Photo by Marlene Koenig/TalkNats

The Washington Nationals not only notched their first sweep of the 2026 — they also swept the Milwaukee Brewers in their home stadium for the first time in 20 years on June 4, 2006. With this win, the Nats moved to 1.0 game of .500, and moved into a 3rd place tie with the Phillies in the NL East.

There are many contributing players in this win, and a special shoutout to Gus Varland for his first career save. Of note, Ken Waldichuk sustained a forearm injury and had to be removed from the game. He had his best outing going before the injury. PJ Poulin was also excellent out of the bullpen in his 1 1/3 innings of work.

Starter Zack Littell left with no decision and got in 5.0 innings of 3-run ball. Credit to him that he did not walk a batter. Unfortunately, Cole Henry walked Waldichuk’s batter when he inherited a 2-0 count, then Henry walked the next batter, and the following batter, Gary Sanchez crushed a 3-run home run to tie the game, and Henry was collared with a blown save. But the Nats offense came right back and took the lead back, and the bullpen held that lead to an 8-6 victory. In all, the Nats came back three times in the game to take a lead.

Another big game for James Wood who had the only Nats homer in the series, and Wood added two walks and an incredible double-steal of home that was originally ruled as out and overturned in a key manager’s challenge. Some trivia, Wood is the only player in Nats’ history to record that feat in a single game with a home run and a steal of home. It was done several times in Expos history, and last on June 8, 1995 by Tony Tarasco. Coincidentally, Tarasco joined the Nationals in 2006 to start a career in coaching, and that was the last time, as mentioned, that the Nats would sweep the Brewers in Milwaukee … until today. Tarasco would remain with the Nats through the 2015 season as their first base and outfield coach.

Both Wood and Jacob Young did it with power and speed today. Young had two hits and one was ruled a double and an error — but Young’s speed is the only reason he ended up on third base. He scored two key runs in the game. Keibert Ruiz came in late in the game and had a key single past the drawn-in infield to score two runs. CJ Abrams also had two key hits, an RBI and a run scored, however he would have had at least a double if not for the umpire getting in the way of a hard smash past first base. Luckily, that extra run wasn’t needed as Daylen Lile might have scored on the play, and he had two hits today. The other key offensive play was a Jose Tena pinch-hit single past the drawn-in infield.

The Nats had no base running mistakes today, and they were aggressive. In a cutaway in the broadcast, Nationals.TV dugout reporter Alexa Datt acknowledged that first base coach Corey Ray couldn’t sleep last night and took the blame for some of the base running issues in Saturday’s Nats win in which five base runners were lost to outs. Good to see accountability. We all remember all to well last June when former manager Dave Martinez said, “It’s never on the coaches.” After Datt finished speaking, color analyst Kevin Frandsen had some choice words about all of that.

Credit to manager Blake Butera for making all the right moves again today. Perfect pinch-hitting decisions, and moves in the bullpen, even if the Henry move did not work. The move to Varland was risky based on his stumbles in his past two appearances — and the fact that he never had a save in his MLB career — and guess what, it worked. After the game, Varland credited his coaches for tuning up his mental side of the game.

Entering the game, Varland had a 6.75 ERA and a 1.750 WHIP in his four prior games, and today he pitched a perfect 9th inning while facing the top of the Brewers lineup including Brice Turang who had been perfect on the day before Varland got him out. He got the save and lowered his ERA to 5.40 and his WHIP to 1.4000 — moves in the right direction.

The team will fly out shortly to Pittsburgh ahead of a 4-game series with the series opener placing Cade Cavalli going up against Paul Skenes. The Nats then have Miles Mikolas, Jake Irvin, and Foster Griffin as the other scheduled starters in order in the series. Expect a Nats roster move with the injury sustained by Waldichuk.

The Washington Nationals are 7-5 against all teams not named the Dodgers. As we mentioned during the series, the gauntlet of tough opponents to open the Nats season had them facing four playoff teams (from 2025) of their five series going up against the Cubs, Phillies, Dodgers, and Brewers. And it does not get easier going to Pittsburgh and having to face Skenes tomorrow.

At some point, the Nats will get a softer schedule, and can hopefully win enough games to move up in the standings.

Down on the Farm

AAA Rochester

• 6-4 win today at Lehigh Valley
• Riley Cornelio: 4 innings, 3 hits, 1 run, 2 walks, 5 strikeouts
• Abi Ortiz: 2-5, double, RBI
• Andres Chaparro: 1-5, double, 2 RBIs
• Andrew Pinckney: 1-3, walk, 2 stolen bases
• Yo-Yo Morales: 3-4, 2 RBIs
• Phillip Glasser: 3-4, double
• Tomorrow: Off-day

AA Harrisburg

• 9-2 win today versus Akron
• Jackson Kent: 3 innings, 2 hits, 2 runs, 2 walks, 3 strikeouts
• Luke Young: 1 inning, 0 hits, 0 runs, 0 walks, 3 strikeouts
• Cayden Wallace: 1-4, home run (3), 2 RBIs, walk, stolen base
• Brandon Boissiere: 1-3, walk, RBI, stolen base
• Sam Brown: 2-5, RBI
• Leandro Pineda: 3-5, double, stolen base
• Cortland Lawson: 1-4, home run (1), RBI, walk
• Tomorrow: Off-day

High-A Wilmington

• 5-2 win today at Hudson Valley
• Josh Randall: 4 innings, 1 hit, 0 runs, 0 walks, 5 strikeouts
• Devin Fitz-Gerald: 2-5, home run (1), RBI, 2 stolen bases
• Elijah Green: 2-4
• Marcus Brown: 2-4, double, RBI
• Cristhian Vaquero: 2-4
• Tomorrow: Off-day

Low-A Fredericksburg

• 5-2 loss today at Hill City
• Landon Harmon: 3 innings, 2 hits, 0 runs, 1 walk, 1 strikeout
• Yeremy Cabrera: 1-4, double, RBI
• Luke Dickerson: 1-4, home run (1), RBI
• Jacob Walsh: 1-4, double
• Jack Moroknek: 1-3, walk
• Tomorrow: Off-day