Good morning, Washington Nationals fans.

Here are the latest headlines and analyses around the Washington Nationals and Major League Baseball for today, May 8.

Welcome to the Morning Briefing! Haden here. Let’s talk about Trevor Williams and the Nats win.

Leading this Morning’s Briefing: Williams and Co. deny any offense from O’s to take game one in DC

Trevor Williams and the rest of the Nationals bullpen shut out the Orioles last night. Yes, the same Orioles who are currently sixth in MLB in runs scored and third in OPS. Williams currently has a 1.96 ERA through seven starts.

The way he has accomplished it is baffling. From a per-batter basis, Williams has the 29th lowest strikeout rate among the 78 qualified major league starters. If you look at it from a more traditional per-inning basis, Williams falls to the 22nd lowest with 7.36 K/9. Williams has also walked 8.5 percent of the batters he has faced, tied for the 23rd-highest among qualified pitchers. That leaves Williams as bottom third in the league in two key outcomes he can control.

So how is Williams, who throws the eighth-slowest fastball in the majors and not a league leader in any major statistic, a top-15 pitcher in baseball so far this season?

Well, Williams seems to hate three things: the author of The Odyssey, the dad in The Simpsons, and the long ball. Or in other words, homers. After allowing the second most home runs on a rate basis last season behind only Lance Lynn (who allowed the sixth most home runs in MLB history), Williams is yet to allow one this season. He is the only qualified starter to do that. His homer-less streak ranks ninth in team history, and if he can keep it for another start he is going to leapfrog quite a few arms.

To max out his homer-hate, Williams is rocking the highest groundball percentage of his career. Limiting fly balls is a good recipe for preventing home runs, and his 49 percent ground ball rate ranks 14th in the league.

Williams made some repertoire changes between seasons. He swapped out his curveball for a sweeper, which also ate up some of his fastball usage. The sweeper immediately became his best pitch. In an interview with MLB Network last night, Williams said the curveball was just a “show me pitch” that he would throw for strikes. Swapping that pitch, which opponents slugged .625 against last season, for a plus sweeper seems like a no-brainer.

Back to the game, the bullpen continued Williams’s great work. Robert Garcia, Derek Law, Hunter Harvey, and Kyle Finnegan threw scoreless innings. While each of them has had their blowups this season, they are each a crucial piece in a bullpen tied for third in fWAR so far this season.

Joey Meneses and Jesse Winker provided a bulk of the offense last night, each getting two hits, including a double. With that, the Nationals move to an 18-17 record, putting them over .500 for the first time since July 2021. If they can keep this up, the scrappy Nats may have a shot at playoffs after all.

Tonight LHP Mitchell Parker (2-1, 2.53 ERA) will face off against RHP Kyle Bradish (0-0, 1.93 ERA). First pitch is at 6:45 pm ET and the Nationals broadcast should be on MASN.

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