CJ Abrams stars in Washington Nationals first sweep of the season

The Nationals took care of business early in Baltimore, blasting their way to a sweep

The Washington Nationals got their first sweep of the season and their first in Camden Yards since 2018. They won in style, with a 10-4 win over an Orioles team in crisis. It was a similar game to the one they played last night. The Orioles pitching staff did not give them a chance to win.

CJ Abrams made it known from pitch one that this would be a long day for the O’s fans at Camden Yards. Zach Eflin grooved in a cutter with the first pitch of the game, and CJ made him pay, taking him out to right field.

It set the tone for the Nats, but it was only the beginning of CJ Abrams big day. On both sides of the ball, he was a dominant player today. He went 3/5 and started a spectacular double play to end the game. The Nats shortstop is now hitting .312 with a .942 OPS. What a statement from CJ, who did not finish last year the way he wanted to. Abrams is now locked in and we are seeing how good he can be.

While Abrams got the party started, the second inning was when the Nats did the big damage. Luis Garcia Jr. showed off his new dad strength with his fourth home run of the season, and that was just the beginning of a six run blitz of Zach Eflin.

Dylan Crews joined the home run party later in the inning, blasting a three run shot to make the game 5-0. For a second straight day, O’s starters were getting taken to the wood shed out of the gate.

Not to be outdone, Abrams hit yet another homer. In two innings, the Nats had already hit four homers, with their leadoff man hitting two of them. The Nats would tack on yet another run thanks to a Keibert Ruiz single. For a second straight day, the Nationals had seven runs on the board after two innings.

The game settled down a bit after that. Zach Eflin admirably gave the O’s 5.1 innings. He could have easily quit, but he saved the bullpen.

On the other side, Michael Soroka’s start followed a familiar pattern. He was dynamite through five innings, with his only blemish being a Cedric Mullins homer. However, he ran out of gas in the sixth, allowing a lot of hard contact. Soroka went 5.2 innings with 3 runs, 8 strikeouts and no walks. He also got his first win since he was a member of the Atlanta Braves and only his third since that magical 2019 season he had.

Getting the sweep was an important accomplishment for the Nats. They have not had a sweep since last July, and have had long stretches between sweeps these last few years. After a seven game losing streak, you need sweeps to make up for lost time.

The Nats are now 21-27. They have been very solid, outside of two disastrous stretches, one to start the season, and of course the seven game losing streak. Those games count, so you can’t take them away, but it is an interesting tidbit.

After Soroka came out, Brad Lord did a good job getting the final out of that sixth inning. While he allowed a run in the seventh, Andrew Chafin picked him up, getting the final out of that inning.

Outside of a Zach Brzykcy meltdown when the Nats were way ahead, the bullpen has been solid of late. Jorge Lopez delivered a clean inning, and so did Cole Henry to end the ballgame.

To make things less stressful, the Nats tacked on runs in the 8th and 9th. The run in the 8th came on a mammoth Josh Bell home run. While the big man still has a long ways to go to prove himself, seeing him get a hold of one was a fun sight. The run in the 9th, came courtesy of James Wood driving in CJ Abrams. To put a cherry on top of the weekend, the Nats turned a beautiful 6-4-3 double play to punctuate the sweep.

This weekend series could not have gone any better for the Nats. The offense was explosive and the pitching held up their end of the bargain. While there will be bigger tests than this sputtering O’s team to come, if they play like they did this weekend, they will win a lot of games. After a day off tomorrow, they will lock horns with the Braves, this time at Nats Park. The Nationals have now won 4 of their last 5 games, and once again look like an exciting young team on the rise.