Photo by Sol Tucker/Nats.Talk

The Washington Nationals have the New York Yankees in for the weekend. This will be the final series before the All-Star break. The Nats have to win at least one game to guarantee themselves a winning record before the All-Star break. The Nats haven’t accomplished that since 2019.

Miles Mikolas still has not heard on his appeal of his suspension in the fracas in Boston last week. Cade Cavalli completes his suspension after Saturday’s game.

The Nats will have a more balanced lineup while facing a lefty pitcher tonight. The Yankees will have a much different look than the team the Nats faced in 2024 when Juan Soto, Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton were a 3-headed monster. The Nats will have LHP Carson Palmquist as an opener with Zack Littell as the bulk starter.

There was more roster shuffling with the pitching staff. The Nats promoted left-handed pitcher Tom Cosgrove and transferred Jake Irvin to the 60-day Injured List. That means that Irvin won’t be able to return until the end of the month. Right-handed pitcher Brad Lord was placed on the 15-Day Injured List (retroactive to July 6) with left side tightness. Irvin threw to live batters on Wednesday, and he will head out on a rehab assignment next week.

❝It’s awesome stuff [on the offense]. It’s just a testament again to the way they prepare, the way they go about their business, the job our coaches do. They put a lot of time, work and effort into getting ready to go for these games, and being dialed into the game plan and what they’re expecting to see is a large part of that. And when they get the pitches they’re looking for, they’re doing damage. Couldn’t be happier for CJ and Luis for those career highs.❞

— manager Blake Butera said

On offense, the Nats have the 1st in MLB for the most runs scored this season at 508 runs, and that is an impressive 5.40 runs per game. With the Nats pitching giving up 4.76 earned runs per game, the difference is really those pesky unearned runs due to the errors. Overall, the Nats have a +13 run differential on the season.

Here is manager Blake Butera‘s bullpen chart:

The FanGraphs WAR chart is now large in its sample size. You can certainly start to extrapolate the numbers for the full-season. The OAA defense stat is now giving us a picture of what the Nats have — and don’t have.

New York Yankees vs. Washington Nationals

Stadium: Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.
1st Pitch: 6:45 PM EDT
TV: Nationals.TV and FOX WTTG5
Radio: 106.7 The Fan radio and via the MLB app. On Sirius/XM, tune to Channel 177 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.