WASHINGTON -- James Wood homered for a career-best third straight game, Curtis Mead added a tiebreaking solo shot in the fifth inning and an RBI single in the sixth and CJ Abrams added two more hits, a walk and an RBI to continue his exceptional start.
None of it was enough to overcome the 10 walks the Nationals allowed in their 7-6 loss to the Cardinals in 10 innings on Tuesday night.
“Ten walks is too many,” said a visibly frustrated manager Blake Butera. “You can’t beat teams when you’re walking 10 people.”
A beleaguered bullpen will get most of the attention after giving back a three-run lead and surrendering an eighth-inning advantage for a third straight game.
This time it was Gus Varland who walked leadoff man Masyn Winn and allowed him to score on Nathan Church’s game-tying two-run shot into the Nats’ bullpen with two outs in the eighth. That set the table for the Cardinals to complete their comeback two frames later against Cole Henry.
As a group, Nats relievers finished Tuesday night with an NL-worst 6.39 ERA, 31 walks and a 1.74 WHIP.
“It’s surprised me,” Butera said of the free passes. “I didn’t see it in Spring Training. I’m not sure. [We’ll] talk through it. Just behind in the count, it’s hard to pitch to Major League hitters when you’re working behind.”
But starter Cade Cavalli also struggled uncharacteristically to find the zone, walking four while allowing two runs (one earned) in 4 and 2/3 innings. He dropped his K/BB ratio to 1.22. It was 2.67 last season.
Cavalli said he’s been struggling to locate a newly shaped curveball and sweeper.
“We all feel it,” Cavalli said. “We’re a team, we win together, we lose together, so we feel it. And when guys have to come out earlier than they probably should, it hurts.”
It all meant the Nats failed to secure their first home series win a night after a six-run eighth-inning rally gave Washington its first home victory of 2026. The club’s young bats continued their strong start by reaching 70 runs scored in the season’s first 11 games, tied for third most in MLB. That’s the second-best start in Nationals history (since 2005), after the 2019 World Series championship team scored 74 times in the same span.
“Obviously there’s frustration, because we want to win every night,” Butera said. “I know our pitching’s going to come around. They’re going to get better, I know that. So if our offense keeps doing what it’s doing, and we get the pitching squared away, we’re going to be in a good spot.”
A night after his three-run shot helped spark a comeback, Wood went opposite-field in his second at-bat against Cards starter Matthew Liberatore, driving a 1-2 slider up in the zone into the visitors’ bullpen.
Two frames later, Mead drove Liberatore’s 1-0 fastball into the red seats in the Ultra Loft just left of dead-center field, before Abrams followed with a single four batters later to make it 4-2 after five innings.
Abrams has reached base in all 10 of his games and hit safely in his last eight, racking up 14 RBIs. Only Bryce Harper has more RBIs through 11 team games (15 in 2016) since the franchise moved to D.C. in '05.
“It’s awesome,” Mead said of the Washington lineup’s strong start. “I think that everyone’s kind of feeding off it. It’s fun to be able to watch the guys, everyone have success and kind of talk through at-bats and what they’ve seen.”