Nats finally protect early lead for second win of young season (updated)

The Nationals finally broke through last night with the offensive output they’ve been desperately looking for in the new season’s first week. They just couldn’t sustain it throughout the full nine innings in a series-opening loss to the Diamondbacks.

Then today, after the inaugural 2005 team was inducted into the Ring of Honor in front of 25,916 fans at Nationals Park, they did it again. Only this time, their early lead held up throughout the course of the game en route to just their second win of 2025.

The Nationals’ 4-3 win over the D-backs wasn’t anything spectacular. But it was an overall clean game of baseball, one of the few these Nats have played thus far.

James Wood led the way, as he might often be called upon to do this season, from the jump. Literally.

With two outs in the top of the first inning, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. launched a deep fly ball to left field, only to see Wood use all of his 6-foot-7 frame to leap and rob him of extra bases at the wall.

“I just saw the ball up. I didn't really get the best jump,” Wood said after the game. “And I just went to the wall and tried to make a play. Dylan (Crews), I was hearing him, so he's giving me some good communication. Just try and made a play.”

Then in the bottom of the frame, Wood laced a two-out, two-run double to center off Eduardo Rodriguez to give the Nats another early lead. He came around to score on Alex Call's single to right for a 3-0 advantage after one.

Josh Bell led off the fourth with a triple (only the 20th of his career) and scored on another RBI single to right by Call for a 4-0 lead.

“We've got a great roster, top to bottom. I believe in all these guys,” Call said after his two-RBI day. “I think it's just a matter of time. Honestly, I'd like to see us kind of put the foot down and go a little bit more. I think we have an offense capable of scoring runs. So we did a good job getting on them early and then just kept battling throughout the game.”

The four runs gave Mitchell Parker plenty of room to work with against Arizona’s lineup that scored six runs and collected 11 hits (two of which were homers) Friday night.

The left-hander used a heavy dose of fastballs and an even mix of curveballs, sliders and splitters to keep the Snakes off-balance. Although there were some loud outs early, for the most part, Parker induced weak contact as he often does.

“We were executing pitches,” Parker said. “Forcing them to do what we wanted to do with the pitches we were giving them. Getting soft contact and just using our fielders behind us.”

His lone issue on the day was issuing four walks, two of which put him in a jam in the sixth. The two free passes put the first runner of the day in scoring position against Parker. After Randal Grichuk drove in the Diamondbacks’ first run of the game, the southpaw needed to get the left-handed slugging Josh Naylor out.

Much to Parker’s credit, he did so in a way he wasn’t able to as much during his rookie season. Naylor sent a comebacker 104.4 mph off the starter’s right shin. But Parker, who struggled to field his position last year and worked hard to improve his defense in spring training, composed himself, collected the ball and threw out Naylor at first to end the threat in a flash.

“I preferred the not having to think about making the throw,” said Parker, who had ice wrapped around his shin. “Just glad it worked out that way.”

Asked how he was feeling, he said, “A lot of feeling, but we'll be all right.”

Parker finished his six innings with just two hits, one run, four walks and two strikeouts on 82 pitches, 48 strikes. He has now been the starter and winning pitcher in the Nats’ two victories this season.

“I'm just here to win as many ballgames as possible,” he said. “That's the goal. It's not thinking anything past that.”

Like they did last night, the Diamondbacks threatened to come back in the seventh, scoring a run off Jorge López in just his third appearance. But Jose A. Ferrer and Eduardo Salazar combined for four outs to set up Kyle Finnegan in the ninth.

After he surrendered a run on an infield single to Alek Thomas, Finnegan needed to get out of a jam to secure the win. Riley Adams, making his first start of the season behind the plate, took Finnegan’s first pitch to Geraldo Perdomo and threw a dart to nail the runner at second base and end the game with an assist from CJ Abrams’ quick tag.

“Obviously, they're an aggressive team and they like to run and try to take advantage of stuff like that. So you just have to be ready for that,” Adams said. “I feel like I've been putting a lot of work in with (catching coach Henry Blanco) helping me out a bunch. Working on transfers, working on throws. I know that's something that, me personally, I knew I needed to work on and get better at. And so I'm happy I was able to show up in that moment.”

It was the first time in Nationals history (2005-present) that they won a game on a caught stealing.

With the win, the Nationals proved their brand of baseball works. They just need to put it all together for nine innings at a time. And if they do it again tomorrow, they’ll be in line to win their first series of the season.

“I think it's big,” said Wood. “I feel like we've been really close every game. Maybe a play here and a play there, and I feel like our record looks a lot different. So I just think we got to continue to close out games like this. We did a good job of scoring early and just got to keep the pressure on.”

“As I always say: One more than the other guys always works,” said manager Davey Martinez. “We hung in there.”