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The Washington Nationals were this |—–| close to a walk-off last night against the Cubs. Dylan Crews had already homered in the game and was a single from tying it in the 9th inning and probably a double from winning it with the speedy Jacob Young on 1st base. A home run would have been a story book ending as the Nats were clawing back from a 7-3 score entering the 9th inning. In the end, it was a 1-run loss — but it showed how close the Nationals were.

Pitcher DJ Herz will face the Cubs team that traded him a year ago to the Nats. All Herz has done is find ways to improve and compete. He was drafted by the Cubs in the 8th round of the 2019 draft and traded for infielder Jeimer Candelario at the trade deadline in 2023. On June 4th, Nats’ starting pitcher Trevor Williams went on the 10-day IL, and Herz was called up. With nearly three months at the MLB level, Herz has turned in some of the best games of the year for this team. Everyone loves a good “revenge game” so let’s see what Herz can do against his former team.

The Washington Nationals have the Chicago Cubs in town for this Labor Day weekend series. With a lefty on the mound, manager Dave Martinez will stick with Dylan Crews at lead-off. He also moved his struggling shortstop, CJ Abrams, down to 7th in today’s batting order with the lefty on the mound. Abrams was on the bench for Wednesday’s game and got the team day-off yesterday.

The Washington Nationals have just 29-games remaining on the season. This is the rubber game of this series against the New York Yankees. For the fans of the Nationals, this is au revoir for now to Juan Soto, who spent the majority of his career on this field in Nationals Park.  Goodbye for now, and until we meet again. Of course Nats fans want Soto back permanently.

The Washington Nationals have just 30-games remaining on the season. And tonight’s matchup of starting pitchers evoke memories to Game 7 of the 2019 World Series that should bring a temporary smile to your face. Patrick Corbin, starting for the Nats tonight was a Game 7 reliever (and earned the win) while the Yankees starter tonight, Gerrit Cole, was warmed up in the Houston bullpen as a reliever — and never entered the game. Of course the Nats won on Howie Kendrick‘s “Clang heard ’round the world” off of the Astros’ bullpen as Cole watched.

The Washington Nationals continued one of their best starting rotation turns of the season that now has spanned six starts with a 3-3 record in that span. DJ Herz had two of the starts and has gone 10 2/3 IP 2 ER, Mitchell Parker 7.0 IP 1 ER, Patrick Corbin 6.0 IP 1 ER, MacKenzie Gore 6.0 IP 1 ER, Jake Irvin 5 1/3 2 ER. That is 35.0 combined innings of 7 earned run baseball for a 1.80 ERA.

With the pitching humming, the Nats have the New York Yankees at Nationals Park for a 3-game series, and tonight officially marks the call-up of Dylan Crews for his MLB Debut. He will officially wear jersey No. 3. Both teams have some mighty star power with Aaron Judge, Juan Soto, CJ Abrams, James Wood and Crews.

The Washington Nationals have had one of their best starting rotation turns of the season as their starting pitchers have kept them in every game despite some horrific defense and baserunning at times — and a lack of offense to go 2-3 in that span. DJ Herz 5 2/3 IP 2 ER, Mitchell Parker 7.0 IP 1 ER, Patrick Corbin 6.0 IP 1 ER, MacKenzie Gore 6.0 IP 1 ER, Jake Irvin 5 1/3 2 ER. That is 30.0 combined innings of 7 earned run baseball for a 2.10 ERA.

In order to win a game in Atlanta this weekend, the Nats will need to dig deep to go start to finish with good baseball in this one. The team will fly back to Washington, D.C. after this game.