Most significant stories of 2023: The late-summer surge

We’ve reached the final week of the year, so it’s time to look back at the Nationals’ most significant stories of 2023. We continue the series today with the on-field highlight of the season: the team’s extended run of success in July and August …

For 3 1/2 seasons, the Nationals hadn’t enjoyed any kind of sustained run like this.

Yes, there were a couple of fun weeks in June 2021, when Kyle Schwarber seemed to launch a leadoff homer every night and a still-star-laden roster tried to get itself back into the NL East race. But that was fleeting, done in by a spate of injuries (including Schwarber’s torn hamstring) and every other manner of disaster that could befall one team at once.

No, what happened to the Nats late this summer was in many ways more enjoyable, certainly more encouraging because of what it suggested this franchise might be getting close to doing again on a regular basis.

When they took the field July 21 to face the Giants in the opener of a weekend series, the Nationals were 20 games under .500, an afterthought around a sport that had little reason to think about them in quite some time. When they wrapped up a dramatic victory Aug. 26 at Yankee Stadium, they were only eight games under .500, now gained attention throughout the baseball world for their surprise resurgence.

A 23-11 run – the team’s best 34-game streak since 2019 – made outsiders begin to believe in the Nats again, and convinced a few insiders what was possible as well.

“I think we can compete with anybody,” Josiah Gray said after allowing one hit in six innings during that key win over the Yankees. “We’ve shown that over the last month and a half, two months. … We’ve been playing like a team since recent memory, and it’s really fun to come to the ballpark every day knowing we have a chance to win, knowing we have a chance to upset the standings and kind of make a name for ourselves.”

The hot streak began with three straight wins over the Giants, the Nationals’ first three-game sweep over anyone in more than two years. It then included two more three-game sweeps in the coming weeks, one over the Reds, one over the Athletics.

The Nats won successive series over the Red Sox, Phillies and Yankees, which always helps draw outside attention. They performed well in beating Philadelphia during the MLB Little League Classic in Williamsport, Pa., showing a national television audience just how far they had come.

“A game like this is big,” shortstop CJ Abrams said that night. “There’s a lot of fans watching back at home. It’s just an exciting game to play, let alone to win.”

Whether the timing was purposeful or coincidental, the next day the Nationals gave Davey Martinez a new two-year contract (with a third-year option) and moved closer toward finalizing a similar deal with general manager Mike Rizzo, ending any suspense about the fate of those two men long before the season was over.

What made the Nats’ surge notable was the manner in which they won these games. They got contributions from a number of key young players, headlined by Abrams, Gray, Keibert Ruiz and MacKenzie Gore. They showed a newfound ability to come from behind late in games, a trait missing around here since 2019. And they showed their bullpen could lock things up once their teammates gave them a lead.

The Nationals posted a staggering 11-2 record in one-run games from July 21-Aug. 26. During that stretch, closer Kyle Finnegan was 12-for-12 in save opportunities, with a 1.59 ERA and 0.824 WHIP.

“We’re playing the best ball we’ve been playing all season,” Finnegan said after escaping a harrowing, bases-loaded jam in the ninth in Toronto. “For the young guys to be a part of it, and to see they can contribute to a playoff-type atmosphere, is great for them.”

As much fun as the run was, the Nats could not sustain it through the rest of the season. Physically and emotionally burned out from their first such winning stretch in years, they closed out the year in a 10-22 slump. In the process, they went from 20 games under to eight games under back to 20 games under.

The takeaway at the end of all that: Though they’ve made some big strides, they aren’t quite there yet.

“This is only the beginning,” Martinez said in late August. “Take it for what it’s worth, understand where we’re at and enjoy every moment of it. But learn from it. Because I really believe this club, we’ve been there before, and there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. And these guys are going to reap the benefits.”