After a quiet Friday game against the New York Mets where basically the only highlight for the Washington Nationals was the fact that rising superstar James Wood was back in the lineup, the team was right back at it on Saturday with a split squad pair of games. The Nationals dropped a close one to the St. Louis Cardinals in the early game, and bounced back in a huge way for the late game, with a 7-0 victory over the Miami Marlins.
But with a pair of games in the books after Saturday's action, let's check out 3 quick-hitting headlines concerning some takeaways from the games.
Starting pitchers make fantastic 2025 debuts
As you may have seen yesterday, I wrote about how offseason addition Michael Soroka got off to a brilliant start to his tenure with the Nationals. After 3.0 no-hit innings against the Cardinals in which he struck out 3 batters and walked just 1, MacKenzie Gore was determined to not be outdone for the late game on Saturday.
The lefty, who many are anticipating will line up to be the Nationals' starter on Opening Day, finally made his first appearance of the spring yesterday, and performed very well considering how early on in spring training we still are at this point. He also pitched 3.0 clean innings, but allowed just 2 hits and 1 walk while striking out 4 Marlins batters.
It is more than encouraging that both Gore and Soroka, who could potentially line up as 2 of the team's top 3 starters this year, both pitched well in the debuts, and us fans will all be wondering just how much better they will continue to get as they round into form before the regular season begins.
For whom the Bell tolls
In the 1st game, the Nationals actually got out to an early 2-0 lead, thanks to a homer by Josh Bell that scored Jacob Young in the 1st inning. Unfortunately for Bell and the Nats, the club would not put up another run, and ended up losing 3-2 in Game 1.
Bell, who was brought back to Washington this offseason on a 1-year deal, figures to slot as the every day DH, while periodically spelling Nathaniel Lowe at first base as well. The switch hitter hit his homer to straight away center, and hopefully he will be able to replicate the career-high numbers he put up in DC during his initial tenure with the team.
Also, shoutout to Riley Adams as well, who hit a Grand Slam in the team's second game of split squad action to give the Nats a massive 6 run cushion that would ultimately prove to be more than enough. While I and many others have been critical of Adams in the past, his power has never been the issue, and hopefully a big hit early on in spring training will give him the confidence he needs to win the backup catcher job coming out of camp.
Dylan Crews continues blazing spring
One of the bigger headlines overall from Saturday is just a continuation for a guy that is hopefully showing signs of things to come. In order for the Nationals to truly take their next step towards contention, Dylan Crews is going to have to be at the heart of the team's success. So far through just 13 at-bats for Crews, he has absolutely looked the part of a guy who is going to be chasing Roki Sasaki for NL Rookie of the Year honors.
While Crews showed plenty of flashes either at the plate, in the outfield, or on the basepaths during his cup of coffee in the big leagues last year, the key for him this season is going to be putting it all together. I have no doubt that getting him that early exposure certainly helped him to prepare for camp this year coming in as an entrenched starter on this team, and we can only hope that games like he had on Saturday, where he went 2/4 with a pair of RBIs to bring his OPS up to 1.148, are a sign of things to come.
Which headline are you going to be following along with next season? As always, please let me know on X, @DCBerk.