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The Washington Nationals are going for their second sweep of 2023. If it were to happen, the Nats would go into the final 50-games of the season on quite the roll as the team heads to Philly for a 4-game series to finish this road trip.

The Washington Nationals showed some more late night magic, and Andres Machado and Jake Alu were two of the unexpected heroes. Of course Lane Thomas cranked two home runs, and Joey Meneses‘ crushed the game tying 2-run homer for the big power display — but the full team contributed along with manager Dave Martinez pulling the right strings.

The Washington Nationals had the day-off yesterday in Cincinnati before the teams open a weekend series. The Nats have a score to settle with the Reds after they swept the Nats in a 4-game series in D.C. during that July 4th holiday series. If you removed those 4-games against the Reds, the Nats were 18-12 in that span — but since those games count — the Nats were 18-16 in the team’s 34-game span, and that started in San Diego at the end of June. Just think if this team could go 18-16 in the next 34 games.

On Wednesday afternoon, the Washington Nationals announced two major roster moves after their exciting walk-off win against the Brewers. The Nationals have requested an unconditional release waiver on veteran outfielder Corey Dickerson and have optioned infielder Luis García to Triple-A Rochester in a move that shocked many in the baseball world. The truth is, since June 22, Garcia is only hitting .210 with a .250 OBP and a powerless .269 slug for just a .519 OPS, and when you couple that with some uninspiring second base defense that has been negative at a -3.0 OAA, you can see why general manager Mike Rizzo made the move. In the corresponding moves, a source told Talk Nats that Washington will call up outfielder Blake Rutherford. Subsequently, Jesse Dougherty gave the fourth move in the complicated puzzle that the team would also promote Jeter Downs.

In late news, CF Derek Hill was scratched from the Rochester Triple-A lineup which could be related to another roster move, a possible roster move, or just unrelated to the big league roster. The Nats have a day-off tomorrow, and Downs and Rutherford will join the team in Cincinnati for the weekend series against the Reds.

The Washington Nationals are back to business as usual. That was the message that general manager Mike Rizzo conveyed after the nervous days and weeks that led up to the annual trade deadline. The trepidation that built-up to 6:00 pm yesterday might have caused some sleepless nights, and in the end Manager Dave Martinez told players at 6:01 PM last evening that nobody was traded that day.

The Washington Nationals made no trades today. The trade deadline came and went with only Jeimer Candelario traded yesterday. The fans are split in how they feel about the lack of action. Basically you either trust your general manager to make the best deals for the team -or- you don’t. Rizzo had plenty of offers to consider — but in the end the only one he took was the Candelario deal.