Port St. Lucie, Florida — February 28th, 2026 — Brady House smashes two doubles and Nats’ pitchers escape late push from Mets to win 3-2.

The Nats offense took a few innings to get rolling, but the Nats took a 2-0 lead after four innings behind strong pitching from Jake Irvin and timely hitting. Irvin, Perez, Rutledge, and Henry pitched six innings while giving up just one hit. The Nats led 3-0 after six innings. The Mets scored runs in both the seventh and eighth innings, but the Nats’ pitching staff held on to get the win.

Guiding questions (answer above, delete after):

The Nats mounted a small rally at the top of the third inning when Nasim Nunez doubled to move Seaver King to third base. James Wood grounded out to drive in King and move Nunez to third base. Daylen Lile struck out to end the inning. Brady House led off the next inning with a double to left, then Robert Hassell III grounded out to advance House to third. Andres Chaparro flew out to center field to drive in House to give the Nats a 2-0 advantage.

In the sixth inning, House hit another screaming line drive to left for a double. A wild pitch by Mets’ Adbert Alzolay moved House to third base. House was thrown out at home on a fielder’s choice play by Ronny Mauricio. Johnathon Thomas pinch ran for Hassell III and stole second base in the next at-bat. Warming Bernabel singled on a ground ball to left field to score Thomas, putting the Nats ahead 3-0. That was it for the Nats’ offense on Saturday afternoon.

The Nationals’ pitching staff performed well on Saturday against the Mets. Jake Irvin started and earned the win after pitching three innings and striking out four batters. The right-hander walked just one and threw 28 strikes on 43 pitches. Left-hander Cionel Perez followed Irvin with a perfect inning of work. Cole Henry pitched in the fifth and threw 22 pitches, but didn’t give up a hit. Paxton Shultz and Richard Lovelady each gave up one run in the seventh and eighth innings. PJ Poulin made it interesting in the ninth, walking two batters, but earned the save in the 3-2 victory.

Cayden Wallace committed a fielding error in the bottom of the ninth that allowed runners to advance to second and third base. It was almost a fatal error for the Nats, but PJ Poulin got Jacob Reimer to fly out to center field to end the game. Aside from Wallace's error, the Nats played a clean defensive game. Nasim Nunez and Seaver King turned a double play, one of the few this spring for any reason.

Two moments that were key in today’s victory for the Nationals. Richard Lovelady escaped a jam in the bottom of the eighth inning by striking out Josh Ramos and inducing a ground ball from Jared Young to end the inning. The Mets had just scored a run to bring the game within just one run, and escaping that jam was key for the Nats.

PJ Poulin put himself in a difficult situation after walking two batters in the bottom of the ninth. Poulin wasn’t getting much help on defense as Cayden Wallace committed a fielding error to allow both runners to advance into scoring position. Poulin got Jacob Reimer to fly out to end the game in the next at-bat. Two pitchers that are on the fringe of making the Opening Day roster got the Nats out of jams.

Player of the Game: Brady House(2-3, 2 2B)

The Nationals return home to take on the Marlins Sunday afternoon at 1:05 EST. Brad Lord is on the mound for Washington, while Chris Paddack gets the ball for Miami. The Nats will look to get their sixth win of the spring.