What a win! The Nationals seemingly fought off the demons that had been terrorizing them throughout the whole series against St. Louis, en route to a wild win tonight in game one against the Brewers. Jake Irvin started the game off rather shakily, but settled in beautifully after the first inning and gave the Nationals five very solid innings. After that, some even bigger demons from earlier in the week were conquered, as the bullpen came in and absolutely shut down the Brewers’ offense, giving their own offense the time to tie the game and eventually blow it open in the ninth.

The Action

The game started similarly to multiple others recently, as James Wood continues to be scorching hot at the plate. The Nats’ all-star outfielder worked a six-pitch at-bat to lead off the game against Aaron Ashby, and capped it off with a double to record the first of what ended up being a four-hit night for Wood. That was immediately rewarded as Curtis Mead followed with an RBI single to put the Nationals ahead after just two hitters. That lead would double in that same frame, as CJ Abrams ripped a two-out RBI double later in the inning to make it 2-0 Washington before Jake Irvin even touched the mound.

Those two early runs proved to be a blessing, as the walk problem that’s been plaguing this Nationals’ pitching staff reared its ugly head again in the bototm of the first. Irvin committed the deadly mistake of walking the leadoff batter, which didn’t seem too big an issue after he struck out the next two hitters. Unfortunately the next batter was also walked, setting the table for Jake Bauers, who made the most of his opportunity and completely flipped the course of the inning with a three-run homer to right, putting Milwaukee up 3-2 after an inning.

Both pitchers really settled in after that, as Ashby would be pulled in the third inning, because he’s primarily a reliever, the Brewers had only planned for the lefty to face the lineup once before lifting him for the right-handed Chad Patrick. Meanwhile, Jake Irvin was cruising after that first inning. He needed to escape a mini-jam in the bottom of the third, but finished his outing with four scoreless innings of one-hit ball. That was a fantastic job by Irvin to not only save the bullpen a lot more innings than we thought they’d have to cover after watching the first, but he kept the Nats right there in the game, and gave us another positive takeaway from this starting rotation that was viewed as a massive weakness entering the season.

• Jake Irvin: 5 innings, 2 hits, 3 runs (3 earned), 5 walks, 5 strikeouts, 100 pitches
• Aaron Ashby: 2.1 innings, 3 hits, 2 runs (2 earned), 0 walks. 4 strikeouts, 44 pitches

The Nationals had a golden opportunity in the top of the sixth to tie the game at the very least. CJ Abrams came to bat with the bases loaded and one out, unfortunately the Brewers turned to their flame-throwing lefty, Angel Zerpa, who pitched a beautiful sequence to Abrams and ultimately induced a 4-6-3 double play grounder to end the inning and escape the inning.

Zerpa wasn’t as lucky in the top half of the seventh, as Jacob Young continued what’s been a much-improved start to the season for him. This time, he came up big in clutch time, lining a two-out RBI double the other way and deep into the right field corner off the wall, scoring Luis Garcia Jr. and tying the ballgame up at three apiece.

While the Nats’ offense was rallying to tie the game, the bullpen went to WORK. Paxton Schultz threw a scoreless bottom of the sixth, working out of a two-on/one-out jam. Cionel Perez took his turn in the seventh after the game was tied up, and he too put up a zero to get the ballgame into the eighth inning. The Nationals couldn’t make anything happen against Abner Uribe and his army of 98-miles-per-hour sinkers, but PJ Poulin was able to match that, setting the Brewers down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the eighth on three groundouts to send the game to the ninth inning tied at three.

Milwaukee brought in their all-star closer, Trevor Megill, to pitch the ninth, and it didn’t take long before we realized he didn’t have it tonight. CJ Abrams started off the frame being hit by a pitch, before Joey Wiemer laid down a beautiful bunt single to make it first and second with nobody out. While we’re on the topic of bunts, stay tuned, because that was not the last time the Nationals employed that tool this inning. Luis Garcia Jr. jumped on the first pitch he saw from Megill and grounded it up the middle and into center field for a go-ahead RBI single, scoring Abrams to make it 4-3 Nationals. Important to note, Weimer made it to third on the play. That became important during the next at-bat, as Jorbit Vivas laid down a bunt back towards the mound, and I don’t know if the Nats knew this ahead of time, but Megill looked extremely uncomfortable fielding the bunt and making a toss to the plate. His awkward underhanded shovel pass to the catcher was wildly off the mark, allowing Weimer to score, Vivas to reach first base safely, and Nasim Nunez to reach third after pinch-running for Garcia. The tactic worked so well that Blake Butera decided why not try it again. That move proved to be a stroke of genius, as Drew Millas put down a bunt in the exact same spot, and Megill once again misplayed the throw to the plate, and just like that, the Nationals grabbed a 6-3 lead behind three bunt singles.

The fourth hit of the night for James Wood proved to be the dagger for the night, as Easton McGee replaced Megill on the mound, and James ripped an RBI double to right field, scoring Vivas and making it a 7-3 Washington lead.

The Nats went to Clayton Beeter for the final three outs of the night, and 12 pitches later, the Nationals improved to 4-1 in series openers so far this season, and have once again put themselves in a great spot to win a series they probably weren’t expected to. My final piece of heavy optimism for tonight is simply a look at some of the average/OPS numbers for guys in this lineup, because though it’s early in the season, some of these are absolutely shocking for all the right reasons.

• Joey Wiemer: .429 avg/ 1.243 ops
• CJ Abrams: .311 avg/ 1.015 ops
• James Wood: .268 avg/ .930 ops
• Curtis Mead: .300 avg/ .914 ops
• Brady House: .277 avg/ .814 ops
• Jorbit Vivas: .333 avg/ .777 ops
• Luis Garcia Jr.: .289 avg/ .771
• Jacob Young: .250 avg/ .732 ops
• Daylen Lile: .263 avg/ .627 ops

Yes, it’s early. But also, no, we did not see numbers like this from top to bottom in a lineup at any point in the previous six years. Regardless of how this season shapes out, trust Paul Toboni, trust this front office, trust Blake Butera, trust this new coaching staff. They’re getting results.

What’s Next?

Game two of this series will get underway tomorrow night at 7:10. It’ll be a battle of lefties in Milwaukee as Foster Griffin (1-0, 2.70 ERA) will try to continue his eye-opening start to the season in his first big league campaign since 2023. He’ll face former Giants’ minor league standout, Kyle Harrison (1-0, 2.61 ERA), who has some success in his career against the Nationals, but as we’ve talked about, all bets are off because this is a completely new team.

Down On the Farm

AAA Rochester

• 7-2 loss tonight at Lehigh Valley
• Luis Perales: 3 innings, 2 hits, 0 earned runs, 1 walk, 3 strikeouts
• Christian Franklin: 1-2, 2 walks
• Harry Ford: 1-3, walk
• Robert Hassell: 2-4
• Tomorrow: 6:35 game at Lehigh Valley (Andry Lara pitching)

AA Harrisburg

• 8-6 loss tonight versus Akron
• Davian Garcia: 3.1 innings, 2 hits, 1 earned run, 5 walks, 2 strikeouts
• Seaver King: 1-3, double, 2 walks
• Brandon Boissiere: 3-4, home run (2), 2 RBIs, walk
• Sam Brown: 2-5, home run (1), 3 RBIs
• Maxwell Romero: 1-4, double
• Tomorrow: 6:00 game versus Akron (Kyle Luckham pitching)

High-A Wilmington

• 3-1 win tonight at Hudson Valley
• Riley Maddox: 4 innings, 2 hits, 1 run, 3 walks, 4 strikeouts
• Devin Fitz-Gerald: 2-4, stolen base
• Kevin Bazzell: 1-4, double
• Elijah Green: 1-3, home run, 2 RBIs, 2 stolen bases
• TJ White: 1-4, double, RBI
• Tomorrow: 5:05 game at Hudson Valley (Bryan Polanco pitching)

Low-A Fredericksburg

• 5-3 loss tonight at Hill City
• Nolan Hughes: 1.2 innings, 0 hits, 0 runs, 4 walks, 4 strikeouts
• Ronny Cruz: 1-3, double, walk
• Yeremy Cabrera: 2-4, home run (1), 3 RBIs, stolen base
• Tomorrow: 6:30 game at Hill City (Miguel Sime pitching)