BOSTON – The Nationals arrived at Fenway Park with a rough history in the landmark ballpark.

Entering tonight’s opener of a three-game series, they were 15-24 all-time against the Red Sox and 5-13 at Fenway.

But the 2024 Nationals do not care much for history. They came to face a streaky Red Sox team with a similar record as their third straight American League East opponent. And they came away victorious.

The Nationals beat the Red Sox 5-1 to get back over .500 on a cold 51-degree Boston evening in front of an announced crowd of 31,313 fans. And they did so with some nifty two-out hitting and gutsy pitching, including from starter Patrick Corbin.

Facing right-hander Tanner Houck, who entered tonight’s start with a 1.99 ERA and 0.971 WHIP over his first seven outings, the Nats were able to put pressure on him with two outs in the early innings.

BOSTON – As the Nationals got settled into the cramped visiting clubhouse at Fenway Park, Joey Gallo learned that his next rehab game with Triple-A Rochester was postponed due to inclement weather about four hours south in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

Davey Martinez was hoping his first baseman/designated hitter, who has been on the injured list since April 26 with a left shoulder AC sprain, would carry over his strong night at the plate last night into tonight with the Red Wings.

“Joey Gallo is rehabbing in Rochester still,” Martinez said ahead of tonight’s opener against the Red Sox. “Today got rained out, so they got no game today.”

Gallo went 2-for-5 with a double and three-run home run in the Red Wings’ 14-12 loss to the RailRiders last night. It was his first multi-hit game and extra-base hits over his five rehab games, a good sign the 30-year-old is getting his timing back after hitting .122 with a .597 OPS and three home runs in his first 23 games with the Nats.

“He hit a home run and a double. He's starting to swing the bat a little bit better,” Martinez said. “They said he feels good. Just like everybody else, he's just trying to get his timing back. Hopefully, he continues to play. The rainouts are not good, but I want him to get as many at-bats as he possibly can before we bring him back up here. But we also want to make sure that this doesn't linger and that it goes away. But he said he feels good.”

BOSTON – Hello from historic (and chilly) Fenway Park! This weekend is my first time shipping up to Boston since I was a young lad, a trip I don’t necessarily remember. So I’m very excited to be your trusty beat reporter live from Bah-stan.

The Nats are nearing the end of a wicked 14-game stretch against American League teams. After these three games against the Red Sox, they’ll head to the south side of Chicago to face a different shade of sox and wrap up three weeks’ worth of interleague play. Entering tonight, the Nats are 7-7 against AL teams and 11-8 on the road.

Patrick Corbin makes his eighth start in the opener. He’s 0-3 with a 6.45 ERA and 1.8095 WHIP. Though he once again got roughed up early in his last outing, he actually turned in a quality start with three runs over six innings against the Blue Jays. The veteran lefty needs to get off to better starts, however: He’s given up 16 runs in innings 1-3 compared to nine in innings 4-6.

Corbin is 0-2 with an 8.22 ERA and 2.478 WHIP in two career starts at Fenway, the last one coming in 2016.

Tanner Houck makes his eighth start for the Red Sox, going 3-3 with a 1.99 ERA and 0.971 WHIP over his first seven with all but one coming in as a quality start. He pitched a complete-game shutout against the Guardians on April 17, while holding them to just three hits and striking out nine. He has pitched three scoreless outings on the year. He has a 9.1 strikeout-per-nine-innings rate and his 2.08 Fielding Independent Pitching leads the major leagues.

Kyle Finnegan had pitched in 241 big league games before taking the mound Tuesday night at Nationals Park. Appearance No. 242 carried more weight than usual.

“This one, for whatever reason, felt a little more meaningful,” the right-hander said afterward. “It’s been a while since we’ve been over .500. We’ve been putting in all the work behind the scenes, and to see it starting to come to fruition has been exciting. And to do it against Baltimore in this series is special.”

Finnegan’s 62nd career save was his first as a member of a Nationals team with a winning record. That fact wasn’t lost on the 32-year-old, who has become one of the organization’s longest-tenured pitchers but not long enough to have experienced the good old days when meaningful baseball was played on a nightly basis on South Capitol Street.

So Tuesday’s 3-0 victory over the Orioles, with Finnegan recording the final three outs and then receiving high-fives from teammates as pink LED lights glowed above and a crowd of nearly 30,000 roared with approval, was arguably the biggest game he’s ever pitched.

One night later, he found himself right back in the spotlight, posting another zero in the top of the 10th to give his teammates a chance to win in the bottom of the inning. They couldn’t pull that one off, ultimately losing 7-6 in the 12th, but it was through no fault of their closer.

It’s easy to draw comparisons between the Nationals and Orioles. The two teams are 35 miles apart, and over the past six years have each undergone their own organizational rebuilds, which are now at different stages.

Of course, the Nationals won the World Series in 2019. The Orioles began their rebuild that year after a 47-115 season in 2018, which led to the hiring of executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias and manager Brandon Hyde, and the drafting of Adley Rutschman with the No. 1 overall selection.

The Nats didn’t start their rebuild until halfway through the 2021 season by trading Max Scherzer and Trea Turner to the Dodgers. Then it really became a reality the following summer when they traded Juan Soto to the Padres for a package of five top prospects while the superstar outfielder was still two years away from free agency.

The time in between the respective rebuilds gave the Orioles a head start, and here they are six years later with one of the best records in baseball fresh off an American League East title and their first postseason appearance since 2016.

That’s where the Nationals hope to be in the coming years. But with the way the first edition of this year’s Beltway Series went – a two-game split with a wild back-and-forth finale last night – the similarities between the two teams are even more striking.

They turned out in large numbers – 34,078 of them, to be precise – to watch the conclusion of this two-game rivalry series, wondering if the Nationals would be able to duplicate their performance from Tuesday night’s opener and emerge with a sweep over the Orioles.

They didn't duplicate the performance. But they did put on a show that thrilled everyone in attendance, twice producing last-ditch rallies to tie the game before ultimately falling 7-6 in 12 innings.

With a furious rally in the bottom of the ninth, the Nats tied the game and sent it to extras. With another furious rally in the bottom of the 11th, they tied the game again and continued the proceedings deeper into the night. 

The magic ended there. The Orioles scored twice off a wild Jordan Weems in the top of the 12th, and the lineup could only score once in the bottom of the inning.

It was a thrilling ending to a highly captivating series between interleague rivals, who offered the large bipartisan crowd plenty of reason to want to see more of these matchups down the road.

Keibert Ruiz is in the Nationals lineup tonight, the 11th time he’s been in the lineup over the team’s last 13 games. He’s in there despite the career-worst 3-for-51 slump he’s stuck in. It’s quite possible he’s in there because of that slump, most of which has occurred since the 25-year-old catcher returned from a stint on the injured list with a bad case of influenza.

“When you get sick like that and miss 15 days, your timing is going to be off. And he lost a lot of weight,” manager Davey Martinez said. “He’s really working his way back. The only way he’s going to get his timing is by going out there and playing. He’s got to play.”

Ruiz has been playing a lot. Already a workhorse when healthy and productive, he’s getting just as much playing time now, perhaps even more. Last week he started on four consecutive days, though he was designated hitter for one of them.

The results have been tough to watch. Ruiz has one homer, two singles and one walk since coming off the IL. And there hasn’t been a lot of hard contact, with weak grounders and popups far more common.

Martinez believes the slump has to have a direct connection to his illness and recovery. He’s not worried about how Ruiz is holding up physically during this stretch.

The Nationals have finally gotten over the .500 hump. Let us never speak of that again. Of course, it would help if they gave themselves a little cushion, so one loss wouldn’t leave them right back where they started.

A win tonight would give the Nats a two-game sweep over the Orioles. It’s May, and it’s only a two-game series, but that would have to qualify as some sort of statement made by a rebuilding club against the club with the American League’s best record.

At this point, we know what the plan for success is. The Nationals need to get quality pitching, and they’ll hope Mitchell Parker can pick up right where Trevor Williams and the bullpen left off Tuesday night. Parker has started to show a few little cracks his last couple times out, not that anyone could expect him to consistently be as good as he was in his first two starts. But he needs to be willing to throw the ball over the plate to Baltimore’s hitters, keeping the fastball up and the curveball and splitter down. Can’t afford to give that lineup any free passes.

At the plate, the Nats will have to manufacture runs again, this time against Kyle Bradish, who makes his second start of the season. Bradish, who opened the year on the injured list with an elbow issue, held the Yankees to one run over 4 2/3 innings in his debut. Look for the Nationals to again try to run on him if they can get on base.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs. BALTIMORE ORIOLES
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, 85 degrees, wind 10 mph left field to right field

Trevor Williams is scheduled to take the mound again Monday evening in Chicago, facing one of the majors’ worst teams in the White Sox. When he does, he’ll do so as the proud owner of a 1.96 ERA.

Which won’t show up on the major-league leaderboard, because by then Williams won’t qualify for the MLB leaderboard due to throwing fewer innings (36 2/3) than games his team will have played (39).

It’s an unusual place for someone pitching so well to reside, but at this point it should be clear this is where the Nationals want him to reside. And Tuesday night’s game provided the latest example of it.

Williams absolutely cruised against the Orioles, allowing just two singles over five innings, walking nobody and striking out eight to match his career-high. He threw only 77 pitches and looked very much like he could keep going deeper into the game.

But when his veteran right-hander returned to the dugout following the top of the fifth, Davey Martinez gave him a handshake and informed him his night was over. And there wasn’t really any doubt in the manager’s mind.

Three times in the last week, the Nationals put themselves in a position to get over a hump that for three years now had felt more daunting than the October hurdle they waited years to clear. They kept getting themselves to the .500 mark. They could not get themselves over it.

And then on attempt No. 4 tonight, they finally did it. The Nationals, for the first time since July 1, 2021, are a winning baseball team.

All it took? A 3-0 shutout victory over the Orioles, with Trevor Williams outdueling Corbin Burnes, the lineup manufacturing a few runs and the bullpen continuing its lights-out ways.

Yes, the Nats are 18-17, over the .500 hump at last. And happy not to have to talk about that longstanding negative fact anymore.

"I think it's the mentality that nobody sees us coming," closer Kyle Finnegan said. "We're kind of lurking in the shadows. And we know how good we are. Maybe the league will start to take notice." 

Victor Robles is back on the Nationals roster, but not back in their lineup yet.

The Nats activated Robles off the 10-day injured list this afternoon, the outfielder having proven he has fully recovered from the left hamstring strain he suffered during the season’s first week. The club optioned Alex Call to Triple-A Rochester to clear a roster spot.

Robles played in only four games before suffering his injury running the bases. He was off to a solid start, reaching base in three of his five plate appearances and stealing two bases, on the heels of a strong spring in which he hit .368 with a .455 on-base percentage.

All that progress, though, was disrupted by his injury, which knocked him out a full month. He went on a rehab assignment in Rochester last week and over the course of six games went 7-for-20 with a double, a triple, three RBIs and three walks, convincing club officials and himself he was ready to return.

“I feel great,” he said, via interpreter Octavio Martinez. “My legs feel great. I have no discomfort when I’m running around.”

OK, who’s ready for Round 1 of the 2024 Beltway Series? The Nationals host the Orioles the next two nights and, in a new twist, both teams will be wearing their City Connect uniforms. (I believe this is the first time any visiting team has ever worn those uniforms, but please correct me if I’m wrong about that.)

The Nats are once again sitting exactly at .500, having now alternated between wins and losses over their last eight games. They’re still trying to get over that daunting hump for the first time since July 1, 2021. If they’re going to do it tonight, they’re going to have to find a way to score some runs off Corbin Burnes.

The former Cy Young Award winner with the Brewers has continued his dominant ways in Baltimore, going 3-1 with a 2.61 ERA and 0.919 WHIP through his first seven starts of the season. He has yet to allow more than three runs in any outing.

Then again, Trevor Williams hasn’t given up more than three runs in a start yet, either, making him the Nationals’ most effective starter to date. This is a tough lineup he’s got to face tonight, and you would imagine Davey Martinez’s leash will again be short, with a well rested bullpen (that also now includes Robert Garcia) good to go whenever needed.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs. BALTIMORE ORIOLES
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 6:45 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 88.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Chance of rain, 76 degrees, wind 6 mph out to left field

The Nationals have a lefty in their bullpen again. They had to cut ties with a veteran right-hander to make it possible.

Robert Garcia was activated off the 15-day injured list, the club announced. The corresponding move: Matt Barnes was designated for assignment, likely ending his brief tenure with the organization.

Garcia was eligible to return after spending the last two weeks on the IL with the same influenza bug that previously sidelined catcher Keibert Ruiz. The left-hander initially tried to pitch through it but labored through four consecutive rough appearances before the Nats finally placed him on the IL and gave him time to fully recover.

Once healthy again, Garcia went on a rehab assignment to Single-A Fredericksburg over the weekend and pitched two scoreless innings in relief, striking out four. He’ll be available to pitch tonight in the Nats’ series opener against the Orioles.

When Garcia was shut down two weeks ago, the Nationals called up Jacob Barnes from Triple-A Rochester. The right-hander has performed well since, going 2-0 with a 1.29 ERA and 0.857 WHIP in seven games, earning the right to stay in the big leagues.

The Nationals enjoyed a day off Monday, a sorely needed day off. They just played 13 games in 13 days, a stretch that included series against the defending World Series champions, the most star-studded roster in baseball and a four-game wraparound series that concluded with a getaway night game and then a 3-hour flight to the next city.

How’d they handle that grueling stretch? Quite well.

The Nats went 7-6 over the last two weeks, reaching the .500 mark on four separate occasions (though never clearing that magical hurdle when presented the opportunity).

They did this despite what at times has been a listless lineup, hurt by a combination of severely slumping regulars and injured veterans. Davey Martinez had to enlist the likes of Ildemaro Vargas and Alex Call to serve as his No. 5 and No. 6 hitters at times, hardly the names he envisioned when scribbling out potential lineups during spring training.

The Nationals managed to survive – even thrive, some might say – this stretch thanks to mostly quality pitching (3.48 team ERA over the last 10 games), solid defense (until a rough two-game stretch over the weekend) and a grittiness that has allowed them to pull off 12 come-from-behind wins this season (most in the majors).

OK, let's give this another try. If you attempted to join us Friday morning and wondered why I never bothered to answer any questions, the flight I was on at the time had no WiFi. It was quite a frustrating experience, as you might imagine. I couldn't even post a message on here letting everyone know I couldn't actually conduct the Q&A as planned.

Fortunately, I've got two feet on the ground today and a strong WiFi signal coming out of my own basement. So we should be good to go. And in a way, maybe it's better we had to postpone three days. Because there was plenty that took place this weekend worthy of further discussion.

The Nationals are 17-17 and officially in a wild card position as the day begins. It's of course way too early to consider such possibilities, but it's fun to dream for just a second, right?

If you've got something you'd like to ask, please submit your questions in the comments section below. Then check back throughout the morning for my responses. Which will actually be published this time, I promise! ...

The season is not yet one-quarter complete, and there’s far too much time left to know exactly how this is going to play out. But if you’re looking for consistent themes out of the 2024 Nationals, you might be best-served remembering the term Davey Martinez used to describe his team one week ago after it pulled off one of the biggest comebacks in club history: "Relentless."

These Nationals have their flaws, no doubt. The roster has holes, especially the lineup. The pitching can be erratic. The defense has been downright ugly the last two days.

But here at the end of the first week of May, they once again reached the .500 mark, thanks to another impressive come-from-behind victory, this one by the absurd score of 11-8 over the Blue Jays.

A game that started 1 hour, 25 minutes late due to rain, then saw the Nats dig themselves into a 6-1 hole in the third inning, somehow ended with high-fives and handshakes at the center of the diamond, thanks to a relentless offensive attack that included four hits (including a homer) from Luis García Jr., a go-ahead three-run homer from Jesse Winker and then a go-ahead two-run homer from Eddie Rosario to cap off a wild afternoon on South Capitol Street.

"It's been cool, man. It's really cool to see," said Winker, part of a club that now has a major league-leading 12 come-from-behind wins. "I'm going to use this word: It's inspiring to watch. It gives you energy."

To the eye, the Nationals have played better defense this season, whether in the form of above-average plays in the infield, strong throws from the outfield or improved work behind the plate.

The metrics don’t quite see as much improvement yet.

The Nats enter today with minus-14 Defensive Runs Saved, which ranks 26th out of 30 major league clubs, according to Sports Info Solutions. They rate better in FanGraphs’ overall defensive metric, checking in at 19th in the majors.

The most encouraging sign of improvement is in the old-fashioned department of errors: The Nationals have been charged with only 14 of them this season (tied for fifth-fewest in the majors), and that includes the four errors they committed during Saturday’s ugly 6-3 loss to the Blue Jays.

“Just one of those days,” manager Davey Martinez said afterward. “We’ve been playing really good defense, and I harp on it all the time. Today just wasn’t that day.”

The Nationals didn’t get over the .500 hump Saturday, but they still have a shot at another series win this afternoon. (Weather permitting, of course, because the forecast again calls for on-and-off rain pretty much all day.)

It’ll be MacKenzie Gore on the mound, seeking his first win since April 13 despite the fact he’s pitched quite well. The left-hander has given up a total of six runs over his last three starts, but the Nationals have scored a total of five runs in those games, leaving him to take three hard-luck losses in a row. Perhaps Gore’s fortunes will change this afternoon.

The Nats will try to do some damage against an opposing starter for the first time in a week. That opposing starter is Alek Manoah, who finally makes his 2024 debut after a weird stretch to say the least. A Cy Young Award finalist in 2022, Manoah struggled to a 5.87 ERA in 19 starts last season, at which point the Blue Jays sent him to the minors (not Triple-A, but all the way down to the Florida Complex League). He came back this spring hoping to get back on track, then he landed on the 15-day injured list with a shoulder issue. Now he’s finally ready to pitch in the big leagues again, and who knows what to expect from him in this one?

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs. TORONTO BLUE JAYS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 1:35 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 88.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Rain, 67 degrees, wind 6 mph out to left field

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

When Jake Irvin last took the mound on Monday, the Nationals ended the day with a .500 record for the first time this late in the season since they were 40-40 entering July 2, 2021. Since then, they have had three chances to get above .500 for the first time since July 1, 2021, including today after last night’s comeback win over the Blue Jays.

So when Irvin took the mound on a cold and damp day at Nationals Park, the Nats must have liked their chances to finally post a record with more wins than losses.

But the Nats defense, which entered the day tied for the second-fewest errors committed in the major leagues, was as sloppy as the weather, handing the Blue Jays an early lead in an eventual 6-3 loss in front of 22,836 fans who endured the elements for “Star Wars” Weekend on South Capitol Street.

The sloppy play began right from the get-go, when Blue Jays leadoff hitter George Springer grounded to Nick Senzel but ended up on second base thanks to a throwing error by the Nats' third baseman. The throw one-hopped Trey Lipscomb, who didn’t do Senzel any favors by stopping the ball while making his third big league appearance at first base.

“It was a little wet. I didn't really have a good grip and didn't make too good of throws," Senzel said after finishing the game with two errors. "It sucks making two errors and not playing good defense behind Irv because he threw the ball well. It's not a great feeling.”

Jacob Young is available off the bench for Saturday’s game after departing in the top of the fifth inning of Friday’s 9-3 victory over the Blue Jays.

While batting leadoff and playing center field, Young was 1-for-2 with a leadoff double in the third, coming around to score the Nats’ first run of the night, but was replaced two innings later by Jesse Winker with back spasms, manager Davey Martinez confirmed after the game.

The 24-year-old outfielder was seen in the Nats clubhouse this afternoon coming back from the batting cages with his bat and gloves, presumably taking swings to test out his back. Although he’s not in the starting lineup, with Alex Call taking over in center field and CJ Abrams bumped back up to the leadoff spot, Martinez said Young should be available to either pinch-hit or pinch-run.

“He's better today. He's better,” Martinez said of Young. “He'll be available, maybe, to come off the bench. Pinch-hit or pinch-run or something. But he's doing better.”

Even though Young is feeling better, Martinez did not play with the idea of putting him back in the starting lineup today.