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ST. LOUIS – Hello from Busch Stadium, where an unexpectedly new era of Nationals baseball begins tonight. There’s a week to go until the All-Star break, 72 games left to play in the season. And there’s a new general manager and manager (interim, in each case) calling the shots the rest of the way after Mike Rizzo and Davey Martinez were fired following Sunday’s loss to the Red Sox.
We’ll be hearing from Mike DeBartolo and Miguel Cairo this afternoon, so plenty more to come from them on their vision for the rest of the season. One significant note to add here, though: The Nationals announced a couple more tweaks to their coaching staff this afternoon. Henry Blanco, who has been the catching instructor, will now be Cairo’s bench coach. And Bob Henley, who has held a variety of roles in the organization since the beginning, is back on the staff as major league field coordinator.
As for tonight’s game, it’s Jake Irvin on the mound for the Nats, who decided over the weekend to give MacKenzie Gore a couple extra days off after his 111-pitch start, which also sets him up to be available for next week’s All-Star Game. So it’s Irvin on normal rest in the series opener against veteran right-hander Sonny Gray for the Cardinals.
UPDATE: Some roster moves to share here, as well, since they'll probably get lost in the shuffle with the other big news of the day ... The Nationals have signed veteran reliever Luis Garcia (no relation to the second baseman who he's now teammates with) and optioned Eduardo Salazar to Triple-A Rochester. And they've placed Keibert Ruiz back on the 7-day concussion injured list, recalling Drew Millas from Rochester to take his spot. They cleared a 40-man roster spot for Garcia by transferring Trevor Williams to the 60-day IL.
WASHINGTON NATIONALS at ST. LOUIS CARDINALS
Where: Busch Stadium
Gametime: 7:45 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Chance of storms, 77 degrees, wind 7 mph in from left field
NATIONALS
SS CJ Abrams
LF James Wood
2B Luis García Jr.
1B Nathaniel Lowe
DH Josh Bell
3B Brady House
RF Daylen Lile
C Riley Adams
CF Jacob Young
RHP Jake Irvin
CARDINALS
LF Brendan Donovan
SS Masyn Winn
DH Alec Burleson
1B Willson Contreras
3B Nolan Gorman
2B Thomas Saggese
RF Lars Nootbaar
C Pedro Pagés
CF Victor Scott II
RHP Sonny Gray
