“Thank goodness we sat there for a couple more hours,” Dozier said. “I got my money back.”

For many of the Nationals, the delay was the first serious one of their major league careers. No one could recall flying into a city on the day of a game, which the Nationals did Monday morning to finally make it to Milwaukee to face the Brewers. Their Delta-chartered Boeing 757 landed at 11:36 a.m. Central time, 16 hours 4 minutes after their scheduled arrival and 7 hours 4 minutes before a 6:40 p.m. first pitch.

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The fun the Nationals had aboard the plane lightened the mood, players said, because the team itself is mired in a slump, having lost 11 of its past 16 games entering Monday while injuries continue to pile up. Manager Dave Martinez said Michael A. Taylor, who jammed his left wrist trying to make a diving catch Saturday, was day-to-day, and Martinez was unsure whether the outfielder was available off the bench in the series opener against the Brewers. Martinez also said third baseman Anthony Rendon, who has appeared in one game since April 20, “should be ready” to be activated off the injured list Tuesday when he is eligible “barring no setbacks."

Martinez described the entire Sunday night episode as “unfortunate,” but he recalled that, as a member of the Chicago White Sox, he once looked out the window and saw an airplane engine on fire. He sided with Delta’s decision and didn’t mind the extra precaution to make sure the aircraft was sound. Once you’re in the air, he joked, there’s no pulling over.

“We’re not playing great baseball right now, so hopefully this can kind of divert us and erase our minds,” right fielder Adam Eaton said. “[Hopefully this] can give us a little more jet lag and refocus us.”

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The plane has had trouble more than once this season, players said, and Eaton said the only difficult part about being on the plane was how hot it got throughout the night, that the cabin was “greasy, sweaty.” In rookie ball once, Eaton had found himself in Missoula, Mont., and the team got stopped on a highway because, he learned, the state sometimes closes roads near mountains late at night. Eaton and his rookie ball teammates hopped out of the car and donned construction helmets and vests to pass the time.

The Nationals did not do that Sunday night, he said, but Eaton thought the delay helped “team bonding.” The right fielder wanted to ensure everyone understood the Nationals travel “pretty cushy,” so it wasn’t that bad anyway.

“We don't fatigue,” Eaton said of baseball players. “It's not in our blood, especially not in mine. We could be military men in Iraq or Afghanistan or anywhere in the world. This is nothing. Our adversity is small, and we see it as such.”

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When a reporter suggested that the Nationals would need mental toughness to get through Monday’s game, Eaton waved the suggestion away. He compared sitting on a plane for nine hours to injured teammate and shortstop Trea Turner, who Eaton said sits in a chair and plays the video game Fortnite for “nine hours per night. … It’s not like we can’t sit on our rear ends for nine hours or whatever it was. It’s not a big deal.”

Eaton added, “We’re sick, as baseball players, so we try to turn any negative into a positive.”

Veterans razzed rookie Carter Kieboom, blaming him for the delay because it was his first plane ride in “the Show.” Fellow rookie Jake Noll had long since lost track of time because, after first baseman Matt Adams suffered a strained left shoulder Saturday night, Noll had to take a red-eye flight to join the team.

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Noll recounted the journey: The infielder boarded his first plane at 11 p.m. Saturday in Las Vegas. He arrived at about 7 a.m. in Philadelphia and needed “about an hour” to eventually track down his Uber because he couldn’t find it at the airport. He slept for an hour at the team hotel before going to the field. Then he played in the Nationals’ 7-1 loss to the Phillies before he got on the plane that never took off.

Noll and reliever Joe Ross were disappointed because they both fell asleep almost as soon as they got on the plane and woke up believing they had timed their naps just right as they coasted onto the tarmac in Milwaukee. They were disappointed. Noll flipped on “Altered Carbon,” a Netflix show, to pass the time.

In the visitors’ clubhouse at Miller Park on Monday afternoon, Noll said he finally felt like himself again after two more hours of sleep at the team hotel. He stretched back in the chair. All around the clubhouse, the Nationals trickled out to stretch and throw on the field. They knew, with the way they have been playing, they had no excuses.

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“You got to strap it on and go,” Dozier said. “You got to ad-lib. That’s the biggest thing in baseball.”

Nationals (14-19)

Adam Eaton, RF

Victor Robles, CF

Howie Kendrick, 1B

Yan Gomes, C

Brian Dozier, 2B

Wilmer Difo, 3B

Andrew Stevenson, LF

Carter Kieboom, SS

Max Scherzer, RHP

Brewers (20-17)

Ben Gamel, CF

Christian Yelich, LF

Yasmani Grandal, C

Mike Moustakas, 2B

Travis Shaw, 3B

Jesus Aguilar, 1B

Eric Thames, RF

Orlando Arcia, SS

Jhoulys Chacin, RHP