The Washington Nationals were a deep underdog in Friday’s matchup and Jackson Kent came out barking like a bulldog to get his first win of of his MLB career. Today’s game is that classic matchup of each team’s ace as Cade Cavalli goes for the home team in Washington, D.C., and Sandy Alcantara goes for the visitors.

Earlier today, James Wood took full swings with full body rotation in the batting cage today (pictured above). It is expected that if he comes out of these sessions with no pain that he will come off of the IL in the next few days. Manager Blake Butera said that Wood would not be the team’s September 1 callup at roster expansion. What that means is someone will still come up as the team’s 14ᵗʰ position player, and someone else would come off of the roster when Wood is activated off of the IL.

Getting Wood back into this lineup would certainly feel like a major jolt of offense. And the team is hoping for breakouts from Brady House and Dylan Crews as they keep showing glimpses of greatness, just not enough consistency, yet. Since August 11ᵗʰ, House has an OPS of .776, and Crews has a .725 OPS since July 19ᵗʰ.

Can the Nats get on a winning streak as there are just 24 games remaining in this regular season. To avoid a 90 loss season, the Nats need to get 9-games in the win column. And to get to a winning season, the Nats would have to go 18-6 to finish the season.

❝Man, Jackson Kent, what an outing.❞

— said manager Blake Butera after yesterday’s game

On offense, the Nats have the most runs scored in MLB this season at 713 runs, and that is an impressive 5.20 runs per game. With the Nats pitching giving up 4.67 earned runs per game, the difference is really those pesky unearned runs due to the errors. Overall, the Nats have a +19 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.

Miami Marlins vs. Washington Nationals

Stadium: Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.
1st Pitch: 4:05 PM EDT
TV: Nationals.TV
Radio: 106.7 The Fan radio and via the MLB app. On Sirius/XM, tune to Channel 182 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.

Photo by Intrepid /Nats.Talk