The Washington Nationals enter Saturday looking to build off of their strong Opening Day performance and improve to 2-0, something they haven’t done since 2018. Miles Mikolas, a free agent signing by Paul Toboni this past offseason, will be the pitcher trying to make that happen against his former division rival (more later in today’s notes).

The Nationals cruised to a monstrous 10-4 win on Thursday, defeating the Cubs despite needing 16 bullpen outs. This is the kind of game that didn’t seem to fall Washington’s way last season, but Blake Butera was able to get 5.1 innings of one-run ball from PJ Poulin, Brad Lord, Clayton Beeter, and Cionel Pérez. Lord carried the bulk of that, recording seven outs but also surrendering the lone run while recording a strikeout as well. Cade Cavalli had a solid performance as the starter, but Butera didn’t let things go awry with a high pitch count in the fourth inning.

Offensively, the bats first woke up in the second inning when Joey Wiemer hit the first home run for Washington. Down 2-1 in the fourth, however, Washington had five straight get on base starting with an Andrés Chaparro double, which gave them a 4-2 lead that they never handed back. A Jacob Young homer later made it 7-2 before the six-run frame ended. Brady House also joined in on the fun, muscling a two-run shot in the ninth inning to cap off an explosive day at the plate.

On Deck…

The Nationals and Cubs will wrap up this three game series on Sunday afternoon, when Jake Irvin takes the ball against Chicago’s dangerous lineup at 2:20. Lefty Shota Imanaga will pitch for the Cubs before Washington heads off to Philly.

In the hole…

The second and final stop on this road trip will be in Philadelphia, where Washington is set to begin a three-game set with the Phillies on Monday. Taijuan Walker will take the mound for Rob Thomson, while Blake Butera has not yet named his starter. What we do know, however, is that it will be either Foster Griffin or Zack Littell.