The Milwaukee Brewers hit the road on Friday to begin a three-game series in our country’s capital against the Washington Nationals. The Brew Crew is coming off a series win over the Arizona Diamondbacks this week after taking two of three from them.
The Brewers begin play on Friday with a 16-14 record and sit in fourth place in the National League Central standings.
This Brewers at Nationals preview includes probable pitchers and key players as Milwaukee looks to build on momentum from its recent series win over Arizona.
In their two wins over the Diamondbacks, Milwaukee exploded for double-digit run totals in each game. On Tuesday, Sal Frelick hit the Brewers’ first home run in ten days, and the Crew cruised to a 13-2 victory. The win was thanks in large part to an eight-run sixth inning and 15 hits in the game from the offense.
After a disappointing 6-2 loss on Wednesday, Milwaukee’s bats woke up in a huge way on Thursday afternoon. The Brewers registered 14 hits, including four from William Contreras, in another thrashing of Arizona, 13-1.
The two Milwaukee wins got so out of hand that Arizona catcher Brian McCann pitched the eighth inning in both games to preserve Diamondback pitching.
A bit of concerning news that came out of Thursday afternoon’s win was the early departure of starting pitcher Brandon Woodruff. Big Woo was pulled from his outing in the second inning after recording just four outs. Manager Pat Murphy and the Brewers’ training staff were concerned that none of Woodruff’s 21 pitches exceeded 86.9 mph. The average velocity of his fastball was 85.4 mph, well below his season average of 92.5.
During a mid-game interview, Murphy explained why his veteran pitcher was removed from the game.
“He wasn’t himself,” he told dugout reporter Sophia Minnaert on the Brewers TV telecast. “He felt kind of dead. He said he didn’t feel any pain, just that nothing was coming out. We’ve seen a little bit of this, but never at this level where he can’t get the ball over 85 miles an hour.
With Woodruff’s injury history, Murphy preferred to play it safe, saying, “He’s so important, we’re not going to risk anything maybe long-term by having him try to step on it.”
Murphy’s pitching staff has already been put together haphazardly with temporary adhesive. Quinn Priester has not pitched a major-league inning yet, and Brandon Sproat has not lived up to expectations. If Woodruff’s ailment is significant, the Brewers will need to dig even deeper into their bag of tricks to stay afloat.
The Nationals enter the series with a 15-17 record, good enough for third place in the NL East. Washington just took two out of three against the hapless New York Mets earlier this week, and they did the same in their previous series against the Chicago White Sox last weekend.
This will be the second time the Brewers have faced Washington this season, and the first go-around was not very fun for Milwaukee. The Nationals were rude guests at American Family Field earlier in April and swept the Brewers in a three-game set.
Washington is led offensively by C.J. Abrams and James Wood. Abrams, the Nationals’ everyday shortstop, is hitting .296, but his .960 OPS is eye-popping for a middle infielder. He leads the team in RBI (26) and on-base percentage (.405).
Right-fielder Wood is tied for fifth in all of major-league baseball with ten home runs thus far. At just 23-years-old, Wood is already making life miserable for opposing pitchers, and his seven doubles are tied for the team lead.
Griffin, who will be Washington’s Saturday starter, leads the Nats in most of the important pitching categories over the first month of 2026. His three wins, 33.2 innings pitched, and 2.67 ERA are tops on the team.
For Brewers fans, the memory of Washington coming into town and taking it to Milwaukee three weeks ago has not been forgotten. True Blue Brew Crew supporters hope the same holds true for the players on the team.
Despite all of the injuries and roster moves Milwaukee has made already this season, the team is holding its head above water–for now. The idea is to keep winning each series they play in order to hold their spot in the standings until the walking wounded return to action. There is no better time than today for Misiorowski and the Brewers to make that happen.
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