WEST SACRAMENTO -- The Nationals didn’t just get back on track Friday night. They detonated.
After a first half that ended with a three-game sweep by the Yankees and only eight total runs scored, Washington opened the second half by burying the Athletics 23-4 at Sutter Health Park. The 23 runs matched the second-most in a game in franchise history, and the Nats did it with a relentless parade of hits, extra-base damage and pressure that never let up.
“After the All-Star break, everybody wanted to come back and show that we’re here to compete,” infielder Andrés Chaparro said through interpreter Mauricio Ortiz.
Message delivered.
Washington piled up 21 hits, scored in bunches in the third, fifth, sixth and seventh innings, and then tacked on five more in the ninth to blow past the 20-run mark. Every one of the Nats’ four home runs came with at least one runner aboard, and Daylen Lile added a three-run shot off A’s outfielder-turned-pitcher Carlos Cortes in the ninth.
The offensive show gave Cade Cavalli a massive cushion, and he made it count. The right-hander worked six innings, struck out nine and allowed just two runs to earn his sixth win of the season. By the end, he had 18 runs of support behind him.
“They just rake,” Washington pitcher Cade Cavalli said. “I don’t know what else to say.”
Chaparro was the engine. Entering the night hitting .167 (9-for-54) with a .585 OPS, the first baseman broke loose for a career performance: four hits, a walk and eight RBIs, the most by a National since 2018. He launched two home runs, including a two-run shot and a three-run blast, and both came in the kind of night where nearly everything he touched turned loud.
His first homer, off lefty reliever José Suarez in the fifth inning, went 467 feet, the fourth-longest homer hit by a National under Statcast tracking (since 2015).
“I feel really good,” Chaparro said. “I needed this day, right?”
Washington needed it too. The club got back to .500 with the win, and the bats kept rolling even as the game got completely away from the Athletics. The Nats’ ninth-inning burst came against Cortes, who was forced into pitching duty as the score ballooned.
The damage started early. In the third inning, Curtis Mead worked back from an 0-2 count and lined a two-run double to left field on the ninth pitch of the at-bat. Chaparro followed immediately with a first-pitch single to bring Mead home.
“They’ve been doing it all year, and tonight was special,” Cavalli said of Washington’s offense, which has scored an MLB-high 539 runs. “From the get-go, they were putting great at-bats together, putting pressure on the defense. They just keep doing it.”
The hit parade was deep. All nine Nationals starters recorded at least one hit, and José Tena, who entered as a defensive replacement in the seventh and had only one at-bat, added a single off Cortes in the ninth. That made it the first time 10 or more Nationals had a hit in the same game since April 28, 2025, when Washington lost 19-5 to the Mets.
The night became so one-sided that the Nationals even had Jorbit Vivas finish the game on the mound. In his second career pitching appearance, he reached 56.3 mph and allowed two runs, one earned, while closing out what stood as the second-biggest win in franchise history by run differential.
Chaparro was in the middle of everything, and he did damage against both lefties and righties. Batting third against starter Gage Jump, he singled in the sixth and then ripped a three-run homer in the seventh off Yunior Tur, who was making his Major League debut.
Blake Butera saw the payoff immediately.
“It’s huge,” manager Blake Butera said. “Hopefully it boosts his confidence a ton.
The results haven’t been there for him early on, but he’s had really good at-bats. He’s put some good swings on balls.
Just happy to see him have some success tonight.”
Washington forced the Athletics to burn five relief pitchers to get through 5 1/3 innings, while the Nationals used only one reliever aside from Vivas. For one night, everything clicked.
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