The Washington Nationals (3-6) have now dropped five straight after getting swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers in their first home series of the 2026 MLB season. The Nationals are now 1-2 in their three series, all of which came against playoff teams from the year prior.

The Nationals' pitching was just not good enough in this series against the Dodgers. They allowed at least eight runs in each game and 31 runs throughout the series. The Nationals allowed just 28 runs in their first two series.

In the Nationals' home opener on Friday, Miles Mikolas allowed the most earned runs in an outing for a pitcher in Nationals history. Mikolas pitched 4.1 innings, allowed 11 earned runs on 11 hits and a walk. 

The 11 runs deflated the high hopes set by a three-run home run from CJ Abrams in the first inning, which gave the Nationals an early lead. 

The Nationals finished the game with six runs, despite the loss, and every Nationals batter recorded a hit. 

Dodgers’ superstar Shohei Ohtani tied the game with a three-run shot of his own before the Dodgers would steam ahead to a five-run third inning, two-run fourth inning, and four-run fifth inning, which sunk the Nationals.

The starting pitching wasn’t much better on Saturday’s loss. Jake Irvin, who had a strong start to the season against the Chicago Cubs, allowed six earned runs off eight hits and two walks in four innings. 

Irvin struggled throughout the 2025 season and the Nationals were hoping to see some big-time improvement, but he took a step in the other direction against the Dodgers.

CJ Abrams would have another strong game on Saturday. He finished 1-for-2 with a home run and two walks. Abrams had a three-game streak of home runs starting from the last game in Philadelphia. 

Luis García Jr. had his best game of the season at the plate. He finished 3-for-4 with one RBI, a double and a triple. The 25-year-old played as a designated hitter as Curtis Mead filled in at first base, where García has struggled this season.  

Relief pitcher Brad Lord pitched two innings following Irvin’s exit and had his worst outing of the season. He allowed three earned runs on five hits and a walk. 

Sunday’s game did not follow the same script. The Nationals' starting pitching held up after Foster Griffin had a second consecutive good outing. But once again, the Nationals bullpen erased a big lead late in the game.

Griffin pitched the first five innings, where he would only allow one run, which came off an Ohtani home run. He finished his outing allowing five hits and three walks while delivering six strikeouts. 

The Nationals built a 6-1 lead while Griffin was on the mound. García added to his strong offensive series with a two-run home run, which put the Nationals on the board.

James Wood added a three-run bomb of his own. Wood has struggled with his consistency this season, but has been finding good contact as of late.

The Nationals' five-run cushion would wear thin as PJ Poulin pitched two innings and allowed two earned runs after allowing a two-run home run to Dalton Rushing. 

The cushion would fall apart in the eighth inning when Cionel Pérez entered the game and allowed three hits and two walks without recording an out. He would finish with four earned runs as the Dodgers took the lead. 

Dodgers’ Teoscar Hernández would crush a home run to center field in the ninth, as the Nationals' bats ran dry, and the Nationals would finish with an 8-6 loss in the closest game of the series. 

The Nationals lost this series despite scoring more than five runs in every game. 

Starting Pitching: To be fair, nobody on the Dodgers is an easy out, so it wasn’t an easy matchup for Mikolas and Irvin in this series by any means. But the Nationals have now had four different pitchers start in two games, and two of them are in the bottom three in ERA (for qualified pitchers) in the MLB. 

37-year-old Mikolas was brought in to help the Nationals' starting rotation be competitive hasn’t looked like a playable pitcher to start the season. Irvin is showing the same signs he did in his disappointing 2025 campaign.

The Nationals will need more consistency from their starting pitchers if they want to play meaningful baseball past the fourth inning. 

Bullpen: In both of the Nationals' last two series, the Bullpen has failed to secure a game with a large lead going into the seventh inning. 

The bullpen lacks star power and experience, but something will have to happen if the Nationals want to stop choking large leads. Brad Lord, PJ Poulin, and Clayton Beeter are guys who I think can make names for themselves down the stretch and hopefully save the Nationals from having the worst bullpen in the league for 2026.

James Wood: James Wood was 2-for-13 from the plate against the Dodgers with a double and a home run. He also drew two walks, but struck out five times. Wood struggled at the start of the season as well as Spring Training, and the lack of production persisted. 

What we have been seeing recently from Wood is more contact, but it hasn’t translated into sustained success so far this season. Despite the slump, Wood is in the 81st percentile of hard hit% and barrel%, according to Baseball Savant.