Strasburg, Ross progressing toward September returns

PHILADELPHIA - It has taken a while, and it has included a few more bumps than they would have liked, but the Nationals have reached the final leg of their 20-games-in-20-days stretch. That also means they've almost reached September and the home stretch of a season they hope to continue well into October.

Make no mistake, the Nationals are well aware of all this.

"You start checking off the months until the season goes by. Now, we're down to one-sixth of the season," manager Dusty Baker said. "It's a countdown. This is a big time of the year, an exciting time of the year. All games count, from the time you start the season in April. But they especially count when everybody's paying attention. The teams I've been on in the past, the objective was to keep the fans interested in baseball, not football. I mean, we all love football, but we've got baseball to play."

That's particularly a challenge in Washington, no matter the current state of either the local baseball or football team, as Baker will learn the more time he spends in the area.

In the meantime, he and his club are already making plans for the reinforcements that will be coming soon, both in the form of September call-ups and key players returning from injuries.

In regards to the latter, the Nationals have seen positive developments in the last 24 hours for both Stephen Strasburg and Joe Ross.

Strasburg threw off the bullpen mound at Citizens Bank Park this afternoon, his first such session since landing on the disabled list one week ago with a sore elbow. The right-hander, who wasn't available in the clubhouse while reporters were present, appeared to emerge from the bullpen with no issues.

The Nationals aren't offering a formal timeline for Strasburg's return, but things have progressed on schedule to this point.

"For sure," Baker said. "Our trainers are on top of it. They have a program kind of mapped out for him. And his body can tell us how he is. He's going to stay on track on the trainer's program."

Ross, meanwhile, made a one-inning rehab start Sunday for Triple-A Syracuse, throwing 21 pitches. Now, the Nationals are trying to get the right-hander (out since July 3 with shoulder inflammation) onto an expedited rehab program that will include another game appearance on Wednesday.

With Syracuse's season ending one week from today, there's not much more time for Ross (or Strasburg, for that matter) to build up innings. That opens the possibility of Ross returning as a reliever at first, though the Nationals aren't committing to that at this point.

"We're trying to get his pitch count back up right now. We're trying to get him up to 80," Baker said. "That's about as far as we can get him until their season ends. Then, we can have him throw some more in the bullpen until he gets his endurance. We'll see where he can come back to help us. Right now, (Reynaldo) Lopez is more ready than Joe is to give us some length, which we need."

With both Strasburg and Ross rehabbing, and with Lopez, Lucas Giolito and A.J. Cole all performing erratically and being watched closely for fatigue this late in the season, the Nationals may need to find some September starts from someone else.

Those could come from Mat Latos, who is expected to be among the club's September call-ups. The 28-year-old right-hander (signed earlier this summer to a minor league deal after getting released by the White Sox) has made three strong starts for Syracuse, allowing two earned runs in 17 innings. He would be a fallback option for the Nationals, but he might yet be needed.