Nationals play with energy and effort, salvage series with Rockies after Thursday’s win

Nationals manager Blake Butera didn’t mince words after Wednesday’s disastrous loss to a downtrodden Rockies team.

He took umbrage with the flat performance, saying the team didn’t play with the requisite energy to win. Failing to run hard on the bases struck a particular nerve because maximizing their athleticism on the bases had become a hallmark of the Nationals this season.

The Nationals turned the page in Thursday’s 7-1 win over Colorado to salvage a series split. Nasim Nuñez laid down key bunts, center fielder Jacob Young was opportunistic, turning a bloop single in left field into a double in the second inning, and the lineup was far more attuned to the situational aspects of the game.

“Today was awesome. All the way around, I couldn’t have been more proud of the effort, how hard these guys played today,” Butera said. “Obviously, the result to win 7-1, but just as a whole, we handled our business the right way and we played the game the right way. Love [catcher] Keibert [Ruiz] and Chappy [first baseman Andrés Chaparro], that back pick in the seventh to pick us up in a huge spot, and the bullpen was great, too.”

Heck, Dylan Crews exploded out of the batter’s box with the bases loaded to drive in a run and attempt to reach first to keep the bases loaded — he was ruled out after an official review, but the exertion was there.

In the eighth, Daylen Lile hustled on a Brady House RBI double to go first to home. Ruiz extended the lead with a two-run homer to right field. Young said the group’s extra effort on the bases wasn’t a point of emphasis entering Thursday, but that given the team’s offensive drought of late, the Nationals needed to be aggressive.

“Try just to find a way to force runs across, and try to find ways to force mistakes,” Young said. “And I thought we did a really good job playing hard baseball.”

Right-hander Jake Irvin didn’t have his best day, but the Rockies weren’t able to capitalize. Irivn allowed one run on three hits, with six walks and six strikeouts, in 4 1/3 innings. The offense left runs on the table — going 3-for-17 with runners in scoring position — but produced enough for a decisive victory.

The Nationals’ payroll is one of the lowest in the majors at roughly $96 million. Creating a hardworking, tireless culture is not only important; it’s a necessity. Given that the organization has been reluctant to spend since the 2019 World Series, the Nationals have to create that blue-collar culture to maximize the talent on the roster and set the tone as top prospects matriculate to the majors over the coming years.

But that this series was so disappointing illustrates how far the Nationals have come from the beginning of the season. Though the high energy and electric offense of the first half have largely dissipated, the high standard the team set remains.

Butera, in postgame news conferences, has largely chosen to address the group as a whole, rather than singling out an individual for poor performance. Deriding players to the media isn’t Butera’s style.

There’s a care to his managerial style that the players appreciate. But Butera is also a competitor who has had to deal with some of the most excruciating losses of his career this season. Upholding high expectations is paramount to ensuring the team endures an extended lull to end the season on a dour note.

“A lot of us haven’t played important September baseball before, and that’s what the goal is here is, to play October baseball,” Young said. “But you got to play good in September. So the goal is kind of to finish really strong here and understand what it’s like to play, you know, at the end of the season and you know when it starts getting chilly again.”

Butera addressed the team during the position-player meeting, telling the group to “look inward and find ways to get better.” He felt that the players received the message.

The early winning likely helped create buy-in from players, and that culture is designed to help the team persevere during rough stretches in the dog days of August. The Nationals have lost at least 90 games in each of the past five seasons. Finishing the season on a high note and not petering out could be important in building momentum for 2027.

“Nobody in this clubhouse wants to lose. But I think there’s a balancing piece of not being OK with it and also playing to win every single day,” Butera said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re first in the standings or you’re dead last. If we’re not going out there and playing as hard as we can and doing everything we can to have success every single day, then we’re not creating the type of culture and environment we want to have here.”

This article has been updated.