{"id":1606,"date":"2026-05-26T07:04:39","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T07:04:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=1606"},"modified":"2026-05-26T07:04:39","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T07:04:39","slug":"in-series-opener-against-cleveland-nationals-show-up-in-full-force","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=1606","title":{"rendered":"In series opener against Cleveland, Nationals show up in full force"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n
Dylan Crews celebrates after hitting a double against the Cleveland Guardians on Monday. (Nick Cammett\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

CLEVELAND \u2014 The Washington Nationals could have pulled out a number of excuses to get them by had things gone astray Monday. They were fresh off a rain-riddled series finale in Atlanta<\/a>, a game that included not one but two delays before they could claim a series finale in the evening hours Sunday. That set back their travel itinerary on an already late getaway game, and they didn\u2019t arrive to their hotel in Cleveland until early Monday.<\/p>

Read more Svechnikov scores in OT as Hurricanes beat Canadiens 3-2 in Game 3 of East final<\/a><\/p>\n

But instead of dragging through Monday\u2019s series opener against the Cleveland Guardians, they showed up in full force. The Nationals smashed six home runs, tying their season-high, as they beat the Guardians 10-2. They enter every game believing they can beat any team, and they did just that yet again against one of the best in the American League.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is just a flash of what this team can do,\u201d pitcher Zack Littell said.<\/p>\n

Washington, now 28-27, has a winning record for the first time since they were 3-2 on March 31. And this time, it wasn\u2019t just James Wood and CJ Abrams who led the way, although they did play parts.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s fun winning baseball games,\u201d manager Blake Butera said. \u201cUltimately, the record doesn\u2019t really matter until the end of the year. \u2026 At the end of the day, just happy with the win and happy with how we\u2019re playing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The offensive onslaught started from the jump with a leadoff home run from Wood. That\u2019s to be expected from him; he mashes balls left and right and now has 14 this season. But then it was Curtis Mead two batters later, who doesn\u2019t have the same track record. He\u2019s starting to show his potential, though, with everyday playing time as his slugging percentage (.496) and OPS (.852) both sit at career-highs.<\/p>\n

Jacob Young followed with yet another home run to kick off the second inning. He spent the winter and early part of the season improving his bat speed, and now he has seven home runs in 52 games, compared with five in his previous 303. Luis Garc\u00eda Jr., who had a double in the first inning, hit his home run later in the second to make it 6-0.<\/p>\n

In the third, CJ Abrams, off to the best first half of his career, hit his 12th ball out of the park this year. That was enough to drive Guardian\u2019s starter Tanner Bibee out of the game after the third inning after he allowed five home runs, tying a franchise record, but not enough to slow down the onslaught from the Nationals offense. In the fifth, Mead smashed a flyball just right of the left field foul pole for the first multi-home-run game of his career.<\/p>\n

After running through the dugout collecting his high-fives, Mead turned around and fist-pumped himself as he headed back the other direction, basking in his accomplishment. And as he did so, fans stood up and headed for the exits. With the score now 8-2 and tip-off of Game Four of the Eastern Conference Finals just minutes away, Cleveland fans crossed the street or headed to nearby bars, hoping to have better luck at Rocket Arena than at Progressive Field. (That wasn\u2019t looking likely either.)<\/p>

Read more Astros starter Tatsuya Imai and 2 relievers throw combined no-hitter against Rangers<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cCouldn\u2019t be happier for him to get this opportunity and some runway to play and play a lot,\u201d Butera said of Mead. \u201cSome extended playing time, I think, goes a long way to one, help him get some confidence and two, get into that rhythm of everyday at-bats and hopefully build off the success.\u201d<\/p>\n

Washington added two more runs in the sixth. After Daylen Lile walked, Young hit a grounder for a base hit, and Drew Millas reached on a fielding error to load the bases. Garc\u00eda Jr. then hit a grounder to send in two runs for his third hit of the day. He ultimately fell a triple short of the cycle, despite his best efforts to race a deep flyball in the eighth that almost hopped fair.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just so impressive, the at-bats from start to finish,\u201d Butera said. \u201cComing out of the gates hot like that against an arm like Bibee is not easy, and the way we set the tone early on and gave our pitching some room to breathe a little bit there, and then they continue to pile it on outside of the first inning, made it that much easier for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

And while the pitching wasn\u2019t the propellant like it was in Atlanta, they still allowed just two runs. PJ Poulin served as the opener, pitching the first two innings and allowing just one run, a solo home run by Rhys Hoskins. Zack Littell went the rest of the distance, covering seven innings while giving up just one run, saving the bullpen from needing to deploy an arm while the team is in the home stretch of 16 games without a day off.<\/p>\n

Notes: <\/b>The Nationals acquired left-handed pitcher Carson Palmquist from the Colorado Rockies in exchange for cash considerations and optioned him to Class AAA Rochester, the team announced<\/p>\n

Palmquist, 25, made his MLB debut in 2025, pitching to an 8.91 ERA in 34 1\/3 innings. He had a 7.20 ERA in 12 appearances in AAA this year.<\/p>

Read more Mariners slug 4 homers in their 9-2 victory over the Athletics<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Nats offense gave the bullpen a breather in the 10-2 win over the Guardians.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1604,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nIn series opener against Cleveland, Nationals show up in full force - Moving Insider USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=1606\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"In series opener against Cleveland, Nationals show up in full force - Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Nats offense gave the bullpen a breather in the 10-2 win over the Guardians.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=1606\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-26T07:04:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/c84095b7b59b31a6d72f80be430f1319-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1706\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=1606#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=1606\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/22d40ab81790f6a361021763bb56ef03\"},\"headline\":\"In series opener against Cleveland, Nationals show up in full force\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-26T07:04:39+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=1606\"},\"wordCount\":941,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=1606#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/82c53c091f331c8923aacc4f4096fe1c-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Interesting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=1606#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=1606\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=1606\",\"name\":\"In series opener against Cleveland, Nationals show up in full force - Moving Insider USA\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=1606#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=1606#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/82c53c091f331c8923aacc4f4096fe1c-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-26T07:04:39+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/22d40ab81790f6a361021763bb56ef03\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=1606#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=1606\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=1606#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/82c53c091f331c8923aacc4f4096fe1c-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/82c53c091f331c8923aacc4f4096fe1c-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1706,\"caption\":\"CLEVELAND, OHIO - MAY 25: Dylan Crews #3 of the Washington Nationals celebrates hitting a double during the ninth inning against the Cleveland Guardians at Progressive Field on May 25, 2026 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Nick Cammett\\\/Getty Images)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=1606#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"In series opener against Cleveland, Nationals show up in full force\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"Moving Insider USA\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/22d40ab81790f6a361021763bb56ef03\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"In series opener against Cleveland, Nationals show up in full force - Moving Insider USA","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=1606","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"In series opener against Cleveland, Nationals show up in full force - Moving Insider USA","og_description":"The Nats offense gave the bullpen a breather in the 10-2 win over the Guardians.","og_url":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=1606","og_site_name":"Moving Insider USA","article_published_time":"2026-05-26T07:04:39+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2560,"height":1706,"url":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/c84095b7b59b31a6d72f80be430f1319-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=1606#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=1606"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/#\/schema\/person\/22d40ab81790f6a361021763bb56ef03"},"headline":"In series opener against Cleveland, Nationals show up in full force","datePublished":"2026-05-26T07:04:39+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=1606"},"wordCount":941,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=1606#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/82c53c091f331c8923aacc4f4096fe1c-scaled.jpg","articleSection":["Interesting"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=1606#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=1606","url":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=1606","name":"In series opener against Cleveland, Nationals show up in full force - Moving Insider USA","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=1606#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=1606#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/82c53c091f331c8923aacc4f4096fe1c-scaled.jpg","datePublished":"2026-05-26T07:04:39+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/#\/schema\/person\/22d40ab81790f6a361021763bb56ef03"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=1606#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=1606"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=1606#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/82c53c091f331c8923aacc4f4096fe1c-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/82c53c091f331c8923aacc4f4096fe1c-scaled.jpg","width":2560,"height":1706,"caption":"CLEVELAND, OHIO - MAY 25: Dylan Crews #3 of the Washington Nationals celebrates hitting a double during the ninth inning against the Cleveland Guardians at Progressive Field on May 25, 2026 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Nick Cammett\/Getty Images)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=1606#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"In series opener against Cleveland, Nationals show up in full force"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/","name":"Moving Insider USA","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/#\/schema\/person\/22d40ab81790f6a361021763bb56ef03","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com"],"url":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}