The Washington Nationals lost two of three on the road against the Texas Rangers after three games of back-and-forth shutouts. 

This was a defensive series, with the highlight coming from Cade Cavalli’s six-inning dominance in Wednesday’s win. 

Ranger’s starting pitchers Cal Quantrill and Jacob deGrom completely shut down the Nationals in Tuesday’s and Thursday’s losses. The Nationals finished Thursday’s 2-0 loss with one hit from Brady House. 

Cade Cavalli is the Nationals' future ace. The Nationals made Cavalli the ace before the season, and he has made it his mission to show why in the second half of the season. 

Cavalli has a 2.28 ERA since his “breakout” game against the Red Sox on June 30, and a 1.73 ERA in August. He has now made eight straight quality starts and has made a quality start in 10 of his last 11 starts. 

He went scoreless through six innings in Wednesday’s win, allowing just three hits while striking out 11 batters. In his most recent start before that, he allowed just one hit through eight innings and struck out 10 batters.

We are witnessing Cavalli’s breakout, and the fans should officially feel at peace knowing the Nationals have their future ace. 

The Nationals sold at the right time. A lot of people believed that the Nationals should have been buyers at the deadline, but after losing James Wood for a couple of weeks, it showed why selling was the right move. 

While having Luis García Jr., Foster Griffin and Curtis Mead would be extremely helpful, I don’t think it would have been enough to stop the Nats from this truly heinous stretch of baseball since James Wood got injured.

Mead has been out for around a month after getting hit in the hand with a pitch in his second at-bat for the Red Sox.

García has been middling with the Yankees, batting .255 with a .706 OPS since joining the Yankees at the deadline.

Griffin struggled in his Guardian debut but has recorded two quality starts and wins in the starts following. And while the starting pitching rotation would look a lot better with Griffin in the mix, the expiring contract makes the exchange for four prospects worth it.

Will Dion has looked great out of the bullpen. Will Dion was brought over in the Griffin trade and has looked great as a National. He has now pitched nine innings for the Nationals, where he has allowed just one hit and two walks while striking out nine batters. 

He has two appearances as a long reliever and two appearances in short roles and has dominated in all four. After pitching 4.1 no-hit innings against the Mets, he pitched another perfect inning behind Cavalli’s scoreless outing in Wednesday’s win.

Jackson Kent is struggling after his call-up to the Major Leagues. Jackson Kent came up to the Major Leagues to replace Miles Mikolas, but his first two starts have not gone too smoothly.

Kent allowed three hits, five walks and three earned runs in four innings in his Major League debut on August 12 against the Cubs. 

He made his second start in Tuesday’s loss, where he allowed eight hits, three walks, a home run and five earned runs in 3.2 innings. He was the only pitcher to allow any runs in Tuesday’s game as the Nationals would lose 5-0. 

Kent was the Nationals ninth ranked prospect in the MLB pipeline, and they will be hoping to see some big improvement as the year goes on. 

Abimelec Ortiz's explosive bat is starting to slow down. Abimelec Ortiz has been crushing balls for the Nationals after being called up to fill in at first base after the García trade. Entering the series against the Rangers, he had five home runs and a 1.017 OPS.

Ortiz went 1-for-10 with one walk at the plate against the Rangers. He was 0-for-3 in both Tuesday’s and Thursday’s losses. He is now 3-for-20 with a home run and one walk in his last two series. 

If Ortiz can recover and look strong down the stretch for the Nationals, that would be a huge bonus in what looks like it could be a lost season. 

Dylan Crews has fallen back into another slump. Dylan Crews has been one of the biggest disappointments for Nationals fans in August. Crews has fallen back into a slump that we’ve seen time and time again in his Major League opportunities. 

He has a .143 batting average and just three walks in 66 total plate appearances in August, and he's been a key reason for the offense's disappointing stretch. 

He was 1-for-3 with a walk in Tuesday’s loss and 0-for-4 across Wednesday’s and Thursday’s games against the Rangers.

The infield still desperately needs to be filled out. Jorbit Vivas, Nasim Nuñez and Jose Tena are names that Nationals fans are tired of seeing fill out the infield every day. With manager Blake Butera moving CJ Abrams to second base, the left side of the infield is now in turmoil. 

It seems like Nuñez will get to move into the most important infield position to fill Abrams' spot. While it will be nice to have a defender as good as Nuñez at shortstop, the Nationals might want to consider calling up a name like Seaver King to give him a shot to prove himself after dominating in Triple-A.

The Nationals called up Brady House to be their solution at third base after trading Mead to the Red Sox. House has been solid, with an OPS in the mid .700s since being called back up. But it hasn’t been enough to win him an every-day starting position. Vivas remains a strong starting candidate to Blake Butera against right-handed pitchers.

Triple-A third baseman Yohandy Morales has yet to be given a chance despite having 23 home runs and an .889 OPS throughout the 2026 season. 

The Nationals offense gets shut out twice. What was once a dominant offensive unit has not looked the same. Tuesday’s and Thursday’s losses were just the fourth and fifth times that the Nationals were shut out this season. 

Without Wood, García and Mead, the team has lacked consistent batters in the lineup. Abrams also suffered a sprained ankle in Wednesday’s win. Without Abrams, the Nationals would have recorded only one hit in Thursday’s loss.

The Nationals will now travel to Miami for their next series against the Marlins. They will start at 7:10 p.m. EST on Friday.