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The Nats began their season in style with a 10-4 road victory over the Cubs on a chilly Thursday afternoon. Mark (From Wrigley Field) & Al discuss the strong start for the offense, as a trio of Nationals went deep. Joey Wiemer got things going with a solo shot in the 2nd while getting the nod in RF. The other homers came courtesy of Jacob Young and Brady House in the 9th for some welcomed insurance.
(12:00) The first lineup card under Blake Butera had a few surprises, including Andres Chpparo hitting 2nd.
(16:30) The bullpen had a busy and effective afternoon as four pitchers combined for just over five innings of work. Brad Lord earned the win as the versatile pitcher is beginning this season in relief. Veteran lefty Cionel Perez notched the save in his first appearance with Washington.
(22:05) Cade Cavalli's Opening Day start only lasted into the bottom of the 4th, but he did record five strikeouts along the way. Cavalli tossed 75 pitches before handing it off the P.J. Poulin.
(25:40) CJ Abrams had a 2-run single in the 4th, but it also included a mental mistake. Abrams admired his long hit, but it did not go over the fence and it resulted in him getting thrown at 2nd base.
(31:00) Update on Josiah Gray's latest trip to the 60-day IL.
(35:30) Miles Mikolas will start on Saturday and Jake Irvin will take the mound in Chicago on Sunday.
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And the pitch swung on in highly air to deep left field.
This is half going back in the warning track at the wall and it is gone.
Goodbye. Five rules deep toward the left field corner into a ferocious wind.
Bang Zoom goes Joey Wimmer with the first nationals home run of the year.
Three one. So we had a fly ball right field to wind pushing it toward the corner,
giving Chase a shot. This went over his head and gone.
Oh my goodness, Jacob Young is over to the opposite field into the basket.
A wind blown to run homer for Jacob Young and the nationals lead it seven to two.
Wept the rivers swinging a high fly ball right field deep.
Back goes Conforter at the wall looking up and it is gone. Goodbye.
The third home run of the day for the nationals,
hops around first went back to touch.
Looking you might have missed the bag.
Bang Zoom goes Brady Houses, he circles the bases with an opening day to run home run here
in the top of the ninth inning. And the nationals poured it on late.
They have hit double digits at Rigley Field.
It's now the nationals 10 of the Cubs for.
And welcome to NachChant, along with Washington Nationals,
insider mark, soccerman of gnatsjournal.com.
I'm Al Galdi, host of the Al Galdi podcast.
Mark is at Rigley Field where the gnats scored their most runs in an opening day game
since the franchise moved to Washington, D.C.
in the 2004-2005 off season. Not a bad way to begin.
The 22nd regular season of the gnats being in D.C.,
a 10-4 win at the Chicago Cubs on Thursday in game one of a three game series.
Welcome to season number six of the gnatschat podcast,
the only gnats podcast for which there is a new episode for the morning
after every gnats regular season.
Game day, Mark has covered the team since it came to D.C.
I've been doing sports talk in D.C. for nearly 25 years.
It is great to have you with us.
As is the opening day tradition on the gnatschat podcast,
this installment of the show brought to us by the great Mason Calpis,
the top legal recruiter in Washington, D.C.
Mason has been with us since our first season.
You can reach him at 202-486-3535.
Our deepest sympathies to those of you who had some issues
when it came to watching this game on Thursday.
The phrase Verizon Files Channel 579
became ingrained in the minds of more than a few gnats fans.
In fact, if you do a search on ex-nationals,
Verizon Files Channel 579,
a whole lot of things end up popping up.
I don't know, you know, sometimes Tim Shovers struggles
or at least wrestles with what to call episodes of this podcast,
like what to use as the title.
Maybe the title of this pod,
Tim should be Verizon Files Channel 579.
I don't know.
Anyway, hopefully you did get to watch the game.
And, Mark, this was a fun opening day.
We all get it.
The gnats are not expected to have a good season.
But, you know, for a game number one for this team
with this new process fueled by analytics and sports science,
the team led by a new president of baseball operations
in Poltabonia, new general manager
and Ani Kalambia, new manager and Blake Butera.
So far, so good.
Nice to say, want to know.
You know, I could argue this is the most encouraging
uplifting opening day this team has had.
Since the last time they opened that Riggly Field way back in 2012,
that was a new look nationals team
that had high expectations.
They won an opening day and obviously went on to win 98 games
and make the playoffs for the first time.
I'm not saying this season's going to come anywhere close to that,
but in terms of just the encouraging nature of it,
and they won the game, yes,
but it's also the way they wanted with some unexpected power,
with contributions up and down the lineup
and up and down the pitching staff.
There were so many guys who had a role in this win.
This is in their perfect vision, Blake Butera and Poltabonia.
This is the kind of win that they are hoping to see a lot more of.
It's not just about a couple of the big name guys.
It's about everybody.
It's about putting together a lineup that was fully based
on the matchups and seeing it come through the way that it did.
It's about piecing together their bullpen again,
picking the right guys for the right spots
and seeing that group come through.
I don't know this is exactly how they would have scripted it to go,
but it had to be pretty close to what they could have
foreseen or envisioned.
This one being like,
and I do feel terrible for anyone who wasn't able to watch
for technical difficulties or whatever the reasons might be
because this was a fun game.
I hope there are a lot more of them this season.
I hope this was not the high point of the entire 2026 season,
but it was like in your dream world,
this is about as good of a scenario as you could have drawn up for game one.
Crazy game two.
A Nats Outfielder with the initials JW was a big time offensive producer.
That outfielder was not James Wood.
That outfielder was Joey Weemer.
Go figure.
But yeah, so with the lineup, right?
So we get it.
New process for the Nats.
We are anticipating seeing a ton of different lineups over the course
of the 162 and sure enough.
The Nats on Thursday had multiple notable items with the lineup.
Andres Chaparo was the starting first baseman and number two batter.
The aforementioned Joey Weemer was the Nats starting right.
Fielder and number five batter.
He batted ahead of CJ Abrams,
who was the Nats starting shortstop.
And number six batter.
And oh, by the way, the Nats were facing a good pitcher
in the cups opening day starter lefty Matthew Boyd.
Matthew Boyd, last regular season 31 starts.
He already a 321.
This guy's a good pitcher.
He's a veteran pitcher.
And the Nats got to him in this game.
Boyd allowed six runs in three and two thirds innings.
It was not he had seven strikeouts versus one walk.
But the Nats ended up ripping them.
And the overall offensive production.
I mean, how do you complain about this?
10 runs.
11 hits, which were three homers.
A double and seven singles.
The Nats worked two walks into hit by pitch.
The Nats went three for six with runners in scoring position.
And the Nats did what they did offensively.
Despite a rough game for James Wood.
He was the Nats starting left fielder and number one batter.
He went over five with four strikeouts.
But even with that, if you look at the stat cast data for this game,
so many impressive exit velos for the Nats in this game,
they were hitting balls hard.
They got good offensive results.
And again, they did this with James Wood
having a really rough game offensively.
Yeah, I think the two themes of this game from an offensive standpoint
is number one, getting contributions from lots of different guys.
And you saw that where you could get away with James Wood having
what's admit, a very August and September 2025,
James Wood kind of game at the plate.
You hope that doesn't continue.
We'll ignore that for today because there are way more interesting things to talk about.
So number one, getting the contributions from all the others.
The other, I think, keep point to it all when they made contact.
And they didn't make contact a lot in those first three hitings.
Seven of their first 10 batters struck out.
But when they did make contact against Boyd, it was loud contact.
You had two drives to the warning track in the first two innings.
One by Andres Deparro, one by Day the Lyle.
On any other day, those are home runs.
The wind at Riggly was in full force for this game.
This was a bizarre, maybe classic Chicago weather day.
When we all got to the ballpark in the morning,
it was warm, it was muggy, it was in the 60s.
The wind was blowing out.
And right around 10 o'clock, 1030, it completely flipped.
And it dropped about 15 degrees.
And the wind started howling in from left field.
And you saw what that did to fly balls.
And so when I saw those two early drives get knocked down by the wind,
I thought, nobody's going to hit one out today.
Well, then what happened?
Joey Weemer of all people hit one right through the teeth of the wind
in the left field.
And then Jacob Young and Brady House go the opposite way.
You had all kinds of other really good quality contacts.
So yes, they swung and missed a lot.
The first time through, when they did make contact,
it was really good solid contact.
And not just one or two guys, a lot of guys.
Yeah, I mean, you know, you can look at the exit
Velo's and it's one triple digit exit Velo
after another.
The Brady House homer 110.8, the CJA from single 110.8.
The Joey Weemer homer 110.5, Brady House's single 106.7.
And Andre's Chipotle fly out.
You just brought it up 105.4, the Chipotle double 103.8.
The Jacob Young homer 101.9, a Dalin Lyle single 100.3.
Joey Weemer single 100.
Dalin Lyle's line out 98.4 on and on.
We can go.
It's crazy too when you look at who hit the homers.
I mean, Joey Weemer and Jacob Young, right?
I mean, if I said to you, the first two Nats outfielders
to Homer this season will be Joey Weemer and Jacob Young,
like what who?
And yet that's exactly what happened.
Joey Weemer, who is this guy?
And that's this past January 5th claimed Weemer off waivers
from the San Francisco Giants.
He in this game as the starting right fielder
and number five batter three for three
with a solo homer two singles and a walk.
He also got credited with an outfield assist.
The homer was great.
A one run Nats second, a one out solo shot
to left field for one nothing Nats lead.
The outfield assist came to end the Cubs two run third.
He had a Pete Crow Armstrong two out first pitch RBI single
in the right through home to catcher.
Kate Bitt Ruiz and Ruiz did a really good job here,
fired the ball to third baseman Brady House
to tag Alex Breggman for the third out.
Jacob Young comes into this game with just five homers.
Over a thousand six career MLB regular season played appearances
but he is the Nats starting center fielder and number nine batter.
One for four with a two run homer.
Young in the Nats a six run fourth,
a two out opposite field two run shot to right
for a seven two Nats lead.
And Brady House who had a great exhibition season
so good to see this.
He is the Nats starting third baseman and number three batter.
Two for five with a two run homer and a single
did commit a throwing error,
but House in a Nats two run ninth,
a two out first pitch two run opposite field homer
to right for a 10 four Nats lead.
He also had a very good defensive play
but of the first a diving catch on a five three ground out
by Alex Breggman for the first out.
But you know, the Nats win by six,
the two run homer by House,
you almost felt like was needed.
It almost felt like two needed insurance runs
because you weren't quite sure what to expect
as this game went on.
It turned out that the ball pen was good
but in the moment, you know,
you weren't sure how many runs you would need.
And so that House homer actually felt like was important
or at least it felt important at the time.
Right, it felt there like they were gonna have to hope
that those early runs held up the rest of the game.
Now they didn't need it as you said
but once they got that last one
when House hit that ball out,
the fans who were still here
and a lot of them had already left.
I'm sure the weather played a factor in that
but a lot of them had already left.
Those who were still here,
they immediately got up and walked out
as soon as that went out.
That was the final dagger for sure.
Let's remember,
this was one of the least productive offenses
in baseball throughout spring training.
Really did not show anything.
So how did they flip the switch here
on opening day to have that kind of performance?
And I think something to consider here
is number one,
they knew for a while
who they were gonna be facing, Matthew Boyd.
They had time to prep for him.
That's not just the players
but the coaching staff, the front office, everybody.
I think they had a real game plan put together
for how to face him.
That included who was in the lineup
and where they were hitting.
They had worked on this lineup for a while.
When people saw it in the morning
like what are they doing?
Understood, Parles, your number two hitter.
Joey Wiemers, your number five hitter.
There was a method to the madness.
You're gonna see a lot of this kind of stuff.
They put a lot of work into their scouting
and their game planning for this.
And they got to go out and face this guy
and you saw it by facing him into the fourth inning
and getting a second look at him.
They had some really good at bats against him.
Now, you had weeks to prepare for this one game.
It's not gonna be the same moving forward.
You got two days into game two
and then you're basically playing every day after that.
Can they get enough prep in
and can they implement all that on a day-to-day basis?
It's gonna be fascinating to see.
I don't want to take anything away from the players
who got the job done in this game,
but I think we probably should acknowledge
that some of the credit here is gonna go
to this new process they have
and the new people in charge who put together
a very good game plan for how to face this particular pitcher
and then they put it in action
and the guys delivered when they were asked to.
Yeah, this was what you call an organizational win.
And oh, by the way, you out-processed a team
known for process in the Cubs.
I mean, the Cubs are known as a really smart team
and you dare I say out-smarted the Cubs,
out-saper-metric the Cubs, at least on one day
and that's got the better
of one of the more impressive organizations in M.O.B.
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Three balls, two strikes.
We'll do it again.
Lord Ready, kick in the pitch.
Swain and ground ball up the middle behind second.
Feel it by Nunez to second for one,
to first for two.
And the ending is over.
Brad Lord dials up the double play
with the ground ball right over the second base back
to the nationals top defender,
Naseem Nunez, who turned it with room to spare.
The offense of big time positive and the bullpen
ended up being a big time positive in this game.
The Nance bullpen on paper is the exact opposite
of imposing, okay?
I don't know what word you want to use.
We're being nice on this installment of the podcast
because Thursday was such a fun day,
but like you go through name by name
in terms of Nats relievers on the regular season
opening 26 man roster.
Like you're like, wow, this could be rough
in terms of what we get from Nats relief pitching this season.
And maybe what we get will be rough.
But on this day, Nats relievers found a way to come through.
Now things did get rocky at times.
That is true, but ultimately four Nats relievers
combined to allow one run in five and a third innings.
PJ Poulin, he faced five batters
and got three outs came into the game
in the bottom of the fourth with a runner on third,
two outs and the Nats up seven three.
And he got the Cubs number nine batter match shot
to ground out on eight pitches for the third out.
Brad Lord allowed one run in two into third innings
so a lengthy outing for him.
He came into the game,
bottom of the fifth runners on first and second,
two outs, Nats up seven three.
He got the Cubs number five batter,
Nico Horner to ground into a fielders choice for the third out.
Also Lord with runners on first and second,
went out and the Nats up eight four
and the bottom of the seventh,
induced a four three full count double play off the bat of
Nico Horner as second baseman,
Natsim Nunez made a really nice play.
And the run that Lord allowed came out a bunch,
came out a one out RBI,
bunch single by Pete Crow Armstrong
and a Cubs one run seven.
We had the adventures of Clayton Beater.
He tossed a scoreless and hitless bottom of the eighth.
I'm still not sure how.
He issued two walks.
He issued a wild pitch.
He was late to cover first on a ground out,
but he tossed a scoreless and hitless bottom of the eighth inning.
Also, he threw as many balls as he threw strikes.
24 pitches, 12 strikes, 12 balls.
But again, he tossed a scoreless
and hitless bottom of the eighth.
And a salute to CNL Perez,
a perfect bottom of the ninth
with two swinging strikeouts,
despite facing the Cubs numbers two through four batters
and Alex Bergman, Ian Hap and Pete Crow Armstrong.
CNL Perez, the former Orioles reliever.
He has not had a good season since 2022,
but when he has been good, he has been quite good.
And this was some appearance by Perez in this game
facing the meat of the Cubs order,
setting them down one, two, three,
two swinging strikeouts,
and ultimately the Nance Bullpen comes through.
Am I remembering right that you and I,
both in our season predictions that I did on National.com,
had him leading the team in saves.
We were the only two from the whole group to do that.
We were thinking along the same lines.
I really like this guy.
He looked impressive in spring training.
He's a new man.
He has worked a lot on reconfiguring his repertoire,
going back to the fastball that he had when he was good
with the Orioles instead of trying to be a ground ball pitcher,
being more of a forcing fastball, go right at him.
The stuff has been excellent.
I know it wasn't a safe situation
because they were up by six runs,
but that kind of telegraphed maybe
what Blake Butera is thinking in that
if they have a lead late in the game
and there are big lefties coming up,
I think he's gonna be the guy on the mound for that one.
I really think the bullpen deserves a ton of credit
for this game.
We'll get to Kate Cavalli and I thought it was a good outing
by him, all things considered.
But Butera had to ask his bullpen to give him 16 outs
in this game on opening day
and they really came through.
Yes, they got into some jams,
but for the most part, they were able to get out of them.
I think Brad Lord, this was a perfect example
of what he can do for you as a reliever.
I know people were saying,
you know, maybe he should be one of their five starters
and I get that, he may be better,
probably is better than one or two of their starters.
But there's some real value in having him do
what he did in this game.
It's a long reliever,
but you tend to think of long relievers like the sloppy guy
who, you know, when the starter gets knocked out early,
you're just picking up innings
and just trying to get the game over with.
No, you can deploy a guy like this in a meaningful game
and get two and a third innings out of him.
He pitches out of a jam and the fifth inning,
it wasn't of his making, it was PJ Pullman,
he comes in and gets the final out of that inning.
Then he comes back and pitches a sixth
and the seventh gets a big double play grounder
to end the seventh to have a guy with his ability
and adaptability who can give you two and a third innings
and be the bridge from whoever you're using earlier on
to the back end guys.
That's a really valuable guy to have in your bullpen
and I will be interested to see how they use him this season,
but that to me was an example of what Brad Lord
can do for you and how not making the rotation
is not necessarily a bad thing
and it can actually be a sign that they do value him
because what he's doing for you there in that role
is arguably maybe even more valuable
than being your number five starter.
And I tend to think it's pretty safe to say
that Brad Lord will be making at least some starts here this season,
maybe even a whole lot of starts before all is said and done,
but you know, we have lamented the Nats lacking a legitimate
long man in recent years
and maybe they do finally have that guy in Brad Lord.
So the bullpen comes through and then there's Kate Cavali.
So obviously, you know, Cavali,
you look at him a lot of high expectations of him being healthy
of him having this great exhibition season
of him being declared the opening day starter
to a nice press conference at Nationals Park earlier this week.
He ends up lasting for just three and two thirds innings,
three runs, two earned in three and two thirds innings.
Now, you know, you look at that and it's a disappointing outing.
I mean, it's hard to argue otherwise, right?
Had the great exhibition campaign,
then that's gave him a seven to lead entering the bottom
of the fourth inning.
The pitch count got high.
He only gave up three hits.
So that was good.
A Dublin two singles.
He issued three walks into wild pitch.
He did have five strikeouts.
So that was good.
He also committed an error.
That was not good.
Cubs a two run third Cavali committed a throwing error
on a pickoff attempt.
He threw 75 pitches, 46 strikes, 29 bulls.
So there's a lot to take in.
This was not like some wretched outing,
but clearly I would think he's disappointed.
And, you know, I think we all were expecting more
than three and two thirds innings.
And, you know, you look at how good the offense ended up being.
This was set up for Cavali to eat up some innings
and that unfortunately did not happen.
It's sure, but I think I look at this as his first two innings.
He retired six of the first seven batters.
He's got four strikeouts in that time.
The stuff was really good.
Fastball averaging 97 topped out at 99.
He's throwing 91 mile an hour changeups.
Had the good sweeper going.
The big strikeout of Pete Crow Armstrong
to get out of a first inning jam,
which I thought was real significant for him.
And then he gets to the third
and that's where he labors.
And some of it self-inflicted, the lead off walk,
the throwing error on the pickoff attempt.
There's also a little blooper into shallow left center field
that again on a normal day is an output.
The wind was blowing so hard
that James Wood just couldn't get to it.
That wasn't wood getting a bad read on it.
That was he couldn't get to it.
The wind knocked it down.
So that prolonged the inning.
So he had to work a lot to get through that one.
And then by the time he gets to the fourth,
I think he was just out of gas at that point.
I think there was a lot of adrenaline going on for him
understandably making this opening day start
for the first time and everything that he's been through.
And I think under different circumstances,
Blake Peterer might have let him try to get out of
that fourth inning, but he was looking at him
and thinking to himself,
I think he's expended himself both physically and mentally
just to get to this point.
Everybody in the bullpen is fresh, obviously.
So let's just make the move right now.
Yes, ideally you want him to start going more
than three and two thirds.
You don't want him to be as inefficient
as he was with the 75 pitches.
But I actually think it was a fairly encouraging start
for him.
The stuff looked really good.
He did come through in some big spots, got the swing
and miss, got into a little bit of trouble,
but minimized the damage for the most part.
I think he'll learn from this.
I think put him in different conditions
without all the attention and emotions of opening day,
just let him get to a groove now every fifth day.
I think he's going to be just fine.
Yeah, I agree.
I think it's one start.
I think we all understand you don't overreact to it.
And something that is, I think, becoming really interesting
at MLB and Blake Buttera has spoken to this so much now
of how clubs or evaluating pitchers is by stuff
and is by process as opposed to bottom line results.
And so when you look at an outing
to just go by the final line,
to just go by what was done to the ERA,
that's not how these teams are evaluating these outings.
And so with Cavali, the velocity was good.
He had the five strikeouts.
So there are definitely good things
that you can take from this outing.
I did want to mention what happened
with CJ Abrams in this game.
And I thought that we in this game had like
the ultimate example of CJ Abrams in a nutshell.
So Abrams was at starting shortstop and number six
when one for four with a two run single.
And it was a big hit in a beginning.
Six run fourth, bases loaded,
Abrams comes through with a first pitch,
two run single to the right field corner.
But he got thrown out in an attempt to get to second base
as Abrams took his sweet time getting out of the batter's box
due to admiring what he presumably thought was a home run.
Pitch on the way.
So we're gonna long drive, right?
Field down the line, tour the corner.
The weight is pushing it and it's gonna be a fair ball
off the wall in play.
Two runs are gonna score, throw to second base.
Abrams is out.
Weemer stops at third.
Blake buttera challenged the call
about at second base.
The call was upheld.
But you know, this was such a frustrating play
from that perspective,
but it also is Abrams in a nutshell.
It is a perfect microcosm of CJ Abrams.
It's a good play.
It's a two run single.
You can't be too mad at it,
but it's marred by a silly careless screw up by CJ Abrams.
And you know, it's one thing to be checked out
in August of a law season.
This is opening day, dude.
Like how are you not fully engaged?
How are you not dotting every eye and crossing every T
and minding every P and minding every Q?
New regime too.
And you make a mistake like that.
It just, it drove me not seeing that from Abrams.
So it's like, okay, I wanna give him praise
for the two run single,
but it's hard to feel great about that play
when you see what Abrams did
and you see what could have been on that play
and could have been with that inning.
That was a great inning that could have been even greater.
Yeah, exactly.
So they ran into two outs in this game,
both of them on singles trying to stretch into doubles,
but the difference between those two was really dramatic.
You had Joey Weemer with a two out single
in the fifth, advancing your runner first to third.
He tries to aggressively turn a double,
probably not the right decision,
because he was thrown out and with two outs
and Abrams coming up, that's not worth the risk there.
But that's an error of aggression.
That's him getting thrown out by trying to make a play happen.
What Abrams did, on the other hand, he got thrown out.
Yes, on a single trying to stretch to a double,
but he never should have been close
because if he's running hard out of the box,
that's an automatic double right from the start,
not even a close play at second base.
There's the difference.
Now, the wind is blowing, he hits it off the bat.
He's probably just a thinks home run.
You got to know better than that at Wrigley Field
on a day like this, that there's no guarantee of anything
you busted out of the box from the start.
I'm sure he heard about it from Blake Petera.
I'm sure he knows what happened there himself.
Let's see, I think these are the kind of things
that we're going to learn a lot about,
both Abrams as a player, but about Petera
and the clubhouse culture that they're trying to establish.
If it happens again, okay, there's a problem,
and this is reminiscent of what we've seen in the past.
If it's nipped in the bud, and that's it,
and we don't see him do that again,
or at least not want any kind of regular basis,
that's a good sign of both his own growth and maturity,
but also of Petera, the coaches,
and the rest of the guys in that clubhouse,
making sure that things like that
don't happen on a regular basis.
CJ Abrams and the city of Chicago do not mix well.
We have come to learn that in recent years,
and we saw that here again on Thursday, although again,
it was a two run single, so it's like,
you can't be that mad, but you just look at it,
and you're like, man, Abrams,
why did you not run that out?
Anyway.
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Obviously, he is not performing the way
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but also as previous years in the big leagues,
those small sample size, of course,
but we told him like, hey,
if you're going to be a huge part of this thing going forward,
I know this is really hard right now, it's really tough.
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Now the pitch, waving, swinging a miss,
and a slurping breaking ball for Strike 3.
And an opening day, Curly W.
in the books in Chicago.
And the first managerial win for Blake Gutera,
getting the glad hands of the dugout from his coaching staff.
The final score, the Washington Nationals 10,
the Chicago Cubs 4.
And that's get the win, great to see that.
Off day on Friday games, two and three of the series
over Saturday and Sunday game two.
Saturday afternoon at 220 miles, Michaelis
will be the Nat starting pitcher game three,
Sunday afternoon at 220.
Jake Irvin will be the Nat starting pitcher.
We know more now about the Josiah Gray situation.
So, Nat starting pitcher, Josiah Gray,
the Nat's on March 19th, announced having optioned him
to Triple A Rochester and was a pretty anticipated move
because he was working his way back
from having undergone both Tommy John Surgery
and an internal brace procedure on his right UCL in July 2024.
But then, on March 23rd, got the devastating news
of the Nat's first having recalled Gray from Rochester
and then having put him on the 60 day enter list
retroactive to March 22nd due to a right flexor stray.
Now, the mechanics of this are interesting.
He was recalled from Rochester and put on the 60 day IEL,
the major league injured list, presumably because he got injured
while at the major league level.
The guy gets hurt at the major league level
but then gets demoted to the minors and is injured.
You can't just put him on the minor league
or on a minor league injured list.
You have to do the guy right and put him on the major league
injured list and he accrues service time.
So, we assumed that he had gotten hurt at some point
during his time at the major league level.
But you guys got info and intel on this prior to the game
and at least according to Blake Butera,
Gray got injured while at the minor league level.
Yeah, and Pultabony as well.
So, I think as we discussed the other day,
when Gray was sent down,
I had a few others interviewed him that afternoon
in West Palm Beach and he understood it.
Number one, the move and he also said that he felt great
and he felt like he was really close to being all the way back
to where he needed to be.
And there was no indication that there was anything wrong
with him physically at that point.
Then he takes the mound, it's either a day or two later,
I believe, in one of the back fields in Palm Beach
in a AAA spring training game
and afterwards reports that his elbow was sore.
So, they give him the MRI and they come up
with the flex or strain and they decide there, okay,
let's not take any chances.
Let's put you on the 60 day IL,
which means we're recalling you, forget about the demotion
to AAA, we're gonna put you back on the major league roster
and then on the 60 day IL, not the 15 day.
Listening to Nutera and Taboni talk about it,
number one, they both are indicating that this was
something that came up during that one start,
not necessarily a lingering issue throughout the spring.
They also kind of indicated that they thought,
if not for Josiah's history of injury here,
they might have actually tried to push him
a little more to go through it and not just shut him down
right away.
So, the implication was there was that they don't necessarily
think it's a huge deal that in under different circumstances,
they might not even have put him on the IL
or certainly not on the 60 day IL,
but given his history, they felt like it was worth it
to be cautious and they felt like Josiah Gray himself
appreciated that they're watching out for him
and not trying to force the issue and make him try
to go pitch if he's not at 100%.
And we'll see how this all plays out.
It's gonna be at least a couple months to we know anything.
You know, I don't just expect him to suddenly be back
within 60 days and we'll see if it happens at all.
I don't have a good answer on the why the Major League IL
and not the minor league IL,
it didn't get asked directly of anyone.
I'll see what I can find out the next few days in that regard.
It's possible that they're doing this for his benefit,
getting to work with the Major League training staff,
medical staff, and yes, giving him service time and salary
and maybe it's a little bit of a favor to him,
or maybe there is a little more to it
and it's not as simple as he was 100% before he was sent down
and then he had one minor league start that it started to hurt.
Yeah, I mean, you wonder if like, you know,
maybe his agent would dispute when exactly Josiah got hurt
and you know, you don't want things to get ugly
so you just put them on the Major League 60 day interlaced.
But yeah, that is the difference.
That is why we're bringing this up
because while he's on the Major League injured list,
a Major League injured list, in this case a 60 day IL,
he's a crewing service time.
Now, you know, at this point, which Josiah Gray,
I don't know how worried we should be
about service time for the agency, et cetera,
but you know, this kind of stuff does matter
from a front office perspective.
You're always thinking about this kind of thing
and it is interesting that, you know, we presume he got hurt
while at the Major League level
and at least according to Paul Taboni and Blake Butera
that is not the case.
All right, well, one and no, it's nice to be able to say that.
The reason that Zach Latel and Foster Griffin
are not starting in this series
that we're getting, Michaelis and Irvin,
we know Latel is still working his way into form.
Why not Foster Griffin in this series, do you think?
So just like the lineup,
this is about trying to match up as best as they can.
They view the Cubs as more right handed heavy
with their lineup and so they're putting
their three right handers out against them.
The Phillies obviously have some big lefty bats,
Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber most notably.
And so Foster Griffin will start game four
and facing them.
You know, you can't do this all year long.
Once you establish your rotation,
you kind of have to stick with it and that's what you have.
And you can't decide, well, I want this guy facing
this team and that guy facing that team.
But they figured they have the ability to do that
given who they're facing this first week of the season.
And then you throw in the Latel factor,
which is that he needed more time.
Now, I asked about him before the game
and Blake Butera did say that while he is rusty
and he's probably where he would be
after only a couple of spring training starts
in like early March instead of late March.
Latel is healthy and is, you know,
believing that he's good to go
for what I presume would be game five
or maybe game six because of the off day
you could have Kate Cavali start game five
and then Latel starts game six.
Either way, he's gonna have to pitch
one of those games in Philadelphia.
What they told him was make sure you are at your best.
Don't try to hump up and be more than you're ready to be.
At this point, it's more important
us that you are good to go later this summer
than it is that you're 100% now for your first start of the year.
So don't be shocked if he doesn't have a great showing
in that first game.
And if they maybe limit what they get from him
or even ask from him in that first game.
But that's the thought process behind that
and why we're gonna see the two righties
for the rest of the series
and then the lefty in Philadelphia.
This installment of that chant brought to us
by Mason Califist, the top legal recruiter
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Mason has been with us since our first season.
You can reach him at 2024863535.
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Anyway, enjoy one and oh, the nats undefeated so far
in this 2026 regular season.
For Mark's Circleman, I'm Al Goldie,
we thank you for listening
and we'll talk to you next time on the natschat podcast.
Next pitch.
We have a line drive right field toward the line
that's going to get down for a hit and tie the game.
Coming into score is Chapparo.
House on his way to third.
Dail and Lyle holds it first.
This game is tied at two.
Dail and Lyle delivers the RBI single here
in the fourth inning.
And the nationals with a nice rally
have three hits in a row against Boyd.
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