WASHINGTON — For the first time in seven years, following a 7-3 win over the Kansas City Royals on Monday night, the Washington Nationals are three games over .500. If the season ended today, though it most certainly won't, they would be in the postseason.
Unpack that however you decide to.
Maybe it is because one of the sport's smallest payrolls has produced the best offense in baseball, guided by an incandescent James Wood (who led the hitters' meeting on Sunday) and CJ Abrams (who leads NL shortstops in All-Star voting in the first round of results released Monday).
Maybe it is because they hired dozens of new coaches and executives after the old regime (which was not without its successes, mind you) couldn't put it together in time to save the 2025 season.
Maybe it is because they overhauled the way they manage games and personalities, or the way they instruct defense, or the way they teach arms new and old to lean into what makes them great.
Or maybe — no, actually, definitely — it boils down to the clear, cliched fact that they have yet to quit on the modernized processes or, frankly, each other.
“You know,†first-year manager Blake Butera said after Monday's win, “We're out there today doing bunt defenses here in June.â€
In other words: They are putting in the work.
“They understand that those small things — bunt defenses, handling the baseball, those small things — we have to do really well if we want to be playing playoff baseball,†Butera added.
Dylan Crews put the game away in the fifth with a three-run laser. He did so by pulling the ball in the air — something this organization had not aggressively and effectively taught the former No. 2 draft pick to do in years' past.
He stood at his locker after the game with a burgundy gambler's hat on a hook, the item bestowed to the team's player of the game, and spoke of backbones.
The organization was on the ascent when it drafted Crews in 2023. A bumpy few years followed for him and the organization. Numbers didn't always look the way he wanted them to look. But at this locker, at this moment, he's been given a process that he can put his trust in.
“You've got to have a backbone in something,†Crews said. “No matter what you do, you've got to be able to fall on something. For me, that's my work and preparation.â€
Look anywhere else on the roster, and you'll see another benefactor of the Nats' new process who probably earned an equal claim to that burgundy hat.
Andrew Alvarez tossed four effective innings but was pulled before he could face the Royals' lineup a third time through, getting an analytically-minded quick hook that would have been rare to find around these parts in a previous season. He didn't complain.
Brad Lord — drafted and developed by the last regime — followed Alvarez amicably as late-round picks have tended to do for the Nationals these days. He leads all MLB relievers in innings pitched. He would be well within his right to ask for an alteration in his usage. He hasn't.
Wood walked and doubled as his OPS inched closer to 1.000. He is somehow seventh among National League outfielders in All-Star voting. Nary a complaint from him, either.
Clayton Beeter, the man who closed games for the Nats last year, pitched the eighth. Because, unlike previous seasons, they do not have a defined closer. Guess who wasn't upset?
And then there was Luis GarcÃa Jr., the man who sent a chest-high cutter into left field in the fifth to give the Nationals a lead on Monday that they would not relinquish. This has been the only employer he has ever known. When he has taken the field for them, they are 266-405. He has seen a whole lot of losing.
After the game, he spoke to the media with his usual grin. That has gotten him through all of the losses. It's even more helpful after the wins.
“It means a lot to me, personally,†GarcÃa said through an interpreter. “I've been in this organization for years now. So to be where we're at right now, it feels really good.â€
It's easy to forget now, as the Nationals hover around the final wild-card spot, how different things are. At this time last year, Washington was in the middle of an 11-game losing streak and it seemed as though the Nationals could not extricate themselves from any of their woeful lows.
Heck, it was just on Wednesday that the Nats led the San Francisco Giants by eight runs in the eighth, on the precipice of moving three games over .500, and blew it. They were blown out again on Friday, and it seemed the Grim Reaper might finally lay his scythe into the club.
They have won their last three games by 18 runs.
“I mean, playing here is always fun,†GarcÃa said. “But this year, it definitely feels different. There's something different about this year.â€
What's different?
That's for you to decide. There are plenty of explanations to choose from.
