June 19, 2025 [LINK / comment]
Nationals' miserable slump ends, thanks to James Wood
The long Nationals nightmare (i.e., an 11-game losing streak dating back to June 7) came to a merciful end in Washington this afternoon. In the bottom of the 11th inning, with two outs and the Nats trailing the Colorado Rockies 3-2, budding superstar James Wood hit a 2-run walk-off home run. It was the first such feat of his career, and the first by any Nationals player in almost two years! (The last time was on August 12, 2023, when Keibert Ruiz propelled the Nats to a 3-2 victory over the Oakland Athletics. That's from the soon-to-be-updated Washington Nationals BIG moments page.) It was actually Wood's second two-run homer of the game. And that's how the Nats' awful 11-game losing streak came to an end, as the Nats prevailed, 4-3.

James Wood, standing at second base after hitting an RBI double in the bottom of the ninth inning in the game against the San Francisco Giants on May 25. He would have been the game-tying run, but the game ended two outs later.
With those two home runs today, Wood now has 20 home runs for the season, threatening to break all sorts of team records for a rookie's first full season. (He was called up to the majors on July 1 last year.) He is a shoo-in to become an All-Star this year, and his pitching team mate Mackenzie Gore likewise is expected to receive the honor. The Mariners' young slugging phenom Cal Raleigh current leads the majors in home runs with 27, just ahead of Aaron Judge (26) and Shohei Ohtani (25).
The Nats had a very encouraging 15-12 win-loss record in the month of May. On the final day of the month (in Phoenix) they set a team record (and tying NL record) by scoring 9 runs before the first out was made in the 1st inning, and then one more before the D-Backs came to bat. The last such feat in the National League was on August 13, 1948, by the Phillies. In the AL, the Red Sox scored 10 runs before the first out on June 27, 2003. The D-backs' starting pitcher Brandon Pfaadt was replaced after the seventh run scored, and the reliever Scott McGough didn't do much better. The D-Backs gradually narrowed the gap, but the Nats held on to win, 11-7.
After that mini-triumph, the Nats expected to continue surging toward the .500 mark as June began, but instead they suddenly fell into the proverbial abyss of doom. The Nats lost their final game in Phoenix, as the D-Backs averted being swept, and then back in Washington the Nats lost series to both the first-place Chicago Cubs and the Texas Rangers, in both cases 2 games to 1. Disappointing, but no big deal.
Then followed an unusual three-game road trip (June 10 - 12) against the Mets at Citi Field in New York. If there was a "defining moment" during this slump, it would have to be the first game of that series. Mackenzie Gore had yet another fine outing, going six innings, and this time he had some run support: Nathaniel Lowe and C.J. Abrams both hit home runs. Hopes were high for an upset win against the first-place Mets. But with a score of 4-2 and two outs with a runner on first in the in 8th inning, Kyle Finnegan took the mound, and things fell apart. Juan Soto (a former National!) hit an RBI double and then scored on a single by Pete Alonso, thus tying the game, which went into extra innings. The first batter in the bottom of the 11th, Jeff McNeil, drove in the winning run from second base, and that was that. The Nationals had been SO close to an upset win over the daunting division-leaders, but instead lost, 5-4. The Nats were shut out 5-0 in the second game and failed to score until the ninth inning of the third game. That's when the Nats staged a big rally, scoring 3 runs, only one behind the Mets, and had runners on 2nd and 3rd with only one out. It was another golden opportunity to defeat their first-place rivals, but Jose Tena and Keibert Ruiz both grounded out to end the game.
Next came a home stand against two last-place teams: the Miami Marlins and the Colorado Rockies, who did not win their 10th game of the year until June. No problem, right? WRONG! After a two-hour rain delay on Friday the 13th Mitchell Parker was terribly ineffective and got replaced in the 4th inning, his shortest outing of the year. James Wood, who had been slumping in early June, homered and helped the Nats narrow the gap, but they still lost to the Marlins, 11-9. On Saturday the Nats' bats were mostly quiet, and their 2-run rally in the 9th inning fell just short. Final score: 4-3. On Sunday, it was another lackluster batting performance, and the home team lost again, 3-1. Another series sweep, and eight losses in a row, surpassing their seven-game losing streak in early May.
On Monday the woebegone Colorado Rockies came to town, and the Nationals had a 4-3 lead going into the 9th inning. But once again, closing pitcher Kyle Finnegan flinched when the going got tough: two Rockies batters homered to give their team a 6-4 lead, and the Nats failed to respond in the bottom of the 9th. That was just awful. On Tuesday the Rockies had a 3-1 lead going into the 7th inning, when they exploded with 6 runs, charged to relievers Cole Henry and Jackson Rutledge. That pretty much put the game out of reach, but the Nats staged a 4-run rally in the bottom of the 9th to narrow the gap a bit. Final score: 10-6. Wednesday's game was quite a pitchers' duel, as neither team scored until the 6th inning, but the Nats ended up losing again, 3-1. That bleak sequence of events set the stage for today's heroics, described in the first paragraph above.
Will Davey Martinez get fired?
After the game against Miami last Saturday, Manager Davey Martinez denied that the team's coaches were responsible for the Nationals' continual failure to perform. "It's never on coaching," he declared. This created a bit of a scandal, as described in the Washington Post. Under normal circumstances, the combination of repeated losses and seeming to blame the players might get a manager fired. Is Davey's job at risk? Probably not. Unfortunately, the Nats' owners do not seem particularly concerned about the team's losing record. They are content with mediocre attendance figures, while charging the highest prices for beer in the major leagues. (I paid $16.99 for a jumbo-sized Stella Artois when I was there on May 25.) In short, the "rebuilding" effort seems to be half-hearted at best, and there's not much chance of getting a new manager (or better players) any time soon.
Tomorrow the Nationals take a cross-country flight out to Los Angeles to begin a ten-day road trip that includes one off day. The Nats' ace pitcher Mackenzie Gore (who leads the National League in strikeouts, with 119) will go up against aging future Hall-of-Famer Clayton Kershaw.
ICE blocked at Dodger Stadium (?)
The Nationals will arrive in an atmosphere of distrust and turmoil, as the streets of Los Angeles are still being patrolled by National Guard troops and U.S. Marines, following confrontations with ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents earlier this month. Today the Dodgers front office announced that ICE agents would not be allowed into Dodger Stadium, or the surrounding parking areas. There were reports that ICE would seek to detain illegal immigrants working at the stadium, but details of what actually happened today are still sketchy. See NBCNews.com.
New name: "Daikin Park"
Last November the Houston Astros' owner Jim Crane announced that Minute Maid Park would be renamed "Daikin Park" for the 2025 season, as reported by KHOU.com and other media outlets. (A video of the announcement is at MLB.com.) The naming-rights contract has a 15-year term, and Minute Maid will continue sponsoring activity at the ballpark, but on a lower scale. Somehow I missed this news until the beginning of this season, but I did at least update the Minute Maid Park page with the new name.
Unlike some other recent name changes, this one seems to be quite legitimate, as the Daikin Comfort Technologies Corporation (based in Japan but with North American headquarters in Houston) has a long, stable history. Given the enormous air conditioning system in the Astros' stadium (which I vividly recall from two years ago when I saw a game there on a 100-degree day), the partnership certainly makes sense. (NOTE: "Daikin" rhymes with "liken.")

The water tower at the Daikin plant in Verona, Virginia.
Baseball, NASCAR style?
Somebody in the MLB offices thought it would be fun to play a baseball game in a NASCAR stadium. And so, this August 2, the Atlanta Braves will "host" the Cincinnati Reds in a spectacle that will surely make a big splash in the Appalachian region. With some of the NASCAR and Indy racetracks having seating capacities well above 100,000, that idea strikes me as a bit absurd, but the Bristol Raceway in northeastern Tennessee is smaller than most. [CORRECTION: It is small in terms of track length, but actually one of the largest in terms of seating capacity: 146,000. See NBCSports.com. That article omits Indianpolis Motor Speedway because it is privately owned and therefore not obliged to report its capacity, but the unofficial capacity there is over a quarter million.] Virginia Tech and Tennessee played a football game there a [few years ago, in September 2016]. If the Dodgers could use the absurdly-big L.A. Memorial Coliseum as a home for four years, why not? Read all about it at bristolmotorspeedway.com. I suppose this means that I'll have to do a diagram, but the scale will have to be drastically reduced in order to fit on a normal size web page.
But wait, they used to play baseball at what used to be a race car track in Mexico! At Foro Sol, now known as Estadio GNP Seguros. Apparently it is used exclusively for musical events nowadays.