The Washington Nationals (46-45) lost their second straight home series, this time dropping the last two against the Pittsburgh Pirates (46-45). 

The Nationals' pitching staff continued its trend of struggling at home, allowing 23 runs in three games against the Pirates. They have a 5.32 ERA in home games compared to a 4.00 ERA on the road. The Nationals are now 18-27 when playing at home and are just 2-5 in their last two home series. 

Daylen Lile and Luis García Jr. became the first pair of Nationals teammates to have shared multi-home-run games twice in the same season in Friday’s win.

Foster Griffin started the game on the mound, where he recorded his ninth win of the season. He would finish the game with five innings pitched and only one earned run, a Bryan Reynolds home run in the third inning. 

The first-year MLB starter continues to be one of the Nationals' premier players. He is currently 15th in the MLB in ERA and 12th in WHIP.

Offensively, García put the Nationals on top in the first inning with a solo home run. Daylen Lile would hit a home run in the second inning while Jose Tena slammed the longest home run of his career in the third inning. Tena brought home James Wood, who reached on a lead-off triple. 

Lile would have his second RBI-hit of the game in the third inning when he doubled to bring home CJ Abrams. 

García hit a two-run home run in the seventh inning, and Lile would hit another two-run home run in the eighth inning to extend the Nationals' lead to 9-1. 

Zak Kent came out to pitch in the last two innings, but would struggle in the top of the ninth. He allowed five doubles, which resulted in four runs before he recorded the last out of the game. 

For the second straight season, the Nationals suffered a big loss on the Fourth of July. Last year, the Nationals lost their Fourth of July game 11-2 to the Boston Red Sox. 

Carson Palmquist was on the mound to open the game for Zack Littell and threw the first pitch of the game at 11:05 a.m. 

Palmquist allowed a lead-off runner in Konnor Griffin and allowed an infield single to Bryan Reynolds. The Pirates would score on a double steal to get up to a 1-0 lead.

Wood would equalize the game on the leadoff pitch that he took to the upper right deck. Wood is now up to 23 home runs on the season. He leads the MLB with seven leadoff home runs.

That would be the last run that the Nationals scored in Saturday’s loss. 

Palmquist went back out for the second inning but would allow three straight base runners before being taken out for Zack Littell. 

Littell would allow three RBI hits and four runs to score before the inning closed with Enmanuel Valdez being caught stealing. 

He would pitch five more innings without allowing a run. Littell’s final stat line read: four hits, one earned run, one walk and three strikeouts in six innings pitched. 

Riley Cornelio pitched the last two innings and would allow a three-hit, two-walk, and two-run eighth inning that brought the Pirates to a 7-1 lead. 

Cade Cavalli made the start on the mound for the first time since being involved in the scuffle that involved Boston Red Sox’s Willson Contreras on June 30. 

They were both targeted with seven-game suspensions. Cavalli started against the Pirates while appealing his suspension. 

Cavalli allowed two leadoff runners in the second inning and would allow three runs on two RBI singles. After allowing a home run in the third inning, he was pulled from the game with just 63 pitches.

The Nationals offense would fight back from the early 4-0 lead. García started the scoring with his third home run of the series, a two-run shot in the bottom of the third inning. 

Dylan Crews would score in the fourth inning after drawing a walk. He reached second base on a wild pitch and then advanced to home on two groundouts by Jorbit Vivas and Tena.  

The Nationals would tie the game in the bottom of the fifth inning after Wood, García and Mead loaded the bases with zero outs. Abrams would bring home Wood with a sacrifice fly, but Lile had a crucial strikeout, and Crews flied out to center. 

The game would be tied until the top of the eighth inning with Brad Lord pitching. He has been the best pitcher out of the bullpen all season for the Nationals. But he cracked, loading the bases and allowing a two-RBI single and a three-run home run. 

Crews would hit a home run in the eighth, but it wouldn’t be enough as the Pirates added two insurance runs in the ninth inning and won 11-5. 

The Nationals cannot afford Brad Lord’s struggles. The Nationals bullpen has been weak all season, but Brad Lord has been the guy they could point to in sticky situations throughout the first half of the season. 

But recently, Lord has been struggling. He has recorded two losses in his last four appearances, both of which came in high-leverage situations. The first came with a two-run lead in the eighth inning against the Philadelphia Phillies on June 23, where he gave up six earned runs. The second came in the eighth inning against the Pirates in Sunday’s loss, where he gave up five earned runs. 

With how bad the bullpen has been around Lord, the Nationals still need him to be the guy out of the bullpen.

The starting rotation’s turmoil. The Nationals' starting pitching rotation is about to go through a weird stretch, with both Cade Cavalli and Miles Mikolas having received suspensions from the MLB after the scuffle with the Red Sox. 

The rotation has already been going through some troubles, with Mikolas and Zack Littell struggling since the start of June. 

Cavalli had an excellent showing against the Red Sox but has been vulnerable to weak starts throughout the season, like we saw in Sunday’s loss. 

Jake Irvin is already being replaced by Andrew Alvarez, who hasn’t been trusted to go over five innings so far this season on top of this. 

With how the bullpen has been playing, President of Baseball Operations Paul Toboni and Manager Blake Butera need to be ready to bandage things together while two of their starting pitchers are sitting out with a suspension. 

The recent bullpen moves are off to slow starts. The Nationals have made a plethora of bullpen moves recently. But not all of them have found immediate success. They acquired and activated RHP Justin Lawrence on June 25, recalled RHP Zak Kent on June 26 and recalled LHP Carson Palmquist on June 29. 

Lawrence recorded a save in the 10th inning against the Baltimore Orioles in his first appearance on June 27. But he struggled in his two appearances against the Pirates. 

In the seventh inning of Friday’s win, Lawrence loaded the bases before being pulled from the game for Clayton Beeter, who stopped any runs from scoring. He also pitched in the ninth inning of Sunday’s loss, where he allowed two runs on three hits. 

Zak Kent pitched three scoreless innings throughout three games in the road series in Baltimore and Boston, but he struggled in the eighth and ninth innings of Friday’s win. He allowed seven hits and four runs between the two innings.

Palmquist received the loss after opening in the Fourth of July loss. He allowed two hits and one run in the first inning and loaded the bases with the first three batters he faced in the second inning. He would finish the day allowing four hits and four earned runs. 

Eddy Yean shines in Major League debut. Well, one new bullpen move came out of the gates on fire. Eddy Yean made his Major League debut in Sunday’s loss. He entered the game with one out and runners on first and second in the third inning and escaped the inning scoreless. 

He pitched two innings and only allowed one base runner on a walk. He struck out Enmanuel Valdez to lead off the fifth inning before being pulled for PJ Poulin. He finished with three strikeouts. 

Yean was DFA’d back down to Triple-A Rochester after the appearance. 

Luis García Jr.'s value continues to skyrocket. Luis García Jr. is the surprise of the year for the Nationals as he continues to rake. As we approach the All-Star Game, he is batting .282/.313/.561 with a .874 OPS and a career-high 19 home runs.

With 10 home runs and 18 RBIs in his last 12 games, the 26-year-old is one of the hottest players in baseball. 

Garcia is signed with the Nationals through the 2027 season and could be an interesting sell-high candidate with the trade deadline nearing. 

James Wood’s strong start to July. James Wood has been an absolute monster to start the 2026 season, and he is continuing it into July. Wood has started July extremely efficiently from the plate. He is 5-14 with six walks, which has contributed to six runs.

Wood continues to extend his dominance in the runs category. The Nationals lead-off hitter has 78 runs in 2026, 16 more than the second highest in the MLB. 

He also obliterated a baseball on the first pitch he saw in Saturday’s Fourth of July loss.

Daylen Lile is getting back on track. Daylen Lile has struggled to stay consistent as of late. The 23-year-old is playing his first full season of Major League baseball and has shown positive signs while being a consistent starter on the best offensive team in baseball. But his level of play has dropped as he finished June with a .675 OPS.

But he had himself a great series against the Pirates. He was 3-for-4 with two home runs and four RBIs in Friday’s win. All three of his hits brought home a run. He continued that success, going 2-for-4 in Saturday’s loss before going 0-for-4 in Sunday’s loss. 

The Nationals will now look toward the second series of their home stretch, against the Houston Astros (45-47). The series will begin on Monday at 6:45 p.m. EST.

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