WEST PALM BEACH, FL - The Washington Nationals defeated the reigning AL West champion Houston Astros by a score of 4-3 this afternoon as the technical road team in West Palm Beach, in the third meeting between the clubs this spring. The Nationals’ offense started off hot, and the pitching staff held things together despite a few scares as the Nats improved their spring record to 5-4.

Right-handed starter and free agent signing Trevor Williams made his second start in Florida against a lineup that featured most of Houston’s biggest stars, including Jose Altuve, Yordan Alvarez, and Christian Walker. Williams had a slightly better start than he did in his previous outing, allowing just one run in 2.1 innings as opposed to two runs in 2.0. However, he allowed five hits today as opposed to one last time. The lone run came off of a string of hits that was capped by a Jake Meyers single up the middle in the bottom of the second. All things considered, Williams still is showing room for improvement early on in camp but did not disappoint today.

The Nationals’ day did not start clean. James Wood, who was still scheduled to play today despite dealing with right quad tendinitis throughout camp, was not on the initial lineup sheet that sent reporters and fans into a frenzy. Manager Dave Martinez cleared this up, saying he had not fixed the original lineup sheet from a few days ago.

“He's feeling good,” Martinez said this morning. “Depending on how long the game goes, we'll hope to get him three at-bats again. Then we'll see how he's doing.”

Wood ended up taking four at-bats today, which was a much-welcome improvement. He went 1-4 before being replaced by Andres Chaparro. However, despite Martinez saying of Wood, “If he happens to get on base in the first inning or two, I'd like to see him run around a little bit today,” he did not attempt to steal any bases or do anything intense on the basepaths. Overall, as he looks to slowly get back to 100 percent before the season, today was a great step for the 22-year-old outfielder.

The Wood debacle was not the only confusion today. Martinez had also claimed this morning that left-hander DJ Herz would be the second pitcher of the game, following Williams. Since camp would be closed tomorrow, it made sense to have Herz throw today, and it is worth noting that this means nothing about what role they see him in for the regular season. However, former Guardians southpaw Konnor Pilkington tossed a scoreless inning between them. When Herz ultimately came in for his two innings, he walked four batters, gave up two runs, and only went for 1.2, raising his spring ERA to 10.80. Brad Lord, Jack Sinclair, and Daison Acosta were able to pick Herz up and finish the game off without allowing any further runs.

The lineup, similar to last night’s 7-0 win over the Marlins, showed up early but did not apply much late pressure. In the top of the first, Keibert Ruiz hit a ball that forced two errors on the same play, one by Luis Guillorme and one by Altuve. Alex Call followed that with an RBI single to give the Nationals an early 2-0 lead off of Ronel Blanco. Paul DeJong then pulled a towering two-run homer in the third inning off of lefty Josh Hader, closing out the Nats’ scoring for the day. While it has worked the last two games, it is not good practice to be scoreless in the back half of games. That being said, as spring substitutions start happening, it is not like the Nationals’ main guys are the ones playing those late innings.

Up next:

The Nationals will face the St. Louis Cardinals at home on Tuesday in West Palm after a full off-day Monday. There will be no workout or game tomorrow, giving the team some well-deserved rest. Tuesday’s game will be broadcast on MASN for the Nationals and FanDuel Sports Midwest for the Cardinals.

The Nationals have not announced a starting pitcher yet. Still, the Cardinals will be sending out righty Andre Pallante, who has been decent for the Cardinals the past few seasons as both a starter and reliever, despite having a rough start to his spring. From Tuesday forward, the Nats will have a game every day until Tuesday, March 11.