Photo by Sol Tucker/TalkNats
The Washington Nationals went from a promising 3-1 start to their 2026 season into a 5-game losing streak to put themselves in a 3-6 hole. Two games with 5-run leads were blown during the losing streak. The new guy, Zack Littell, will be tasked with stopping this losing streak. And manager Blake Butera, who had brilliantly made moves until yesterday, kind of made a mistake or two. After Saturday’s lapses of hustle, his team played hard Saturday — but it was some poor bullpen work that sunk the ship.
Manager Blake Butera‘s promise that his players would run a Hard-90 and do the little things right as a fundamentally sound team has not gone that way. It feels sort of like the slop we saw in 2025 where players would wave the white flag and give up. This is a new series to turn it around. When Butera was hired he talked a big show with, “We’re going to play hard. We’re going to do the little things right. … Control the things we can control — running a Hard-90,” but that clearly has not been the case in this 9-game sample size so far.
We need to see what Butera and Paul Toboni promised about accountability. The only accountability was making Dylan Crews an example that any player could be demoted as the No. 1 prospect in baseball entering the 2025 season has had his struggles. But one thing about Crews is he brings intensity, leadership, and effort. His defense and baserunning are above average — but his bat hasn’t been good. Who are the leaders on this team?
And will Toboni make a tough decision on Miles Mikolas who is scheduled to start on Wednesday with his 14.46 ERA. Don’t the Nats have better starters in Triple-A Rochester? Mikolas has a 0.00 ERA in his first inning of work this season. And last season, his best inning was the second inning with a 3.36 ERA in his 31 starts. Couldn’t he be a hybrid reliever for the Nats instead of a starter?
Here is a chart of usage on manager Butera‘s bullpen:
The FanGraphs WAR chart is accumulating data. This will start to give us a clearer picture in six weeks when the sample sizes get larger. The OAA defense stat requires a minimum of 10 defensive plays. We will start adding more statistics as the sample sizes get larger.
St. Louis Cardinals vs. Washington Nationals
Stadium: Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.
1st Pitch: 6:45 PM EDT
TV: Nationals.TV
Radio: 106.7 The Fan radio and via the MLB app. On Sirius/XM, tune to Channel 180 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.
