August 3, 2026 [LINK / comment]
CHOKE! Braves sweep the Nationals
The Washington Nationals really choked in Atlanta over the weekend, suffering the first four-game sweep loss of this year. It was the first time they had been swept in a four-game series since September 15-17 of last year (including a double-header on September 16), which was also against the Braves, but that time it was played in Washington. On Saturday, Miles Mikolas gave up 4 runs over 6 innings, which is fairly typical for him. His job his to eat up innings and try to keep the game fairly close. But by the 8th inning the score was 8-0, and the Nats' 3-run rally really didn't matter. Final score: 8-3. On Sunday Cade Cavalli was pitching, and he did fairly well, but an error by shortstop C.J. Abrams helped the Braves take a 3-2 by the time he was relieved in the 7th inning. Final score: 4-2. During that 4-game series, the Nationals were spectacularly ineffective in clutch situations, getting just 3 hits out of 29 at-bats with runners in scoring position. That is worse than awful!
Earlier in 2025, the Nats came very close to being swept in a four-game series to the Colorado Rockies June 16-19, in Washington, but eked out a 4-3 win in 11 innings in the final game of that series.
In Philadelphia this evening, the Nats got off to a surprisingly good start when newly activated Abimelec (?) Ortiz hit a solo homer in the first inning. He was acquired in a trade for Mackenzie Gore with the Texas Rangers during the off-season. He was called up to play one game for the Nationals on July 12 (when he doubled) and then was called up for a second time today. In the 2nd inning Daylen Lile hit a two-run homer, and in top of the 7th inning Nasim Nunez made it to 3rd base on a pitcher's throwing error but was then caught in a rundown breaking for home on a ground ball to the pitcher. Rookie mistake. Meanwhile, starting pitcher Andrew Alvarez had a shutout going, and then recently-acquired Tom Cosgrove came in as a reliever in the bottom of the 7th, and before you knew it, the Phillies had a 4-3 lead thanks to a grand slam by Derek Hill. It was the same old story: a crappy bullpen letting them team down. An inning later Clayton Beeter gave up a 2-run homer, and that's how the Phillies won it, 6-3. And thus, the Nats have chalked up their longest string of consecutive losses this year: SIX.
James Wood seems to have pulled a muscle in his side, or something like that, so he will get examined tomorrow. He has been in a slump lately, not having homered since July 26, when he and C.J. Abrams both hit two homers.
Nats trade away big stars
Not surprisingly, given their sudden plunge from being wild card contenders to being mere also-rans, the Nationals front office reacted by cashing in their chips. This meant (on Saturday night) trading away star Luis Garcia Jr. to the New York Yankees for four pitchers, all right-handed: Jake Bird, Yovanny Cruz, Ben Grable, and Jack Cebert, the latter three being minor league "prospects." The Nationals can spare slugging power, but it's sad that they parted ways with the player who has been with the team the longest. Garcia started as a semi-regular 2nd baseman in mid-August 2020, playing alongside the same guys who had just won the World Series. He subsequently put up decent but unspectacular numbers until this year, when he finally blossomed into a first-class slugger. Who knows why it took him so long? In any case, Adios, Luis!
In his debut with the Yankees tonight, Garcia hit a 2-run homer in the 7th inning (his 24th of the year) to give his new team the lead. Welcome to the Bronx! But one inning later the Cardinals scored 7 runs and went on to win it, 13-7.
And then, just before the deadline at 6:00 this evening, the Nationals traded their ace pitcher Foster Griffin to the Cleveland Guardians for three pitchers (Will Dion, Josh Hartle, and Kendeglys Virguez) and outfielder Nick Mitchell. I saw one analysis of that transaction that rated the Guardians an A- and the Nationals a C. No one can say whether Griffin will be as good in coming years as he was with the Nationals in his first full year in the majors, but I wish General Manager Paul Toboni had offered him a multi-year contract rather than cashing him in. All these transactions based on future speculation made me think that baseball reverses one of the classic sayings: A bird in the bush is worth two in the hand!?
For context, last year the Nats traded away their closing pitcher Kyle Finnegan and hustling outfielder Alex Call. Alex has been doing very well with the L.A. Dodgers this year. Meanwhile, another former National, Lane Thomas, was just acquired by the Atlanta Braves. He didn't do as well in either Cleveland or Kansas City as he had done in Washington, but maybe he'll get with it again in Atlanta.
NL Player of the Month: C.J. Abrams!
On a much brighter note, C.J. Abrams was named National League Player of the Month, his first such honor. He had a batting average of .348, with 23 RBIs and 10 home runs during the month of July. Congratulations, C.J.!
Even MORE stadium page updates!
Today (technically, yesterday) I finished updating all the pages for past and present MLB stadiums in the state of Missouri (5 stadiums) and touched up some of the ones in Texas that I had updated last month. Among the newly spiffed-up ones is Busch Stadium III, which features these dazzling composite photos of St. Louis and the stadium itself:
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Three views of downtown St. Louis: from the Gateway Arch (with the Old Court House in front), from the west, and from the south.
Scenes from a visit to Busch Stadium III in August 2011; view from the Gateway Arch on August 10, 2015.
Some of the composite photos of the sites of stadiums that no longer exist are interesting as well.
Some corrections
When I updated the Sutter Health Park page a couple days ago, I deleted a sentence that was obviously WRONG: "The Tampa Bay Rays are playing here in 2025." That was a reference to George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Florida, of course.
On July 3 I stated "the Stadium name chronology page has been updated," but provided the wrong link. It should be THIS!