The Home for Washington Nationals Game Talk

On a day that featured celebrations of all kinds after the Nationals finally cracked an above-.500 record last night, including a literal parade in DC (shoutout Grant and Danny), the Nationals added to the party with their fourth consecutive win. This one started similarly to last night’s game, as the Nats’ hitters did an unbelievable job of grinding out at-bats against Cleveland’s starter, Joey Cantillo. After Washington put up a four-run second inning to take a 4-0 lead, Cantillo’s pitch count was already at 69 pitches despite only having six outs under his belt. The early offense was supplemented by another great outing by Cade Cavalli, and a three-inning relief appearance by Mitchell Parker to slam the door on Cleveland, and hand the Nationals another series victory over a good ball club.

For the first time since the 2018 season, the Washington Nationals have a winning record in the month of May. Not just May either, but late May. Meaning the Nats have an opportunity to go a step further this year and hold an above-.500 record in the month of June, something we haven’t sniffed through the rebuild years thus far. And what a way they did it. The Nationals clubbed six home runs over the first five innings, including five against Cleveland starter, Tanner Bibee.

That unreal power surge was supplemented by Zack Littell‘s best start of the season, throwing the final seven innings after PJ Poulin took care of the first two, and with that, the Nationals are now a 28-27 team. What a dream this season has been so far, let’s get into what was one of the most fun wins of the season.

Well that was a marathon. The Nationals sat through a rain delay at the beginning of this game as a system moved through the Atlanta area, just to be interrupted again in the seventh inning, this time for two hours. Similar to yesterday’s game, there was not much offense to speak of, but RBI singles by Nasim Nunez and Luis Garcia Jr. were all the Nats needed in this one as Foster Griffin and the bullpen delivered another brilliant performance. Griffin and company headed a huge effort as the Nats battled back to win the series in Atlanta and bring their record back to .500.

A few of you guys got on me last Friday so I’ll give credit where it’s due, the bullpen these past two games was magnificent. They must have caught my thoughts in Friday’s postgame article, but if that’s what it takes — I’ll gladly do it again. All jokes aside, the Nats’ bullpen did an unbelievable job yesterday, and did just the same today, as the Nationals held the best offense in baseball to one run over the last 18 innings of the series.