I feel like I have said this before, but here goes. Over my long coaching career, I have learned that the most important thing that part-time role players - such as, for example, a light-hitting utility infielder - can provide is energy and enthusiasm, or if you prefer, vibes. Baseball is a really long season, especially when you are flirting with being 30 games under .500 while still having a month to go. The guy who can put a smile on your face every day in the clubhouse and who puts in all of the work with little of the reward of playing is an invaluable resource, and sometimes they get to have a day. Check out the reaction of the Nationals’ bullpen on Nasim Nuñez’s first career home run:

It wasn’t just the players, either. Listen to Kolko on the call just losing his mind at everyone’s favorite clubhouse guy/little brother going yard. And then he did it again! With an oppo taco!

What a day for Nasim - especially against the team that drafted him and then left him unprotected two winters ago in the Rule 5 draft.

Nuñez was the big story, but he wasn’t the only performer yesterday as the Nationals scored ten runs on eleven hits and three walks, with Dylan Crews the only starter who failed to reach base (Josh Bell walked but did not check in with a hit). Brady House also homered - for the first time since his two-homer game in Milwaukee almost two months ago - and Daylen Lile had another two-hit day (those seem to be coming with regularity these days). Mitchell Parker was on his way to a strong five-inning start before Luis García Jr. airmailed a routine flip to Nuñez that would have ended that last frame with only two Marlin runs having scored.

Alas, a bases-loaded single by the next batter plated two more and Parker departed for Jackson Rutledge, who needed just one pitch to escape the inning in unusual fashion; the umpires initially ruled that Connor Norby was hit on the hand with Rutledge’s offering, but it was overturned upon review to have hit off the knob of Norby’s bat and NOT his hand - and because new catcher Jorge Alfaro was alert and finished the play (the ball landed in fair territory), it counted as an out. The one bummer was that Mason Thompson broke the bullpen’s nineteen-inning scoreless streak (imagine writing that sentence in May - or hell, imagine writing it in July) when a run scored on a passed ball (but hey, it wasn’t earned!). And so the Nats swept the Marlins with a 10-5 series finale in front of tens of fans at Nationals Park (the official attendance was 11,190, which, LOL - most of them were disguised as blue plastic chairs).

The Nationals have twenty-three games remaining, and must win at least seven of them to avoid the fourth 100-loss season since the franchise relocated from Montreal (the Expos lost 100 games twice). Can they do it? This weekend will be tough on the road against the Cubs - currently in the top wild card slot in the National League at 80-59 - with three day games (your correspondent will be at Wrigley for the Saturday tilt, part of a weekend celebration for a friend’s 40th birthday). But the rest of the schedule has just three of the twenty other games against teams with a winning record, a series at the Mets on September 19-21. Surely they can find seven wins in seventeen games against the Pirates, White Sox, Marlins, and Barves (twice).

📌 Checking in on the 2025 Draft Class

📌 1 player from each team with lots to prove down the stretch (MLB)

📌 Field of Dreams game is a good deal for Major League Baseball (Iowa Capital Dispatch)