The Washington Nationals (33-33) needed a good series after getting swept at home against the Miami Marlins and falling below .500 for the first time since May 23.

They stepped up to the plate and delivered two dominating wins on the road to win the series against the Arizona Diamondbacks (34-31). The Nationals combined for 20 runs and allowed only two runs in their two wins.

The Nationals entered Friday’s series opener one game below .500, but would take early control against the Diamondbacks.

James Wood would lead the game off with a walk before Luis García Jr. brought him home with his sixth home run of the season. 

In Wood’s next at-bat, he would lead off the third inning with a solo home run. The Nationals would add three more runs in the third inning after Daylen Lile, CJ Abrams, Jose Tena and Jorbit Vivas safely reached base in four straight at-bats. 

Foster Griffin would allow the only run of his start in the bottom of the third, allowing a home run to Aramis Garcia. He finished five innings and allowed just one run on two hits and no walks. 

The Nationals would have three home runs in the fifth and sixth innings. Lile hit his eighth home run of the season, with a solo shot in the fifth inning. 

After three Nationals reached base to lead off the sixth inning, García would hit his first career grand slam. Abrams would hit another solo shot before the sixth inning closed.

The Nationals' offense would add on a pair of runs before the game went final. Pitchers Paxton Shultz and Cole Henry would both finish two scoreless innings to put away the game. 

The Nationals would jump out to another early lead in Saturday's win after Wood singled to lead off the game and Curtis Mead brought him home with a two-run homer.

Zack Littell started the game on the mound for the Nationals, where he allowed one earned run on two hits and a walk in five innings. 

His one earned run came in the fifth inning, when the Diamondbacks got both of their two hits in the game. The Diamondbacks reached base just five times in Saturday's game by way of two hits, two walks and a hit by pitch. 

Orlando Ribalta and Mitchell Parker came in to pitch the sixth and seventh innings, respectively. Both finished their innings scoreless.

The Nationals' offense would add some insurance runs in the seventh inning when Dylan Crews smacked a 432-foot home run, and Nasim Nuñez brought home Jacob Young after he tripled. Nuñez and Keibert Ruiz would both get RBIs in the ninth inning to bring the Nationals to six runs.

Brad Lord pitched the eighth and ninth innings, where he retired six straight batters to record his first save of the season. 

Things wouldn’t go as smoothly for the Nationals in the last game of the series. 

Former Nationals pitcher Michael Soroka went for seven innings, where he only allowed one run on three hits and two walks.

Soroka was traded to the Cubs at the 2025 MLB trade deadline for prospects Christian Franklin and Ronny Cruz. Cruz is currently No. 87 in the MLB’s top 100 prospects. 

On the other side, Cade Cavalli would struggle. He finished five innings, allowing four earned runs on seven hits, two home runs and a walk. 

Diamondbacks’ star fielder Corbin Carroll would get his first hit of the series, with a solo home run in the first inning.

CJ Abrams would respond with a home run of his own in the second innings– what would end up being the Nationals’ final run of the game. 

Cavalli would allow a run in the fourth inning after allowing three hits, and would allow a two-run home run to Gabriel Moreno in the fifth inning.

After Soroka exited the game, relievers Kevin Ginkel and Taylor Clarke would retire the last six batters in order.

Zack Littell’s improved play. Zack Littell was truly struggling to start the 2026 season, but we’ve seen huge improvements since the start of May. Littell has just two home runs allowed in 35.2 innings since the start of May, after allowing 11 home runs in 23.2 innings in April.

Littell has also won six games since the start of May, now sitting at a 6-4 record. His ERA has dropped from 7.85 to just 4.76 in that stretch. 

James Wood is playing like one of the best baseball players in the world, again. Wood had another dominant series. He finished 3-for-10 from the plate with four walks and a home run. He got on base to lead off each game, and was brought home by a home run two of those times. 

Wood is currently seeing the ball at an unreal level. He is currently first in the NL for walks by nine walks. He is second in the NL in OBP, only behind Shohei Ohtani. Despite starting poorly from a hitting standpoint in June, his OPS is still .936. He has been one of the best players in the world and the perfect lead-off hitter for the Nationals. 

The Nationals continue to be one of the best teams on the road. Despite sitting at a .500 record, the Nationals have been the third-best team in the MLB on the road. They sit at 21-13 on the road, better than all but the Braves and the Dodgers– two of the three 40-win teams in the MLB currently. 

CJ Abrams continues to dominate. Abrams knocked in two home runs in another dominant series. He finished Friday’s game 2-for-4 with two walks and a home run. He was also the Nationals' only offense in Sunday’s loss. 

He has looked like one of the best players in baseball through the first month of the season, and he has not taken any large dip in play. He still sits with splits of .286/.380/.534 and a .914 OPS. He is also second in the MLB with 49 RBIs on the season. 

The 25-year-old should be one of the Nationals' most valued future pieces, and any trade talk with him should be put to rest for the near future. 

Dylan Crews is starting to struggle, again. Dylan Crews was a superstar prospect coming out of LSU, where he put up video game splits of .426/.567/.713 in his junior season. After the Nationals picked him second in the 2023 MLB draft, he has continued to impress in the minor leagues, but has struggled to put together good stretches in the Major Leagues. 

Crews finished the series 2-for-13, which dropped his batting average to .197. He was one of two Nationals to not get a hit in Friday’s 14-1 win, where he was 0-for-5. He also went 0-for-4 in Sunday’s loss. He has only drawn one walk since coming up to the Major Leagues on May 19th. 

Some signs are pointing in the right direction. His K% has gone way down compared to his last MLB run, as well as his hard-hit%, barrel%, and average exit velocity. But he needs to put everything together and have a good stretch of baseball sooner rather than later. 

Nationals cannot finish off sweeps. The Nationals have failed to finish off yet another sweep against the Diamondbacks. Despite winning the first two games of a series five times this season, they only have one sweep. That came against the now 40-win Milwaukee Brewers from April 10-12. 

Since the start of May, the Nationals have had the chance to sweep the Cincinnati Reds, the Baltimore Orioles, the Cleveland Guardians, and now the Diamondbacks, but have failed to do so every time. The Nationals have lost by a combined score of 30-7 in the closing games of all those series.

They will need to find a way to close out sweeps, especially against lower-tiered opponents, if they want to have any horse in the Wildcard race. 

The Nationals will now travel to San Francisco for a series against the Giants. The Giants are just 27-39 on the season, but won the previous series against the Nationals. The series will start Monday, June 8, at 9:45 p.m. EST. 

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