The Washington Nationals drop to 2-7 at home after losing their third straight home series. This time, the Nationals lost the first two games to the San Francisco Giants before taking the last game of the series. 

The Nationals were embarrassed on Friday in the first loss of the series. Zack Littell took the start on the mound and allowed eight earned runs, 11 hits and two home runs in just four innings. 

Littell now leads the MLB with seven home runs allowed this season. Nationals pitcher Miles Mikolas is tied in second place with six home runs allowed as well. 

James Wood and Daylen Lile would both hit home runs, but it would be too little too late as the Nationals fell 10-5. 

The Nationals would blow another large lead in their Saturday loss. The Nationals led 5-1 after the second inning, but couldn’t put a lid on the game. The Giants stormed back to win 7-6 in the 12th inning. 

Cade Cavalli started the game for the Nationals and allowed three runs, though only one run was earned. He finished four innings, allowing seven hits and no walks. 

Mitchell Parker came out of the bullpen and allowed three more runs, which gave the Giants a 6-5 lead. 

The Nationals forced extra innings in the bottom of the ninth as Brady House hit an RBI single to bring James Wood home. 

The offense would fail to score in the three extra innings. The Giants scored off an RBI single by Matt Chapman to eventually win the game in the 12th inning. Cionel Pérez recorded the loss for the Nationals. 

That was the fourth time this season the Nationals lost a game where they held at least a four-run lead. 

They would finish the series off strong, recording their first shutout win of the season. PJ Poulin started the game in an opening capacity. Mikolas was brought in to face the fifth batter after two runners got on base.

Mikolas would have his best outing of the season. After entering the game with an 11.49 ERA, he pitched four scoreless innings, allowing just four hits. His ERA has now dipped down to 9.15. 

Andrew Alvarez was called up from Triple-A before the game and came in as relief for Mikolas. He would go on to pitch the final 4.1 innings and allow just three hits, while recording five strikeouts. Alvarez closed 2025 on the Nationals roster as a starting pitcher.

Keibert Ruiz would get the Nationals on the board with an RBI double, scoring Nasim Nuñez from second. Curtis Mead would score the last two runs for the Nationals, with a two-run home run that brought home Ruiz.

Miles Mikolas has looked better as of late. Mikolas has struggled mightily to start the season for the Nationals. In his first two games, he allowed 17 total runs. But in his last three outings, he has combined for five earned runs. It is definitely less impressive when you factor in his shorter outings in this period, but it has also led to two Nationals wins. It would be huge if the Nationals could continue to find value out of the 37-year-old. 

Andrew Alvarez could provide value for the Nationals' pitching staff. The Nationals' pitching staff has been one of the worst in the MLB. They have the second-highest ERA in the MLB behind the Astros. Both the starting pitching and the bullpen have looked inconsistent all season.  

In his first Major League appearance in 2026, Alvarez pitched 4.1 scoreless innings in relief and recorded a win. He is somebody who can help the pitching staff, whether that is out of the bullpen or in the starting lineup. 

CJ Abrams started to slow down. Abrams was playing like one of the best players in baseball to start the season. He showed that he was human in this series. He went 1-of-13 from the plate with one walk to go with it. He entered the series second in the league with a .371 batting average, and dipped to .320 after the series. 

He isn’t somebody to be worried about, but the Nationals were struggling to get wins when he was playing like the NL MVP, so it’s worth noting that he has started to slow down. 

Starting Pitching troubles. Zack Littell was looking like one of the most consistent starting pitchers for the Nationals before a gruesome outing against the Giants to start the series. 

Now, who is it that the Nationals can trust in the starting lineup to deliver a good start when it's needed? I don’t know if that list expands past Cade Cavalli and Foster Griffin. Cavalli has also had a rough go of things in Pittsburgh as well, after getting pulled in just 1.1 innings.

Starting pitching will need to be more consistent throughout the season than it has been so far, because the bullpen isn’t deep enough to pitch five-plus innings every couple of games. 

Nasim Nuñez continues to struggle at the plate. Nuñez is just 8-of-52 during April and has just two hits in the last two series. Nuñez is a Golden Glove candidate and is one of the most consistent players you can ask for on the defensive end, but the offensive value needs to be more. 

Nuñez drew 12 walks in 17 Spring Training games. That helped him to an on-base percentage of .412. That hasn’t translated to his MLB at-bats. He drew 8 walks in 20 games and has an on-base percentage of .284 to start the 2026 season. Nuñez needs to find a way to survive at the plate so he can continue his Golden Glove season at second base. 

The Nationals will stay at home, but will shift their focus to the Atlanta Braves as they try to climb back from two games below .500. Their series starts Monday at 6:45 p.m.