{"id":8897,"date":"2026-08-10T04:16:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T04:16:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=8897"},"modified":"2026-08-10T04:16:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T04:16:13","slug":"nationals-ride-their-bullpen-to-a-sweep-clinching-rout-of-the-reds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=8897","title":{"rendered":"Nationals ride their bullpen to a sweep-clinching rout of the Reds"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Brad Lord started Sunday’s bullpen game for the Nationals, allowing one run in 2\u2154 innings of a 7-1 win to secure the three-game series sweep over the Reds. (Nick Wass\/AP)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

When the Washington Nationals traded Luis Garc\u00eda Jr., Curtis Mead and Foster Griffin, they knew they were sacrificing some of their potential success this season from the offense and rotation in exchange for much-needed pitching depth to support them the rest of this year and beyond.<\/p>

Read more Trump picks longtime aide Will Scharf as new top White House lawyer<\/a><\/p>\n

In doing so, and with arms which recently became available again, they were able to do something on Sunday that would have seemed unfathomable a short time ago: They won a game in which they relied upon their bullpen from start to finish. With the combination of Brad Lord, Will Dion, Trevor Williams and Jake Bird, the Nationals beat the Cincinnati Reds, 7-1, to sweep the series.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty cool, knowing it\u2019s a bullpen day going in and carrying it all the way to the end and holding them to one run. That\u2019s pretty special,\u201d Lord said. \u201cIt\u2019s just awesome to see.\u201d<\/p>\n

Across the three-game series, the bullpen allowed just two runs in 15\u2154 innings, an impressive feat for a unit that had a 4.94 ERA before the Aug. 3 deadline, the fourth-highest ERA in Major League Baseball.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we have some interesting arms down there now, and I think we have some different looks,\u201d Manager Blake Butera said. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot of fun when these guys are throwing the way they have this series.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Sunday, they got offensive contributions from Keibert Ruiz and Jacob Young, who hit an RBI single and sacrifice fly in the second inning, plus Abimelec Ortiz, who was recalled to replace Garc\u00eda. He hit a home run in the third inning, his second since Monday. They added onto their lead in the seventh and eighth innings, Daylen Lile, Young and Andr\u00e9s Chaparro all coming through to drive in runs.<\/p>\n

But it was the bullpen, all series, that held it together, the impacts of the trades already felt.<\/p>\n

Cruz, acquired in the Garc\u00eda trade on Aug. 2, brought his triple-digit four-seam fastball with him from the New York Yankees\u2019 organization. He had only pitched in four major league games when the Nationals acquired him, but they\u2019ve already trusted him in high-leverage situations.<\/p>\n

In Friday\u2019s 5-3 win, Cruz entered the game in the seventh inning with runners on first and third and no outs. He walked one, but got Sal Stewart to ground into a double play to end the inning.<\/p>

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A day later, Cruz again took on the seventh inning. This time he entered at the top of the inning, walking one and giving up a base hit but nothing further. He\u2019s walked three and allowed one run in his three appearances so far with the Nationals.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow that Cruz is here, he\u2019s helping a ton,\u201d Butera said after Cruz\u2019s performance on Saturday. \u201cObviously we see how good the stuff is. If he continues to gain confidence and pitch the way he has the last two nights, I\u2019m really excited to see what future he has in front of him.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Aug. 5, Zack Littell was designated for assignment to clear a roster spot for Lord to return from the injured list. Down a starter, the Nationals turned to Lord to pitch the first the first 2\u2154 innings. He allowed one run in the second inning after Tyler Stephenson hit a single, advanced to second after Eugenio Su\u00e1rez was hit by a pitch, moved to third when H\u00e9ctor Rodr\u00edguez grounded out and scored on a sacrifice fly from Dane Myers.<\/p>\n

Following Lord, Dion, acquired from Cleveland in the Griffin trade, made his first appearance at Nationals Park. He pitched three innings, allowing one hit and nothing more. Dion earned the win, his first, and was celebrated postgame with a beer shower.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s not afraid out there, that\u2019s the big thing,\u201d Butera said. \u201cWhen you have that kind of funky arm action with really good stuff, the curveball is really good, the fastball plays up because of the carry, and then he\u2019s got a good changeup, too. He\u2019s able to neutralize both rights and lefties.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dion passed the game to Williams, who was making just his fifth appearance after his year-long return from elbow surgery. He pitched 2\u2153 scoreless innings, getting some help in the eighth inning from his defense as CJ Abrams turned a double play. Williams has not allowed a run in his 8\u2153 innings, giving the Nationals another multi-inning reliever option.<\/p>\n

In the ninth, Bird, also acquired in the Garc\u00eda trade, made his first major league appearance for the Nationals with a 7-1 cushion. He didn\u2019t need it: he pitched a 1-2-3 inning, securing the win and a successful bullpen game for the Nationals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bullpen did a really good job getting ahead,\u201d Ruiz said. \u201cAll the new guys, they\u2019re really good, and I\u2019m happy that they\u2019re here. We just have to keep going.\u201d<\/p>

Read more Andrew Alvarez helps Nationals pull it together for win over Reds<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Washington bullpen allowed just two runs in 15\u2154 innings over three games against Cincinnati.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8895,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nNationals ride their bullpen to a sweep-clinching rout of the Reds - 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=8897\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Nationals ride their bullpen to a sweep-clinching rout of the Reds - Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Washington bullpen allowed just two runs in 15\u2154 innings over three games against Cincinnati.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=8897\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-10T04:16:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/6df0b1b6f61ce3af592235f169428c09-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=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8897#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8897\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/22d40ab81790f6a361021763bb56ef03\"},\"headline\":\"Nationals ride their bullpen to a sweep-clinching rout of the Reds\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-10T04:16:13+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8897\"},\"wordCount\":897,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8897#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/c8d7e48422c19987e016db4579e5a745-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Interesting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8897#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8897\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8897\",\"name\":\"Nationals ride their bullpen to a sweep-clinching rout of the Reds - 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