Trevor Williams stared toward the outfield at Nationals Park on Wednesday afternoon, fully bewildered. His arms dangled at his sides, his head tilted. Williams was just 38 pitches into the first game of the Washington Nationals’ doubleheader against Detroit, but for the second time in the first inning, three Tigers were rounding the bases.

Moments earlier, Detroit catcher Jake Rogers had deposited a three-run homer to the spot where Williams now stared, helping lift the Tigers past the Nationals, 11-2, in Game 1. As Rogers circled the bases, Williams held his gaze toward the outfield. Neither he nor the Nationals could claw back from that hole, and there were 17 innings of baseball left to play, so he had little choice but to wear it.

“Just one of those [pitches] where I have to do a better job, because if I’m mentally exhausted here and I didn’t really dial in … I have to get this pitch to the edge,” Williams said. “I kind of just left it in there for him to hit it.”

The nightcap offered the Nationals a measure of redemption, their long-dormant offense finding some late life in a 9-4 win over the American League’s best team.

In the opener, Williams’s first-inning struggles had a pair of relievers stirring in the bullpen. After his 54th pitch, Williams walked off the mound for the first time, the inning finally over. According to TruMedia, it was the most pitches a Nationals starter has ever thrown in the first inning. After three innings and 86 pitches, Williams was out for good, tagged for seven earned runs. Detroit’s Riley Greene hit two three-run homers — off Williams in the first and off Jackson Rutledge in the fourth.

“I really hope that this is really just one bad inning,” Manager Dave Martinez said. “We’ll talk to [Williams]; we’ll see how he’s feeling tomorrow. I know he’s going to work on some things, but we need him. We need him in five days from now. He’s going to get ready to get on that bump.”

The Nationals showed some life in the second game, even if they took their time doing so. After failing to put a baserunner on from the fourth through the seventh, seven straight batters reached in the eighth before the Tigers could record an out. After Nathaniel Lowe ripped a bases-clearing triple down the first-base line, the first baseman threw his hands in the air and broke into a big smile.

That was all the Nationals (36-50) needed. But against the Tigers (54-33) they got way more, putting up six in the frame to account for the final margin.

This came on a night where MacKenzie Gore was without his best stuff, requiring 111 pitches (tying a career high) to complete 5⅓ innings. He allowed two earned runs and struck out a season-low two. The lefty exited with the 2-1 lead against a deep Detroit lineup, and the bullpen gave it up for a 4-3 deficit. Gore, though, has earned some grace in the room as the best pitcher in Washington’s rotation and one of the best starters in the National League.

Williams’s results since signing a two-year, $14 million deal in the offseason put him on the other end of the spectrum. The Nationals brought Williams back with the hope he could find the same groove that saw him pitch to a 2.03 ERA across 13 starts last year. He instead has allowed 57 earned runs in 82⅔ innings as teams — including the Tigers on Wednesday — increasingly lay off his pitches below the strike zone.

“You have to stick to what you think is going to win,” Williams said. “For those guys to lay off pitches down, you tip your hat to them. I thought I did a good job of executing, even in the first today, albeit the one pitch [to Rogers].”

The Nationals aren’t alone in their predicament. Save for a handful of fringe starters on inexpensive one-year deals — Griffin Canning for the New York Mets, Andrew Heaney for the Pittsburgh Pirates — most of the starters from the 2024 free agent class who didn’t sign top-of-the-market deals haven’t exactly panned out. Walker Buehler (one year, $21.05 million), Charlie Morton (one year, $15 million) and Justin Verlander (one year, $15 million) are a few of the many pitchers who have underperformed. But Williams’s 6.21 ERA, with a contract stretched across a two-year deal, is a notable plot point through the 2026 season.

Williams’s struggles also come in the context of his past (as a long reliever) and right-hander Cade Cavalli’s recovery from Tommy John surgery. Cavalli, 26, has popped at times with Class AAA Rochester as the Nationals look to ease him back. He topped out at 97.8 mph in his most recent start — but he also threw just 54 pitches as he allowed seven earned runs in three innings. Brad Lord also has experience starting, but he has been Washington’s best bullpen arm over the past month.

Regardless, Wednesday’s doubleheader exemplified Washington’s search for pitching help outside of Gore, who left with a 3.11 ERA and the second-most strikeouts in the National League. While Jake Irvin, Mitchell Parker and Michael Soroka have flashed hints of progress, no other starter in Washington’s rotation has an ERA under 4.50.

The bullpen, with its MLB-worst 5.84 ERA after Game 1, has yet to turn the corner. Rutledge (6.44 ERA) allowed the homer. Eduardo Salazar (9.00 ERA) gave up a solo shot to Spencer Torkelson in the sixth inning for an 11-1 deficit; that was the seventh homer he had allowed in 27 innings. Righty Andry Lara — making his MLB debut as the 27th man on the roster for the doubleheader — pitched three scoreless innings. James Wood’s bases-loaded single and Bell’s RBI walk provided Washington’s only offense.

But a six-run eighth in Game 2 overshadowed earlier idling. And Jacob Young robbed a homer in the ninth to put a once-booing crowd back on its feet.