The Nationals are playing through their growing pains. The rebuilding squad is balancing encouraging highs — one of the top offenses in the league — with nagging woes, as the pitching staff and defense struggle to find any measure of consistency.
The results have left first-year manager Blake Butera plugging holes in his 16-19 squad as the MLB season approaches the quarter-mark.
On Sunday morning, ahead of a game against the Milwaukee Brewers, Butera brought his young roster back to the basics. MLB squads typically skip batting practice and intensive drills before matinees. But the Nationals’ infielders and pitchers were on the diamond running fielding drills.
It looked like a spring training drill, with pitchers covering first base and middle infielders trying to beat a ghost runner headed toward home plate.
Butera set up a series of intense situations designed to force his infielders to make snap decisions and execute with urgency.
“We had a stopwatch going; guys had to make decisions in the moment,” the manager said. “Our whole goal here with everything we do is to make sure our practice is harder than the games. We challenge these guys when it doesn’t count; that way, when they get in the game, it almost feels a little bit slower.”
On Saturday night, the Nationals lost to the Brewers 3-1 despite allowing just one earned run. A pair of errors from shortstop C.J. Abrams and third baseman Brady House extended Washington’s cushion atop the errors leaderboard.
The Nationals had a league-leading 32 errors entering Monday’s games. The Tampa Bay Rays, for reference, ranked second-to-last with 25 defensive miscues.
“We’ve been a little rusty on the defensive side,” second baseman Nasim Nunez said after Sunday’s game. “We just needed some stuff to sharpen us up, and it’s a good thing that we do have that, so we have games like we did today.”
The defense is the latest area of focus for Butera and the Nationals as they hope to string together Washington’s first winning campaign since the 2019 World Series team.
The offense has been a consistent force, with Abrams and outfielder James Wood stringing together All-Star-caliber performances at the plate. The Nationals opened the week tied for third in the majors in runs scored.
The pitching, like the defense, has been a work in progress. Washington has the third-worst ERA in the majors at 4.81, but the rotation is starting to bounce back from a slow start.
Over the last nine games, the Nationals starters have combined to post a 2.74 ERA with 49 strikeouts and just 13 walks.
The pitchers have stepped up, but Butera has worked overtime to put them in positions to succeed, asking them to work unconventional roles to maximize each performance.
The manager used reliever P.J. Poulin as an opener for the fifth time this season on Sunday. The results have been encouraging, as Poulin has allowed just one earned run in his starts. The opener method eases the load placed on bottom-of-the-rotation starters like Zack Litell and Miles Mikolas.
The setup worked again, as Washington used five different arms in the 3-2 win.
“It makes it that much easier for us when those guys come in, none of them being particularly easy spots, to pound the zone and have the success they did,” Butera said. “Huge for us.”
“It’s a collective effort,” reliever Richard Lovelady said. “That’s the way we all go about it. Everybody plays a part, regardless of if you get one out or you get 27 outs.”
The Nationals, who enjoyed an off day on Monday, return to action on Tuesday for the first matchup in a three-game series against the visiting Minnesota Twins.
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