June 29, 2025 [LINK / comment]
After a brief respite from a horrible slump provided by James Wood's walk-off home run on Thursday, June 19th (a.k.a. "Juneteenth"), the Washington Nationals resumed their downward trajectory. Since then they have fallen behind the Miami Marlins, thus becoming the last-place team in the NL East Division.
The Nats opened their series against the Dodgers in Los Angeles on June 20 with their ace pitcher Mackenzie Gore going against Clayton Kershaw. The visiting team took an early lead thanks to a first-inning by Amed Rosario, but fell behind in the third inning. A 2-run homer by Miguel Rojas in the sixth inning knocked Gore out of the game. The Nats closed the gap with 3 runs in the latter innings, but still lost, 6-5. In the Saturday game, James Wood and Luis Garcia hit back-to-back homers in the fourth inning, and Nathaniel Lowe hit two home runs later on, as the Nats went on to win, 7-3. On Sunday, Nathaniel Lowe hit a 3-run homer in the the third inning, but as soon as starting pitcher Michael Soroka was replaced by Jose Ferrer in the sixth inning, Max Muncy hit a grand slam to give the Dodgers a 4-3 lead. It got ugly after that, with 9 more runs by the home team in the next two innings. To give their bullpen a rest, the Dodgers had first baseman Kike Hernandez pitch in the ninth inning, and the Nationals soon narrowed the gap with 4 runs, but they still lost the game (and the series) to the defending world champions, 13-7.
The next day (Monday, June 23) the Nationals took a bus down to San Diego to face the Padres. They won the first game of the series 10-6, thanks to home runs by James Wood and Josh Bell. But on Tuesday they squandered a 3-0 fourth-inning lead as starting pitcher Trevor Williams just could not contain the home team, who won it, 4-3. The Nats were glaringly listless in the Wednesday game, only getting 3 hits, and Mackenzie Gore was charged with another loss in spite of only giving up one run, which was all the Padres would need. So, it was another 2 games to 1 series loss. That marked the Nats' 81st game of the season, exactly the mid-point in terms of number of games, and [their 33-48 record was five games below their corresponding record last year (38-43), while exactly matching that of the first half of 2023.]
The Nats had a day off on Thursday, and hopefully enjoyed some nice California sun shine, trying not to think about the Marlins having overtaken them in the National League East. On Friday the Nats had an amazing offensive outburst, but the outcome of the game was in doubt until the latter innings. Josh Bell hit a 2-run homer in the second inning, and all the team's batters [reached base on hits]. To erase any doubt, the Nats tacked on 4 more runs in the ninth inning to make the final score 15-9. That was the team's most number of runs in a game (15) since July 19, 2021, when the Nats beat Miami 18-1. On Saturday the Nats had a 2-1 lead when Michael Soroka was replaced by Zack Brzykcy in the sixth inning. He and Eduardo Salazar gave up a combined 6 runs, and the Angels went on to win, 8-2. Today's rubber match game was another tense, back-and-forth affair, which went into extra innings thanks to a clutch RBI single to tie the game in the top of the ninth. Kyle Finnegan pitched the ninth, tenth, AND eleventh innings -- the first time in his career the Nats' closer has pitched three full innings. In the top of the eleventh inning, Drew Millas hit an RBI double to take the lead. (He was called up from the minors after the Nats' first-string catcher Keibert Ruiz was struck in the head by a ball.) C.J. Abrams then batted in two more runs with a triple to the right field corner, and that's how the Nats won it, 7-4. It was their first series win since May 30 - June 1 against the Diamondbacks in Phoenix.
The Nationals' 7-19 record for June was their worst monthly percentage (.269) since August 2022 (.240). You can find all those factoids, as well as others, on the Washington Nationals page.
On a more positive note, with 22 home runs this year, James Wood is currently tied with the Cubs Seiya Suzuki for #6 ranking in the majors. That should qualify him for this year's Home Run Derby. Having racked up his 31st career home run, Wood has tied both Bryce Harper and Juan Soto for having homered 31 times during the first 162 games of their career. Hopefully, the Nationals front office will make a determined effort to keep Wood for the long term.
[FUN FACT: In today's game in Anaheim, James Wood was intentionally walked FOUR times! (In his first at bat in the first inning, he singled.) The last player to be intentionally walked four times in one game was Barry Bonds, on September 22, 2004.]
FUN FACT: There is a 70-something movie actor names James Woods (plural), whereas James Wood the baseball player has a "singular" last name.
The suddenly red-hot Miami Marlins have replaced the Nationals in fourth place, having won seven games in a row. In fact, they are only a half game behind the Atlanta Braves, who are now 38-45. At the top of the division, the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Mets have been switching first- and second-place positions for the past couple weeks.
Another surprise is that the other Florida team -- the Tampa Bay Rays -- came to within a half game of the Yankees in the AL East race on Saturday, but fell back after losing today. The possibility that MLB postseason games might be played in a minor league ballpark with only about 11,000 seats has led to discussions among MLB officials about how that awkward situation should be handled. I don't understand why they can't hurry up and finish rebuilding the roof at Tropicana Field by September.
And in other ballpark news, there was a "groundbreaking" ceremony in Las Vegas that supposedly proves that they really are going to build a stadium there for the Athletics. Franchise owner John Fisher, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo, and others were all there to validate this risky not-quite-finalized venture. I'll believe it when I see it. (MLB.com)