WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – Tonight’s MLB Little League Classic offers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the Nationals to both experience the Little League World Series in person and then play in a nationally televised game in the most intimate setting they’ll ever have in the major leagues.

For two players, it also marks a welcome return to the big league roster.

Mason Thompson and Carter Kieboom were added to the Nats roster today, Thompson activated off the 15-day injured list to take the bullpen slot that opened up when Cory Abbott was optioned to Triple-A Rochester, Kieboom recalled from Rochester to serve as the designated 27th man for this special game.

Thompson returns after an IL stint of exactly 15 days due to a left knee contusion. The right-hander returns after making one rehab appearance for Double-A Harrisburg on Thursday, during which he tossed a scoreless inning on nine pitches.

Given the heavy usage of their bullpen this week, the Nationals couldn’t afford to activate Thompson before he was ready to be used in full capacity. He insisted to them he was ready for the workload.

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – Hello from Muncy Bank Ballpark at Historic Bowman Field, the longtime home of the minor league Williamsport Crosscutters and home tonight of the MLB Little League Classic between the Nationals and Phillies.

For the first time in club history, the Nats are playing in a neutral-site location, selected last year to participate in the sixth edition of the Little League Classic. They are still considered the home team, so they’ll bat last just like the game was being played back in D.C.

It’s already been a long and exciting day, with both teams arriving at the local airport to awaiting kids and media members, then spending a couple hours at the actual Little League World Series just a few miles away from here. Much of tonight’s very small crowd will be comprised of those Little Leaguers, so it should make for a very different environment than any of these big leaguers are used to.

As for the actual game, the Nationals are looking to bounce back from Saturday’s game, which they led 3-0 in the seventh and saw fall apart before their eyes as an overworked bullpen finally crumbled. The good news: All the top relievers should be available to pitch tonight if the situation calls for it.

To get there, they’ll first need a better start out of Trevor Williams, who has struggled big-time of late. The right-hander gave up five runs via three homers and threw 93 pitches in 4 1/3 innings against the Athletics his last time out. Prior to that, he gave up six runs via three homers and threw 103 pitches in 4 2/3 innings against the same Phillies lineup he’ll face tonight.

As he sauntered off the mound, having just struck out a $300 million hitter to strand the bases loaded and preserve a two-run lead for his team, Andrés Machado looked every bit the part of an established, high leverage, big league reliever. He did not look anything like a guy who had been designated for assignment by the Nationals twice in the last year.

How far Machado has come in a short amount of time, having survived a roller coaster of a season to emerge now as one of the Nats’ most trusted arms to get big outs late in games. And none was as big as the one he got Friday night during an 8-7 victory over the Phillies.

Summoned out of the bullpen with two on, one out and the middle of the order coming up in the top of the seventh, Machado proceeded to strike out Nick Castellanos before walking Bryson Stott to load the bases and bring Trea Turner to the plate.

Turner may be having a hugely disappointing debut season in Philadelphia after signing a monster contract, but the former Nationals star is still capable of changing a game with one swing. So when Machado got ahead in the count 1-2 and then got Turner to whiff at a slider, he reacted the only way he knew how: Walking off the mound like a guy who believes he’s the best.

“I was getting ready for the moment,” he said. “I’ve been pitching in that kind of situation, and I just prepared myself for that situation. I tried to do my best, and I saved that run.”

There was juice at Nationals Park tonight, the kind of energy that comes not merely from a large crowd but from a highly competitive game between an opponent trying to reach the World Series for the second straight year and a home team trying to prove to everyone they’re not as far away from reaching that goal as most would’ve believed not long ago.

A crowd of 26,747 that included a healthy amount of Phillies fans roared when the Nationals took an early lead off Michael Lorenzen, foiling his unlikely bid for a second straight no-hitter. It roared when the Phillies put up a six-spot in the top of the fourth to take what looked like a commanding lead. It roared when the Nats fought right back to score six runs of their own in the bottom of the inning and re-take the lead. And it roared as a parade of Nationals relievers held on to finish off a thoroughly enjoyable 8-7 victory and continue a thoroughly convincing turnaround over the last month.

Thanks to CJ Abrams’ three-run homer and lights-out work from a bullpen that looks better each passing day, the Nats won for the 15th time in their last 18 home games. They’re 18-9 since July 21. And they continue to beat good teams, often through a surge of power and late-inning heroics.

"We always tell each other we're going to surprise some people," Abrams said. "I think we've done that. And we're going to keep going and see what happens."

Why wouldn’t the assembled crowd on South Capitol Street tonight feel the energy and embrace a rebuilding home ballclub that is trying to expedite the timeline for a return to the kind of success that used to be the norm around here?

It’s purely a coincidence of timing that so many injured Nationals relievers were ready to begin rehab assignments within days of each other. Intentional or not, the team is more than happy to monitor a bunch of these assignments, knowing each pitcher is getting close to returning to the active roster.

Mason Thompson and Carl Edwards Jr. got the process started, each tossing a scoreless inning of relief Thursday. Tanner Rainey will make his rehab debut tonight, hours after Thaddeus Ward pitched in West Palm Beach.

Thompson tossed a 1-2-3 inning for Double-A Harrisburg, striking out one and throwing seven of his nine pitches for strikes. The right-hander, out since Aug. 2 with a left knee contusion, is scheduled to return to make another appearance Sunday, ideally building up to 20-to-25 pitches.

Edwards also threw a perfect inning of relief, with six of his 12 pitches for strikes with Single-A Wilmington. The right-hander, out since June 20 with shoulder inflammation, is going to need more time on his assignment considering how long he’s been out. He’s next scheduled to pitch Saturday.

“He’s been out a little longer,” manager Davey Martinez said. “For me, it’s like spring training all over with him. I want to get him this outing tomorrow, see how that goes, and then possibly two or three more after. … But he said he felt way better yesterday.”

The Nationals faced Michael Lorenzen nine days ago, and it didn’t exactly go so well for them. Like, they didn’t even record a hit off the Phillies right-hander, who became the first pitcher to ever throw a no-hitter against the Nats since they arrived in D.C.

So wouldn’t you know Lorenzen’s next start would just so happen to come tonight against the same team he no-hit in Philly? Yes, after getting some extra rest, Lorenzen returns tonight and will attempt to do what only Johnny Vander Meer has ever done in major league history. The chances of him doing it again are awfully slim. Still, it would be nice if the Nationals could just get one early hit and not even let the thought of it creep into anyone’s head.

Joan Adon takes the mound for the Nats, and it will be interesting to see how the right-hander handles the situation. He departed his last start with leg cramps, something he also experienced at the end of his dominant start in Cincinnati, and Davey Martinez said they might try an old-school remedy in advance of this outing to combat the issue: pickle juice. We’ll see if it works.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs. PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 7:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Partly cloudy, 88 degrees, wind 10 mph out to left field

NATIONALS
SS CJ Abrams
CF Lane Thomas
DH Joey Meneses
C Keibert Ruiz
1B Dominic Smith
RF Stone Garrett
2B Jake Alu
3B Ildemaro Vargas
LF Blake Rutherford

There was a time earlier this year when Davey Martinez would go out of his way to avoid having Stone Garrett face a right-hander. Garrett was one-half of the Nationals’ left field platoon, and he was only going to match up against those opposing pitchers he figured to have the most success against.

How far he’s come. These days, it doesn’t matter who’s on the mound. No matter which arm the pitcher uses, Garrett is going to find himself at the plate.

“He’s going to get an opportunity,” Martinez said. “He’s earned the right to play right now.”

Garrett is playing a lot right now, far more than he has at any previous point in the season. Thursday marked his sixth straight game in the Nats lineup, even though three of those games were started by right-handers.

The Nationals never really envisioned this, but circumstances have brought them to this point. Garrett didn’t even make the Opening Day roster, losing out to Alex Call for the fourth outfielder’s job. But when Corey Dickerson suffered a calf injury only two days in, Garrett was called up from Triple-A Rochester. And he’s remained here ever since.

There are far loftier goals on the Nationals’ checklist, certainly once the calendar flips to 2024. This is a franchise that won’t consider the rebuild it embarked on two years ago a true success until it’s playing in October again.

But it takes steps to get there, and today the Nats took a meaningful step on their projected path back to contention: With a 10-7 victory over the Red Sox that proved far more tenuous than it should have been, they secured their 55th win, matching their total from last season with 40 games still remaining on the schedule.

Nobody ever deemed another 55-107 season acceptable. Improvement was always expected this year. But at this rate, the improvement is going to be significant, the kind not often found from one year to the next.

The Nats are now on pace for 73 wins this season, an 18-game improvement. That would match the best one-year improvement in club history, one that came from 2011-12 when an 80-win upstart turned into a 98-win division champion.

"It's fun, because I preach all the time about keeping things simple, doing the little things," manager Davey Martinez said. "The baserunning. Throwing strikes. Getting outs. Playing good defense. And it's come to fruition. When you can do those things, you have a chance to win consistently. And we've been doing that for the last month. It's been a lot of fun."

Victor Robles wandered through the Nationals clubhouse Wednesday afternoon, a familiar face but in many ways a forgotten one.

It’s been nearly two months since Robles last played, and he has appeared in only five games since early May, a persistent back injury having sidelined him for the better part of the season now. And given the lack of progress he’s made to date, time may be running out for him to make it back in 2023.

“I worry that we’re definitely getting closer to … I mean, he’s still got to go out and rehab,” manager Davey Martinez said. “He’s got to play. He’s missed a lot. But hopefully we can get him playing again before this year’s up. That will be the goal.”

Robles initially hurt himself sliding into second base on May 6 in Arizona and spent the next six weeks on the injured list. His return to the active roster was short-lived, with only five games played in mid-June before it became clear he wasn’t fully healthy yet and needed to go back on the IL.

The 26-year-old has split his time between D.C. and West Palm Beach, Fla., getting treatment and doing what he can to try to get better. But it’s still an extremely limited rehab program.

The Nationals have already gone 4-1 on this homestand. They’ve got a chance to add to that today and reach a significant milepost for the season. Their next win will be No. 55, which would match their 2022 total. Yeah, there are still 40 games to go after today. That would be quite the accomplishment by mid-August.

It’s a couple of veteran left-handers who have seen better days on the mound against each other. Patrick Corbin enters with a 4.85 ERA and league-high 162 hits allowed, but he comes off a really weird start in Philadelphia in which he walked a career-high seven batters but allowed only one (unearned) run on one hit over five innings. He’ll need to be more around the strike zone today to have a chance against Boston.

Chris Sale, meanwhile, enters with a 4.52 ERA and only returned last week from a two-month stint on the injured list. The 34-year-old was good in his return, though, holding the Tigers to two runs on one hit while striking out seven in 4 2/3 innings.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs. BOSTON RED SOX
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 4:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Partly cloudy, 88 degrees, wind 10 mph out to left field

NATIONALS
RF Lane Thomas
1B Joey Meneses
DH Keibert Ruiz
LF Stone Garrett
C Riley Adams
2B Michael Chavis
3B Ildemaro Vargas
CF Alex Call
SS Jeter Downs

CJ Abrams has been better lately. Lane Thomas has been better over the course of the entire season. Joey Meneses has been better with runners in scoring position. But there may be nobody the Nationals would rather see at the plate in a big spot late in a close game right now than Keibert Ruiz.

The proof is there for everyone to see, and it was again Wednesday night, when Ruiz launched a three-run homer in the bottom of the eighth to give the Nats the lead for good en route to a 6-2 win over the Red Sox.

This only four days after Ruiz hit the first walk-off homer of his career, beating the Athletics on Saturday night. Which only continued a longstanding trend for the young catcher of delivering big home runs in big spots.

Ruiz has now hit 15 homers for the season. Ten of those have come in the seventh inning or later. And four of those have either given the Nationals the lead or tied the game.

“I honestly think he’s more engaged, as far as getting the ball in the zone. And attacking the baseball,” manager Davey Martinez said of Ruiz’s approach in those late innings. “He’s been awesome. He’s knocked in some big runs for us.”

There have been some notable bumps along the way, some duds every once in a while when he takes the mound. But there have been more than a few really good nights for MacKenzie Gore in his first full season with the Nationals.

And none as good as the one the crowd at Nationals Park witnessed tonight. Even if it did end abruptly and earlier than anyone would’ve preferred. Though the final outcome more than pleased the home team and its fans.

With a devastating combination of precision, power and efficiency, Gore put together his best start as a big leaguer, overwhelming the Red Sox for 6 1/3 scoreless innings before departing with a blister on his left middle finger, an early departure that prefaced a wild finish that saw Boston rally to tie the game but the Nats respond with back-to-back homers by Keibert Ruiz and Stone Garrett for a 6-2 victory.

"That was frustrating," Gore said of the blister forcing him from the game. "But it's something I deal with. There's no panic button or anything. There was a lot of good tonight. We got ahead of guys. Keibert was awesome. We turned a lot of double plays. And we hit some big homers."

Jordan Weems, who replaced Gore on the mound, gave up a game-tying homer to Pablo Reyes in the eighth. No problem, because his teammates were ready to pick him up. Ruiz launched a three-run homer to right-center off reliever Garrett Whitlock, the young catcher’s latest clutch blast in a season full of them.

Two more injured Nationals relievers are ready to begin pitching in competitive games.

Tanner Rainey and Mason Thompson will both begin minor league rehab assignments Friday, manager Davey Martinez announced prior to tonight’s game against the Red Sox. Rainey will pitch for Single-A Fredericksburg, with Thompson joining Double-A Harrisburg, which is playing at Richmond this week.

For Rainey, this marks the most significant step in his long recovery from Tommy John surgery. The 30-year-old right-hander is more than a year removed from his procedure to replace the ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow, and though he has faced live hitters in West Palm Beach, Fla., and here at Nationals Park in recent days, he’s now ready to compete in an actual game.

The club wants Rainey to take things slow, recognizing he’s allotted up to 30 days on his rehab assignment before he must be added to the active roster. If things go, he’ll likely join the Nationals in mid-September and make a handful of appearances before season’s end.

“Just continue to remember where he’s at,” Martinez said. “And we’re still building up.”

So for the first time in a while, the Nationals did not mount a late rally Tuesday night. As such, they dropped their series opener to the Red Sox, 5-4, that score holding up from the fourth inning all the way through the ninth. They’ll look to bounce back tonight, whether taking and holding an early lead or rallying again, in the middle game of the interleague series.

After watching Josiah Gray record only nine outs Tuesday, Davey Martinez needed to use five relievers for six innings to finish out the game. So some length from MacKenzie Gore tonight would be very welcome if the left-hander can provide it. Like Gray, Gore has dealt with some high pitch counts and early exits. He’s also surrendered home runs, three of them in his last start against the Phillies.

The Red Sox also send a lefty to the mound in James Paxton, the veteran who hasn’t pitched much since 2019 due to injuries. Paxton has been good since returning healthy this season, though, with a 3.36 ERA in 15 starts. He just tossed 5 1/3 scoreless innings against the Royals last week.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs. BOSTON RED SOX
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 7:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Partly cloudy, 82 degrees, wind 4 mph out to right field

NATIONALS
SS CJ Abrams
RF Lane Thomas
DH Joey Meneses
C Keibert Ruiz
LF Stone Garrett
1B Dominic Smith
3B Ildemaro Vargas
2B Michael Chavis
CF Alex Call

Ask Davey Martinez to evaluate Josiah Gray’s recent struggles, and the Nationals manager doesn’t have to think for long before answering.

“The command of the fastball just hasn’t been there,” Martinez said following Tuesday night’s 5-4 loss to the Red Sox. “And he’s trying to rely on too many secondary pitches.”

If you want to boil Gray’s troubles down to a single diagnosis, that might well be it. He knows his fastball has been his least effective pitch since he reached the big leagues two years ago. But his occasional abandonment of it altogether only seems to lead to more trouble.

“We’ve got to get him to understand that the use of his fastball has got to be better,” Martinez said. “He’s really good when he throws his fastball down for strikes; it’s got some run to it. And then he can go to his secondary pitches. But his pitch count is getting way up there.”

Gray’s pitch count was astronomical Tuesday night. He needed 31 just to face five batters in the top of the first. He finished with a whopping 83 across only three-plus innings, averaging more than five thrown per batter faced.

The way things have been going around here lately, it was perfectly fair for anyone inside the Nationals dugout – or anywhere inside Nationals Park, for that matter – to reach the bottom of the ninth tonight and just assume the home team was going to rally once again and pull off another walk-off win.

So when it didn’t happen and the Red Sox were the ones congratulating each other following a 5-4 victory, nobody quite knew how to react.

Despite trailing by that same score since the fourth inning, the Nationals never could mount one final rally to get over the hump. They had walked off the Athletics both Saturday and Sunday. They could not walk off the Red Sox tonight.

"They were making good pitches," catcher Keibert Ruiz said. "Sometimes it's hard."

In the end, the Nationals were left to contemplate the latest abbreviated start by Josiah Gray, who labored more than he has in any previous outing and wound up surrendering all five runs Boston would score, all of them coming in the game’s first four innings.

Hunter Harvey believes he could’ve returned from his elbow strain at least a week ago, maybe sooner than that. Given the right-hander’s lengthy injury history, the Nationals weren’t about to rush him back from the 15-day injured list.

But once they saw him throwing 97-99 mph against live hitters over the weekend, there wasn’t much reason to wait any longer. So today the Nats activated Harvey off the IL and are eager to add him to a bullpen that still managed to dominate as a group in his absence the last three weeks.

“They’ve been great,” Harvey said. “I’ve heard (manager Davey Martinez) say guys needed to step up, and I think a lot of guys had a good opportunity and ran with it. … Everybody’s been pulling their weight, and it’s been good.”

Harvey first felt something wrong in his arm during the Nationals’ mid-July series in St. Louis and immediately spoke up, recognizing he hasn’t always been great at reporting physical ailments during his career. The team sent him home to get an MRI but was relieved to learn the injury wasn’t anything more serious.

Harvey was back throwing again within a week and was able to return without going on a minor league rehab assignment. His IL stint might’ve been even shorter, he believes, if his wife hadn’t given birth to their first son earlier than expected, drawing his undivided attention away from baseball.

It’s been a good stretch for the Nationals over the last several weeks, as we’ve outlined here. Now, can they keep it up against some postseason contenders? We’re about to find out with a run of series against the Red Sox, Phillies, Yankees, Marlins and Blue Jays.

It begins tonight against Boston, which enters play three games back in the American League wild card race, needing to get on a roll to catch Toronto and Seattle. So it’s a good test for Josiah Gray, who struggled to keep his pitch count down last week in Philadelphia and was knocked out after allowing four runs in only 4 2/3 innings.

The Nationals go up against a familiar face tonight. Well, not familiar to anyone who is still here, but familiar to anyone who knows their organizational history. Once upon a time (aka July 2015), Mike Rizzo traded a Single-A pitching prospect named Nick Pivetta to the Phillies for Jonathan Papelbon. We all know how that worked out, more so because of Papelbon’s tumultuous tenure here. Pivetta, now 30, makes his 147th career start tonight, owner of a 48-56 record and 4.92 ERA. He hasn’t been great, but he has lasted for a while in the big leagues.

The Nats have a familiar face back in their bullpen tonight: Hunter Harvey. The right-hander was activated off the 15-day injured list and will be available if needed. Joe La Sorsa was optioned to Triple-A Rochester to clear a spot for Harvey.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs. BOSTON RED SOX
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 7:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Chance of rain, 81 degrees, wind 6 mph out to right field

The Nationals, you may have heard, are playing winning baseball right now.

After a weekend sweep of the Athletics, they improved to 15-8 since July 21. They’re 19-12 since July 8, which is the best record in the National League East during that time, third-best in the NL.

Something clearly has to be going right for this team that wasn’t going right earlier in the season. Or last season. Or the season before that. But what exactly is going so right for them to cause such a dramatic turnaround?

You can find improvement in just about every aspect of play, from a lineup that is scoring more runs to a defense that is committing fewer errors to a bullpen that has dramatically become one of the most effective in the league in recent weeks. And all of that is true.

But if you really want to boil it all down to one key factor, here it is: The Nationals are winning the late innings.

Well, it was a rather interesting week here in NatsTown, was it not? It began with a sweep in Cincinnati. Then it included a no-hitter in Philadelphia. Then it concluded with another sweep over Oakland. All of a sudden, the Nationals have gone 19-12 since July 8, best in the NL East and third-best in the NL during that prolonged span.

Now another potentially momentous week awaits. There's a three-game series with the Red Sox beginning Tuesday. Then a three-game series with the Phillies that begins Friday in D.C. but concludes Sunday in Williamsport, Pa.

You've probably got questions about the current state of affairs around here, or maybe what the future has in store for the Nats, both short-term and long-term. If so, submit them in the comments section below and then check back throughout the morning for my responses ...