Good morning, Washington Nationals fans.

Here are the latest headlines and analyses around the Washington Nationals and Major League Baseball for today, May 9.

Welcome to the Morning Briefing! Haden here. Let’s talk about the Nats tough loss.

Leading this Morning’s Briefing: Nationals drop game two in extras

It may have taken eight innings, but the Nationals offense exploded to score five runs in the final four innings. It still was not enough, and the Nationals dropped game two of the two-game set to the Orioles 7-6.

LHP Mitchell Parker was solid, throwing 5.2 innings and striking out three. He allowed two runs, both off of solo home runs. The bullpen held strong, but once the Nationals had to call on their seventh reliever of the day, Jordan Weems, the tires flew off and a throwing error allowed the O’s to take the lead.

Eddie Rosario went 2-4 with a walk and a home run in the ninth off Craig Kimbrel. A much-needed home run as Rosario will need to get going if he wants playing time when Joey Gallo and Lane Thomas return.

Keibert Ruiz contributed with two hits of his own as he went 2-5. Luis García Jr. hit a double. If you told me García was the second most valuable position player and third most valuable Nationals this deep into May I wouldn’t have been shocked, but the level of success he’s having would be.

García is currently walking in 7.8 percent of his plate appearance, and while that number is far from leading the league, it’s significant for him. Heading into this season, his career walk rate was 4.8 percent. With a low strikeout rate and middling power, García’s success was up to batted ball luck.

In 2023, we saw García begin to change his approach at the plate though. He chased out of the zone less and cut down on whiffs, prioritizing contact at the plate. It led to him having a career year in fWAR with 0.5, but he was still far from being an everyday player.

In 2024, García continued to chase less but is now swinging less overall. He is working counts more, and looking for pitches to drive instead of swinging at anything that is a strike. Sure, he is striking out 18.3 percent of the time, a big jump from last season’s 12.4 percent, but now García is crushing the baseball. Over 50 percent of his batted balls are classified as hard hit, which is an exit velocity of over 95 mph, and he has by far the highest expected slugging and wOBA numbers of his career.

Additionally, he is rocking the lowest ground ball percentage of his career, which if he keeps up should allow him to maintain a higher than normal BABIP.

So while the level and method of production that García is producing is likely unsustainable, this should finally be the breakout season that prospect evaluators were dreaming of when putting him on their top 100 lists.

The Nationals have a day off today but will travel north to take on the 19-18 Boston Red Sox. Patrick Corbin will take on RHP Tanner Houck.

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