May 30, 2026 [LINK / comment]
Tensions were high in Cleveland on Wednesday afternoon as the first two Washington Nationals batters singled in the 9th inning at Progressive Field . The AL Central first-place Guardians were in jeopardy of being swept by the (until-recently) lowly Nationals, who had won the first two games with relative ease. Daylen Lile then hit a sac fly that allowed Curtis Mead to score from third base, and C.J. Abrams stole 2nd base. One more single would tie the game! But instead, Jose Tena and Jorbit Vivas both struck out and the game ended. Vivas has a streak of 24 or more at bats with runners in scoring position without getting a hit. And so, Cleveland eked out a 3-2 win to avoid being swept.
The games on Monday and Tuesday were both very encouraging for the Nationals, who keep rising to the occasion in spite of facing a very challenging schedule, against one first-place team after another. I already recounted in an unintended "live blog" sort of way how the Nats racked up six home runs on Monday, with Curtis Mead hitting two four-baggers. That game ended 10-2 in Washington's favor. The next day the Nationals scored 4 runs in the 2nd inning, thanks to a clutch 2-run single by the suddenly-hot Keibert Ruiz, followed immediately by a home run by James Wood. Both teams scored 2 runs in the 9th inning, as the Nats prevailed again, 6-3.
Then last night, after a day of rest and travel back home, the Nats welcomed the San Diego Padres to Nationals Park. The groundskeepers had done an admirable job of repairing the outfield grass after the big concert two nights previous. (See below.) I was watching on TV, thanks to the new broadcast rights arrangement between the Nationals and Gray Media. Once again, the Nationals got off to a fine start, and were leading for the first five innings, whereupon relief pitcher Mitchell Parker came in and gave up 3 runs in the 6th and 7th innings. (Two of those were unearned, as Nasim Nunez and Keibert Ruiz were both charged with errors.) The Padres' top-notch closing pitcher Mason Miller came in to stifle a Nats rally in the 8th inning, and closed out the 9th inning with only one runner reaching base, on a walk. Padres 7, Nationals 5. And so, the Nats are back down to an even .500 record, 29-29.
It would be hard to discount the role played by the all-new management team in the Nationals' striking success thus far this year. Manager Black Butera seems awfully young to be taking on such a responsibility, but the results seem to indicate that he knows what he is doing!
Manager Blake Butera (left) and Bench Coach Michael Johns (right), at the game on May 15.
The Philadelphia Phillies have also improved since they fired their manager in April, and replaced him with former Yankee star Don Mattingly. The Phillies have pulled ahead of the Nationals and now occupy 2nd place in the NL East.
While the Nationals were on the road this past week, Bruce "The Boss" Springsteen gave a concert in their home field. This was part of a tour that has an explicit political agenda: protesting the abuses by ICE agents in Minneapolis and elsewhere. (He released a song "The Streets of " in March that included sharply negative lyrics about President Trump, White House official Stephen Miller, and former Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem.) Springsteen rallied the enthusiastic crowd, and warned that there would be a "ruckus" in the months to come.
Meanwhile, the Nationals' director of community relations, Sean Hudson, was fired after a hidden video showed him saying that Nats pitcher Trevor Williams (who has been on the Injured List all year) was banned from Nats' social media postings because of his religious beliefs. The video was posted by James O'Keefe, a conservative political activist. See washingtonpost.com. That was very unfortunate, and seems to reflect poor judgement on Hudson's part. All I can say is that I wish baseball would serve more of a healing and unifying function in our badly divided society.
I'll be on the road (literally) for the next couple weeks, hopefully visiting a few MLB ballparks and/or some football stadiums of note in the Great Lakes region. There won't be any blog posts until mid-June or so. Stay tuned for some new photos after that!