Nationals set MLB record with 38th blown save, fall into last place in NL East

The Nationals took a 4-1 lead into the eighth inning on Tuesday night, only to end up losing, 5-4, to the Padres. Unfortunately, this wasn't all too shocking. I believe the saying goes, "we've seen this movie before."

In the bottom of the eighth inning, rookie reliever Jared Simpson issued three consecutive walks to Xander Bogaerts, Freddy Fermin and Fernando Tatis Jr. to load the bases. Erik Tolman, also a rookie, took over and gave up a sacrifice fly to Austin Hays, then a game-tying two-run single to Manny Machado and a go-ahead single to Luis Campusano that would serve as the winning run for the Padres.

The blown save was the 38th of the season for the Nationals, setting an MLB record. 

Here's the list of the teams in MLB history with at least 35 blown saves: 

• 2026 Nationals, 38
• 2024 White Sox, 37
• 2021 Nationals, 37
• 2022 Rays, 36

As a reminder, saves weren't an official statistic until 1969, and prior to that, a blown save wasn't really an issue, as starting pitchers generally finished games. 

The Nationals were actually one of the feel-good stories of the 2026 season for a bit. Under a new front office and knee deep in a rebuild, many expected the Nats to be one of the worst teams in baseball this season. And yet, in late July, the Nationals were right in the thick of the National League wild-card race at 55-53. Since then, they've gone an MLB-worst 12-27. 

A big culprit would be the bullpen. The Nationals have a 5.09 ERA in relief, worse than every team other than the Athletics. It isn't all too surprising. One of the last things developed during a rebuild is the bullpen and there's certainly no reason to throw money at the issue when the expectation is a losing season. That doesn't make it any easier to swallow as a fan, but that's the reality of the situation. 

"Failures in life, we can either look at and put our head down and accept it, or we can face it head on and take something from it and learn from it," said manager Blake Butera after Tuesday's game (via MLB.com). "That's what I'm hoping we do."

The Nationals will head toward 2027 looking to learn from the bullpen failures. Here in 2026, they've now fallen to last place in the NL East, as the Mets passed them in the standings Wednesday night.