Nationals Win Back-to-Back Series'

For the first time in two months, the Washington Nationals have won back-to-back series’.

In late April, Washington took two out of three games in sets with the Minnesota Twins and then the New York Mets.

Since that stretch from April 21-27, the Nationals were 19-31 entering last Friday’s series in San Diego against Juan Soto and the Padres.

The trip West might be just what Washington needed. The Nats were thumped in the opening game against San Diego, but have since won four out of five games, including the final two against the Padres and the Seattle Mariners.

In the four wins, the Nationals boasted stellar pitching, holding opponents to four runs or less.

Following a 13-3 thumping against San Diego, Washington ace Josiah Gray came back on Saturday with one of his best performances of the season, tossing 5.1 innings, allowing just four hits, zero runs and striking out six hitters.

Gray holds a team-best 3.43 ERA in 16 starts this season.

It was the offense that came to life on Sunday in the rubber match against San Diego. Both Jeimer Candelario and Joey Meneses had 3 RBI’s in a multi-hit performance to lead Washington to an 8-3 win.

Early this week, after a disappointing loss in the opening game to Seattle, the Nats came right back with a thrilling 7-4 win in extra innings. Right Fielder Lane Thomas played hero with a two RBI double in the 11th, followed by a Luis Garcia single to add some insurance in a game that Washington trailed in the 8th inning before a Keibert Ruiz solo homerun to tie it at 4-4.

On Wednesday, in yet another rubber match, the Nationals got another stellar pitching performance, this time by Patrick Corbin.

The 33-year-old lefty had undoubtedly his best game in 2023, working for a season-high seven innings, allowing no runs or walk, while striking out nine.

By the time Corbin exited the game, Washington held a 4-0 lead and held on to win it 4-1, closing out a strong trip to the West Coast for Washington.

The Nats currently sit in last place in the NL East and are 21 games back of the first-placed Braves, who are 53-27 and are running away with the division.

Nonetheless, Washington is not backing down this season and can still seize some serious momentum heading into the all star break in just a few short weeks.