Click to Read an Important Member Update Regarding Our Comment System
We recently upgraded our comment system to improve reliability, performance, and long-term control, and we’re currently running both systems during the transition. This shift moves us away from an external service to a system we run and control directly—meaning we own the content and can continue improving it over time. We’ve also reduced the comment refresh delay from about 30 seconds to 10 seconds, making it much closer to real-time.
We understand there have been frustrations and increased feedback, and we’re actively working to improve things. What we ask is simple: use the system and give it a fair shot. If you run into issues, please submit them through the support form so we can track and fix them properly. Repeated complaints without details don’t help us solve problems—we appreciate your patience as we continue refining the experience.
If you’d like a full side-by-side comparison of the platforms and the reasons behind this decision, please refer to the chart below. This change is being made with the long-term benefit of the entire community in mind.
Built by Nationals Fans. Powered by the Conversation.
You must be a TalkNats Subscriber to access this content. Subscribers have access to exclusive content on the TalkNats website and can engage in discussions with other Nats fans. Click here to become a subscriber.
First two weeks are free and then you will be billed $3.99/month. Cancel anytime. Secure payments using Stripe.
If you are already a subscriber, simply log in using the form below.
For over nine years, I have had the pleasure of coaching baseball and mentoring at the Washington Nationals Youth Baseball Academy on Monday and Thursday nights. Those are my favorite days of the week.
Last fall, Talk Nats and two Facebook groups – Nationals RCR Codes and DIEHARD NATIONALS FANS, generously donated a whopping record 231,526 Red Carpet Rewards points to our 5th annual The Kids Will Really Love it! RCR points drive. Thank you all very much for your support of our scholar athletes and this wonderful organization!
Thank you as well to DonH and Section 222, who assisted in the drive, and then-Nationals season plan representative Drew Shrager, who was instrumental in facilitating the donation process and helped collect and deliver to us the haul of swag that the Nationals provided.
As of April 6/7 8 (we started this article Monday before the game and have been updating it – thus the strike-out of the dates), Nationals starters (including Zack Littell who had an opener for 1 inning) only one Nationals starter has recorded an out after the 5th inning. That was Cade Cavalli who pitched 6 innings against the Phillies and was replaced before the bottom of the 7th with a 2-0 lead. And, of course, the bullpen blew up as it has several other times so far this year.
You have to wonder if the time is right for the Nationals to consider some form of tandem or stacked starters. Tandem starters was discussed in The Evolution of Pitcher Roles and assumed10 starters with two starters per game with the second starter entering the game when the first starter was pulled and the bullpen used if the two tandem starters did not go 9 innings. In Too Many Candidate Starters? How About Stacking Them?. we looked at 7 starters that we referred to as stacked. One of them started the game and if he did not complete 5 innings the next starter along with the bullpen was used for the rest of the game. We used the Nationals 2026 schedule in 1000 iteration so we could include a realistic approach to assessing the impact of a starter only being used every 5 days.
Since these articles were published, the Nationals signed two FA starters. Both variants of the simulations discussed in those articles strongly suggested that neither tandem nor stached starters would not overwork the bullpen. In fact, both simulation studies suggested the exact opposite.
The Nats honestly just got outclassed this afternoon in what was the rubber game of this three-game series that began so positively on Monday night with that thrilling comeback win. After that, it only dropped off from there, with the very disappointing blown lead last night, and another bullpen disaster class today. I’ve really run out of words for this Nationals’ bullpen, now obviously, in a 6-1 game, they’re not getting any help from the offense, but they sure didn’t help themselves one bit. One night removed from walking ten batters in a game, they followed that performance up by walking another eight in this one. If you factor Monday’s game in, the Nationals averaged eight walks a game over this series; that is absolutely abysmal and has to change.
The Action
The game got underway with Miles Mikolas immediately in a jam, and after last week’s start of his against the Dodgers, I’m not sure that did anything to help the nerves of Nats’ fans. He was able to get out of it unscathed, thankfully, stranding the bases loaded to begin the ballgame. Unfortunately, Cardinals’ starter Michael McGreevy had to do a similar job in the bottom half of the first after James Wood and Luis Garcia led off the inning with back-to-back singles. McGreevy bore down and was able to retire the next three batters in order, and we exited the first inning scoreless despite both starters walking the tightrope.
It didn’t remain scoreless long, as Mikolas got himself into trouble once again in the top of the second inning. For the second straight inning, St. Louis loaded the bases with two outs, and this time they cashed in on a two-run single by Alec Burleson to jump out to a 2-0 lead.
The Nats responded in the bottom of the third, after Mikolas tossed a scoreless top half. Back-to-back singles to lead off the inning put Luis Garcia in a great RBI situation, and he cashed in, driving in Jacob Young from third on a groundout. That cut the Cards’ lead in half to 2-1, and one batter later, the inning was snuffed out by a double play hit into by Brady House.
New manager Blake Butera did something in the fourth inning that I absolutely loved. Rather than keep sending Mikolas back out to eat innings and just wear it every fifth day, Butera pulled him early, before the Cardinals could get around to the third time through the order. Brad Lord trotted in from the bullpen to pitch the top of the fourth, which he did very well, but the bigger sign of encouragement is the new regime refusing to just throw the towel in every five days, a feeling that sometimes came from watching Patrick Corbin in the early 2020s.
The Cardinals would get to Lord in the fifth, doubling their lead on a solo homer to center by Jordan Walker, giving him a home run in all three games in this series. Thank goodness he’s on his way out of town. The 3-1 lead that resulted felt a lot more daunting as McGreevy settled into a real groove in the middle innings. The Nats’ last hit against him in his six innings of work came with nobody out in the third. It wasn’t poor approaches or lack of contact; in his six innings, he only struck out one batter, he just did a masterful job of forcing the Nats into soft contact and letting his fielders, specifically JJ Wetherholt, work. Wetherholt put on a show with the glove this afternoon, so much so that it was impossible to tell this was just his second week in the big leagues.
Michael McGreevy: 6 innings, 4 hits, 1 run (1 earned), 0 walks, 1 strikeout, 91 pitches
Remember that deadly no-no we talked about last night? The walks? Well, just in case you don’t, we’re getting to talk about them again today. Particularly the leadoff walk. However, the only thing worse than walking the leadoff batter is walking the next guy too, and that’s exactly what Cionel Perez did to lead off the top of the seventh. The Cardinals took immediate advantage, cashing in a run on another RBI single by Burleson, but Perez did limit the damage to just one, getting a strikeout and a double play ball to end the inning with the deficit at 4-1.
Cole Henry threw a scoreless eighth inning, and then ran into trouble trying to finish off the top of the ninth. After a hit by pitch and another walk with two outs, the Nats went to PJ Poulin to try and get the last out, but it didn’t come without trouble. After, stop me if you’ve heard this one before, another walk, this time loading the bases, Yohel Pozo made him pay by ripping a two-run single into left field. That one pretty much sucked the life out of the ballpark and made it a 6-1 Cardinals lead.
The Cardinals used Matt Svanson, Justin Bruihl, and Riley O’Brien to get them to the finish line, as the Nats’ offense put up very little resistance against anyone who toed the rubber for St. Louis today. In fact, after that second straight single to lead off the third inning, the Nationals did not have a hit over the entire rest of the game, yet they only struck out twice in the entire game. Just a great job by the Cards’ staff of pitching to soft contact, and by the St. Louis defense, particularly Wetherholt and Masyn Winn, the middle infielders, both of whom were great today.
The Positives
Well, Brad Lord was the best he’s been all season today; that was definitely one of the biggest positives of the day. His velocity was back up to what we got used to last season, and he did a great job of bridging this game through the middle innings, giving Blake Butera three innings of effective relief work. That home run by Jordan Walker was the only batter he didn’t retire in those frames, as Lord did the job in what was a very interesting strategy by the Nationals to piggyback him and Mikolas.
Offensively, we saw two more hits and a lot of hard contact from James Wood today, finally getting him up over the .200 batting average mark after the rough start to the year. James is hitting the ball tremendously right now, and the Cardinals have had a really tough time pitching to him this week. What we need to start seeing from him is the consistency that eluded him last season. Can he put a full 162 together?
What’s Next?
The opening homestand of the season came to a close this afternoon, and it doesn’t get any easier from here. The early-season NL Central blitz on the Nationals’ schedule will pick back up on Friday night in Milwaukee, after a day off tomorrow. The defending NL Central champion Brewers will start right-hander Chad Patrick (1-0, 0.96 ERA) in the series opener, and he’ll be opposed by Jake Irvin (1-1, 8.00), who the Nationals need to pitch more like he did against the Cubs rather than how he did against the Dodgers. This weekend’s series will get going Friday night at 7:40. Let’s see if the Nats can put their pesky hats on and find that magic they had in Chicago a couple of weekends ago.
The Washington Nationals had another blown save turn into a loss, the third of that kind of the season. The 4-7 Nats could easily be 7-4 if they converted those games to victories. Just when you didn’t think it could get worse than 2025, this new bullpen lacks steady heartbeats. Look how they did in non-save situations they have a 5.29 ERA versus a 9.00 ERA in save situations. OK, 5.29 isn’t great due to Andre Granillo‘s 12.46, and he is off the roster.
Even with the bullpen woes, the Nats have good starts from everyone not named Miles Mikolas who happens to be the starter today against the team he was a star for in St. Louis.
It feels like Groundhog Day with this team, as just last season at this time, we were all up in arms about “this is the worst bullpen I’ve ever seen.” Well, folks, this one might be even worse. Cade Cavalli was far from his best self tonight, but the combination of four gutsy innings from him, plus some clutch power hitting from the offense, gave the Nationals a strong chance to win tonight and give themselves the series win after just two games. Unfortunately, yet again, the Nationals’ bullpen had something to say about that.
The Washington Nationals showed hustle, grit, and teamwork yesterday to mount one of the best comeback wins in a long time. They did to the Cardinals what the Dodgers just did to the Nats over the weekend. All the players seemed engaged, and every position player contributed in this game. Starting pitcher Zack Littell had a very good start for his team, and the Nats send Cade Cavalli to the mound for his first start at home this season.
You must be a TalkNats Subscriber to access this content. Subscribers have access to exclusive content on the TalkNats website and can engage in discussions with other Nats fans. Click here to become a subscriber.
First two weeks are free and then you will be billed $3.99/month. Cancel anytime. Secure payments using Stripe.
If you are already a subscriber, simply log in using the form below.
Talk about a game the Nationals wouldn’t have won in the prior five years. The Cardinals had a 6-3 lead on the way to the bottom half of the eighth inning, and that was the point when the Nationals’ bats woke up in a big way. James Wood, slowly coming alive after a rough start to the season, came up and blasted a game-tying three-run shot to center field to even the game at six. Two batters later, Brady House picked a great time to hit his second home run of the season, a go-ahead two-run shot to make it 8-6. CJ Abrams would follow with a solo shot, giving the Nationals a 6-run eighth inning — and a 9-6 lead that would be the final count in tonight’s game.
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 recently upgraded our comment system to improve reliability, performance, and long-term control, and we’re currently running both systems during the transition. This shift moves us away from an external service to a system we run and control directly—meaning we own the content and can continue improving it over time. We’ve also reduced the comment refresh delay from about 30 seconds to 10 seconds, making it much closer to real-time.
We understand there have been frustrations and increased feedback, and we’re actively working to improve things. What we ask is simple: use the system and give it a fair shot. If you run into issues, please submit them through the support form so we can track and fix them properly. Repeated complaints without details don’t help us solve problems—we appreciate your patience as we continue refining the experience.
If you’d like a full side-by-side comparison of the platforms and the reasons behind this decision, please refer to the chart below. This change is being made with the long-term benefit of the entire community in mind.