The Washington Nationals had a rough day on Wednesday.
Though it’s only spring training, they still found themselves on the wrong side of a rout at the hands of the St. Louis Cardinals.
St. Louis jumped on the Nats early with four runs in the first inning and four more in the second as the game quickly got out of hand.
The bulk of the damage came in the eighth inning, when St. Louis put up a 15-spot.
The final score was 29-8.
MLB Network insider Jon Heyman had a grim prediction for the Nationals, saying that even though it was only spring training, Washington’s outlook for 2022 looks bleak, as the loss dropped them to 1-10 in Grapefruit League play
The Nats have been one of the winningest teams over the past decade, and I have faith in their future. But the present could be a bit rough. Spring training doesn’t count but their 29-8 defeat to the Cardinals left them 1-10 in Grapefruit League play.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) March 31, 2022
A Rough Start
Washington does have a few solid pieces on their squad, many of them being holdovers from their 2019 World Series team, but the preseason predictions haven’t been kind to them.
Perhaps St. Louis had a little magic due to Albert Pujols being back, but Washington is off to a very bad start this spring, and this could be a bad omen for the regular season.
When you give up 29 runs in one game, you’re not going to get much respect.
1-10 in spring training obviously isn’t a dire circumstance, not compared to a 1-10 start for the regular season, but it still doesn’t look good, especially after surrendering almost 30 runs.
The farm system of the Nationals doesn’t exactly look great at the moment, and even with a few holdovers from 2019 and some new pieces like Nelson Cruz, the current outlook for the Nationals is not very promising.
We’ll see if they can overcome this and surprise us when the season begins.
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