Mariners and – Seattle’s momentum stalled after a strong start in Baltimore, forcing a split after two straight lackluster efforts on Wednesday and Thursday. The Mariners now finish their East Coast road trip with a three-game set in Washington, where the Nationals—fresh off
When the Mariners left Baltimore with a win streak still fresh in their legs. it looked like the kind of momentum you carry for weeks. But two lackluster efforts on Wednesday and Thursday turned that eight-game run into something heavier to explain than to celebrate—now Seattle is settling for a split series.
That earlier surge is still doing a lot of heavy lifting for the Mariners’ place in the standings. It also makes the contrast feel sharper: the play has slipped back toward the listless rhythm that defined much of the first two months of the season. Maybe it’s fatigue from an East Coast road trip that goes on longer than anyone wants to admit. Whatever the cause. Seattle has only one way to answer it—by wrapping up the trip with a three-game set in Washington. DC.
Washington is in a different mood these days. After a long rebuilding cycle that began in the years since the Nationals won the World Series in 2019, this is the first time they’ve shown real, visible progress toward breaking out of the doldrums.
That shift follows a hire made last fall: Paul Toboni was brought in as the team’s new president of baseball operations. becoming the youngest top executive in baseball. There’s still plenty of work to do—especially on the pitching side of the roster—but the lineup has been one of the most potent in baseball this year.
The Nationals have scored the second most runs in baseball, driven by breakouts from their young stars. James Wood is hitting at a superstar level. He has 3.0 fWAR, just shy of his total from last year, and he’s slugged 18 home runs. His high whiff rate has also largely been under control.
CJ Abrams has taken a star turn as well, pushing his wRC+ up to 150 behind a huge increase in power output and patience at the plate.
The breakout isn’t limited to two names. Curtis Mead, Keibert Ruiz, Luis García Jr., and Jacob Young have all posted varying levels of newfound success.
And the Nationals’ pitching story has its own arc—because not every improvement is instant. and not every player is built the same way. Zack Littell has carved out a back-end starter role after spending his first five years as an up-and-down long reliever. A trade to the Rays unlocked his potential, and he accumulated 4.4 fWAR across parts of three seasons in Tampa Bay. He signed with the Nationals this offseason but got off to a really poor start. Through his first six starts, he ran a 7.85 ERA and a 9.03 FIP.
Then May arrived, and everything changed. Over his last seven appearances—four starts and three bulk relief appearances—his ERA dropped to 2.27 and his FIP to 3.47. His game lives on the margins. built around a deep repertoire of modest pitches that he can usually command anywhere in the strike zone.
Cade Cavalli’s path has been slower and more painful. A former first-round draft pick in 2020. he made a name for himself as a top prospect the next year and debuted in the majors in August 2022. Then came the injuries: he made one start. was shut down with a shoulder injury. injured his elbow the next spring. missed all of ‘23 and most of ‘24. Given all that missed development time, his struggles afterward weren’t surprising.
But he’s been excellent this year, showing the skills that once made him such a high-rated prospect. His best pitch is a hard curveball. He’s also added a variation with more horizontal break—one that Statcast labels a sweeper.
Miles Mikolas represents a different kind of steadiness. After years of soaking up innings in the Cardinals rotation. the Nationals signed him to do the same for a young roster. He mixes six different pitches and has kept his approach sharp—but his command has waned a bit as he’s gotten older. His 6.1% walk rate this year is higher than it’s been since 2014.
At the plate, the margins haven’t changed much. He doesn’t strike out many batters, the batted-ball profile is pretty average, and his stuff isn’t getting better with age.
If you zoom out beyond the Mariners and Nationals, the rest of the weekend picture is already shifting. The Rangers won their series against the Royals this week, climbing back to .500 and inching closer to the Mariners in the AL West standings, and then they’ll travel to Boston this weekend.
The Athletics, playing in the Las Vegas heat/altitude/Triple-A band box, staged three wild games against the Brewers this week. They’ll continue that Vegas homestand with a three-game set against the Rockies.
The Astros wound up losing their series against the Angels. They squeaked by with an extra-innings win on Monday, but they lost the deciding game on Wednesday in extras again. That means the Astros will take the place of the Rangers and play the Royals in Kansas City this weekend.
Back in Washington. the Mariners will arrive with their earlier momentum fading and their questions growing louder—especially after what happened in Baltimore on Wednesday and Thursday. The Nationals. meanwhile. are riding a lineup that’s ranked among the best in baseball and a front office that—under Paul Toboni—has finally set the franchise’s rebuild moving in a direction it can feel.
For Seattle, this three-game set in Washington, DC isn’t just another stop on an East Coast road trip. It’s where the “what happened last week?” storyline either turns into a correction—or stays a warning.
Mariners Nationals Paul Toboni James Wood CJ Abrams Zack Littell Cade Cavalli Miles Mikolas MLB standings road trip