A long night on the mound for Nationals
A pitching staff that had been excelling in recent weeks looked more like the April version of itself during a 7-5 loss to the Padrse
It’s testament to how much better the Nationals have been pitching in recent weeks that tonight’s 7-5 loss to the Padres felt out of place.
Losing a game like this in early-April? Yeah, those were commonplace. Losing a game like this in late-May? No way.
But perhaps it was too much to ask a pitching staff that had delivered a 2.31 ERA over the last nine games to do that once again while facing a Padres lineup that may be short on results so far in 2026 but is loaded with big names with big track records.
“Sometimes you’ve got to tip your cap,” catcher Keibert Ruiz said. “They’ve got a really good team, veteran players. They came in with a good plan, and they were competing too.”
