Photo by Alec Geis/TalkNats
The Washington Nationals will finish up their first series in Philadelphia today. This is a winner takes the series. The Nats return once more to Philly on August 3rd for the only other series on the road against them. Coincidentally, the first pitch that day is 40 minutes after the 2026 trade deadline expires. Who knows what things will look like then. If we told you the Nats were 3-2 entering this game — you’d be happy, right?
Today is an Opening Day matchup for both teams with Cade Cavalli for the Nats, and the Phillies have the lefty Cristopher Sánchez. And Nats’ manager Blake Butera will add some more right-handed batters to his lineup including the Nats’ debut of Curtis Mead at first base. He was just acquired over the weekend.
Here is your bullpen chart going into today’s game against Philadelphia. Tomorrow is a day-off and that should allow the Nats to push a little more on their bullpen. Brad Lord and Ken Waldichuk are probably unavailable. PJ Poulin pitched as the opener yesterday but only went one quick inning.
The FanGraphs WAR chart is accumulating data. This will start giving us a clearer picture in six weeks. The OAA defense stat requires a minimum of ten defensive plays. We will start adding more statistics as the sample sizes get larger.
Washington Nationals vs. Philadelphia Phillies
Stadium: Citizens Bank Ballpark, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1st Pitch: 1:05 PM EDT
TV: Nationals.TV
Radio: 106.7 The Fan radio and via the MLB app. On Sirius/XM, tune to Channel 178 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.
