This postgame series that I like to do is based strictly upon optimism, because if you’ve wanted to be depressed at any time in the last six seasons, all you’ve needed to do, unfortunately, is watch most games. So tonight’s recap is going to be a little bit different.

Regarding the actual game action, I’ve decided that all you guys really need to know is that over the course of eight and a half innings of baseball tonight, the Pirates scored 16 runs. In that time span, the Nationals managed just 5. Some would say that this means the Nationals got walloped by a score of 16-5 tonight, but I’m going to leave that up to interpretation and skip straight to the positives.

The Positives

In more encouraging news, CJ Abrams is still red-hot. Believe it or not, the Nationals did have a lead at one point in this game. Abrams hit a first-inning solo home run off of Paul Skenes of all people, unfortunately that would also be the Nats’ last hit off Skenes in his six innings.

Jacob Young also homered tonight, for his second of the season, in what ended up being a four-run top of the seventh inning for Washington, aided by a two-run single by Nasim Nunez. Elsewhere in the lineup, Daylen Lile had two hits tonight, raising his batting average to .286 on the young season.

On the pitching side of things, Paxton Schultz did a pretty solid job in relief of Cade Cavalli, who was pulled in the second inning. Even better, Orlando Ribalta threw a scoreless inning in his big league debut this season. We will round out tonight’s positives with a fun (or horrifying) fact, whichever way you choose to look at it. Joey Weimer has a better ERA this season than Jackson Rutledge, Cionel Perez, Andre Granillo, and Miles Mikolas.

What’s Next?

This feels like the most important part of tonight’s coverage. The Nats will look to bounce back from tonight’s smackdown in tomorrow evening’s matchup at 6:40. Game two of this four-game series will feature two veteran righties, albeit with two very different stat lines for the season, as Miles Mikolas (0-3, 12.41 ERA) will face Mitch Keller (1-0, 1.00 ERA). Keller has pretty solid numbers against the Nationals in his career, but the Nats will have to hope Mikolas’ familiarity with this Pittsburgh lineup can carry him to a strong start.

Down On the Farm

No games happened tonight, as Mondays are typically off-days for minor league teams, so here’s the action we’ll see tomorrow night across the Nats’ organization.

AAA Rochester- 6:05 tomorrow versus Buffalo (Andrew Alvarez pitching)

AA Harrisburg- 6:05 tomorrow at Erie (Eriq Swan pitching)

High-A Wilmington: 6:35 tomorrow versus Hub City (Yoel Tejada pitching)

Low-A Fredericksburg- 6:05 tomorrow versus Delmarva (pitcher yet to be announced)