Washington

Nationals

Wood opened the scoring with a leadoff home run off Jansen Junk in the first inning, a 109.6 mph blast at 442 feet. He then drew a walk in the second, was hit by a pitch in the seventh, and doubled and scored a run in the ninth. The 23-year-old outfielder is hitting .243/.395/.526 with 11 homers, 35 runs scored, 28 RBI, and seven steals across 190 plate appearances.

Richard Lovelady had opened the game with two scoreless frames, striking out three. Littell took over in the third and surrendered a two-run homer to Kyle Stowers in the fourth inning. Miami would bring one more unearned run in to score in the sixth before Littell’s day was done. The 30-year-old right-hander holds an uninspiring 6.94 ERA, 1.60 WHIP, and a 17/13 K/BB ratio across 36 1/3 innings. His next outing is scheduled to come on Friday at home against the Orioles.

Richard Lovelady will serve as Washington’s opener to face the top of Miami’s lineup before handing things over to Littell for a bulk relief outing. The 30-year-old righty has worked behind an opener in back-to-back starts. It worked last time as he allowed one run over 3 2/3 innings to pick up a win against the Brewers this past weekend.

García is back at first base and hitting second following a four-game absence due to a right wrist sprain that he suffered last weekend. The 25-year-old infielder managed to avoid a trip to the injured list and shouldn’t miss any additional time. He has just one homer and two steals in 34 games this season.

Young hit his third homer of the season in the top of the first inning off Robbie Snelling to give the Nationals an early 3-0 lead. It would be the only hit of the night for Young, whose homer proved to be all the Nationals would need to down the Marlins in a game that turned into a pitchers’ duel over the final eight innings. Despite providing a key homer, Young remains well off the fantasy radar at this time.

Griffin’s fifth pitch of the game was a middle-high fastball to Xavier Edwards. Edwards got every bit of said pitch, smashing it 420 feet into deep center to cut the Nationals’ lead to 3-1. He would then allow a double to Otto Lopez in the next at-bat, with Lopez coming around to score on an error a few plays later. Griffin would manage to escape the inning with the lead still intact and would go on to pitch six scoreless innings to pick up his fourth win of the season. Now sitting with a 4-1 record on the year and boasting a 2.12 ERA, Griffin remains one of the best stories in baseball during the early portion of the season. He’ll look to pick up his fifth win in his next start, which is scheduled for Thursday against the Reds.

To be fair though, they are facing a left-hander on Friday night so it’s possible that he would have sat out that one even if he was fully healthy. The 25-year-old infielder suffered a right wrist sprain during Sunday’s contest against the Brewers and hasn’t played since. The fact that he hasn’t been placed on the injured list though — at least as of yet — bodes well for his chances of returning soon.

It was all about the catchers today, as Ryan Jeffers also homered and doubled twice for the Twins. The two had six of the nine extra-base hits in the game. Ruiz’s performance was certainly the bigger surprise, though. The homer was his second of this season and fourth since the beginning of last year. It’s the first time in his career that he’s had three extra-base hits. He scored three runs for the fifth time and drove in four for the fourth time. He had done either since 2024.

Ryan Jeffers had a walk and a double against Irvin when the Nationals decided to send their starter back out to face him for a third time to begin the sixth. A homer followed, and Irvin was done for the day. Irvin, who had his strikeout rate up to 25.3 percent for the season, fanned just two today. He’s 1-4 with a 5.22 ERA, and he’s slated to face the Reds next time out.

Varland came in with two outs in the eighth and gave up a single to Byron Buxton before slamming the door in a two-run game. He was removed from a save opportunity for matchup purposes in Sunday’s game, but he’s very clearly the favorite for saves in D.C. right now.