Game 53 lineups: Nats at Royals

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – This isn’t the first time this has been written this season (or last season, for that matter), but the Nationals have a chance today to complete their first three-game sweep since June 2021, and their first chance to sweep a three-game road series since August 2019. The fact this isn’t the first time this has been written tells you just how many opportunities they’ve had to end that streak and haven’t been able to pull it off.

Perhaps today’s finally the day, though, with MacKenzie Gore on the mound against the Royals. The left-hander actually hasn’t had a really good start in a while, plagued of late by walks and high pitch counts. This would be a good day for him to morph back into the pitcher who impressed through most of April and early May, especially because the Nationals bullpen had to churn out five innings in Saturday’s win.

Gore will have several non-regular faces behind him in the field today, with Davey Martinez giving a bunch of regulars the day off against Kansas City lefty Daniel Lynch. Stone Garrett gets the cleanup spot, with a 6-7-8 of Ildemaro Vargas, Michael Chavis and Riley Adams. The backups had a nice offensive day one week ago against the Tigers; we’ll see if they can duplicate that this afternoon.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at KANSAS CITY ROYALS
Where: Kauffman Stadium
Gametime: 2:10 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Sunny, 80 degrees, wind 5 mph out to left field

NATIONALS
RF Lane Thomas
2B Luis García
DH Joey Meneses
LF Stone Garrett
1B Dominic Smith
SS Ildemaro Vargas
3B Michael Chavis
C Riley Adams
CF Alex Call

LHP MacKenzie Gore

ROYALS
1B Nick Pratto
C Salvador Perez
DH Vinnie Pasquantino
SS Bobby Witt Jr.
RF MJ Melendez
3B Maikel Garcia
2B Michael Massey
LF Edward Olivares
CF Jackie Bradley Jr.

LHP Daniel Lynch