Another home run for the rookie first baseman ties Joey Meneses’s franchise record.
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Abimelec Ortiz had only two major league at-bats when the Washington Nationals called him up Aug. 3 after trading Luis García Jr. to the New York Yankees. The first baseman had shown power in the minors, but major league pitching is a different animal.
He hasn’t had any trouble adjusting. He hit another home run in Sunday’s 4-3 road loss to the New York Mets, his fifth to tie Joey Meneses for the most by a Nationals/Expos hitter in his first 14 major league games.
It wasn’t enough to help Washington, which was swept by last-place New York and is a season-high six games under .500. But even as the Nationals slip out of the 2026 picture, the pieces for next year’s team are starting to come together, including their future at first base.
Coming into spring training, the Nationals didn’t have a plan for how they would handle the position. They ended up moving García from second base, and he covered them until the trade. Now, the job is Ortiz and Andrés Chaparro’s to lose.
It began as a platoon, with Ortiz starting against right-handed pitching and Chaparro facing lefties. But with how well Chaparro has been hitting — he was 7 for 21 with a 1.059 OPS in his previous eight games entering Sunday, including a home run in Friday’s loss — he has been hard to keep on the bench.
On Sunday, with righty Christian Scott on the mound for the Mets, Chaparro served as the designated hitter with Ortiz in the field. It didn’t amount to any additional production — Chaparro went 0 for 3 and was pinch-hit for in the ninth inning — but now is the time to give it a try.
While Chaparro had been in the majors for spurts over the previous two years, this is his first time getting consistent starts. As for Ortiz, he has shown no signs of slowing down in his transition from Class AAA Rochester to the majors.
“I think he’s doing a really good job of controlling the zone and hunting the pitches that he’s looking for,” Manager Blake Butera told reporters. “When he gets them, he’s doing damage on them.”
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The Nationals had a chance behind Jake Irvin, another player looking to show he can contribute in 2027. After a rough outing against the Chicago Cubs, the right-hander made some progress against the Mets, striking out six batters in as many innings. Still, he was charged with four runs on eight hits and three walks, raising his ERA to 5.80.
The Nationals staked Irvin to an early lead. With two on and two out in the second inning, Keibert Ruiz singled to drive in Daylen Lile, though Brady House was caught in a rundown to end any chance of a crooked number. In the third inning, Ortiz’s solo shot made it 2-0.
But the Mets took over in the fourth. Jorge Polanco’s RBI groundout got them on the board, and with two outs, Luis Torrens pounced on a middle-middle fastball for a two-run homer.
An inning later, Irvin couldn’t escape another jam. After back-to-back singles to open the frame, he got Carson Benge to hit into a double play, but Jared Young followed him with an RBI double on a groundball that was just beyond Ortiz’s reach.
“[Irvin] left some pitches in the middle of the plate, especially in that fourth inning,” Butera told reporters. “The single, the double, the home run, just some hard contact.”
After Irvin pitched a 1-2-3 sixth, his only clean inning of the day, Ruiz added another RBI single in the seventh inning to get Washington within one. Max Kranick and Jake Bird held the score, but the Nationals failed to reach base in the eighth or ninth innings.
While Ortiz and Chaparro impressed against the Mets, CJ Abrams, who Butera said earlier this series would be moving from shortstop to second base, went 0 for 4 on Sunday to finish hitless in 10 at-bats this weekend.
“It’s tough,” Butera said. “CJ has been huge for us all the way up to this point and will continue to be the rest of the way. It stands out even more with losing guys like Luis, Curtis, and then Woody being out, it magnifies it even more.”
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