{"id":667,"date":"2026-06-25T11:09:01","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T11:09:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=667"},"modified":"2026-06-25T11:09:01","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T11:09:01","slug":"looks-at-nationals-fans-feeling-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=667","title":{"rendered":"Looks at Nationals Fans, Feeling Again"},"content":{"rendered":"
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You know what\u2019s worse than having your heart broken in late June, than watching your team give up three runs in the eighth, then eight (!) more in the ninth, which got those smug Philly fans chanting \u201cStart the buses!\u201d in your ballpark, just when you were starting to talk your talk to them? You know what\u2019s worse than the bullpen blowing it again a night later?<\/p>\n

Read more A Mock Arch and Daily Rodeos: Trump\u2019s Fair Takes Over the Mall<\/a><\/p>\n

Apathy. <\/p>\n

Apathy is what\u2019s worse.<\/p>\n

It was 1:11 a.m. on Wednesday when Scott Ableman hit send in the comments section of a story<\/u><\/span> on the Nationals\u2019 crushing, 14-9 loss to the Phillies on Tuesday night. A few hours earlier, Ableman, a die-hard fan since the beginning, had watched a good time burn from Section 129 on the first base line. After the Nats had led 5-0, the bullpen blew a lead in the eighth, bringing groans of here we go again<\/i>. But then, in an admirable effort to save the day, infielder Jorbit Vivas pushed them back ahead with a three-run bomb in the bottom half. There was life. There was a little thing called hope.<\/p>\n

But then<\/i> there was another full-on implosion, when Brad Lord, the team\u2019s most reliable reliever, allowed six runs on five hits in the ninth, two of them back-snapping homers. Lord had been one strike from finishing a win, which would have made it two straight against a red-hot team in the same rung of the standings. It was, by the end, about 45 minutes of emotional warfare. Yet it also was \u2026 refreshing?<\/p>\n

\u201cI was there tonight and am still trying to process that one,\u201d Ableman wrote. \u201cI\u2019ll say this: It\u2019s a feeling not unlike that which I felt on 3 other occasions, after some indescribably insane Game 5 losses.\u201d<\/p>\n

He hit enter for a paragraph break. He typed an ellipsis.<\/p>\n

\u201c \u2026 and I suppose that means it\u2019s nice to be having meaningful games again at Nationals Park.\u201d<\/p>\n

As with most things, in sports or otherwise, Tuesday\u2019s loss can be viewed through a few different lenses. The most rational is also the least fun, which is that it was just one of 162 \u2014 and just one of the 81 games the Nats have played, putting their record at 41-40 after Wednesday\u2019s 5-4 loss. The guidance attached to that framing is to suck it up and move on. The takeaway is that, in the grand scheme, there\u2019s actually little to see here.<\/p>\n

But the other two lenses are increasingly relevant to the fate of this team and the experience of rooting for it. Through a baseball lens, the bullpen\u2019s Tuesday meltdown was further proof that even marginal improvements to the pitching staff could lift a team that\u2019s scored the most runs in the league (and therefore competed way more<\/u><\/span>, and way faster, than anyone could have reasonably expected). <\/p>\n

Then even more proof came Wednesday, when the bullpen was handed a one-run lead in the ninth, recorded two outs, then was beat when Orlando Ribalta walked Kyle Schwarber and Richard Lovelady allowed a two-run, game-winning homer to Derek Hill. This framing has everything to do with the trade deadline and Paul Toboni<\/u><\/span>, the Nats\u2019 first-year president of baseball operations. It\u2019s not going away, either, unless the club fades quickly in the next few weeks \u2014 or until the deadline passes, which is when we\u2019ll have an answer on how Toboni really feels about the team\u2019s chances of pushing for a playoff spot.<\/p>\n

And then there is the psychological lens, the one that deals with a fan base that, for years now, ever since the summer of 2021, has guarded against hoping to the point of feeling real pain. It\u2019s a fool me once, fool me twice, fool me 74 times<\/i> sort of deal, a common dance for sports fans, who often love something that will never love them back. But this week \u2014 and with these tight losses in particular \u2014 Nats fans seem to be peeking out of emotional hiding, smelling the fresh air a bit, even enjoying the jolt of a yes-no-yes-no-no-no-no-NO! experience. It\u2019s maybe the surest sign yet that things are inching toward a better place.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI was driving home last night so freaking pissed off,\u201d Toboni said in a radio interview Wednesday morning on 106.7 The Fan. \u201cIt kind of hit me that it\u2019s a good thing. We have higher expectations than people had coming into the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Toboni, talking with \u201cThe Sports Junkies,\u201d then walked straight at the most pressing question: Is he going to improve this pitching staff or what? He acknowledged that, yes, the team would have a \u201cfew more\u201d wins if the relievers were throwing a \u201cbit better.\u201d He mentioned that the team could be active with waiver claims, which are typically fringe roster additions, to marginally improve the bullpen in the immediate future. Before Wednesday\u2019s loss, the Nationals did exactly that, adding Justin Lawrence, a right-handed reliever from the Twins, off waivers.<\/p>\n

Toboni also described this as a tricky point of the calendar, when most clubs are still sussing out how they\u2019re going to act before the Aug. 3 trade deadline, using the next three, four or five weeks as a gauge. He also said that, even if it is an odd time to strike deals, \u201cit doesn\u2019t mean we\u2019re not going to try.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a decent amount of honesty for a baseball exec, especially one who\u2019s about to make some critical decisions in the weeks ahead, if only because of how they could build trust between the new front office and the fan base (or not). Take it from Ellen Clair Lamb, a longtime season-ticket holder who was at Tuesday\u2019s game, allowing herself to hope from her center field seats.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis cautious optimism raises the stakes for the trade deadline,\u201d Lamb said in a text Wednesday. \u201cIf they *don\u2019t* do something about the bullpen, they\u2019re showing us that they don\u2019t care and we shouldn\u2019t either.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since 2018, I\u2019ve been building a rolodex of Nats fans, a cross section of people I bother to take the city\u2019s temperature on the team. On Wednesday morning, that meant sending a big round of texts, asking how they\u2019re balancing any feelings of wanting improvements \u2014 of wishing there was even a bit more urgency to bring in better arms \u2014 with the novelty of caring about specific results again.<\/p>\n

Almost everyone was more interested in discussing the latter, especially since, for them, this is a young, upstart team that is suddenly playing with house money. Group chats were busier Tuesday night than they had been in a good while, both during the game and after. One lifelong fan, texting with his mom about that harrowing loss, said he was \u201czen about it,\u201d actually, because he\u2019s just happy the team is \u201csurprisingly fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Low expectations, exciting baseball, can\u2019t exactly lose at the moment \u2014 that\u2019s how their collective thinking reads. Except, of course, when you lose by allowing eight runs in the ninth inning (then cough up another late lead the next night). But that roller coaster, the feeling of riding it again after years of indifference, is more the point than whether Mitchell Parker is soon replaced by another random reliever. After all, just about every season will end in some form of heartbreak. The opportunity to invest is really the whole thing.<\/p>\n

Read more Democrats Doubt Iran Diplomacy But See No Alternative<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A crushing loss to the Phillies was a reminder that feeling invested is the whole point.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":666,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"\nLooks at Nationals Fans, Feeling Again - Modern Home Journals<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=667\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Looks at Nationals Fans, Feeling Again - Modern Home Journals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A crushing loss to the Phillies was a reminder that feeling invested is the whole point.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=667\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Modern Home Journals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-25T11:09:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=667#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=667\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/533de239efc09a2ab59959cc1bff86d0\"},\"headline\":\"Looks at Nationals Fans, Feeling Again\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-25T11:09:01+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=667\"},\"wordCount\":1280,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=667#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/3b6cb96fcc01a632375142db8c566d32-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Sports\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=667#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=667\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=667\",\"name\":\"Looks at Nationals Fans, Feeling Again - Modern Home Journals\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=667#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=667#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/3b6cb96fcc01a632375142db8c566d32-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-25T11:09:01+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/533de239efc09a2ab59959cc1bff86d0\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=667#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=667\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=667#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/3b6cb96fcc01a632375142db8c566d32-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/3b6cb96fcc01a632375142db8c566d32-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1707,\"caption\":\"Washington Nationals pitcher Clayton Beeter reacts after Philadelphia Phillies' J.T. 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