The Washington Nationals will look for their first home series win of the season on Thursday when they host the Minnesota Twins in the finale of a three-game set.

While winning four of six road series, Washington has completed five home series thus far and lost each one. After a 15-2 victory on Wednesday, the Nationals have split the first two games against the Twins and are 5-13 at Nationals Park.

Minnesota is tied for last in the American League with six road wins. Only the Miami Marlins, with five, have fewer victories away from home.

The Nationals will look to right-hander Jake Irvin (1-4, 4.93 ERA) on Thursday while the Twins counter with right-hander Simeon Woods Richardson (0-5, 6.49).

Irvin, 29, won his first start of the season and is 0-4 with a 5.16 ERA since. After tossing 5 2/3 scoreless innings against the Chicago White Sox on April 25, he yielded four runs (three earned) in five innings against the Brewers on Friday. He allowed six hits and four walks to Milwaukee while striking out five.

Irvin is 1-1 with a 2.70 ERA in two career starts against the Twins.

The Twins have lost six of the seven starts made this season by Woods Richardson, 25. He had a 2.31 ERA after his first two outings, but it has ballooned since.

Last time out, Woods Richardson gave up six runs (four earned) in 4 2/3 innings of a loss to the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday. He allowed nine hits, two of them home runs, and walked one while fanning two.

“It’s just balls in the middle of the plate,” Twins manager Derek Shelton said. “He left the two balls in the middle of the plate for the home runs in deficit counts. We’ve got to continue to execute better.”

Woods Richardson is 0-0 with a 4.82 ERA in two games (one start) versus the Nationals.

After totaling eight runs in their previous four games, the Nationals exploded for 15 runs on 14 hits on Wednesday.

CJ Abrams had a grand slam and two doubles, and Brady House, Drew Millas and Jose Tena each had a home run and a double.

“I know the offense started off really, really hot (this season) and then cooled down a little bit, but I thought our at-bats were still pretty good,” Washington manager Blake Butera said. “So, it was good to see some balls going over the fence and finding some holes and have some success tonight.”

Abrams is batting .423 (11-for-26) with three doubles, two homers, six runs and 12 RBIs in his past seven games.

Millas hit his first major league home run since June 21, 2024.

“I think today was more of a momentum thing,” the catcher said. “You could feel it. CJ was going. Tena was going. Brady got his hit, and he also hit a nice one off a righty. So it was good to feel the momentum, and it was really contagious, to be honest.”

Minnesota, which had won two straight, was held to three hits on Wednesday. Matt Wallner had two of them, including a home run. He has four hits in his past five at-bats after an 0-for-19 slump.

–Field Level Media

It’s been an inconsistent start to the season for the Kansas City Royals, but Seth Lugo has not had a problem with his own consistency.

He’s certainly been good against the Cleveland Guardians at home.

Among the major league leaders with five quality starts, the 36-year-old right-hander will try to help the Royals take their four-game series from the visiting Guardians on Thursday.

Lugo (1-1, 2.68 ERA) has allowed more than two runs just once in his seven 2026 outings and has completed at least five innings in every appearance. On Saturday at Seattle, he gave up eight hits and two walks but just two runs over six innings of the Royals’ 3-2, 10-inning victory.

“I think that was one of my better located-pitch days of the year,” Lugo said. “I battled.”

Though Lugo allowed a season-high seven runs and a career-high 14 hits over 6 1/3 innings of his most recent home outing against the Los Angeles Angels on April 26, he is 2-0 with a 2.00 ERA in three career starts against the Guardians at Kansas City.

The Royals totaled 11 runs while winning the first two games of this series, but they managed only four hits during a 3-1 loss to Cleveland on Wednesday. Kansas City had won a season-high five in a row and 10 of 13 — following an eight-game losing streak — entering the latest contest.

The Guardians, meanwhile, snapped a three-game losing streak with just their fourth victory in the past 11 games.

“All of our games are hard-fought, but it’s worth it,” Cleveland catcher Austin Hedges told CLEGuardians.TV. “We got to find a way to split this series. … We’re gonna try to find a way to get a win (Thursday).”

Rookie Chase DeLauter has been a pleasant surprise for the Guardians, who have consistently hovered around the .500 mark during the first month-plus of the season. With two hits on Wednesday, highlighted by a go-ahead two-run single in the fifth inning, DeLauter is batting .514 (18-for-35) with seven RBIs during a 10-game hitting streak.

Scheduled Cleveland starter Slade Cecconi (1-4, 6.56 ERA) continues to struggle while trying to find a rhythm in 2026. The right-hander allowed five runs and 10 hits, including two homers, over 5 1/3 innings, but picked up the win as the Guardians beat the Athletics 14-6 on Saturday.

It was the third straight start in which Cecconi yielded at least four runs. He gave one hit over eight scoreless innings during his only previous start vs. Kansas City, a 10-2 Cleveland home victory last September.

Cecconi has never faced Kansas City star Bobby Witt Jr., who went 0-for-4 on Wednesday, just the second time he was held hitless in the past 17 games.

Fellow All-Star teammate Maikel Garcia had two hits on Wednesday but appeared to hurt his leg while sliding. Garcia, who got back on track after going hitless in the first two games of the series, likely will be available for the series finale, according to Royals manager Matt Quatraro.

Cleveland star Steven Kwan is 0-for-12 in his past three games and is batting .211 on the season. After getting the night off on Wednesday, he is slated to be back in the lineup to face Lugo, against whom Kwan is 3-for-10 with a home run.

–Field Level Media

Brent Rooker and Zack Gelof each homered and drove in three runs and J.T. Ginn tossed eight stellar innings on Thursday night as the visiting Athletics posted a 12-1 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies.

Ginn (1-1) allowed just one run on four hits, striking out eight and walking one for the A’s, who salvaged the series finale after dropping the first two games. Shea Langeliers and Jacob Wilson also went deep in the win.

Andrew Painter (1-4) surrendered eight runs on seven hits across 3 2/3 frames, walking three and striking out a pair for the Phillies, whose four-game winning streak ended. Kyle Schwarber went 2-for-4 with a homer for Philadelphia, which has won eight of 10 games since the firing of manager Rob Thomson.

After Nick Kurtz began the game with a walk, Langeliers belted his 11th homer of the season to give the Athletics an early 2-0 lead. Painter then walked Tyler Soderstrom before Rooker’s fourth home run of the year put the visitors ahead by four runs before an out was recorded.

Soderstrom began the third with a walk, advanced on a flyout and scored on Carlos Cortes’ single. Wilson followed with a two-run blast, pushing the lead to 7-0.

Following Langeliers’ two-out single in the fourth, Tanner Banks replaced Painter. From there, Soderstrom’s single and Rooker’s RBI single gave the A’s an 8-0 edge.

Philadelphia cracked the scoring column in the bottom of the fourth. Schwarber belted a solo homer, his 12th long ball of the year, pulling the Phillies within seven.

Lawrence Butler’s one-out walk in the fifth was followed by Gelof’s run-scoring triple to extend the Athletics’ lead to 9-1. Two batters later, Kurtz delivered an RBI single.

Against Philadelphia reliever Chase Shugart in the seventh, Gelof connected on his third home run of the season, a two-run shot.

–Field Level Media