WASHINGTON — Democrats just can’t seem to catch a break these days, especially on the baseball diamond.

For the fifth year in a row, Republicans won the annual Congressional Baseball Game. They beat the Democrats 13-2 — a relatively low score as far as these games go.

Heading on to the field, Democrats knew they had their work cut out for them. Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., hedged mightily when asked if the team would win.

“I like to be direct. I think we’ll be more competitive than last year,” he said. “But if we win, I mean, these guys are going to cry. Oh, the MAGA tears.”

The red team kept it to business as usual, starting Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., on the mound for his sixth consecutive outing. Democrats shook things up a bit from last year, choosing Rep. Chris Deluzio of Pennsylvania instead of Rep. Pete Aguilar of California to lead things off.

Steube set high expectations before the game. Asked about his predictions for the final score, he told reporters, “If I’m being generous, 20-10.” That turned out to be north of the mark, but the game was still far from close.

Steube held Democrats blank through two innings, and a comedy of fielding errors put the GOP up by five runs in the same time.

At this level of play, errors are often the deciding factor. On both sides there were bobbles, fumbles and wild throws galore. A notable exception was Aguilar at shortstop, who made a major league-like diving scoop on a line drive.

Democrats bounced back in the top of the third, led by Kentucky Rep. Morgan McGarvey’s RBI triple, which put the team on the board.

The detente did not last, and things became dire for the Dems in the bottom of the fifth, when bad play after bad play let the GOP run the table. By the time the inning ended, Republicans were up 10-2.

Before the game closed, Republicans would add three more runs, for a final score of 13-2.

The annual charity game broke both fundraising and ticket sale records, according to organizers. In total, the event raised more than $2.81 million, a significant bump from 2024’s $2.2 million.

Funds raised from ticket sales and donations go to Congressional Sports for Charity, a foundation which supports D.C.-area nonprofits and scholarships.

The stands were packed with staffers, family members and political spectators of all stripes. The game sold more than 31,000 tickets, easily besting the Washington Nationals’ 2025 average game attendance of 26,038.

The vibe is different from a Nationals game in other ways, too. Along with the hot dogs and Budweisers, booths along the stadium’s concourse were hawking everything from Meta’s augmented reality glasses to Volkswagen electric cars to accounts at the Senate Federal Credit Union.

On Monday, Inside Elections’ Nathaniel Rakich released a deep statistical analysis of the game and its players, giving Republicans the edge.

The small sample size does lead to some distortions. For example, Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., has a batting average of 1.000, a perfect score that makes Yankees slugger Aaron Judge, currently batting .396, look like a little leaguer. Granted, the senator has only had three career at-bats.

Padilla was missing from the lineup Wednesday night. The game coincided with ongoing unrest in Los Angeles, as protesters railed against the Trump administration’s immigration raids and the president called in troops over the wishes of California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Coming off a 31-11 rout in 2024, Republicans have earned a fearsome reputation on the field. But it wasn’t always so. In the grand ledger of congressional baseball games, power has shifted repeatedly. In fact, the Democrats were dominant from 2009 to 2019, during which the party only dropped one game.

“We take it very seriously,” Rep. Roger Williams of Texas, the coach of the GOP team, said ahead of the game.

And it shows. The lawmakers have been up early for months, practicing every day that Congress has been in session. The team is color coordinated, taking the field in matching red uniforms and MAGA hats.

“I probably shouldn’t say this, but I teasingly say that the Republicans are like the North Koreans. They live together, take cold showers and march around in their uniform. These guys are not that,” the Democratic coach, Rep. Linda T. Sánchez of California, said after the team’s practice last Thursday.

The Democrats, on the other hand, were a team of individuals. Each lawmaker wore a uniform tied to their home district, with looks ranging from MLB uniforms to high school and college gear.

Protestors were notably absent from this year’s game. Climate activists rushed the field last year, briefly disrupting play. The game remained uninterrupted this year, though signs were posted around the ballpark warning of the legal consequences of jumping on the field.

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