Game #126 Trade winds blew a little — not much; Oh yah, Phillies in town!

Kevin Long with Daniel Murphy. Photo by Lee Heiman for TalkNats

The Washington Nationals look very different now compared to 2-hours ago due to a couple of trades. With Daniel Murphy and Matt Adams on their way to NL Central teams, the Nationals called-up Andrew Stevenson and Adrian Sanchez to take their spots on the roster. It appears that Kelvin Herrera will not be activated today. There is a game tonight, and it looked like this series was going to be the Nationals last stand against the Phillies with the Nationals three best pitchers lined up. Instead the General Manager, Mike Rizzo, waved what appears to be the white flag although it could have been a handkerchief. 

Rizzo did say the team was not giving up on any hopes of making the postseason while the team was still mathematically alive but hope certainly faded with these moves and the lack of any moves to bolster the Nationals starting rotation.

Tonight’s starters are Tanner Roark for the Nationals and Vince Velasquez for the Phillies. While both righties have identical 4.13 ERAs, it is Roark who is trending better according to current statistics.

The Phillies are 1.0 game outside of 1st place in the NL East and the Nationals are 7.5 games off the pace. This series just three weeks ago looked like it could have been a fight for 1st Place. While the Phillies added to their roster at the trade deadline with former Nats like Asdrubal Cabrera and Wilson Ramos, the Nationals traded away Brandon Kintzler and Shawn Kelley.

The Nationals rewarded Andrew Stevenson with the call-up as he has been absolutely raking in the month of August with the Triple-A Syracuse Chiefs slashing .350/.435/.500/.935, but here’s the issue — if manager Dave Martinez is not going to play him regularly, then what’s the use?


Philadelphia Philles vs. Washington Nationals
Stadium:  Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.
1st Pitch: 7:05 pm EDT
TV:  MASN2; MLB.TV app out-of-network
Nats Radio: 106.7 The Fan and via the MLB app

Line-ups subject to change without notice:

  1. Adam Eaton RF
  2. Trea Turner SS
  3. Bryce Harper CF
  4. Anthony Rendon 3B
  5. Juan Soto LF
  6. Ryan Zimmerman 1B
  7. Matt Wieters C
  8. Tanner Roark RHP
  9. Wilmer Difo 2B
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