HOUSTON – Michael Soroka took the mound tonight knowing there was a good chance it would be his final start for the Nationals, knowing the better he pitched, the more attractive he might make himself to any interested contenders.

He then found out that’s easier said than done, especially when the opposing lineup makes you work as much as the Astros did.

Unable to complete four innings for the first time this season due to a high pitch count, Soroka didn’t figure in the decision in the Nats’ eventual 7-4 loss. The bullpen was charged with the final five runs, turning a once-tied game into a relatively comfortable victory for Houston.

But the spotlight tonight was squarely on Soroka, who took the mound less than 48 hours before the trade deadline and once again turned in a start that included a combination of positive and negative developments.

Houston’s hitters put up a massive fight from the get-go, battling tough pitches and prolonging at-bats. Their first four batters saw a combined 28 pitches, and a whopping 13 of those were fouled off. Cam Smith then got a pitch he could do something with and sent it down the right field line for an RBI double and a 1-0 lead.

HOUSTON – Kyle Finnegan has been here before, the trade deadline fast approaching, his name bandied about as a potential target to be acquired by a contending team, the Nationals fielding offers for their veteran closer.

It happened in 2023, and he wasn’t traded. It happened in 2024, and he wasn’t traded. This time, the odds would seem to be tilted heavily toward an actual trade, given his pending status as a free agent and the Nats’ continued status at the bottom of the National League East. But Finnegan insists he’s less engaged with the process this time around.

“I definitely care way less and have been following it way less after three, four years of it,” he said. “If it happens, it happens. I’m happy here. Obviously, as players, you want to play in the postseason. I’m just really not thinking about it. I’m way more concerned with what I’m trying to do out on the field. I’m here until I’m not.”

Does Finnegan understand the irony of that sentiment, that he stressed more about getting traded in the years when he was less likely to be traded?

“The chatter’s always been out there, but I understand how the game works. And this year is probably the most likely scenario,” he said. “But at the same time, I feel like the team’s not going to get rid of guys just to get rid of them. They have to feel like they get a fair deal coming back. As likely as it is, I won’t believe it until it happens.”

HOUSTON – The Nationals (gulp) are currently on a winning streak. Three in a row. The first time they’ve done that since that trip to Seattle and Arizona two months ago. (Or maybe it was a lifetime ago.) And tonight they’ll look to make it four in a row against an Astros club that’s hanging onto first place in the American League West but is currently teetering, having lost five games in a row (the first four to the Athletics).

This very well may be Michael Soroka’s final start for the Nats. The 27-year-old right-hander has proven to be a solid addition to the team, his 4.85 ERA not really in concert with how well he’s pitched (1.128 WHIP, 9.6 strikeouts per nine innings). The right-hander has been good of late, with only four runs allowed over his last 14 2/3 innings. You have to think some team out there is willing to make Mike DeBartolo a reasonable offer for him before Thursday’s trade deadline, but it would help if he pitches well again tonight.

A Nationals lineup that scored two runs and won Monday night despite striking out 19 times faces a bit less imposing opposing starter than Framber Valdez in Jason Alexander. The 32-year-old right-hander (who is NOT the actor who played George Costanza on "Seinfeld") makes only his third big league start of the season, only his 14th career start, having been roughed up by the A’s last time out to the tune of five runs and 11 hits in six innings. Maybe he’d be better off pursuing his other dream of pretending to be an architect …

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at HOUSTON ASTROS
Where: Daikin Park
Gametime: 8:10 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Indoors

NATIONALS
SS CJ Abrams
LF James Wood
2B Luis García Jr.
DH Josh Bell
1B Nathaniel Lowe
3B Brady House
RF Daylen Lile
C Riley Adams
CF Jacob Young

HOUSTON – One of the most significant months in recent Nationals history already included the firing of their longtime general manager and manager. Then it featured a rare opportunity to select the No. 1 overall player in the MLB Draft. On Monday, we got news the organization's top pitching prospect needs Tommy John surgery. And now the month is about to conclude with a potentially active trade deadline that will probably include several veterans dealt before 6 p.m. Thursday, with perhaps a chance of someone younger and more prominent also departing.

Given all that, it's understandable if you haven't been paying close attention to what's actually happening on the field. Here's an update for you: The Nats have won five of their last seven games, including a taut 2-1 nailbiter over the Astros on Monday night during which they became only the fifth team in MLB history to win a nine-inning game despite striking out 19 times.

So there should be no shortage of topics to discuss today in our latest Q&A entry. As always, submit your questions in the comments section below, then check back throughout the morning for my replies ...

HOUSTON – To beat the Astros on a night in which Framber Valdez’s curveball was untouchable, the Nationals were going to need an equally effective outing from starter-turned-reliever-turned-starter Brad Lord, just enough offense from a lineup missing James Wood to give themselves a lead and then zeros from their bullpen to close things out.

When they found a way to get all of that and walk out of Daikin Park with a 2-1 victory, it might well have represented the most impressive victory of the still-nascent Miguel Cairo Era.

Behind 5 1/3 standout innings from Lord, clutch hits from Nathaniel Lowe and Riley Adams and 3 2/3 scoreless innings from the bullpen, the Nationals emerged on top in a pitchers’ duel and won for the fifth time in their last seven games. To have done that against one of the toughest opponents on their recent schedule, against their ace nonetheless, made it particularly notable.

"It's exciting, because you have to play a clean game," Lowe said. "And especially against a first-place team, you have to play a clean game anyway. We did that today."

Adams’ solo homer in the seventh off reliever Bryan King proved the difference, an opposite-field blast for his third homer in his last 11 games, equaling the total from his first 31 games.

HOUSTON – Travis Sykora, the Nationals’ top pitching prospect, needs Tommy John surgery after a recent MRI revealed a torn ulnar collateral ligament.

It’s a significant blow for the 21-year-old, who was trending toward being big league-ready sometime in 2026. Now he’s likely to miss most, if not all, of that season while recovering from the elbow surgery.

Sykora hadn’t pitched since July 5, when he departed his second start with Double-A Harrisburg after only one inning. Initial exams on his arm suggested he had not suffered a significant injury, and the organization’s medical staff decided to shut him down for two-to-three weeks before resuming a throwing program. A club source at the time compared the situation to that of fellow prospect Jarlin Susana, who recently returned to the mound after two months on the minor league injured list following his own shutdown period.

Sykora did not, however, get an MRI after first experiencing symptoms, according to multiple sources. That test was finally performed recently after the right-hander wasn’t showing signs of progress, with the results showing he actually had suffered a tear of the ulnar collateral ligament.

Surgery to reconstruct the ligament is now scheduled to take place in two weeks.

HOUSTON – Hello from Daikin Park in downtown Houston. No, it’s no longer Minute Maid Park. The memories of October 2019 from this place, however, remain, regardless of the stadium’s name.

The Nationals kick off the second leg of their road trip tonight with the opener of a three-game series against the Astros. They just took two of three from the Twins in Minnesota, this after taking two of three from the Reds in D.C. Could they actually pull off three straight series victories? This one should be a stiffer challenge than the last two, especially with Astros ace Framber Valdez on the mound tonight.

Given that tough matchup against one of the best lefties in the league, Miguel Cairo has a very different looking lineup for this one. Most notably, James Wood is not playing for only the second time in his major league career. Wood has been in a significant slump (7-for-64, eight walks, 32 strikeouts over his last 17 games) so you can understand why Cairo may believe it’s a good time to give the young star a physical and mental breather.

Brad Lord, meanwhile, makes his second start since rejoining the rotation. After tossing four innings of one-run ball against Cincinnati, the rookie right-hander should be good to build up to a heavier workload. He threw 50 pitches in that game, so perhaps 65 or so tonight if all goes well?

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at HOUSTON ASTROS
Where: Daikin Park
Gametime: 8:10 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Indoors

MINNEAPOLIS – The Nationals departed the Twin Cities after Sunday’s victory with a roster that experienced only one change over the course of the weekend, with Jose Tena replacing the traded Amed Rosario.

By the time the team departs Houston following Wednesday’s game, there’s a decent chance that roster will have undergone even more change.

With Major League Baseball’s trade deadline now fast approaching, we’ve reached that point in the season where anything and everything can happen, and usually does. Though the deadline doesn’t arrive until 6 p.m. Eastern Thursday (an off-day for the Nationals), plenty of deals will be consummated these next three days as teams look to get a jump on the process and add key players for a few extra games.

We’ve known for a while the Nats were going to be active. Once they endured through a miserable 7-19 month of June, and certainly once ownership made the decision July 6 to fire general manager Mike Rizzo and manager Davey Martinez, it became clear they would once again be deadline sellers and not buyers for the fifth consecutive year.

Some of these recent deadline periods have included only a handful of trade candidates. This one, though, includes a bunch, because the Nationals entered the weekend with seven veteran players on expiring contracts: Rosario, designated hitter Josh Bell, infielder Paul DeJong, starter Michael Soroka and relievers Kyle Finnegan, Andrew Chafin and Luis Garcia. Rosario was dealt to the Yankees late Saturday night for a pair of prospects. The others all have a good chance of being dealt at some point over the next 82 hours.

MINNEAPOLIS – Jake Irvin had been looking forward to this day for more than a year, from the moment Major League Baseball released its 2025 schedule during the 2024 All-Star break. The Bloomington, Minn., native had just missed pitching at Target Field the last time the Nationals played here in April 2023, called up to make his big league debut in D.C. less than two weeks later.

And when the time finally came this afternoon, Irvin wasn’t going to waste the opportunity.

With seven innings of two-run ball, Minnesota’s own gave a gathering of friends and family in attendance that numbered in the hundreds plenty of reason to cheer. And with a second straight offensive surge from a lineup that had been shut out in its two previous games, the Nationals cruised to a 7-2 victory over the Twins.

That’s now four of six for the Nats over the last week, winners of back-to-back series for the first time in nearly a month. They’re still 19 games under .500, poised to deal away several more veterans before Thursday’s trade deadline. But they are at least starting to play better baseball after a dismal start to their summer that cost their longtime general manager and manager their jobs.

"We're playing with energy. We're doing the little things the right way," said interim manager Miguel Cairo, now 6-9 since replacing Davey Martinez. "We got men on third twice and we got RBIs. So we're doing the little things the right way, what we're supposed to do as a team. It's been good. We're going to keep doing it. We're going to keep preaching that."

MINNEAPOLIS – Dylan Crews is ready to begin his long-awaited rehab assignment.

Crews, who has missed the last two months with a strained left oblique muscle, will join Triple-A Rochester to begin playing games Tuesday, the final step before his eventual return to the Nationals’ active roster. The Red Wings play on the road this week in Charlotte.

The club has taken a cautious approach with the 23-year-old outfielder, bringing him along slowly and making sure he crossed off every item on his checklist before clearing him to play in games. This last week offered him his first chance to face live pitching in the cage to go along with the regular rounds of batting practice, defensive drills and baserunning exercises he had already been participating prior to that.

“I know it took maybe a little bit longer than some people would’ve wanted it to,” he said. “But we’re trying to make sure it’s all right, and that way we don’t have to restart and have to do this whole thing all over again.”

Crews initially hurt himself on a checked swing May 20, landing on the 15-day injured list the following afternoon. He was transferred to the 60-day IL earlier this week, a procedural move needed to open a spot on the 40-man roster for left-hander Konnor Pilkington. The Nats will need to clear another 40-man spot before Crews can be activated.

MINNEAPOLIS – It turned out to be an eventful Saturday night for the Nationals. They beat the Twins, 9-3, snapping out of their two-game offensive funk in a big way. Jacob Young had to depart early after getting hit on his right index finger while trying to bunt, and Alex Call came off the bench to drive in three runs in his place. Then the club traded Amed Rosario to the Yankees for a 26-year-old pitcher and an 18-year-old outfielder at night’s end.

What does today have in store? The Nats will have another shot at winning a series, and they’ll have Jake Irvin on the mound for what will be a very meaningful start for the right-hander. The Minnesota native has been looking forward to his first big league start at Target Field since the day the 2025 schedule was released last summer, and that day has finally arrived. He’s going to have a lot of family and friends in attendance. It’s up to him to control those emotions and go out and pitch well.

The Nationals lineup will be facing an opener in Cole Sands. The Twins right-hander shouldn’t go more than two innings, tops. It remains to be seen how Rocco Baldelli manages the rest of the game. With Rosario off to the Bronx and Young day-to-day with a finger contusion, the Nats have recalled infielder José Tena to give them some more depth for the time being.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at MINNESOTA TWINS
Where: Target Field
Gametime: 2:10 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Sunny, 90 degrees, wind 12 mph out to left field

NATIONALS
SS CJ Abrams
LF James Wood
2B Luis García Jr.
DH Josh Bell
1B Nathaniel Lowe
CF Alex Call
RF Daylen Lile
3B Paul DeJong
C Riley Adams

MINNEAPOLIS – The first of several likely dominoes to fall before Thursday’s trade deadline came down late tonight when the Nationals dealt infielder Amed Rosario to the Yankees for 26-year-old right-hander Clayton Beeter and 18-year-old outfielder Browm Martinez.

The trade, which was officially announced shortly after the Nats’ 9-3 victory over the Twins, sends Rosario to a perennial contender for the stretch run in exchange for two younger players. It’s the first trade completed by interim general manager Mike DeBartolo.

“When I heard where I was going, I kind of didn’t believe it,” Rosario, who spent the first four years of his career in New York playing for the Mets, said via interpreter Mauricio Ortiz. “I don’t know what happened in that moment. … At some point, I kind of knew I was going to get traded. But I didn’t know it was going to be today.”

Beeter, rated as the Yankees’ 20th best prospect by MLB Pipeline, has five games of big league experience over the last two seasons but was immediately optioned to Triple-A Rochester after the trade was announced. A second round pick of the Dodgers in 2020 who was sent to New York two years later for Joey Gallo, Beeter has been a starter through most of his minor league career but was pitching out of the bullpen this season. Over 323 2/3 total minor league innings, he has a 3.64 ERA, 1.319 WHIP and 13 strikeouts per nine innings. The red flag: He has walked 5.1 batters per nine innings.

Martinez only signed his first professional contract last year and has played in the Dominican Summer League since. The right-handed-hitting outfielder has played 56 total games over parts of two seasons, batting .320 with a .426 on-base percentage, three homers, 35 RBIs and 34 stolen bases.

MINNEAPOLIS – Alex Call was watching from the dugout as Jacob Young attempted to bunt in the top of the third tonight. He saw his teammate foul that bunt off, but in the process get struck by the pitch on his right index finger, leaving him shaking his hand in obvious pain.

So while the Nationals tended to Young and ultimately escorted him off the field with what the club termed a contusion, Call readied himself to take over the at-bat with an 0-2 count already in place.

Call promptly delivered the Nats’ first run-scoring hit in 96 hours. Then for good measure he launched an opposite-field homer four innings later to help lead his team to a 9-3 victory over the Twins in the closest thing the outfielder can have to a homecoming game in the major leagues.

Though he will go out of his way to make sure you know he’s not from Minnesota, Call is from nearby River Falls, Wisc., just on the other side of the Mississippi River. And if ever there was a night to come through off the bench, this was most certainly it.

"I take the best of Minnesota and the best of Wisconsin," he said. "I'm a Packer fan, but I was a Twins fan. This is a really special area, and I'm a Midwest kid. The River Falls community is where I'm from. It's shaped me into who I am. It's a part of me, and it's fun to be back here."

MINNEAPOLIS – Luis Garcia didn’t even realize it until he got back to the dugout after throwing his final pitch in the bottom of the seventh Friday night.

Someone mentioned to the Nationals reliever the velocity of that final pitch: a fastball to the Twins’ Ryan Jeffers, who grounded out to short: 100.7 mph.

“I wasn’t looking,” he said. “I was just trying to throw strikes.”

Garcia did throw strikes during his 1-2-3 inning at Target Field, with seven of his nine pitches qualifying. But most notable to anyone paying attention were his velocity readings on the stadium radar gun. Eyes opened when he reached 99.9 mph on one offering. Then before that one had time to fully register, he uncorked that 100.7 mph heater to Jeffers.

“It’s the hardest I’ve thrown since ’22, I think,” Garcia said.

MINNEAPOLIS – It’s a new day, and another opportunity for the Nationals to do something they haven’t done in either of their last two games: Score a run. Yes, they’ve been shut out twice in a row. They haven’t scored a run of any type since Riley Adams’ two-run single in the bottom of the sixth Tuesday night against the Reds. Even if they get on the board early tonight, it would snap a roughly 96-hour scoreless streak.

Miguel Cairo certainly needs more from the top two guys in his lineup. CJ Abrams is 1 for his last 21, with one walk and seven strikeouts. James Wood is 4 for his last 38, with five walks and 19 strikeouts. It’s tough for this team to be good offensively when its top two offensive players aren’t producing.

The Nationals will be facing an All-Star tonight in Joe Ryan, the 29-year-old right-hander who is 10-4 with a 2.63 ERA and 10.2 strikeouts per nine innings. Ryan’s name has come up in trade rumors, so this could be a particularly big start for him leading up to Thursday’s leaguewide deadline.

Mitchell Parker gets the ball for the Nats, coming off a quality start against the Padres and having had a full week of rest, with MacKenzie Gore bumped up to start Friday night’s series opener here.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at MINNESOTA TWINS
Where: Target Field
Gametime: 7:10 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Clear, 89 degrees, wind 9 mph out to left field

MINNEAPOLIS – If the Nationals believed a day off in the Land of 10,000 Lakes would do them good and allow them to return to action tonight with no residual effects of their shutout loss Wednesday in D.C., they were greatly mistaken.

The Nats batters who dug in tonight against the Twins’ Zebby Matthews looked no better than the guys who dug in Wednesday afternoon against the Reds’ Nick Lodolo. They made quick outs. They drew zero walks. They scored zero runs.

And when it was all over, they had once again wasted MacKenzie Gore’s pitching efforts, trudging out of Target Field on the wrong end of a 1-0 ballgame, their second straight shutout loss.

The Nationals haven’t scored a run in 21 innings now, their last runners to cross the plate coming way back in the sixth inning Tuesday night via Riley Adams’ two-run single. They’ve barely even given themselves a chance to score again since.

"We didn't hit," interim manager Miguel Cairo said. "We got three hits, I think. Sometimes it goes like that. They got three hits, too. They just got one more run than us."

MINNEAPOLIS – The Nationals signed second-round pick Ethan Petry today and in the process went over their total slot pool for this year’s draft.

Petry, an outfielder from South Carolina who hit 54 homers over the last three seasons, signed for $2.09 million, a source familiar with the deal confirmed. That’s slightly above Major League Baseball’s recommended slot value for the 49th overall pick in the draft ($1,984,200).

Petry was the last of the Nats’ top 10 selections to sign, so they’ve now locked up everyone who was subject to the draft pool. He joins third-round pick Landon Harmon ($2.5 million), fourth-round pick Miguel Sime Jr. ($2 million) and fifth-round pick Coy James ($2.5 million) in receiving above-slot bonuses. Petry is the lone college player from that group.

No. 1 overall pick Eli Willits officially signed last weekend for $8.2 million, a record amount for a high school player but nearly $3 million below slow value for the top choice in the draft this year. The Nationals managed to apply those savings, plus money saved with below-slot bonuses for their sixth through 10th round picks, to lure the three other high school draftees to sign instead of honoring their college commitments.

All told, the Nationals spent $17,365,000 on their top 10 picks, exceeding their MLB-designated draft pool of $16,597,800 by $767,200. That makes them subject to a league-imposed 75 percent tax on their overages, which equates to an extra $575,400 spent this year on draft picks.

MINNEAPOLIS – Hello from Target Field, where they fly pennants honoring the 1924, 1925 and 1933 Washington Senators, just as they do at Nationals Park. I’ll let you all decide on your own which franchise you believe has the right to claim those titles, or perhaps you believe both do. It does make for a fun debate, though.

The Nationals are in town to face the Twins this weekend, hoping to build off their series win over the Reds. To get this one off on the right foot, they’ll need MacKenzie Gore to get himself back on track after his worst start of the season. Gore was roughed up by the Padres on Sunday to the tune of eight runs and eight hits in only 2 1/3 innings, his worst outing as a member of the Nats. A return to form would certainly be nice.

The lineup is facing an unknown opponent in Zebby Matthews, a 25-year-old right-hander with a career 6.53 ERA despite 11 strikeouts per nine innings. The key stat, it would appear: Opponents are batting a ridiculous .406 and slugging .531 off Matthews’ four-seam fastball, a pitch he throws 44 percent of the time. The Nationals typically are a good fastball-hitting team. You’d like to think this should be a favorable matchup for them.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at MINNESOTA TWINS
Where: Target Field
Gametime: 8:10 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Partly cloudy, 84 degrees, wind 8 mph out to left field

NATIONALS
SS CJ Abrams
LF James Wood
2B Luis García Jr.
DH Josh Bell
1B Nathaniel Lowe
3B Brady House
RF Daylen Lile
C Riley Adams
CF Jacob Young

Interim general manager Mike DeBartolo has already conceded the Nationals will be sellers at next week’s trade deadline. And he also mentioned he’s not looking to trade the team’s top young players, such as MacKenzie Gore, though he said he would answer the phone if another team called to ask.

That likely just leaves veterans on expiring contracts to be traded as two-month rentals. The price tags for such players are usually low, but teams may become desperate as they look to reload their rosters ahead of playoff runs.

Luckily, the Nats have a handful of such players. And even more fortunately, those players are trending in the right direction at the right time.

Perhaps the most positive development has been Josh Bell’s recent surge.

After slashing just .151/.254/.289 through his first 45 games this season, the switch-hitter is now slashing .298/.374/.497 with an .871 OPS, nine doubles, seven home runs, 23 RBIs and 17 walks to 19 strikeouts over his last 43 games. Even better, he’s slashing .309/.389/.491 with an .880 OPS over his last 32 and has homered in back-to-back games.

Jacob Young is no stranger to making incredible defensive plays in center field. Since becoming a full-time major leaguer last year, the 25-year-old has been one of the most electric outfielders in the sport.

So while it wasn’t a surprise Young made a miraculous catch to rob Will Benson of a home run yesterday, it was still a play that should draw plenty of praise. And a highlight that should be remembered from an otherwise forgettable 5-0 loss to the Reds.

With Cincinnati having already extended its lead to 3-0 in the eighth inning, it looked like Benson was going to add more with a two-run homer off Jackson Rutledge. He hit the right-hander's elevated first-pitch fastball 103.1 mph off the bat and it traveled 400 feet to straightaway center.

But he needed 401 feet to beat Young.

The 5-foot-11 center fielder ran back and climbed the wall with two literal steps to reach over and bring the ball back for the final out of the inning, sending a loud roar of approval from the crowd ringing across Nationals Park and putting a lot of astounded looks on players’ faces.