On a day in which they got another quality (if abbreviated) start from Brad Lord and then a bunch of zeroes from members of their bullpen who haven’t put up many of those this season, the Nationals gave themselves a golden opportunity to beat the best team in baseball for the second time in 24 hours.

Surprisingly effective pitching is great, but it does still take some modicum of offense to win a ballgame, and the Nats had very little of that during a 2-0 loss to the Mets on a rainy, then windy, Saturday on South Capitol Street.

Despite holding New York’s potent lineup in check aside from one early homer off Lord, the Nationals missed their chance to follow up Friday night’s inspired win with another one before a crowd of 33,867 that weathered two early rain delays followed by strong wind gusts during a day game that turned into a night game.

“You look at what’s going on, you think we’re going to snap out of it and get a couple of hits,” manager Davey Martinez said. “It just didn’t happen today with guys on base. We got some hits, but not any big hits, timely hits.”

The Nats totaled seven hits (all singles) and two walks against Clay Holmes and a quintet of Mets relievers. They took only two at-bats with runners in scoring position, both in the bottom of the seventh.

How wild was Friday night’s 5-4, walk-off win for the Nationals? So wild that a controversial triple play was like the No. 4 storyline of the game. That’s wild.

The Nats happily took that win, their fifth in their last seven games. They’re back to two games under .500 at 12-14, actually only a game behind the Phillies for second place in the NL East. All things considered, that’s not a bad place to be during the final weekend of April.

They’ll look to continue their winning ways later this afternoon with the second game of four against the division-leading Mets (weather permitting). It’ll be Brad Lord on the mound for his fourth major league start. He has yet to complete five innings or exceed 65 pitches, but hopefully his arm is ready for that kind of workload by now, because the Nationals could certainly use some length to take a little pressure off the bullpen.

After a decent showing Friday night against Kodai Senga, the Nats' lineup gets another tough challenge in Clay Holmes, the former Yankees closer who is now starting in Flushing. Holmes has actually seen his strikeout rate go up despite the move from the bullpen to the rotation, with an eye-popping 11.9 per nine innings so far this year. His walk rate is also up, though, to 4.6 per nine innings. The Nationals need to be patient today, something they haven’t necessarily done all that well this season.

NEW YORK METS at WASHINGTON NATIONALS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 4:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Chance of rain, 74 degrees, wind 15 mph left field to right field

DENVER – After the chaos of Saturday’s wild slugfest, who would have imagined today’s doubleheader at Coors Field would feature back-to-back pitchers’ duels, with offense at an extreme premium?

The Nationals certainly weren’t counting on that flipping of the script. Even though they leave town with a series victory, they leave feeling a bit of a sting at missing a golden opportunity at a three-game sweep.

Despite getting quality pitching from Brad Lord and their less-reliable relievers, the Nats fell 3-1 to the Rockies in the nightcap of the doubleheader, settling for a Sunday split in the thin air.

The same lineup that exploded for 12 runs on a 45-degree Saturday afternoon managed only four total runs over 18 innings of baseball played under far more pleasant conditions today, held in check by a Colorado pitching staff that has allowed the most runs in the majors this season.

"Obviously, we can't go up there and put up a dozen every night," said first baseman Nathaniel Lowe, who managed three of the team's eight singles tonight. "But we'd like to score more, obviously score more than we did tonight because we didn't like the outcome. We hold ourselves to a pretty high standard and obviously didn't perform to that standard in Game 2."

DENVER – Things looked pretty bleak for the Nationals when they arrived in Colorado following back-to-back series losses in Miami and Pittsburgh. Now, things look a whole lot rosier following back-to-back wins and now the opportunity to not only sweep today’s doubleheader but sweep the weekend series as well and salvage a 5-5 record on the road trip.

Davey Martinez pulled out all the stops to win the first two games, asking for a combined five innings out of Jose A. Ferrer and Kyle Finnegan. You would think neither will be available tonight. But as we’ve seen here before, don’t assume anything when it comes to bullpen usage.

It’s probably safe to say Martinez will need more work out of his bullpen than he did previously, because Brad Lord isn’t likely to provide as much length as MacKenzie Gore and Jake Irvin did. Lord hasn’t thrown more than 57 pitches in either of his two big league starts, so you would think he won’t go more than 70-75 tonight. Look for Jackson Rutledge and Cole Henry to see action. The Nats also have Jorge López back from suspension, plus 27th man Andry Lara if needed.

At the plate, the Nationals will look to duplicate Saturday’s 12-run explosion, not this afternoon’s six-hit (all singles) performance. They’ve got Keibert Ruiz and Luis García Jr. back in the lineup after both guys got a chance to sit this afternoon.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at COLORADO ROCKIES
Where: Coors Field, Denver
Gametime: 8:10 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Partly cloudy, 63 degrees, wind 10 mph in from left field

PITTSBURGH – They weren’t going to come right out and say it, but the Nationals understood the monumental task staring them in the face this evening.

His name is Paul Skenes, and he’s the most intimidating pitcher on the planet right now. The Nats had managed to avoid the hulking Pirates right-hander during his ballyhooed rookie season. They finally ran into the buzzsaw tonight at PNC Park and learned firsthand what everyone else around baseball already knew.

The Nationals did manage to push across a couple of late runs against Skenes, but that wasn’t nearly enough on a night in which they once again saw their bullpen turn a potentially winnable game into a lopsided defeat, this time by a count of 10-3.

"There's got to be a little more intensity from this bullpen when they come into games to keep it close," a clearly agitated manager Davey Martinez said. "Right now, there's two guys back there, we can't even get to them: (setup man Jose A.) Ferrer and (closer Kyle) Finnegan."

You can't use your setup man and your closer if you're trailing by multiple runs, and that's exactly what has happened during three straight losses for a team that felt great about itself when it opened this 10-game road trip with its fourth straight win.

PITTSBURGH – A road trip that looked much more manageable on paper than the recently completed homestand did has not proven to be all that manageable so far. The Nationals lost two of three in Miami over the weekend, and now they open a four-game series in Pittsburgh with a matchup against the best young pitcher in the sport.

Yes, Paul Skenes is on the mound tonight for the Pirates, the first time the phenom right-hander has faced the Nats in his career. Only two members of the Nationals’ current roster have any experience against Skenes, and even that’s minimal: two at-bats by Amed Rosario, one by Josh Bell. Suffice it to say, this is going to be a challenge tonight for the visiting lineup, which includes Nasim Nuñez at shortstop and Dylan Crews (Skenes’ old LSU teammate) in center field.

On the flip side of the equation, nobody with the Pirates has any experience against Brad Lord, because he’s making only his second career start tonight. Lord was solid in his previous outing, tossing three scoreless innings against the mighty Dodgers on 55 pitches. He should be good to build up to maybe 70 or so pitches tonight, and the Nationals would love for that to stretch out over five innings if possible. If not, it turns into another bullpen game, with Jackson Rutledge probably tasked with throwing multiple innings at some point along the way.

Also complicating matters: There’s a chance of storms here right around or shortly after first pitch. You wouldn’t think either team wants to risk burning up its starter, so they might just have to err on the side of caution and delay the start of the game. Stay tuned for updates.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at PITTSBURGH PIRATES
Where: PNC Park, Pittsburgh
Gametime: 6:40 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Chance of storms, 72 degrees, wind 11 mph right field to left field

If Jacob Young was going to lose playing time this season, it figured to be in favor of Robert Hassell III, the Nationals prospect who seemed on the cusp of debuting in the big leagues following a great spring. Two weeks in, though, Young has lost playing time. Not because of Hassell, but because of Alex Call.

Call today finds himself in the Nats lineup for the fifth straight game, the seventh time in eight games. The 30-year-old has been torrid at the plate, going 8-for-18 with two doubles, four RBIs and four walks, while also playing solid defense in both right and left fields.

Young, on the other hand, is still trying to find his stroke at the plate. He opened the season 1-for-15 with three walks, though he did return to start Tuesday night and went 2-for-3 with a walk and two runs scored.

Nevertheless, the 25-year-old Gold Glove Award finalist is sitting this afternoon for the fifth time in seven games, turning the daily process of filling out the lineup card a bit more complicated than expected.

“It’s not really complicated, because we still want to work with Jacob on some things, even though he did do better yesterday,” manager Davey Martinez insisted. “We want to get him right. Alex is swinging the bat really, really well, so he’s getting an opportunity to play here a little more. But as I’ve said before, Jacob’s going to be back in there playing center field. He’s going to play a lot of center field.”

He had already hit 11 home runs in the big leagues, more than a few of them jaw-dropping in nature whether because of exit velocity or distance traveled. D.C. already knows what James Wood is, and what he can be.

Perhaps tonight, thanks to a jaw-dropping performance against the most-watched ballclub in the world, any portion of the baseball community that didn’t already know learned what everyone here had long since come to accept: This kid is special.

With two titanic home runs, not to mention an infield single and a bases-loaded walk for good measure, the 22-year-old outfielder drove in five runs to carry the Nationals to a convincing 8-2 victory over the Dodgers to clinch a series win over the defending World Series champions.

A Nats team that lost six of seven to begin the season has now won four in a row against top competition and remarkably will have a chance to sweep L.A. on Wednesday afternoon before embarking on a 10-game road trip to Miami, Pittsburgh and Colorado.

"I just think it kind of proves we're really not far," Wood said. "Even when we were losing games, we weren't off by much. Being able to put these games together, I think it just proves that."

Who would’ve thought three days ago the Nationals would find themselves on a three-game winning streak, against the Diamondbacks and Dodgers no less? And yet here we are, with the team having already clinched at least a .500 homestand against two of the best teams in the league, and now a chance to clinch a winning week with one more victory tonight or Wednesday.

After going all-in to win Monday’s opener, Davey Martinez has no choice but to take a different approach tonight. That starts with the guy starting the game: Brad Lord. After three relief appearances to begin his career, the 25-year-old right-hander now makes his first career start, essentially taking the injured Michael Soroka’s place.

Because he hasn’t been stretched out, Lord is probably good for only 45-50 pitches. Which means Jackson Rutledge will probably come out of the bullpen, either directly behind him or later on in the game, to provide multiple innings himself. And if the Nationals are in a position to win the game late, there’s no way Kyle Finnegan is pitching for a fourth straight day. So who gets the ninth? Jose A. Ferrer? Jorge López? Martinez would love to be in a position to find out.

Offensively, the Nats have done a lot more during this homestand than they did during the season’s first week, especially early in games. They will look to do the same tonight against the Dodgers’ own fill-in starter. Left-hander Justin Wrobleski was called up from Triple-A to replace the injured Blake Snell, who was supposed to take the mound tonight but is dealing with a shoulder ailment. Wrobleski is Los Angeles’ 11th-ranked prospect and made six big league starts last year, going 1-2 with a 5.70 ERA. He threw 76 pitches over 5 2/3 scoreless innings in his lone outing for Oklahoma City to begin the season, so he is stretched out to make a full start if he pitches well.

LOS ANGELES DODGERS at WASHINGTON NATIONALS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 6:45 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Clear, 45 degrees, wind 17 mph left field to right field

The Nationals will wait a couple of days before deciding who will take Michael Soroka’s place in the rotation, with Brad Lord a distinct option if the rookie isn’t needed out of the bullpen before then.

Soroka was supposed to start Sunday’s series finale against the Diamondbacks but was placed on the 15-day injured list today (backdated to April 1) with a right biceps strain. The 27-year-old made his debut Monday night in Toronto but had to be pulled three pitches into the sixth inning when his biceps muscle cramped while delivering a slider.

Soroka was cautiously optimistic at the time the injury wasn’t serious and that he’d be able to take his next turn in the rotation. The one caveat: He needed to be able to throw off a mound first before knowing he would be good to go.

That bullpen session never happened. According to manager Davey Martinez, Soroka played catch Wednesday in Toronto and reported afterward he still felt a twinge of discomfort in his upper arm.

“He said he just barely could feel it,” Martinez said. “But when a pitcher says he can barely feel it in his arm, I don’t like it. I think the best thing is to get it to calm down a little bit and get him ready to come back out again.”

Luis García Jr. was the Nationals’ surprise No. 3 hitter on Opening Day. Perhaps more surprising is the fact he’s not even in the lineup for Game No. 2.

With left-hander Jesús Luzardo on the mound for the Phillies, García is on the bench this afternoon, with Amed Rosario instead starting at second base and batting fifth.

“It’s early,” manager Davey Martinez explained. “I want to try to get everybody in there, try to get some at-bats to some of these guys. And the reason why we signed Rosario is because he hits lefties really well. So we’ll give him some at-bats today.

García often sat last season against lefties, though he started to get more opportunities later during his breakthrough season. Even so, the 24-year-old was far more effective against right-handers (.796 OPS) than lefties (.641).

Rosario, on the other hand, owns a career .798 OPS vs. left-handers, not to mention a .298 batting average. The Nationals signed the 29-year-old utilityman to a major league deal over the winter, envisioning him as a part-time second baseman who can also play third base, shortstop and the outfield if needed.

For a young baseball player, there’s no better moment than learning you’re going to the major leagues on the Opening Day roster. For a baseball manager, there’s no better moment than delivering that message.

For Brad Lord, it was a long road to this moment. For Nationals manager Davey Martinez, the opportunity to mess with the young pitcher was too good to pass up.

The 25-year-old right-hander has been waiting around D.C. for the past couple of days. He joined the Nats on their trip north from West Palm Beach ahead of their opening three-game series against the Phillies.

An exhibition game against the Orioles on Monday was rained out. The Nationals held one final workout at Nats Park on Wednesday, with Lord still unsure if he was staying around or packing his bags for Triple-A Rochester to start the season.

Then he got the call into the manager’s office. An answer was finally waiting for him: He had, indeed, made the Opening Day roster.

The Nationals’ Opening Day roster will include Riley Adams, José Tena, Orlando Ribalta and Brad Lord. It will not include Andrew Knizner, Juan Yepez or Jackson Rutledge.

The Nats announced their final roster moves late this afternoon, in the process leaving 26 remaining active players who will take the field Thursday against the Phillies.

The official transactions:

* Lord had his contract purchased, putting him on both the 26-man and 40-man rosters for the first time.

* Yepez and Rutledge were optioned to Triple-A Rochester, with Knizner (who wasn’t on the 40-man roster) reassigned to Triple-A.

Well, just yesterday morning I took a look at the Nationals’ overall roster depth ahead of the regular season starting. I noted the importance of organizational depth as the baseball gods are unpredictable and unforgiving when it comes to injuries.

Sure enough, the Nationals announced just over an hour after my post published that left-hander DJ Herz was placed on the 15-day injured list with an elbow UCL sprain. And although we won’t have more official information on the situation until tomorrow, that injury is usually associated with Tommy John surgery and/or an internal brace procedure, which would sideline Herz until 2026.

Luckily, the Nats are confident in their organizational depth, which they believe is deeper than it has been in recent years and can help sustain a successful season.

Herz was to be a part of that depth, having been optioned down to Triple-A Rochester on Friday after a rough spring that included a bout with dead arm. The southpaw was coming off a rookie season in which he went 4-9 with 4.16 ERA while pitching some of the Nats’ most dominant starts of the season, including six innings of one-hit ball with 13 strikeouts on June 15 against the Marlins and 10 strikeouts with one run allowed July 2 against the Mets.

But after finishing four Grapefruit League starts with a 6.52 ERA, 1.966 WHIP, nine walks and only four strikeouts in 9 ⅔ innings, the Nationals decided to get Herz more seasoning in the minor leagues. And now an elbow injury has derailed his season.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – The Nationals broke camp this afternoon and left for Palm Beach International Airport. They’ll arrive in Washington this evening having spent the last six weeks evaluating a roster they believe is much improved from a year ago, but one that’s still not 100 percent settled.

Manager Davey Martinez said the team won’t make its final cuts until after Monday’s exhibition finale against the Orioles at Nationals Park, leaving the fates of a number of players on the bubble up in the air for another 24 hours.

“This is tough,” Martinez said following an 8-5 loss to the Astros in the Grapefruit League finale. “It really is.”

The Nats settled their fifth starter competition Friday, optioning DJ Herz and Shinnosuke Ogasawara to Triple-A Rochester to leave the spot for Mitchell Parker. But they’ve still got four more roster spots to figure out: backup catcher, 26th man on the bench and two bullpen jobs.

The bullpen situation is the most complicated, because of several moving parts. Derek Law, projected all along to make the team, now appears likely to open the season on the 15-day injured list because his arm hasn’t recovered well enough from the couple of times he’s faced live hitters in the last week-plus.

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. – Colin Poche has made the Nationals’ Opening Day bullpen, the club purchased the left-hander’s contract this morning to officially put him on the club.

Poche signed a minor league deal with an invitation to big league camp in early February, but given his track record, he always looked like a safe bet to make the team.

The 31-year-old has 225 games of major league experience, all with the Rays, and last season delivered a 3.86 ERA and 1.152 WHIP in 43 appearances. He was a 12-game winner with a 2.23 ERA in 66 games (all out of the bullpen) in 2023.

With Jose A. Ferrer the only other left-hander in the Nats bullpen, Poche was in good position all along to head north with the team, provided good health. His spring got off to a rough start when he surrendered three runs on four hits and two walks Feb. 25 against the Marlins, but he rebounded after that. In four appearances since, he has allowed just one run on two hits with one walk and six strikeouts.

Poche joins Ferrer, closer Kyle Finnegan and right-handers Jorge Lopez, Derek Law and Lucas Sims to fill out six of the eight slots in the Nationals bullpen. The final two remain up for grabs this weekend, with two traditional relievers and two young starters in the mix.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – The Nationals signed Amed Rosario this winter to be their utility infielder. The veteran figures to get starts at second base if Davey Martinez wants to give Luis Garcia Jr. the day off, third base if Martinez wants to give Paul DeJong the day off and perhaps even shortstop if Martinez wants to give CJ Abrams the day off.

Martinez also likes that Rosario can play the outfield, something he did 26 times last season for the Rays and Reds. Which is why he had him starting in left field Tuesday night for the Nats’ exhibition game against the Astros.

“Some of these guys, I want to see them play multiple positions, in case in-game something does happen, we know he can do it,” Martinez said. “I don’t want to spring it on him. When we signed him, we talked to him about playing multiple positions. This is just part of getting him out there in spring before we leave, and getting him accustomed to playing some left field.”

With James Wood, Jacob Young and Dylan Crews unlikely to get many days off, and with Alex Call already more than capable of filling in for any of them, there probably won’t be much need for Rosario to appear in the outfield this season.

But the Nationals always want to make sure they’re covered just in case. And they wouldn’t want to throw Rosario to the wolves with no practice, so they figured it was worth it to give him at least one start in left this spring.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Brad Lord sits in the Nationals’ spring training clubhouse where you’d expect a non-roster invitee in his first big league camp to sit. That area of the room always includes the first group of players sent down to minor league camp, the guys who may have a future in the organization but not yet.

And sure enough, all the guys around him when camp opened are long gone, having relocated to the minor league clubhouse at the other end of the building. Leaving only Lord among a sea of empty lockers, the rest of the pitchers well to his right, the remaining catchers well to his left in their own designated corner.

“It still feels like pretty surreal, I guess,” the 25-year-old right-hander said. “It was like an honor getting invited to big league camp, and I’ve really enjoyed my time. It’s been a lot of fun.”

It’s not over yet. With five days to go before the team heads north, Lord is still here. And increasingly it looks like he’s got a real shot at making the Opening Day roster, not as a starter but as a reliever.

“His stuff plays,” manager Davey Martinez said. “I’m not saying he’s not going to revert back to a starter, but he’s done really well in spring training doing what he’s done. We’ll see. We’ve still got a little less than a week down here.”

The primary focus during spring training, as it usually is, will be on the big names in Nationals camp. How do James Wood and Dylan Crews look as they prepare for the second go-around in the big leagues? How do newcomers Nathaniel Lowe, Josh Bell, Michael Soroka and Shinnosuke Ogasawara fit in and (ideally) make the team better? How will CJ Abrams address last September’s disciplinary demotion and how he intends to move forward?

But spring training is about everyone in camp, not just the big names. And sometimes, a lesser-known name makes himself known over the course of six weeks in West Palm Beach. There’s always someone who wasn’t expected to make the Opening Day roster stepping up to force the front office’s hand. And even if he doesn’t make the team right away, often an impressive spring lays the groundwork for a promotion sometime during the season.

So, while we wait to see if (hopefully when) the Nats make any more moves before camp opens next week, let’s take a look at some lesser-known names who could become more well-known this spring …

ANDREW KNIZNER
The catching position has loomed all winter as one of the more intriguing ones on the roster. Can Keibert Ruiz get himself back on track after a miserable 2024? And which of the two holdover backup candidates (Riley Adams, Drew Millas) will make the team? Then the Nationals quietly signed Knizner to a minor league deal, with an invitation to big league camp. The Glen Allen, Va., native has big league experience, 290 games with the Cardinals and Rangers. His numbers weren’t great, but he backed up the likes of Yadier Molina and Willson Contreras, so he has learned from some of the best. It would take some tough maneuvering by the Nats to put Knizner on the roster over both Adams and Millas. But they didn’t sign the 30-year-old for nothing. They must want to at least get a look at him, while simultaneously putting some pressure on Ruiz, Adams and Millas to show real improvement.

TYLER STUART
Acquired last summer from the Mets in the Jesse Winker trade, Stuart is an intriguing pitching prospect. The 6-foot-9, 250-pound right-hander is a physical presence on the mound. And he’s delivered good numbers in three minor league seasons (3.31 ERA, 1.200 WHIP, 9.7 strikeouts per nine innings). He struggled in four late-season starts at Triple-A Rochester, so he probably needs more time to develop. But Stuart is already 25 and could warrant a look in the major league rotation if he gets off to a good start in April. His situation is not all that unlike the ones DJ Herz and Mitchell Parker found themselves in last year, and Jake Irvin the year before that. That definitely makes him someone to watch.

The names aren’t quite as notable as a year ago, when several of the top prospects in baseball made their spring training debuts for the Nationals, but this year’s crop of non-roster invitees does include some intriguing young players who figure to be part of the organization’s future (some sooner than others).

The Nats announced 17 players not currently on the 40-man roster who will participate in major league camp beginning next month, headlined by third baseman Brady House, catcher Caleb Lomavita and pitcher Jarlin Susana.

This will be House’s second spring with the big leaguers, but the 21-year-old’s first real opportunity to show the organization he’s close to big-league-ready. The Nationals’ 2021 first round pick got a token look last spring before heading to Double-A Harrisburg. He finished the season at Triple-A Rochester, batting .241 with 19 homers and 66 RBIs in 129 combined games between the two affiliates.

Team officials haven’t definitively said if House has a chance to make the Opening Day roster, but they also haven’t acquired any starting third base candidates this winter. For now, the alternatives to House are Jose Tena, Trey Lipscomb and veteran utilityman Amed Rosario.

House won’t be the only third base prospect in camp. He’ll be joined in West Palm Beach, Fla., by 2023 second round pick Yohandy Morales (who also plays first base) and Cayden Wallace (who was acquired from the Royals last summer for reliever Hunter Harvey) and could be close to big-league ready himself.