What is the worst second half that we have seen here in Washington? There are four contenders (2008, 2009, 2021, and 2022), but this season is shaping up to challenge them. Let’s review what happened in each of those seasons after the All-Star break:

2008: 23-42 (.354), run differential of -66, ended season 59-102 overall. A seven-game win streak in late August probably eliminates this one from contention, plus we actually wanted the Nats to be bad enough to get the #1 pick and Stephen Strasburg the following summer.

2009: 33-41 (.446), run differential of -55, ended season 59-103 overall. This team had an eight-game winning streak to kick off August and a seven-game streak to close out the season, and Ryan Zimmerman, in his best campaign, actually got some down-ballot MVP votes on the worst team in baseball, so we’re disqualifying them here.

2021: 23-50 (.315), run differential of -81, ended season 65-97 overall. This was rough. Despite Juan Soto playing en fuego enough to finish runner-up for MVP on a last-place team, a gawd-awful bullpen (Klobotsits! Baldonado! Clay!) made sure no lead was safe after The Great Fire Sale and also made clear that the entire organization was thin on talent - and that a Soto trade was probably inevitable.

2022: 24-44 (.353), run differential of -104, ended season 55-107 overall. Take one drink for every open button on Luke Voit’s jersey. Take another for every hit surrendered by Patrick Corbin (and then call an ambulance). Watch Father Time strangle Nelson Cruz’s bat speed. See if Paolo Espino can qualify for that elusive first win (he had to wait for 2023). Shake your head at César Hernández’s name being on the lineup card (often in the leadoff spot!) every d*** day for reasons unknown even to his wife (probably). This team famously never won more than three games in a row all season and was a tough watch once Soto was gone, with only the out-of-body supernova performance from Joey Meneses to make them interesting.

My own personal opinion is that 2021 was the hardest, as they seemingly found new ways to lose every day, usually in the later innings. This second half is shaping up to be the most disappointing, because this one has as many players with real talent as all four of those teams displayed put together (Zim twice, Clip twice, J-Zimm, Willingham, and Soto, end of list). The 2025 Nationals are 6-10 (.375), which doesn’t seem comparatively as bad - until you remember that they’re on an L6 during which they have been outscored 70-26*, a number that looks more like a Big 12 football score. As Zim pointed out at the end of the television broadcast last night, at some point someone in the clubhouse has to get pissed off about losing every game 12-4 and spark some life into this crew. This is a rudderless team without a natural leader, or rather, the best hope for a natural leader is completing a rehab assignment in Rochester (Dylan Crews went 3-4 last night and drove in the Red Wings’ only run in their own 12-1 drubbing).

*11 of those 26 have come in the ninth inning of long-decided blowouts, which at least shows that they are playing hard to the finish and neither self-combusting nor throwing in the towel.

Athletics catcher Shea Langeliers, batting leadoff for the first time in his career, sent MacKenzie Gore’s fourth pitch over the out-of-town scoreboard in right-center field (his first of THREE bolts on the evening), and the A’s continued the Brewers' treatment of the Washington pitching staff. The first six batters for the A’s went homer-single-double-single-rocket flyout-homer as Gore continued his summer collapse. Gore made it two batters into the fourth inning - by which time the A’s were on their third time through the order - while allowing eight runs (all earned) on a dozen hits and a walk…with zero strikeouts.

The most interesting moment of this game for the Nats was when Brady House mistakenly tossed the ball used to record PJ Poulin’s first MLB out down the line to the ball girl in the top of the sixth, who then tossed it to a kid as Kevin Frandsen yelled “Noooooo!” on TV (Ricky Gutierrez traded for the ball at the end of the inning). And in striking out the side in the top of the ninth of a 16-3 game, Jackson Rutledge not only might have saved his job for the time being (either he or Andry Lara was getting optioned to AAA), but he also authored the first 1-2-3 inning of the homestand. Whoop-de-do.

Cade Cavalli made his MLB debut on August 26, 2022 against the Reds…and was never seen again. Until tonight! Cavalli, the Nats’ first-round pick in the COVID draft out of the University of Oklahoma (Mike Rizzo loves their pitchers), led the minor leagues in strikeouts in 2021 and was solid the following year at AAA, but got shellacked by the Reds on a sweaty evening and tweaked his shoulder in the process. He was eventually shut down, then tore his UCL at the end of spring training in 2023 and has spent two-plus long years rehabbing that injury. At long last, almost three years after his one appearance, Cavalli will take the mound again tonight and hope to stem or stop the bleeding.

But the Barber is not a savior - he has a 6.09 ERA at Rochester and is only getting the call because a) the Nats need someone with two arms, two legs, and a head to fill Michael Soroka’s rotation slot and b) it’s put up or shut up time for Cavalli, who not only missed all of 2023 as one does after Tommy John surgery but also only threw eight minor league innings in 2024. Anything that he produces is gravy at this point.

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