After a sweep on their home turf to start the month of June at the hands of their division rival Miami Marlins, the Washington Nationals bounced back in a huge way on Friday night. The league's highest-scoring offense broke out of a mini slump and outright embarrassed the Arizona Diamondbacks in last night's series opener.
The visiting team won by a score of 14-1, doubling their total runs scored in the Marlins series, where they had 7 across 3 games. By the end of the night the game had turned into a laughing stock with the Diamondbacks turning to position players on the mound, but make no mistake about it, the Nationals earned the right to get some freebie at-bats late in the game.
It got started in the top of the 1st inning when Luis Garcia Jr. crushed a 2-run homer, giving the Nationals an early 2-0 lead just 2 batters into the game. The 26-year-old Garcia Jr. had one of his yearly standout performances, finishing the contest 2/6 but with the aforementioned homer and he later added on his first career grand slam to really put the game out of reach in the 6th inning.
GARCĂŤA IS G R A N D
— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) June 6, 2026
for his SECOND of the night pic.twitter.com/VrmWYrB6sG
However, Garcia Jr. did not act alone for the Nationals, as James Wood, CJ Abrams, and Daylen Lile all each homered at different times of the game, and all individually had multiple hits in the game. In fact, every starting position player recorded at least 1 hit except for Dylan Crews, who finished 0/5 as his recent struggles are continuing to mount.
One of the more underrated storylines of the season that I mentioned the other day when I wrote about him was about Jorbit Vivas' struggles with runners in scoring position. However, Vivas finally recorded his first 2 hits with RISP in 2026, even if one of them was off a position player late in the game. However, for a stat that had gone on for longer than anyone wanted, it must have felt good for Vivas to knock in a 2-run double and finish with 3 RBIs as well.
Although the offense stole the show, Foster Griffin continued to show why he could be a dark horse National League Rookie of the Year candidate with a dominant 5.0 innings, allowing just 2 hits and 1 earned run while striking out 4 and walking none. He lowered his season ERA to 3.63, and was pulled after just 62 pitches as the game was already out of hand by the bottom of the 6th inning.
The game was a dominant victory for the Nationals, and they will look to keep the hot hitting rolling into Saturday and Sunday in Arizona.
What did you think of the Nationals' offensive performance in Friday night's series opener? As always, please let me know on X, @DCBerk.
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