on base but advancing once they’re on. We saw how effective they could be running over the weekend in Miami. Look for more of the same tonight against Texas starter Jon Gray and catcher Jonah Heim, who has thrown out only 3-of-18 base stealers so far this year.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at TEXAS RANGERS
Where: Globe Life Park
Gametime: 8:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 88.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Indoors

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

It’s easy to look at the Nationals’ offensive woes right now and lament their lack of power. This is a team that has hit only 21 home runs in 24 games, the fifth-lowest total in the majors.

Davey Martinez would love more homers from this team, no doubt. But he also knows this lineup wasn’t built with home runs in mind. What the Nats manager really wants, more than anything else, are any hits that score runs, whether singles, doubles, triples or homers. Or even a non-hit that still scores a run.

“We had a chance today to score a run, just by moving a guy over (and) the next guy hit a fly ball,” Martinez said following Thursday’s 2-1 loss to the Dodgers. “Those are the little things that matter. If we do that, it’s a tie game right now. We have to get back to that.”

Indeed, the Nationals, for all their issues, have consistently given themselves a chance to win games this month by putting runners in scoring position. They just haven’t consistently shown an ability to get those runners home.

Consider Thursday’s loss, when they went 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position. Or Tuesday’s loss, when they went 3-for-9 but drove in only one run in the process.

It wasn’t his best, nor his most overpowering performance. Most of the afternoon, to be honest, felt like an uphill climb for MacKenzie Gore, with long at-bats, high pitch counts and traffic on the bases.

This may have been one of the most important starts of the young left-hander’s career, though. Because on a day when he wasn’t at his best, he still found a way to surrender minimal damage to one of the toughest lineups in baseball. And was given the chance to extend himself beyond the limits the Nationals normally impose on him.

That Gore’s gutsy start still came during a loss – 2-1 to the Dodgers – stings in the moment. Unable to mount any kind of sustained offensive attack the last three days, the Nats wound up getting swept by Los Angeles, putting a real damper on the positive momentum they created in winning three of their previous four series.

"We're playing well," manager Davey Martinez said. "We're playing good defense. It's not easy to hold that team over there to just two runs. We've just got to hit."

The Nationals scored a grand total of four runs in these three games, delivering a grand total of only four hits with runners in scoring position the entire series. And because of that, they wasted a really strong outing today by their young lefty.

Keibert Ruiz is back on the Nationals’ active roster, and back in the starting lineup for the first time in more than two weeks.

Ruiz, who was sidelined with a bad case of influenza, was activated off the 10-day injured list this afternoon and immediately placed in the lineup for the team’s series finale against the Dodgers. He’ll catch and bat fifth.

To make room for Ruiz on the active roster, the Nats optioned Drew Millas back to Triple-A Rochester. Millas wound up catching only one of the eight games the team played while Ruiz was on the IL, with Riley Adams starting the other seven.

Ruiz initially tried to fight through his illness, remaining on the roster for nearly a week but unable to play. The Nationals finally placed him on the IL when his condition hadn’t improved enough, and after he had lost 18-to-20 pounds.

Ruiz felt better enough to go on a short rehab assignment this week with Double-A Harrisburg. He caught both Tuesday night and Wednesday afternoon, going 1-for-9 and even stealing a base. As encouraging as that was, the team is still somewhat concerned about his ability to put weight back on while dealing with the demands of catching in the big leagues.

The Nationals need a win today to avoid a series sweep, a dilemma they’ve faced only once previously this season (against the Phillies). All things considered, it’s a sign of progress that they’ve mostly found themselves in a position to win series, and often have. But avoiding the sweep today against the Dodgers would be nice, especially with the pitcher they’re sending to the mound.

MacKenzie Gore vs. the L.A. lineup is a marquee matchup. If nothing else, it’s a real good challenge for the young left-hander, who was great two starts ago in Oakland but struggled last time out against the Astros. Knowing the competitor he is, Gore should be plenty motivated to get himself back on track this afternoon.

The Nationals face a brand-new face in Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the other Japanese sensation on their roster who merely signed the biggest contract ever given a major league pitcher before ever throwing a pitch in the major leagues. The 25-year-old right-hander (12 years, $325 million) has been great at times, not so much at others through the first five starts of his career. He features mostly a three-pitch (fastball, curveball, splitter) with an occasional cutter thrown in there for good measure.

The Nats have Keibert Ruiz back on the roster and in the lineup. After two rehab games with Double-A Harrisburg, Ruiz has been activated off the 10-day injured list and will be behind the plate this afternoon. Drew Millas was optioned back to Triple-A Rochester.

Most notable quirk of today’s lineup: Trey Lipscomb is not starting, something you wouldn’t think we’ll see much now that he’s back in the big leagues. It’s Joey Meneses at first base, with Jesse Winker serving as DH and Eddie Rosario in left field for the series finale.

When the Nationals recalled Trey Lipscomb on Wednesday, and when Davey Martinez then put him at first base in his first game back in the big leagues, the eyebrow raises could be seen throughout the ballpark and fandom. After making such an effort to have the rookie focus on second base, then third base, now they’re really going to put him at first base for the foreseeable future?

Lipscomb, of course, shrugs it all off.

“The whole new position thing, that’s kind of what I’ve been doing my whole career,” he said. “Wherever they need me, just put me out there and I’m going to do my thing. First base. Third base. Honestly, wherever.”

For the uninitiated, Lipscomb was supposed to play shortstop in college. But his Tennessee roster was so loaded, he wound up settling in at third base by his senior year in 2022, the Nats then using their third-round draft pick on him.

Once in the minors, Lipscomb again found himself moving around the diamond. Though he won the Gold Glove Award for all minor leaguers at third base last season, he actually ended the year at Double-A Harrisburg playing second base because of the presence of 2021 first-round pick Brady House at third.

Funny how quickly the narrative of a baseball season can twist and turn. Not 48 hours ago, the Nationals were flying high, having won three of their last four series, including back-to-back triumphs over the Dodgers and Astros. They were getting excellent starting pitching and coming through with clutch hits, offering fans real reason for late-April optimism.

Since then? They’ve lost two straight to the Dodgers behind poor starting pitching and at times a complete lack of offense. They also lost their starting right fielder to a knee injury that, while not as bad as it could’ve been, nonetheless will sideline him for some time.

Suffice it to say, the vibe surrounding the Nats isn’t quite what it was a few days ago.

Tonight’s 11-2 thumping at the hands of the Dodgers represented a new low. With Jake Irvin in trouble from the get-go, the home team faced an uphill climb. And with Lane Thomas now on the 10-day injured list with a sprained left knee ligament, an already inconsistent lineup had little chance of keeping up with the opposition.

"The best thing about today," manager Davey Martinez said, "is we have tomorrow to go 1-0."

Lane Thomas was placed on the 10-day injured list today with a Grade 2 MCL sprain in his left knee, but the Nationals outfielder was encouraged by that diagnosis, which is not as severe as it could have been and doesn’t require surgery.

“I definitely think it could’ve been a lot worse,” Thomas said this afternoon, standing at his locker with his knee wrapped, not needing to use crutches to walk. “It wasn’t anything too crazy. They haven’t really given me a time frame yet, but hopefully sooner rather than later.”

Thomas hurt himself while sliding into second base in the bottom of the fifth Tuesday night against the Dodgers, his trailing leg getting twisted in awkward fashion as he tried to pop up following a successful steal attempt. He initially had trouble staying up on his feet, crumpling to the ground as Los Angeles second baseman Mookie Betts spotted him.

After a consultation with manager Davey Martinez and director of athletic training Paul Lessard, Thomas stayed in the game. But two innings later, Eddie Rosario replaced him in right field and he returned to the clubhouse as team officials scheduled an MRI for this morning.

“The initial pain was pretty intense, but it went away kind of quick,” Thomas said. “I feel like I’ve had a pretty high pain tolerance in the past, so I wasn’t sure. I had broken a wrist (in 2019) and didn’t realize it. Sometimes those things, with your adrenaline, you don’t really know what’s going on until a few hours after when you settle down.”

Tuesday night’s loss was a costly one for the Nationals, who not only lost the game but lost their starting right fielder for the foreseeable future. The MRI on Lane Thomas’ left knee showed an MCL sprain, and he has been placed on the 10-day injured list. We’ll hope to learn more shortly about the timetable for his return.

Rather than promote another outfielder to replace Thomas, the Nats decided to recall Trey Lipscomb only nine days after they sent him down once Nick Senzel was healthy. We hope to soon find out about the plan now for Lipscomb and others in the daily lineup, but it’s interesting to note Lipscomb will start at first base tonight with Joey Gallo in right field.

Meanwhile, Jake Irvin gets a chance to beat the Dodgers for the second time in a week. The right-hander was brilliant out west, but it’s always a challenge to face the same team twice in a row, all the more so when that team includes the likes of Mookie Betts, Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs. LOS ANGELES DODGERS
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, 69 degrees, wind 12 mph in from left field

NATIONALS
SS CJ Abrams
LF Jesse Winker
DH Joey Meneses
2B Luis García Jr.
RF Joey Gallo
C Riley Adams
CF Eddie Rosario
3B Nick Senzel
1B Trey Lipscomb

The Nationals won’t know for sure the severity of Lane Thomas’ left knee injury until they get results of an MRI scheduled for this morning. But they were concerned enough Tuesday night to already be making contingency plans. And if there’s reason to believe Thomas is going to miss significant time, the temptation to summon one of the organization’s top prospects is going to be strong.

Thomas hurt himself on an awkward slide into second base in the bottom of the fifth. Though he was safe on the steal attempt – he’s now 11-for-12 on the season – his trailing leg caught twisted around as he popped up and left him writhing in pain.

After a consultation with manager Davey Martinez and director of athletic training Paul Lessard, Thomas tested his leg with some light jogging behind second base. He looked well enough to convince Lessard and Martinez he could stay in the game, but Martinez was worried all along it might not last.

“Once he got to the outfield (the following inning), I told Paul to keep an eye on him,” the manager said. “He might get stiff.”

Sure enough, by the time the top of the seventh arrived, Eddie Rosario took over in right field, with Thomas headed back to the clubhouse for treatment.

The Dodgers’ baserunning tonight helped put them in position to win.

The Nationals’ baserunning tonight left one of their regulars limping and ultimately departing the game due to injury, then cost them one final chance to pull off what would've been a dramatic comeback in the ninth.

So it was the three key moments in a 4-1 series-opening loss to Los Angeles came on the bases. In the first two cases, those runners were successful at stealing second, but the Dodgers’ Teoscar Hernández eventually came around to score the go-ahead run while Lane Thomas eventually came out with a left leg injury that will require an MRI. Then in the third case, a late stop sign from third base coach Ricky Gutierrez forced Luis García Jr. to slam on the brakes in the bottom of the ninth, with trailing runner Joey Gallo not paying attention, leading to a killer rundown. 

"That's a tough lineup," manager Davey Martinez said of the Dodgers. "When we have a chance to put some runs on the board, we've got to capitalize."

With a crowd of 27,806 in attendance to see the mighty Dodgers and their star-studded lineup, these two teams played another low-scoring, tight game, not all that different from last week’s series on the West Coast. The Nats took two out of three at Chavez Ravine; they’ll need to win the next two nights to pull off the same achievement on South Capitol Street.

The Nationals haven’t completely overcome the flu bug that has taken down several corners of the clubhouse the last two weeks: They had to place another ill player on the injured list today because of it.

Reliever Robert Garcia became the latest victim, placed on the 15-day IL with influenza prior to tonight’s series opener against the Dodgers. The club purchased the contract of right-hander Jacob Barnes from Triple-A Rochester to fill the bullpen vacancy and designated minor league infielder Jake Alu for assignment to clear a spot on the 40-man roster.

Garcia first was afflicted with the virus more than a week ago and was unable to pitch for several days during the Nationals’ West Coast trip. The left-hander did come back to appear three times in a four-game span at the end of the week but did not look himself, retiring only one of the seven Astros batters he faced Friday and Saturday, his fastball velocity down from 95-96 mph to 92-93 mph.

“We noticed his velo was way down, and he was trying to pitch through it,” manager Davey Martinez said. “I don’t want him to get hurt, so we’re going to take care of him.”

Garcia, whose transaction was backdated two days, joins Keibert Ruiz on the IL with the flu, but the catcher is healthy again and nearly ready to return. Ruiz, who lost 18-to-20 pounds while sick, begins what should be a brief rehab assignment with Double-A Harrisburg tonight and should be activated later this week.

The circus has come to town. For the uninitiated, that’s Shohei Ohtani and the Los Angeles Dodgers, who bring with them as much media as you’ll find for a postseason series. Seriously, the press box here is packed.

The Nationals will have to cope with that, not that they’re likely to care much. They did, after all, just take two of three at Dodger Stadium last week, not to mention three of their last four series, right?

To keep it going, though, they’re going to need something resembling a quality start from Patrick Corbin. And as we know, that’s been quite the challenge. The left-hander enters 0-3 with an 8.06 ERA in four starts, and Los Angeles got him for five runs and nine hits in 6 1/3 innings last week out west.

The Nats lineup will try to score first again, something that group suddenly has become adept at. CJ Abrams and Co. face veteran lefty James Paxton, who has yet to surrender more than three runs in his three starts this year.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs. LOS ANGELES DODGERS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 6:45 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 980 AM, 88.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Partly cloudy, 70 degrees, wind 12 mph out to left field

Joey Meneses is by nature a worrier. It probably comes from the decade he spent in the minor leagues, bouncing around between organizations, even venturing to Japan at one point to try to keep his career alive.

After finally breaking through in 2022 with two out-of-nowhere months of MVP-level production as a 30-year-old rookie with the Nationals, he still reported to camp the following spring worried he might not make the team. And even after driving in a team-high 89 RBIs in 2023, he still wasn’t sure about his future here after the Nats signed slugger Joey Gallo over the winter and invited top prospects Dylan Crews and James Wood to big league camp.

So imagine the thoughts swirling though Meneses’ mind as he came up to bat in the bottom of the 10th early Saturday evening, his batting average in the .180s, his slugging percentage barely topping .200, having already failed to come through in big spots in the sixth and eighth innings. Was the clock nearing midnight on his fairy tale, with a demotion to Triple-A looming in the near future?

Then watch Meneses’ reaction to his game-winning hit: a first-pitch gap shot to right-center that easily scored pinch-runner Nasim Nunez to beat the Astros. As he approached second base, he flung his helmet aside, spread out his arms and waited for his teammates to mob him. For the first time in a while, the smile on his face was wide.

“Like you said, I’ve been battling and struggling to start the season,” he said, via interpreter Octavio Martinez. “But this kind of at-bat and situation kind of relaxes me. And obviously I’m excited about it.”

Given the circumstances, it was fair to wonder if Mitchell Parker’s impressive major league debut last week was a bit flukish. Was that five-inning victory before a sellout crowd at Dodger Stadium as good as it was ever going to get for the Nationals’ 2020 fifth-round draft pick?

Given what he just accomplished today in his follow-up start against the Astros, it feels more appropriate to start wondering if this just might actually be the start of something really special.

With seven scoreless innings on only 73 pitches, Parker led the Nats to an easy 6-0 victory, improved to 2-0 as a big leaguer and authored Chapter 2 in what has suddenly become the most compelling – and unexpected – pitching story in recent club history.

"It doesn't seem like anything really fazes him," manager Davey Martinez said. "He goes out there and he challenges hitters. He competes. He's been giving us what we need."

The 24-year-old left-hander was in complete control throughout his home debut. He surrendered three hits (all singles). He allowed only one runner to reach scoring position. He didn’t issue a walk for the second straight outing. And he pounded the strike zone in a manner rarely seen in these parts.