Nats stay hot in the cold, beat Twins for first series win (updated)

MINNEAPOLIS – As the mercury dropped to 35 degrees – remarkably 2 degrees colder than it was Friday night for what temporarily stood as the coldest game in club history – the Nationals bundled up in long sleeves, gloves, hoodies, balaclavas, anything they could find to protect themselves from the elements and took the field this afternoon in search of the kind of offense that has eluded them throughout the season’s first 20 games.

And then a funny thing happened. They scored two runs in the top of the first. Then two more in the top of the second. And they just kept going and going until they walked out of Target Field with a resounding 10-4 victory over the Twins and their stunned (and well-compensated) ace.

Who cares what the thermometer read. The Nationals inexplicably have been at their best this month the colder it’s been. Their best offensive display to date had come in Colorado, which of course also has the added benefit of thin air. Now they’ve won two games in a row in Minnesota despite the ever-present threat of snow flurries, and in the process secured their first series victory of the young season. On Sunday, they'll attempt to complete their first three-game sweep since June 2021.

"If we keep playing like this," manager Davey Martinez said, "I hope it's 20 degrees for the next four months."

That probably won't be happening without a massive shift in global warming trends, so eventually the Nationals will have to learn how to hit on a hot day. But for now, it's been a winning formula, Friday night via a late rally to eke out a 3-2 win. Today’s came far more comfortably, with offensive fireworks both early and late, and contributors up and down the lineup.

Joey Meneses, whose first homer of the year jumpstarted Friday’s rally, delivered RBI singles in both the first and second innings today and finished with four hits, raising his batting average from .227 to .263. Luis García, batting cleanup, had a pair of singles, a walk and an RBI. Struggling Dominic Smith had two hits and a walk. And Victor Robles tripled on a ball that glanced off a diving Michael A. Taylor’s glove as Nats center fielders past and present metaphorically collided, then added an RBI double later.

The Nationals did most of this against Pablo López, the Twins ace who entered with a 1.73 ERA and a brand-new $73.5 million extension.

"I think more so than anything, we're getting ready. We're on time," Martinez said of his hitters. "We're just trying to stay in the middle of the field, not trying to do too much. When it's cold like this, you want to barrel up some baseballs."

The biggest hit of the day, though, and arguably the most surprising, came off the bat of CJ Abrams, who in his 236th plate appearance with the Nationals finally hit his first home run: a three-run blast off reliever Simeon Woods Richardson to blow the game open.

The seventh-inning homer came off a changeup below his knees, somehow traveling 370 feet to right field through the bitter cold and clearing the fence, giving Abrams his first opportunity to trot around the bases since his acquisition from the Padres last August in the Juan Soto blockbuster trade.

"There were a lot of balls I swung at above the zone," he said. "I kind of wanted to look for the ones low, and got one to hit out."

While his rotation mate Josiah Gray hasn’t been able to buy a run of support (one total through his first four starts), Chad Kuhl has been supplied with ample offense every time he has taken the mound. The Nationals scored 16 runs through his first three outings, then stormed out of the gates again today to supply him with a lead.

Kuhl, though, hasn’t exactly made the most of those leads. He entered the day with an 0-1 record, and though he departed today’s start with his team ahead 5-1, he didn’t come close to completing the minimum five innings required to earn the win.

It took Kuhl a whopping 75 pitches to complete his first three frames. He then needed another 21 to face four batters in the fourth before Martinez decided he’d seen enough and pulled his starter in favor of Mason Thompson (who was awarded the win by the official scorer for allowing one unearned run over 2 1/3 sharp innings).

"It's tough in that cold weather," Martinez said. "He said he didn't have feel for his slider that much today. But he battled and gave us what he could."

Kuhl wound up throwing only 49 of his 96 pitches for strikes, issuing four walks and running a deep count on almost every hitter he faced. He did manage to throw enough quality sliders to record five strikeouts, but that couldn’t make up for his overall inefficiency.

"It's tougher as the inning goes on, as the inning progresses," Kuhl said. "The longer you're out there, the more pitches you throw, the cold really starts to affect it. I felt like outside of that, we as a staff did a really nice job limiting any damage, inducing soft contact, getting swings and misses. Given the conditions, I think we've done a really nice job these first two days."

Four starts into his Nationals career, the 30-year-old right-hander sports a 7.34 ERA and 1.745 WHIP. For now, there’s no obvious replacement waiting in the wings at Triple-A Rochester. But the clock could be ticking for Kuhl.

That’s a problem for another day, though. On this day, the Nats much preferred to celebrate a rare offensive explosion, an even-rarer series victory and a chance to defrost in the clubhouse after 3-plus hours outdoors in Minnesota.

"It's obviously a little uncomfortable," Meneses said. "But as long as we keep winning, let's keep playing in the cold."