The Washington Nationals finally snapped their 3-game losing skid on Tuesday night, following a 3-0 shutout victory on a cold night in Pittsburgh on Jackie Robinson Day across the league. James Wood got the game started with a bang, sending a 445-foot leadoff home run to center field that would ultimately be all the Nationals would need with Jake Irvin firing 7 scoreless innings before clean innings in relief from Jose A. Ferrer and Kyle Finnegan, who picked up his 6th save.
A scary moment happened in the 6th inning, when third baseman Paul DeJong was hit in the face with a fastball from Pirates starter Mitch Keller. He left the field after being down for a minute or so, and he was bleeding pretty profusely when he exited towar the clubhouse. Manager Davey Martinez mentioned that DeJong is headed for a CT scan, and was a bit lightheaded after walking down the dugout steps. Prayers up that the injury to DeJong is nothing serious, and that we will see him back on the field sooner vice later.
With that being said, in terms of some other injured Nationals, we do finally have a decent amount of updates on a few players, courtesy of Mark Zuckerman. The first of which is CJ Abrams, who made his way onto the 10-day IL with a right hip flexor strain on Saturday. He was on the field pregame running and testing out his right hip, and Martinez seems to be hopeful that Abrams will be able to return once eligible to be reinstated from the IL, on April 22nd against Baltimore.
Another National who got injured in a game this season, righty starter Michael Soroka is slated to throw a simulated game this afternoon, and if all goes well, he will likely be sent out on a rehab assignment to pitch at least once before being slotted back into the rotation. As Zuckerman notes, he has not faced live hitters since being removed from his start on March 31st in his Nationals debut, so the build-up will be key as he looks to return from a right biceps strain.
As for 2 other Nationals who have yet to appear this season, righties Cade Cavalli and Zach Brzykcy, we do have some recent updates on both of them as well.
Bobby Blanco from MASN provided an update on Cavalli, who was able to be present with the Nationals while they were down in Miami over the weekend. Since he is basically having his own spring training at the team's complex in West Palm Beach right now, the plan is for him to continue throwing sim games on a pitch count for now, with at least a handful of rehab starts likely for the 26-year-old before returning to the Nationals. Fingers crossed that everything goes according to plan, but we should see Cavalli on the mound for the Nationals at some point this summer.
And last but not least, we have an update on righty reliever Zach Brzykcy, a former Virginia Tech Hokie who got his first taste of big league action last season. He began a rehab assignment with the Low-A Fredericksburg Nationals on Tuesday for his right quad strain, and pitched a perfect inning, striking out all 3 batters he faced while firing 9 of his 15 pitches for strikes. He is another arm that could factor into the bullpen situation soon, and, following a few more relief appearances at various levels in the system, should be on track to rejoin the Nationals in a few weeks. Count your days, Lucas Sims.
Which injured National are you most excited to get back? As always, please let me know on X, @DCBerk.