{"id":2292,"date":"2026-06-01T05:06:28","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T05:06:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=2292"},"modified":"2026-06-01T05:06:28","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T05:06:28","slug":"the-nationals-keep-winning-and-now-theyre-celebrating-accordingly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=2292","title":{"rendered":"The Nationals keep winning, and now they\u2019re celebrating accordingly"},"content":{"rendered":"

Keibert Ruiz and Zack Littell were the center of the clubhouse festivities after a series-clinching 4-2 win over the Padres.<\/strong><\/p>

Read more Aguirre puts faith in a new generation as Mexico seeks World Cup redemption<\/a><\/p>\n

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After a rough start to the season, Zack Littell posted a 2.35 ERA in May, capped by Sunday’s strong outing. (Rafael Suanes\/Imagn Images)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

A purple fedora was on display in Keibert Ruiz\u2019s locker following the Washington Nationals\u2019 4-2 win over the visiting San Diego Padres on Sunday, bestowed upon him for being the position player of the game.<\/p>\n

The Nationals had lots of options for the honor. Luis Garc\u00eda Jr. hit a solo home run in the fourth inning. An inning later, James Wood drove in two runs with his 16th long ball of the season. CJ Abrams had two hits, including a double, and pinch hitter Andr\u00e9s Chaparro doubled to provide an insurance run in the seventh inning.<\/p>\n

But the hat belonged to Ruiz on this day after he threw out three runners trying to steal, tying a Washington single-game record. A winning team needs a proper celebration. And the Nationals, who improved to two games above .500, finally have theirs.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou come to the field, and you never know who might be the hero that day,\u201d Wood said. \u201cIt\u2019s just fun rooting for all these guys. Everyone is playing at a really high level, and it feels like everyone\u2019s made big improvements, and it\u2019s cool to see.\u201d<\/p>\n

The celebration comes at the perfect time, too. The Nationals wrapped up May with a 16-12 record, their most wins in a calendar month since August 2023. Washington also secured its third straight series victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have a team full of young guys, being in games, taking series from teams that are really good, it\u2019s only going to continue to build confidence,\u201d starter Zack Littell said. \u201cOn a day-to-day basis, these guys come to the field every day knowing that we have a shot every single day.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Nationals\u2019 postgame revelry begins with the pitcher of the game, who gets to attempt a putt the length of the clubhouse. If he\u2019s successful, he gets $100 from every player. Littell, who pitched six innings of two-run ball Sunday, did not make his putt. Foster Griffin has been the only successful player so far, but Littell noted they have made the hole smaller since then.<\/p>\n

Then it\u2019s time to honor a hitter or position player. Jake Irvin came up with the idea for the fedora, and he brought the hat in for the first time Saturday. Drew Millas was the first player honored, followed by Ruiz on Sunday. They keep the hat until the next win.<\/p>\n

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James Wood, left, hit his 16th homer of the season, but Keibert Ruiz was the Nationals’ position player of the game for his work behind the plate. (Nick Wass\/AP)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

Littell was named pitcher of the game after another strong start. He pitched to a 2.35 ERA in six May outings with 19 strikeouts while keeping opponents to a .209 batting average. It\u2019s quite the turnaround from where he was at the end of April, when he had a 7.85 ERA in his first six outings.<\/p>

Read more Now watch this: US coach Mauricio Pochettino turns to laptop in-game during match with Senegal<\/a><\/p>\n

Littell didn\u2019t sign with the Nationals until the end of spring training, and while he never used it as an excuse, Manager Blake Butera noted Sunday that Washington is seeing now just how much losing out on spring training impacted him. But even as he struggled on the mound, he found other ways to help the team.<\/p>\n

He organized team dinners and golf outings to help the team unite and has worked with Cade Cavalli, the most inexperienced member of the rotation, to help him develop the \u201csoft skills\u201d a starter needs to succeed. These were all things veteran players did when Littell was coming up, and he didn\u2019t think twice about paying it forward with the Nationals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot more to Zack than what you see out on the mound,\u201d Butera said. \u201cThe stuff he does in the clubhouse is awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Sunday, Littell held the Padres scoreless through the first six innings. He was hoping to finish seven innings for the second outing in a row, but Butera pulled him after the first three batters reached in the seventh, with Ty France\u2019s double cutting the Nationals\u2019 lead to 3-1.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverall, Zack threw the ball great,\u201d Butera said. \u201cReally didn\u2019t have much trouble until the seventh there. Just did a really good job mixing speeds. \u2026 Just mixing his pitches, mixing his locations, and was very economical with his pitch count.\u201d<\/p>\n

With a worn-out bullpen, the Nationals turned to Orlando Ribalta, who has been steady in high-leverage situations. He gave up a sacrifice fly to Nick Castellanos and walked Sun-Mun Song before a double play ended it \u2014 Miguel Andujar took a called third strike, and Ruiz threw a strike to cut down Song at second.<\/p>\n

Ribalta, who had not pitched more than one inning this year, stayed in for the eighth after Chaparro\u2019s double gave him a cushion. He retired the side in order, and Clayton Beeter earned the save, punctuated by another strike-\u2019em-out, throw-\u2019em-out double play.<\/p>\n

May was an important month for the Nationals. As they turn the calendar to June, hosting the Miami Marlins for a three-game series starting Monday, they want to keep their progress going.<\/p>\n

\u201cReally happy with how we played in May,\u201d Butera said. \u201cOur goal from the beginning has been to make sure each day we are playing better and better. \u2026 I think if we continue on this track of guys putting in the work and continuing to get better day in and day out, happy with the way things are trending right now.\u201d<\/p>

Read more Russell Henley goes on late birdie run to win Colonial. Celine Boutier rallies to win on LPGA<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Keibert Ruiz and Zack Littell were the center of the clubhouse festivities after a series-clinching 4-2 win over the Padres.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2289,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Nationals keep winning, and now they\u2019re celebrating accordingly - 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=2292\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Nationals keep winning, and now they\u2019re celebrating accordingly - Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Keibert Ruiz and Zack Littell were the center of the clubhouse festivities after a series-clinching 4-2 win over the Padres.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=2292\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-01T05:06:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/e16178ad647cd63d0bf1b924c60b5fbf-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1707\" \/>\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=2292#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2292\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/22d40ab81790f6a361021763bb56ef03\"},\"headline\":\"The Nationals keep winning, and now they\u2019re celebrating accordingly\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-01T05:06:28+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2292\"},\"wordCount\":1013,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2292#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/d8f320d19c3f4aabe36526dc104311f2-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Interesting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2292#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2292\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2292\",\"name\":\"The Nationals keep winning, and now they\u2019re celebrating accordingly - Moving Insider USA\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2292#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2292#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/d8f320d19c3f4aabe36526dc104311f2-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-01T05:06:28+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/22d40ab81790f6a361021763bb56ef03\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2292#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2292\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=2292#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/d8f320d19c3f4aabe36526dc104311f2-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/d8f320d19c3f4aabe36526dc104311f2-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1707,\"caption\":\"Washington Nationals' James Wood, left, celebrates after his two-run home run with Keibert Ruiz (20) during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the San Diego Padres, Sunday, May 31, 2026, in Washington. 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