New Nationals Star Opens Season with Absolutely Massive Weekend at Plate

The Washington Nationals are already getting some serious production from their major offseason acquisition.

Reggie Hildred-Imagn Images

The Washington Nationals were able to avoid an early season sweep against their hated divisional rival Philadelphia Phillies with a dominating 5-1 victory on Sunday afternoon.

After largely being handled with ease over the course of the first two games and not able to do enough against a strong Philadelphia pitching staff not to mention giving up 18 runs combined, Washington came out for the final game of the series and did not have much of a problem grabbing their first win of the season.

Breaking open the game on Sunday and opening up the Nationals lead to five runs was a very long home run to deep center field from new first baseman Nathaniel Lowe, his second of the series:

Nathaniel Lowe shows off some serious pop with this home run to left center 💪 pic.twitter.com/ow6eFHiyYW

— MLB (@MLB) March 30, 2025

Though it did not lead to a series win, the performance of Lowe on the weekend brings some serious encouragement for what could be big things to come for the Washington lineup.

In the three games, Lowe slashed a scorching .462/462/.1000 with six hits, two home runs, and five RBI in just 13 at-bats.

The Nationals knew they were in need of an upgrade when they made the deal for Lowe with the Texas Rangers, but could it be possible he is even more than they thought they were getting when they sent away left-handed Robert Garcia to Texas?

Over the last four seasons for the Rangers, Lowe has slashed .274/.359/.432 with 78 home runs (just below 20 per season) and 299 RBI.

Washington traded for Lowe in large part to put an end to the revolving door of poor production they had been getting from the first base position. As a team, the .686 OPS at first base ranked No. 22 in the league from a position which is usually closely associated with power.

Ironically, Lowe's big weekend comes on the heels of what really was a fairly disastrous spring training. In 17 games played, he slashed .200/.321/.222 without a home run and with just two RBI.

Clearly, Lowe did not let an unproductive camp get into his head, and the 29-year-old veteran has entered the season looking at it as a new opportunity, a mindset which clearly has paid off three games in.

The Nationals will have to hope Lowe's bat stays hot as they get set to travel north across the border for an interleague series against the Toronto Blue Jays which gets started on Monday evening before they return home on Friday.