WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Almost 10 years ago, Lucas Giolito walked to the Nationals Park mound on a rainy Tuesday, hope and intrigue trailing him.
Giolito was 21 years old. Most prognosticators regarded him as baseball’s top prospect, a large right-hander who threw in the mid-90s with high-impact offspeed pitches. On June 28, 2016, Giolito made his big league debut for Washington in place of an injured Stephen Strasburg. He pitched four clean innings before the second rain storm of the night shut down his evening.
Friday, Giolito wore yellow cleats in his third start for the Padres since being a late free-agent signing at the end of April. He was among a slew of former Nationals players or coaches back in Nationals Park with new roles and altered lives trying to steer San Diego to atop the National League.
Jackson Merrill’s two-run, tie-breaking homer in the seventh inning of San Diego’s 7-5 win over the Nationals helped make the group’s return a happy one.
San Diego manager Craig Stammen spent the first seven seasons of his Major League career in Washington. He went from a flailing starting pitcher to a high-value reliever in that time.
Stammen joked Friday that he would have liked to stick around for the Nationals’ 2019 World Series championship (a torn flexor tendon in 2015 ended his time in Washington). But his work was more foundational.
When Stammen arrived in 2009, Washington lost 103 games. They finished last in the National League East. By the time he left, the Nationals had twice won the division and graduated to annual contenders thanks to a bevy of homegrown talent.
“Watching them win that World Series in 2019 was definitely satisfying knowing that we were part of that process getting them to that point,” Stammen said.