PHILADELPHIA – Blake Rutherford waited seven years to make his major league debut. Now he’s been waiting seven days for his first major league hit.

It’s a tough hurdle to cross for any player in his first taste of the majors. You have to find that perfect balance of staying true to your form while not pressing too much if it doesn’t come right away.

Rutherford is still hitless in his first five games with the Nationals. He’s been platooning in left field with Stone Garrett against right-handed starting pitchers, so he’ll likely get his next chance at his first knock tonight against A’s righty Paul Blackburn.

Five games over one’s first week in the majors is not enough of a sample size to make any judgements. The Nats will still give him plenty of opportunities in the near future. They just want to see him relax more.

“He definitely wants to get that one hit right away,” said manager Davey Martinez. “We need to get him to relax and hopefully … he gets that out of the way. Once you get that one, you kind of relax and drop your shoulders a little bit. But we're really trying to get him to relax.”

PHILADELPHIA – It’s almost impossible to stop them. All you can really do is try to limit them.

“That team over there was built to hit home runs,” manager Davey Martinez said earlier this week.

That they were and they showed it as they took three of four games from the Nationals, who lost Thursday’s finale 6-2 in front of 30,113 fans at Citizens Bank Park.

It was the usual suspects for the Phillies, who scored all six of their runs on three two-run homers. And it wouldn’t be a Nats-Phillies game without a former National doing some damage.

It was Trea Turner’s turn tonight, hitting a go-ahead two-run home run in the sixth to give Philly a 2-1 lead. Then Nick Castellanos (his third in the last two games) and J.T. Realmuto each hit two-run shots to put this game out of reach in the seventh.

PHILADELPHIA – The Nationals made the decision yesterday to move to a six-man rotation. What was still to be determined was the order in which those six starters would pitch.

They came to that decision today, announcing Joan Adon will start Friday’s series opener at home against the Athletics with Jake Irvin and Trevor Williams following for the rest of the weekend.

That means Josiah Gray will be the first to benefit from the extra rest afforded by the six-man rotation with a week in between starts as he’s lined up to start Tuesday’s series opener against the Red Sox. MacKenzie Gore and Patrick Corbin, tonight’s starter in the Phillies series finale, would then follow suit, each of them also getting a week in between starts.

“We're trying to spread the younger guys out a little bit and give them a couple of extra days off,” manager Davey Martinez said during his pregame media session. “So that's how we decided to do it and that's how it's gonna work out.”

Adon will make his second major league start tomorrow after pitching well in Saturday’s start in Cincinnati when he took a perfect game into the sixth inning and finished with a quality start. It remains to be seen how far the Nationals will push the 24-year-old, who has already surpassed his career high for total innings in a season.

PHILADELPHIA – “It's only one game, right? Come back tomorrow and go 1-0.”

That’s what Davey Martinez said last night after the Nationals were no-hit for the first time in team history by the Phillies’ Michael Lorenzen. And that’s what the Nats will try to do tonight in the series finale.

Looking for a four-game split, the Nats send Patrick Corbin to the mound for his 24th start of the season. He’s 7-11 with a 5.03 ERA and 1.496 WHIP and will try to get his ERA back under 5.00 for the first time since July 16. The southpaw hasn’t faced the Phillies yet this season, but he’s 6-9 with a 4.96 ERA and 1.467 WHIP in 19 career starts against them and 1-4 with a 7.30 ERA and 1.672 WHIP in eight starts at Citizens Bank Park.

The Nats offense will try to get a hit off Aaron Nola to shake off yesterday’s outcome. The veteran right-hander is 9-8 with a 4.58 ERA and 1.137 WHIP in 23 starts. Nola has also avoided the Nats so far this year, but brings a 7-8 record, 3.94 ERA and 1.220 WHIP against them in 28 career starts

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES
Where: Citizens Bank Park
Gametime: 6:40 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB Network (out-of-market only), MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 The Fan, MLB.com
Weather: Thunderstorms clearing, 73 degrees, wind 7 mph out to right-center field

PHILADELPHIA – Yesterday’s news that the Nationals are moving to a six-man rotation wasn’t surprising. It was more a matter of when they would finally decide to do it.

The time works out really well now.

Joan Adon is here and pitched well in his return to a major league mound on Saturday, pitching a perfect game through 6 ⅔ innings. He’s earned another chance to stick with the Nats.

Meanwhile, the young pitchers that have been here all season are entering the Dog Days of August and are either approaching or have already eclipsed their career highs in innings for a season. So, it’s a good time to give Josiah Gray, MacKenzie Gore and Jake Irvin extra rest for the home stretch.

But what other ramifications does a six-man rotation have?

PHILADELPHIA – It has never happened. Not in the team’s 18-year existence since relocating to Washington, D.C., in 2005.

The Nationals have never been no-hit.

In fact, entering today, the franchise had the longest active streak of avoiding a no-hitter dating back 24 years, 0 months and 22 days to David Cone’s perfect game against the Expos at Yankee Stadium on July 18, 1999.

That streak came to an end tonight as Michael Lorenzen, making his first home start for the Phillies since being acquired at the trade deadline from the Tigers, no-hit the Nationals in a 7-0 win in front of 30,406 raucous fans at Citizens Bank Park.

“That was the coolest moment of my baseball career, going out there for the ninth,” Lorenzen told reporters after the game. “Just walking out of the dugout and hearing the fans go wild, it gave me the chills. It gave me that boost of energy that I needed for sure."

PHILADELPHIA – What has long been under consideration – and even to a lesser point expected – came to fruition this afternoon: The Nationals will start using a six-man rotation with Joan Adon getting inserted into the mix.

This has been a topic of conversation for some time now. It was almost more a matter of when not if.

And it makes sense for this young pitching staff. Josiah Gray and Jake Irvin are approaching their career highs in innings for a single season, and MacKenzie Gore has already surpassed his career high. And Irvin and Gore both have recent injury histories.

As for the veterans, Patrick Corbin has proven his durability as a starter throughout the course of a major league season. But Trevor Williams was used mostly as a reliever last year and has already pitched the most innings he has since 2019.

“We actually decided we're gonna go to a six-man rotation,” manager Davey Martinez announced during his pregame media session. “Adon's gonna be plopped in that spot. Just because with Jake Irvin, with Gore, even Josiah, I know he could finish out, he could throw a lot more innings, Trevor Williams who's been a reliever, we want to make sure that we keep their innings intact and understand what we're trying to do — not only for now but the future. So it made a lot of sense to us to bring Adon up here, give him an opportunity to pitch, but also stretch out our pitchers so that we can manage their innings a little bit better.

PHILADELPHIA – Two games down, two to go in this four-game set in the City of Brotherly Love.

After splitting yesterday’s doubleheader, the Nationals have won five of their last six games, six of their eight and seven of their last 10. Don’t look now, but they are only 1 ½ games back of the Mets in the National League East and down to single digits in the Wild Card race at only nine games back of the Reds and Cubs for the final playoff spot.

Don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up, but just for comparison’s sake, they were 13 ½ games behind the fourth-place Marlins and 24 ½ games out of the final Wild Card spot at this time last year.

MacKenzie Gore will get his shot at some of the Phillies’ left-handed power hitters tonight. The southpaw is 6-8 with a 4.34 ERA and 1.420 WHIP in 22 starts. He too will be tasked to keep the Phillies in the ballpark after they hit five home runs between the two games yesterday. Gore has allowed 1.4 home runs per nine innings on the year, but has allowed four longballs over his four starts since the All-Star break.

He’s also looking for a little payback after getting knocked around for seven runs in just 2 ⅔ innings in his start here in early July.

PHILADELPHIA – Andrés Machado wasn’t really supposed to be in this situation. And if he was going to be, a lot of things would have to go right for him, starting with his own production.

The right-hander, who posted a respectable 3.41 ERA in 95 innings over 91 games for the Nationals between 2021-22, was the odd man out when Corey Dickerson signed in January. The reliever was designated for assignment to make room for the veteran outfielder on the roster.

Machado cleared waivers and was sent outright to Triple-A Rochester. He only pitched in 10 games the season with the Red Wings before the Nats selected his contract to the big league roster.

The first part of the season was rough for the 30-year-old. Over his first 14 games, he pitched to an 8.47 ERA, .347 batting average against and 1.037 OPS against with five walks and six homers in 17 innings.

The Nationals designated him for assignment again when they recalled Jordan Weems from Rochester in early June. This time, Machado had the option to elect free agency after clearing waivers. He chose instead to accept an assignment back with Rochester to stay in Washington’s system.

PHILADELPHIA – After an 8-4 loss in the doubleheader opener – in which the Phillies hit four home runs to the Nationals’ two – the plan for Washington in the nightcap was simple: keep the ball in the yard. And if you can continue to hit them out yourself, even better.

Well, wouldn’t you know it, home runs played a big role in the second game.

The Nationals were able to homer to take an early lead, homer to tie the game late and then homer to win 5-4 in the nightcap in front of 40,264 fans at Citizens Bank Park.

"As I always say, this team just keeps battling," manager Davey Martinez said after the second game. "You play hard for 27 outs, anything can happen in this ballpark. You just got to try to get the ball in the air."

Facing a 4-2 deficit thanks to a Bryce Harper two-run home run and Bryson Stott RBI single in the fifth, Joey Meneses responded with a two-run shot of his own in the seventh.

PHILADELPHIA – Now let’s play two!

The Nationals lost to the Phillies 8-4 in Game 1. Josiah Gray will try to get them back on the winning track, mainly by keeping the ball in the yard after the Phillies hit four home runs in the opener.

Gray is 7-9 with a 3.54 ERA and 1.426 WHIP over his first 22 starts. He has only surrendered 15 homers so far for a 2.8 home run rate, much better than the 38 homers and 5.9 homer rate he allowed last year. 

He is, however, coming off one of his worst starts of the season when he allowed five runs and couldn’t get out of the fourth inning last week against the Brewers. The good news is the right-hander has been good at bouncing back from tough outings this year and he pitches well at Citizens Bank Park. Gray has allowed two runs or less in two of his three career starts in Philly with 23 combined strikeouts.

Ranger Suárez starts the nightcap for the Phillies after he was originally scheduled to start yesterday’s postponed opener. He’s 6-1 with a 3.80 ERA and 1.336 WHIP in 13 appearances (six starts) against the Nats. The left-hander is 14-8 with a 3.56 ERA and 1.325 WHIP in 62 career games (30 starts) at Citizens Bank Park, but he’s 0-2 with a 5.70 ERA and 1.459 WHIP in seven home starts this year.

PHILADELPHIA – While yesterday’s rainout helped the Nationals’ exhausted, yet effective bullpen, one still wondered how it would affect the red-hot offense, which averaged just over six runs per game against the Reds over the weekend.

Early in Game 1 of this doubleheader, it seemed to have no effect. But after the Nats jumped out to an early lead thanks to a couple of home runs, the Phillies daunting lineup responded with a homer barrage of their own. And when it was all said and done, this home run derby left the Nationals with an 8-4 loss.

“I was able to get all my work in when I needed to," said Nationals starter Trevor Williams after making his first start in nine days. "As far as the results today, we took a loss. There are some positives to look at through there. You eliminate the longball and it's a different ballgame."

The early lead came off the bats of Keibert Ruiz and the new 1-2 punch atop the Nats lineup.

Ruiz turned on a high fastball from Phillies starter Zack Wheeler and sent it 99 mph out to right field, hitting the scoreboard hanging over the stands 390 feet away. The catcher’s 12th homer of the season gave the Nats a 1-0 lead in the second.

PHILADELPHIA – While this four-game series between the Nationals and Phillies actually gets underway this afternoon, let’s revisit some injury updates from manager Davey Martinez that he gave prior to yesterday's rainout.

The Nationals have seven relievers currently on the 15-day injured list, with a handful of them making significant strides toward returning soon.

Carl Edwards Jr., on the IL with right shoulder inflammation, is getting close to a rehab assignment with a minor league affiliate after throwing bullpen sessions and working toward a simulated game. If he clears those next two sessions while at the Nats’ facility in West Palm Beach, a rehab assignment would come next.

“Carl Edwards is continuing the throwing program,” Martinez said yesterday. “He'll throw a bullpen again tomorrow. If everything goes well, he's set to throw the sim game and then hopefully that goes well. And if everything goes well with that, we'll probably send him out on a rehab assignment. So progression, very good.”

Hunter Harvey, who is with the team in Philly while rehabbing his right elbow strain, was scheduled to throw another bullpen session today. If the Nats get a good report back from that, he too will head out on a rehab assignment soon.

PHILADELPHIA – Let’s try this again, shall we?

The heavy rain is gone, but the strong winds that came through Philly last night are still here. Regardless, the weather is much more suitable for not just one, but two baseball games today.

The Nationals are sticking with Monday’s scheduled starter Trevor Williams for Game 1 of the doubleheader. The right-hander should be plenty rested after throwing 89 pitches in just four innings in his last start against the Mets. The only concern may be if there’s any rust as that outing was nine days ago.

Meanwhile, the Phillies are saving Ranger Suárez for the nightcap while Zack Wheeler, their originally scheduled starter for Tuesday, gets bumped up to the first game. Wheeler is 8-5 with a 3.71 ERA and 1.107 WHIP in 22 starts. He has pitched to an impressive 2.36 ERA over his first four starts of the second half, though he has given up 11 runs in 8 ⅔ innings (11.42 ERA) in two starts against the Nats this year.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES
Where: Citizens Bank Park
Gametime: 4:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 The Fan, MLB.com
Weather: Partly cloudy, 78 degrees, wind 14 mph in from left field

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

PHILADELPHIA – Rainouts and doubleheaders are usually bad news for pitchers. A pregame or warmup routine can be thrown off if the game isn’t called until too close to the first pitch. And 18 innings, with the potential for more, are a lot to cover in a single day.

But for the Nationals, last night’s rainout and today’s doubleheader against the Phillies might actually benefit their pitching staff.

Despite a plethora of injuries, the Nats bullpen has been one of the best in baseball in recent weeks. The Nats currently have seven relievers on the injured list, with the latest casualty being Mason Thompson landing on the 15-day IL with a left knee contusion.

But over their last 16 games, the Nats bullpen has posted a collective 2.39 ERA, the best in the National League and third-best in the majors during that span. Relievers have also posted a 1.139 WHIP and 8.5 strikeouts per nine innings over 52 ⅔ innings since July 21.

“I think we're starting to realize that we need to attack the strike zone and get ahead,” manager Davey Martinez said during his pregame press conference before yesterday’s postponement. “That's been the biggest difference right now for our bullpen guys is that we're really emphasizing getting ahead of hitters, attacking them early and not put yourself in a hole. And these guys have done that, and they've done really well.”

PHILADELPHIA – Like many thought throughout the day, there will be no baseball played at Citizens Bank Park tonight.

The Nationals and Phillies have been postponed due to the approaching storms in the Philadelphia region, which have been going up the entire East Coast this afternoon. The game will be made up tomorrow, Aug. 8, at 4:05 p.m. as part of a single-admission doubleheader. Game 2 will start approximately 30 minutes after the conclusion of Game 1. Both games will air on MASN2.

If you are planning to attend tomorrow’s game, all gates will open at 3:05 p.m. Tickets from tonight’s game will not be valid for either game on Tuesday.

Trevor Williams, who was scheduled to start tonight, will start Game 1 tomorrow, with Josiah Gray starting Game 2.

The rotation will actually be OK moving forward despite the upcoming doubleheader. The Nats have off-days on each of the next two Mondays. And with Joan Adon’s successful start on Saturday and Williams’ return from the bereavement list, they have six starters readily available for the near future.

PHILADELPHIA – Hello from Citizens Bank Park for the start of what has turned into a highly anticipated four-game series between the Nationals and Phillies.

The Nats are coming off an impressive three-game sweep in Cincinnati and are now owners of an 11-5 record since July 21. The Phillies just won two of three against the last-place Royals and have won five of their last seven games while tied with the Giants for the first National League wild card spot.

Tonight’s pitching matchup is a rematch of the July 2 game here when the Nationals sealed a series win in Philly: Trevor Willams vs. Ranger Suárez.

Williams, who was officially activated off the bereavement list yesterday, has had a bit of an odd schedule so far this second half. He’s only pitched 17 ⅔ innings over his four starts since the break, limited to just 2 ⅔ in St. Louis because of rain and only lasting four in his last start on June 30 in New York before going on bereavement leave. He did complete five innings while giving up three runs and earning the win here last month.

On the other side, Suárez has been able to eat up a little more innings for the Phillies, going at least five in each of his second-half starts. He only gave up one run over 6 ⅓ innings in his previous start against the Marlins, but the left-hander gave up five in 5 ⅓ when he faced the Nats in July.

When the Nationals left Wrigley Field on July 19, they did so with a bullpen in shambles.

Hunter Harvey had just joined an injured list that already included Carl Edwards Jr. The rest of the group featured one established late-inning arm in Kyle Finnegan, a once-promising setup man now in the midst of massive slump in Mason Thompson and a bunch of other inexperienced and ineffective pitchers who had just endured through a nightmare of a series.

Over the course of their last two games against the Cubs, Nationals relievers had collectively surrendered 20 earned runs on 18 hits and seven walks in only 5 2/3 innings of work. They twice turned competitive, low-scoring games into lopsided blowouts.

At that point, all Davey Martinez could do was acknowledge the situation he was in, and hope things would improve with time and experience.

“They’re going to get another opportunity,” the manager insisted after an embarrassing 17-3 loss. “Many more opportunities. Hopefully they bounce back and learn from today.”

CINCINNATI – In order to sweep the Reds and win for the 11th time in their last 16 games overall, the Nationals merely needed to hit back-to-back homers on the first two pitches of the afternoon, then entrust an overworked, unproven, still-effective bullpen to hang on in one of baseball’s toughest pitchers’ parks.

When things are going your way, things are going your way. And they are most certainly going the Nats’ way right now.

Today’s 6-3 victory capped off an impressive weekend sweep at Great American Ball Park by an upstart visiting ballclub that made up for the sweep it suffered at the hands of the Reds last month in D.C. And it continued this club’s best sustained stretch in more than two years.

Owners of an 11-5 record since July 21, with sweeps of the Giants and Reds and a series win over the Brewers, the Nationals are giving themselves and their fans more reason to be optimistic than at any previous moment since the roster teardown and franchise rebuild began in July 2021. At 49-63 overall, they’re now on a 71-win pace that would represent a healthy 16-game improvement from last season’s 107-loss nadir.

"It's a long season. To do that consistently is hard," right fielder Lane Thomas told reporters afterward. "Otherwise, a lot of teams would do it. We've just got to keep doing what we're doing, and control what we can control. I think we do good things when we do that."

CINCINNATI – The Nationals cut ties with Paolo Espino today, requesting unconditional release waivers on the veteran right-hander in one of a series of transactions prior to their series finale against the Reds.

The Nats also reinstated Trevor Williams from bereavement leave and activated Israel Pineda off the 60-day injured list and subsequently optioned the now-healthy catcher to Double-A Harrisburg. They already had cleared a spot on the active roster for Williams, optioning reliever Amos Willingham to Triple-A Rochester following Saturday’s game. But they needed to make another move to open a spot on the 40-man roster for Pineda, and Espino was the unfortunate victim.

“It’s always hard, because I’ve known Paolo for quite some time now,” manager Davey Martinez told reporters at Great American Ball Park. “He’s done everything we’ve asked him to do. He’s been really good, a very positive guy. Working with these guys, getting to know them, getting to know their families, it’s always tough when you have to let them go.”

Espino was on the 15-day injured list with a sprain in his right ring finger after a ragged relief appearance in Chicago three weeks ago. In three big league games this season, the 36-year-old right-hander was charged with 11 runs and 14 hits in only four innings, a disappointing final act for what had been an uplifting story when he first joined the team.

A journeyman who had pitched for four different organizations from 2007-19 but appeared in only 12 major league games for the Brewers and Rangers during that time, Espino was called up from the Nationals in September 2020 to make two late-season appearances. He then was called up again in April 2021 to make a spot start for an injured Stephen Strasburg and wound up staying on the big league roster through the end of the 2022 season.