The Washington Nationals come into this game on a 4-game winning streak, and all four games were come-from-behind wins. Tonight, the Nats have a chance to sweep the Phillies in this a 2-game series. Of course, in order for the Nats to win they have to get past Zack Wheeler.

After this game, there are just 9 games remaining in this season with just three series left. The Nationals have a day-off tomorrow, and will fly to St. Louis for a weekend series.

The Nats will start LHP Jared Simpson in a bullpen game tonight. The Nats will give two extra days of rest to Cade Cavalli who will pitch on Friday in St. Louis.

Since the World Series season of 2019, the Nationals have not won more than 71 games in a season. Can these Nats surpass that number? That would take one more win to reach that mark. There are 10 games remaining in this 2026 season. To avoid a 90 loss season, the Nats need to get 2-games in the win column to get to 73 wins. Of course the hope is the Nats can play better than .500 baseball in these final 10 games.

The remaining schedule includes tonight’s game against the Phillies, then the Nats travel to St. Louis for three games for this weekend. Next week, the Nats travel to Detroit for three games before traveling back home for the final three games against the Mets in a weekend series for what could be a battle for 4ᵗʰ place in the NL East — or if the Marlins fall apart, maybe a battle for 3ʳᵈ place!

❝A bunch of fight, a ton of resilience. Obviously, going against a really good team here and a really good starting pitcher as well, so we knew it was going to be a challenge going into the night. But I’m really proud of these guys for grinding out at-bats, grinding out innings on the mound. I thought overall it was a really good effort from all sides of the ball.❞

— said manager Blake Butera

On offense, the Nats have the third most runs scored in MLB this season at 778 runs, and that is an impressive 5.12 runs per game. With the Nats pitching giving up 4.72 earned runs per game, the difference is really those pesky unearned runs due to the errors. Overall, the Nats have a +6 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.

Philadelphia Phillies vs. Washington Nationals

Stadium: Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.
1st Pitch: 6:45 PM EDT
TV: Nationals.TV
Radio: 106.7 The Fan radio and via the MLB app. On Sirius/XM, tune to Channel 209 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.

Photo by Marlene Koenig /Nats.Talk