Lord settles back into familiar and successful role with Nats

WASHINGTON -- With the Nationals moving on from starters Foster Griffin, Zack Littell and Miles Mikolas over the past few weeks, a fluid rotation has worked to fill the voids.

Andrew Alvarez has emerged as a consistent option with a 3.00 ERA across five starts in August. Rookie Jackson Kent was recalled from Triple-A Rochester and has made his first three career big league starts. The other rotation opening remains a work in progress.

While right-hander Brad Lord served as an opener in a trio of bullpen games this month, the recently acquired Matt Waldron is expected to open on Wednesday against the Rockies. The Nationals claimed Waldron off waivers from the Blue Jays over the weekend.

The decision to turn to Waldron comes after plans to potentially stretch out the versatile Lord into a traditional starter were recently tabled.

“We’ll probably get back to where we had him originally, which was that two-to-three innings out of the bullpen role that he did really well in,” manager Blake Butera said. “I think that is, one, better for Brad, and two, I think better for our team having him in that role. He’s pitched really well out of that role.”

Lord returned to that role on Tuesday, coming out of the bullpen for the first time since Aug. 5 and tossing 2 1/3 innings of no-hit relief in the Nationals' eventual 3-1 defeat to the Rockies at Nationals Park.

“Kind of back to what I’ve been doing all season, pretty comfortable with it,” Lord said. “My mindset is that I just want to play and compete. I don’t necessarily care how I do it or in what role.”

Lord was summoned from the bullpen in the fifth inning to face Colorado’s Hunter Goodman with a runner on third and two outs. Goodman, who had clubbed his 35th homer of the season an inning earlier, struck out swinging on a fastball at the top of the zone.

“We trust him a ton bringing him in that spot,” Butera said of Lord. “We wanted to get him in on Goodman, he’s one of their best hitters and one of the best hitters in the league. Just trusted Lord to do his thing and he did. He got us out of that one and then gave us a couple more really good [innings] as well.”

Lord retired seven of the eight Rockies he faced, walking one and striking out two while doing his job to keep the Nationals within striking distance.

Tack on a scoreless eighth inning from Max Kranick and a scoreless ninth from Jake Bird, and the Nationals ultimately had three relievers combine for 4 1/3 scoreless frames.

A night after the Nationals exploded for 13 runs, though, the offense couldn’t produce a late rally on Tuesday. Daylen Lile’s second home run in as many nights -- a solo shot in the fourth -- accounted for all of the Nats' scoring. Washington has now lost five of its last six games, with only seven runs scored across the five defeats.

Lile has been among the few consistent bright spots offensively, hitting .429 (9-for-21) across his last five games with four extra-base hits and seven RBIs.

“Feels pretty good,” Lile said. “Feels like everything I’m doing before the game is working out pretty well and then the approach side is working, so hopefully keep that going.”

Lile was both the National League’s Rookie and Player of the Month last September, and with summer winding down, he is seemingly heating up again ahead of the stretch run.

“He’s back to playing with a chip on his shoulder and going about his business the right way,” Butera said.

As Lile looks to stay hot on Wednesday, Waldron will look to make a strong first impression with his new club.

The 29-year-old spent parts of six seasons in the Padres organization before a three-week stint with Toronto earlier this month. A versatile arm who started 26 games with San Diego in 2024, Waldron’s repertoire includes a knuckleball, which he uses about 30 percent of the time.

“I feel like my role has been a little different this year,” Waldron said. “I’ve started games, I’ve been an opener and then I’ve been throwing in the eighth or ninth inning -- so any opportunity right now sounds good.”