DENVER – As demoralizing as the first two legs of this three-city road trip were, the Nationals at least could take some solace knowing the location of their final stop: Coors Field.

Nothing turns a slumping lineup productive like some thin mountain air. And though they had to wait 19 hours for a mid-April snowstorm to pass through before finally opening their weekend series against the Rockies, the Nats happily accepted the much-needed offense that came with it.

Then again, nothing turns an already struggling bullpen into an absolute mess like Coors Field does, which meant not even a 10-run lead this afternoon was truly safe.

Despite getting four opposite-field homers, two of them by rookie Dylan Crews, and a 13-strikeout performance from starter MacKenzie Gore, the Nationals still had to hang on for dear life as their beleaguered bullpen gave up nine runs before closing out a way-too-tense, 12-11 victory.

"You know how many games like that I've seen here?" manager Davey Martinez sighed. "Whew, a lot."

PITTSBURGH – If nothing else, the first two weeks of the season offered up an apparently real sign of improvement from the Nationals lineup: Power.

A ballclub that ranked near the bottom of the majors in home runs and slugging the last two seasons was now hitting the ball in the air with authority. Through their first 13 games, the Nats totaled 42 extra-base hits, 18 of them homers.

And then they hit the road and stopped hitting altogether, the latest example coming today in a lifeless 1-0 loss to the Pirates to wrap up a miserable series at PNC Park.

Shut out into the eighth by Andrew Heaney one night after they suffered the same fate against Bailey Falter, the Nationals wasted a quality pitching performance by Trevor Williams and their own beleaguered bullpen, which rose to the challenge for a change and kept the game close.

"Look, I think we're playing great baseball, and we all believe in ourselves and believe that we can take it to the next level," said Williams, whose team is now 7-12 to open the season. "We hold each other accountable, and we hold each other to a higher standard. We're going to keep putting our head down, because the only way through this is through."

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

MIAMI – The Nationals made another roster move ahead of Sunday’s finale against the Marlins, placing right-hander Orlando Ribalta on the 15-day injured list (retroactive to April 10) with a right biceps strain and recalling right-hander Cole Henry from Triple-A Rochester.

"It'll be his first time in the major leagues, we're excited about that," manager Davey Martinez said during his pregame media session. “He's a guy that could give us some multiple innings. He threw the ball really well in spring training. So he gets an opportunity to come up here and help us win games out of the bullpen.”

Ribalta, 27, hasn’t pitched in a game since Tuesday, when he threw 58 pitches over three innings in a bullpen-game win over the Dodgers. But after that outing, he told the Nats his arm was feeling tight and he wasn’t recovering as he normally does.

“A couple days ago, he was throwing and he said he just felt tight,” Martinez said. “So I said, 'Hey, just take your time. Keep throwing, see what we got. Go work with the trainers.' He just didn't rebound very well. This is day three or four now, so we just decided to put him on the IL and give him some time.”

The 6-foot-7 reliever had an MRI this morning and will go back to D.C. to start building up strength while the team heads to Pittsburgh. The Nats are hopeful Ribalta can play catch when they get back from this 10-day road trip.

After the Nationals started 1-6, they have won four of their last five games. Winning cures all. Spirits are high.

But the Nats do find themselves with one problem. Don’t worry, it’s a good one to have.

There is a bit of an outfield conundrum forming in the Nats dugout, thanks to a scorching-hot start from Alex Call.

Call made the Opening Day roster as the fourth outfielder coming off the bench. Manager Davey Martinez announced early in spring training he was going to run out James Wood in left field, Jacob Young in center and rookie Dylan Crews in right on a daily basis to start the season.

But Crews struggled out of the gate, going hitless in his first 19 at-bats. Then Young was given a reset over the weekend after frustrations started to mount following his 1-for-15 start over his first eight games.

The Nationals beat the Diamondbacks 5-4 on Sunday to win their first series of the season. But 245 miles away on Long Island, another milestone was being reached. One that has slightly more historical significance in the sporting world.

Alex Ovechkin, the iconic captain of the Washington Capitals, scored his 895th career goal yesterday, breaking Wayne Gretzky’s 31-year-old record to become the National Hockey League’s all-time leading goal scorer.

Fittingly, Ovechkin’s historic goal against the New York Islanders came on a power play from the left circle. Right from his office. As it should have been.

It was the shot heard around the world, with fans, athletes and celebrities from all walks of life congratulating the greatest goal scorer to ever live. And that rang true on South Capitol Street back home in Washington, D.C., where the Nats were playing.

The Nationals showed the goal highlight on the big screen at Nats Park and congratulated Ovechkin in between the first and second innings, while the crowd of 14,528 gave The Great 8 a standing ovation with an “OVI” chant.

The Nationals entered Saturday losers of four straight, needing to win two straight games to secure their first series victory of the young season. They got the win yesterday by a score of 4-3. The task to win Sunday would be difficult against Corbin Burnes.

But the Nats bats may have found their stride this week, scoring four or more runs in all three games against the Diamondbacks. Their most impressive outing may have been this afternoon, staying patient against and peppering Burnes early on their way to a 5-4 victory in front of 14,528 fans at Nationals Park.

For the third consecutive game, the top of the Nats' order jumped out to an early lead in the first. CJ Abrams drew a leadoff walk against Burnes, then moved to third on Luis García Jr.’s single to right field. Nathaniel Lowe drove in the first run and Alex Call drove in the second a few batters later to give the Nats a 2-1 lead after the first.

After the D-backs tied the game in the top of the second, Paul DeJong led off the bottom frame with a double to left, moved to third on a flyout to right and scored on Abrams’ sacrifice fly to make it 3-2.

Burnes hit Josh Bell with a pitch and walked Call with two outs in the third to set up DeJong’s RBI double to left to make it a 4-2 game. Call tried to make it a two-run hit, but was thrown out at the plate, the second time a Nats player was called out at the dish.

There’s only so much you can take away from the first six games of a new year. But dang it, we will try.

The Nationals’ first week of the 2025 season hasn’t gone totally according to plan. Their 1-5 record doesn’t look good on paper. But digging a little deeper, you start to see some positives they can hold their hats on.

Here are some observations from the Nats’ first week of play …

KEIBERT RUIZ IS HOT
Ruiz’s struggles in 2024 are well known. After he missed a lot of time early in the season with the flu and lost almost 20 pounds, he never fully recovered. He finished the year with a .229 average, .619 OPS, 13 home runs and 57 RBIs in 127 games last year, producing just 0.6 bWAR.

This year, he looks to be in much better shape and it’s paying off.

TORONTO – Baseball players aren’t the type to look at the standings this early in the season, but if the Nationals happened to take a glance Wednesday evening at the NL East table, they wouldn’t like what they saw.

With two series in the books, the Nats are 1-5. They barely avoided a sweep against the Phillies. They couldn’t avoid a sweep against the Blue Jays. If not for the snakebit Braves, now 0-7 after giving up a walk-off homer to Shohei Ohtani, they’d reside in the basement. Not that their position in a distant fourth place is anything to get excited about.

“It’s difficult,” outfielder Dylan Crews said. “It’s something that we definitely don’t want. We want to win every single game. But it’s only April. April 2. So we’ve got May, June, July, August, September. I think we can really flip this thing around here in the future. … I see a lot of talent on this team.”

The Nationals clubhouse remained an optimistic place this week, even after three straight losses to the Blue Jays. The genuine belief in the room is that this is a significantly improved team from 2024, one that expects more of itself in 2025.

But they also know they can’t let things continue at this rate for long, lest they dig themselves into such a deep hole they can’t reasonably climb their way out of it.

TORONTO – The Nationals’ season-opening schedule, with four straight matchups against likely contenders, didn’t look kind on paper. It hasn’t looked kind in practice, either.

The Nats needed a win Sunday to avoid getting swept by the Phillies. They found themselves right back in the same position today against the Blue Jays, with perhaps their first favorable pitching matchup of the young season to hold their hats on.

That matchup didn’t even help. The Nationals couldn’t touch fill-in Toronto starter Easton Lucas, while MacKenzie Gore couldn’t duplicate his efforts from an Opening Day gem. The end result: a lackluster 4-2 loss and a demoralizing three-game sweep at Rogers Centre.

"The at-bats have to get better early in games," manager Davey Martinez said. "We talk about scoring first and trying to get on the starters early. And it just hasn't happened. Late in the games, we've been swinging the bats good. But there's nine innings. We've got to come out swinging from the get-go."

One week into a season of promise, the Nats are 1-5. They’ve gotten decent starting pitching. They’ve hit more homers than in recent years. Keibert Ruiz (who recorded another hit today) and CJ Abrams (who homered again today) have looked great. But they need more than that. And they haven’t gotten more. The challenge doesn’t get any easier, with the Diamondbacks and Dodgers coming to D.C. over the next week.

TORONTO – Davey Martinez insists he planned to give Dylan Crews the night off all along. True or not, the benching comes at an appropriate time for the slumping rookie, who is still seeking his first hit of the 2025 season.

So for the Nationals’ game tonight against the Blue Jays, it’s Alex Call in right field and batting eighth, not Crews.

“Honestly, this was kind of pre-planned coming into the series,” Martinez said. “Look, it’s hard to play this game for 162 days, and I want to get everyone involved. I wanted to get Alex in there today. But it kind of worked out to give Dylan a little bit of a mental break today, get him off his feet.”

It’s been a difficult opening week for Crews, the highly touted rookie who enjoyed a good spring and looked poised to get his season started on the right foot. He’s 0-for-15 through four games, striking out 10 times (including one stretch of eight consecutive at-bats Saturday and Sunday).

Crews did make solid contact Monday, driving a ball 399 feet to the base of the wall in center field, a hit that carried an expected batting average of .820 but was nevertheless caught by Toronto’s Nathan Lukes. That one swing, though, is an anomaly during an otherwise rough start for the 23-year-old.

Dylan Crews may be young, but he’s played baseball at a high level long enough to know how not to make a big deal out of one bad game, especially one this early in the season.

“It’s the second game,” the Nationals rookie said. “There’s a whole lot of games left. We’re just going to keep stacking these days, put it in the past and keep looking forward.”

Crews’ second game of the season, though, was about as bad as they get at the plate. He opened Saturday’s ballgame against the Phillies with a brilliant play in right field. But he then proceeded to go 0-for-5 with five strikeouts, the at-bats progressively getting worse as the afternoon progressed.

Crews was caught looking in each of his first two at-bats, with plenty of credit going to Phillies left-hander Jesús Luzardo, who painted the corner with a 98 mph fastball in the bottom of the first and then a slider in the bottom of the third. His subsequent three at-bats, though, each lasted only three pitches, the first against Luzardo, the latter two against relievers who exploited his overaggressive approach and got him swinging.

“They’re pounding him a lot with fastballs in, and a lot of sliders down and away,” manager Davey Martinez said. “Yesterday, Luzardo got him to think in and then went hard away. Some of those pitches – I looked at them last night – are tough to hit. They were right on the line.”

JUPITER, Fla. – The finish line keeps inching closer. The Nationals have only five more games to play down here in Florida, then one final exhibition Monday in D.C. Which means we’re starting to see the regulars play more regularly, not to mention play more innings per game.

Most of the starters are in today’s lineup against the Cardinals, with only CJ Abrams, Luis García Jr. and Keibert Ruiz getting the day off. That will give Dylan Crews a chance to lead off. Davey Martinez is also trying out Josh Bell in the No. 3 spot in front of Nathaniel Lowe. That’s an arrangement he said we could see sometimes this season against lefties, which explains why we’re seeing it today against St. Louis veteran Steven Matz.

Jake Irvin gets the ball for his fifth start of the spring, and as was the case last year the right-hander has been outstanding down here. Irvin sports a 0.84 ERA and 1.125 WHIP over 10 2/3 innings, though strangely he has walked six while striking out only five. Look for him to try to reach the sixth inning today, provided he can keep his pitch count below triple digits.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs. ST. LOUIS CARDINALS
Where: Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium, Jupiter
Gametime: 1:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: MLB.com (Cardinals’ feed)
Weather: Clear, 73 degrees, wind 14 mph in from left field

NATIONALS
RF Dylan Crews
LF James Wood
DH Josh Bell
1B Nathaniel Lowe
3B Paul DeJong
2B José Tena
CF Jacob Young
SS Nasim Nuñez
C Andrew Knizner

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Who’s ready for some more baseball? The venues have switched, but the teams remain the same as the Nationals and Marlins play the second half of their day-night, split-squad doubleheader, this time at the friendly confines of CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches.

With Mitchell Parker having looked pretty sharp in today’s matinee, there’s some increased pressure on Shinnosuke Ogasawara to perform better tonight. The Japanese left-hander hasn’t blown anyone’s socks off so far in his first three spring training starts. At some point as we move into mid-March, results do start to matter.

The top of the lineup features the big boys, headlined by the enticing 1-2-3 of CJ Abrams, Dylan Crews and James Wood. Luis García Jr. and Jacob Young are also starting tonight against Marlins right-hander Cal Quantrill.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS (ss) vs. MIAMI MARLINS (ss)
Where: CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches, West Palm Beach
Gametime: 6:05 p.m. EDT
TV: None
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Rain ending, 73 degrees, wind 21 mph out to right field

NATIONALS
SS CJ Abrams
RF Dylan Crews
LF James Wood
DH Andrés Chaparro
2B Luis García Jr.
3B Amed Rosario
1B Juan Yepez
C Riley Adams
CF Jacob Young

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Hello once again from sunny South Florida. It’s good to be back after a short respite at home. Many thanks as always to Bobby Blanco for a dynamite job covering the team all week in my stead.

The Nationals are back home with a night game against the Mets, and most of the regulars are in there for this one. That includes, for the first time this spring, the 1-2-3 of CJ Abrams, Dylan Crews and James Wood atop Davey Martinez’s lineup. That seems to be the order they have in mind to open the season, if everyone’s healthy and productive. We’ll see how they look against New York right-hander Paul Blackburn this evening.

Trevor Williams gets the ball for the Nats in his third outing of the spring. The veteran right-hander gave up a costly, two-run homer to the Marlins in his debut. He then held the Astros to one run over 2 1/3 innings last time out, but did give up five hits and a walk in the process. Williams faces a New York lineup tonight featuring Francisco Lindor, Pete Alonso, Mark Vientos and old pal Joey Meneses.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs. NEW YORK METS
Where: CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches, West Palm Beach
Gametime: 6:05 p.m. EST
TV: None
Radio: 980 AM, MLB.com
Weather: Clear, 73 degrees, wind 9 mph out to left field

NATIONALS
SS CJ Abrams
CF Dylan Crews
LF James Wood
1B Nathaniel Lowe
3B Paul DeJong
2B Luis García Jr.
RF Alex Call
DH Andrés Chaparro
C Andrew Knizner

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – MacKenzie Gore entered spring training as the presumed Opening Day starter for the Nationals. Patrick Corbin is no longer here and Josiah Gray is going to miss at least the first half of the season due to injury.

So the 26-year-old left-hander with electric, albeit inconsistent stuff is a likely choice to take the ball for the regular season opener against the Phillies.

First, he had to make the first of his handful of Grapefruit League starts Saturday in a 7-0 win over the Marlins at CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches. Gore was originally scheduled to start last weekend’s spring opener, but his debut was pushed back so he could build up and go multiple innings against an actual opponent.

“Yeah, it was good,” Gore said after his outing. “It was good to finally get back out here. So yeah, I felt good.”

Gore completed three shutout innings with two hits, one walk, four strikeouts and one wild pitch. The free pass came against the Marlins’ first batter of the game, Xavier Edwards, and Gore issued first-pitch balls to three other batters over the course of the night as well. But once the southpaw settled in, he looked like his usual self getting some ugly swings against some nasty pitches.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – After starting Grapefruit League play 3-0, the Nationals have now dropped four straight games. Not that spring training records mean anything, but you would like to get back in the win column sooner rather than later.

Tonight’s game against the Marlins provides a perfect opportunity to do that.

The Nationals dominated the Marlins last year, winning 11 of their 13 matchups. And they’ve already beat up on the Fish this spring with a 14-7 win in Jupiter on Tuesday.

MacKenzie Gore also dominated the Marlins last year, going 2-0 with 24 strikeouts to four walks and only allowing two earned runs over 19 innings (0.95 ERA). There are a lot of new and relatively unknown names in Miami’s lineup tonight, so this should be the perfect opponent for the young lefty to start his spring action on a positive note.

Gore was originally slated to start the Nats’ Grapefruit League opener a week ago against the Astros. But after he talked with manager Davey Martinez, the Nats decided to bump him back because the southpaw wanted to be able to go multiple innings in his first actual spring start. So look for Gore to go at least two frames tonight, perhaps three (as Michael Soroka did this afternoon) if his domination of the Marlins continues in quick fashion.

JUPITER, Fla. – The Nationals are now known for their speed. They made a point to take advantage of their youth and the new rules that encourage basestealing to swipe a major league-best 223 bags last year.

But that young speed manifests itself defensively, too.

The Nats’ projected starting outfield of James Wood in left, Jacob Young in center and Dylan Crews in right boasts three of the fastest guys on the team. And with all three having extensive experience playing center field, manager Davey Martinez feels very confident they have the entire outfield covered.

“When I look at it, all three of them were center fielders. So you potentially have three center fielders playing together, which is pretty awesome,” the skipper said before today’s split-squad doubleheader against the Cardinals and Marlins. “Those guys, I told them I expect them to get to everything. I really do. And they do. They're really good out there when you watch them play together. Jacob does a great job of moving them around. They follow Jacob's suit. They understand that he is the center fielder. He takes control and takes command out there, which is awesome.”

Young’s first full season as a major league center fielder was one of the best defensive seasons the Nats have ever seen.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – The Nationals play their first night game of the spring, with the Braves making a rare visit from all the way across the state. Atlanta isn’t sending a whole lot of big names, aside from Marcell Ozuna, but they do have Bryce Elder on the mound, which should make for a nice challenge for the Nats lineup.

Davey Martinez does have plenty of regulars in his batting order, pretty much everyone but James Wood (who is set to DH on Friday in his delayed spring debut) and Keibert Ruiz (who caught Wednesday). So we’ll get multiple at-bats tonight from CJ Abrams, Dylan Crews, Nathaniel Lowe, Josh Bell and Luis García Jr.

Jake Irvin, meanwhile, becomes the first member of the rotation to make his second start of the spring. The right-hander should be good to go two innings in this one as he continues the slow build-up to regular-season form.

Tonight’s game is available live on MLB Network, if you’re interested in watching.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs. ATLANTA BRAVES
Where: CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches, West Palm Beach
Gametime: 6:05 p.m. EST
TV: MLB Network (Braves’ feed)
Radio: MLB.com (Braves’ feed)
Weather: Partly cloudy, 76 degrees, wind 7 mph out to left field