Game 159 lineups: Nats at Rockies

It's the final road game of the season for the Nationals, who haven't exactly thrived away from home in 2021. They enter today's matinee at Coors Field with a 30-50 record on the road, though if they win it'll only be the fifth-worst away record in club history, the 2006, 2008, 2009 and 2010 teams having been worse.

It's also the final start of the season for Paolo Espino. Who could've imagined the way this played out for the journeyman right-hander? Summoned way back in mid-April for an emergency start in place of an injured Stephen Strasburg, he's been part of the big league roster ever since. And he turned into arguably the team's most reliable starter, entering today's game with a 4.01 ERA and 1.189 WHIP across 107 2/3 innings.

Espino would love to end the year with his ERA back under 4.00, so he's going to need a quality start in this one against a Rockies lineup that actually hasn't done anything spectacular in this series to date. Careful to assume that will continue to be the case today, though, because it doesn't take much to get it going again.

The Nationals also haven't done a whole lot at the plate in this series so far. They actually haven't hit a home run yet. They'll try to rectify that today and perhaps see Juan Soto look more like himself again after an uncharacteristic 0-for-4 showing in Tuesday night's loss.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at COLORADO ROCKIES
Where: Coors Field
Gametime: 3:10 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Chance of rain late, 67 degrees, wind 9 mph in from center field

NATIONALS
CF Lane Thomas
SS Alcides Escobar
RF Juan Soto
1B Josh Bell
LF Yadiel Hernandez
2B Luis García
C Riley Adams
3B Carter Kieboom
RHP Paolo Espino

ROCKIES
LF Raimel Tapia
2B Brendan Rodgers
RF Charlie Blackmon
SS Trevor Story
1B C.J. Cron
3B Ryan McMahon
CF Sam Hilliard
C Dom Nuñez
RHP Peter Lambert