Washington Nationals at Athletics

Many players don’t know (or, at least, claim not to know) when they’re on the precipice of a statistical milestone. That made Nationals shortstop CJ Abrams’ awareness and candor all the more refreshing after Sunday’s 5-2 win over the Athletics at Sutter Health Park. Asked if he was perhaps unaware that his 21st home run of 2026 constituted a new career high, Abrams delivered a simple but confident response. “No,” Abrams said. “I knew.” And why shouldn’t he? When you reach your career high in homers in mid-July -- with 62 regular-season games still yet to play -- it’s worth talking about. “Huge congrats to CJ,” Nationals manager Blake Butera said. “Couldn’t be more proud of him. A big home run for us, a big home run for him as well, breaking his career high this early in the season.” Abrams’ Statcast-projected 105 mph, 422-foot dinger against A’s reliever Elvis Alvarado opened up Sunday’s series finale, stretching the Nationals’ lead from 2-1 to 4-1 with two outs in the fifth inning. And immediately, outfielder Dylan Crews followed with a shot to left field, giving the Nats their third set of back-to-back homers this season and their second in the past 10 days. “We kind of jumped around in \[the dugout\