For the first time since mid-April, the Nationals will have a chance to stand alone outside the basement of the National League East. And for the second straight game, the Nationals’ future will be on display against its past.

MacKenzie Gore gets his first shot at former Nats Bryce Harper, Trea Turner and Kyle Schwarber as a National. He did face each of them over his 16 appearances with the Padres last year: Harper went 0-for-3 with a strikeout; Turner went 2-for-2 with an RBI double and was hit by a pitch; and Schwarber went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts and a walk.

Gore is coming off a career-high 11 strikeouts in seven innings of one-run ball on Sunday against the Royals. On the year, the lefty is 3-3 with a 3.57 ERA, 1.414 WHIP and 11.5 strikeout-per-nine-innings rate.

Left-hander Matt Strahm is starting a bullpen game for the Phillies this afternoon. He’s 4-3 with a 3.20 ERA and 1.042 WHIP in 15 appearances (seven starts) this season. Strahm is expected to go at least two innings for manager Rob Thomson, who had to use four relievers last night after Zack Wheeler couldn’t get out of the fourth.

PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES at WASHINGTON NATIONALS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 4:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 The Fan, MLB.com
Weather: Cloudy with chance of storms, 81 degrees, wind 11 mph in from right field

The Nationals are back home at last, following an eventful 3-3 trip to Kansas City and Los Angeles. And would you believe they have a chance to climb out of the National League East basement tonight?

Yes, that’s right. The Nats (24-32) trail the fourth-place Phillies (25-31) by only game. A win tonight would leave the two teams tied in the standings. Imagine what fans in both towns would’ve thought if presented with that possibility back on Opening Day.

This is going to be a nice test for Josiah Gray, who has kind of regressed a bit in recent outings. The right-hander still hasn’t allowed more than three runs in any start since his season debut, but he has walked nine batters over his last nine innings and needed a whopping 179 pitches to get there. Gray has got to show better command tonight, but he also has to keep the ball in the park on the first really warm day of the season, with an afternoon high of 92 degrees.

The Nationals, who mashed five homers during Wednesday’s wild win at Dodger Stadium, will try to keep that going against Zack Wheeler, who dominated the Braves in his last start to the tune of eight scoreless innings with 12 strikeouts.

Oh, and tonight also represents Trea Turner’s first of many upcoming appearances at Nationals Park as a member of the Phillies, who also have a couple games named Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber on their roster, in case you’ve forgotten.

LOS ANGELES – A road trip that began with so much promise is now in danger of concluding in the complete opposite direction. Since winning the first two games of their weekend series in Kansas City (and carrying a lead into the seventh on Sunday), the Nationals have lost three straight, and today are in danger of getting swept by the mighty Dodgers.

If they want to avoid that ignominy and at least head home with a 3-3 record on the trip, they’re going to need to score some runs today against Noah Syndergaard. The veteran right-hander has not been good in his first season here in L.A. Through his first 10 starts, he’s 1-4 with a 6.27 ERA. Folks around here believe he should’ve been dropped from the rotation after his last outing, but the Dodgers don’t appear to have any better alternatives at the moment, so he’s back on the mound. Suffice it to say, this is an opportunity for the Nats to do some damage.

It’s also an opportunity for Patrick Corbin to continue to show his performance so far this season has been legitimate. His streak of starts allowing three or fewer earned runs came to end at seven Friday night, when he was charged with six runs in 6 1/3 innings against the Royals. The lefty was lit up here at Dodger Stadium last season, failing to make it out of the bottom of the first. He can’t afford to let anything like that happen again today.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at LOS ANGELES DODGERS
Where: Dodger Stadium
Gametime: 4:10 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Mostly cloudy, 66 degrees, wind 6 mph out to left field

NATIONALS
RF Lane Thomas
2B Luis García
DH Joey Meneses
LF Corey Dickerson
3B Jeimer Candelario 
1B Dominic Smith 
C Keibert Ruiz
SS CJ Abrams
CF Alex Call 

LOS ANGELES – It’s been a whirlwind first month in the big leagues for Jake Irvin, who probably wasn’t even supposed to be here so soon. The rookie right-hander was promoted from Triple-A Rochester at the start of the month and legitimately impressed in his first two starts, especially when he held the Giants scoreless for 6 1/3 innings May 8. Things have turned south since then for Irvin, who hasn’t been able to complete five innings in any of his last three starts and has issued four walks in each of his last two.

Tonight, Irvin faces perhaps his toughest challenge to date in a Dodgers lineup loaded with big names and firepower, in the hostile environment that is Chavez Ravine. He’ll need to keep his emotions in check, but more importantly, he’ll need to keep the ball in the vicinity of the plate while simultaneously not letting that lineup do too much damage.

The Nationals would love to provide Irvin with more run support than they gave Trevor Williams on Monday night. That challenge won’t be easy, either, with Tony Gonsolin and his 1.82 ERA on the mound for L.A. Davey Martinez has a new wrinkle tonight, though: Joey Meneses is playing the outfield for the first time this season, with Lane Thomas shifting to center field for the first time this season. The slumping Alex Call is on the bench, with Ildemaro Vargas playing left field and Corey Dickerson serving as DH.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at LOS ANGELES DODGERS
Where: Dodger Stadium
Gametime: 10:10 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Mostly cloudy, 62 degrees, wind 7 mph out to center field

NATIONALS
CF Lane Thomas
2B Luis García
3B Jeimer Candelario
RF Joey Meneses
1B Dominic Smith
DH Corey Dickerson
C Keibert Ruiz
SS CJ Abrams
LF Ildemaro Vargas

The Orioles are hopeful that Cedric Mullins’ absence from the team will be measured in weeks instead of months. They’ll grip that optimism with both hands and also keep their fingers crossed.

Mullins was placed on the 10-day injured list after he slowed before reaching first base yesterday in the eighth inning and limped off the field with assistant athletic trainer Mark Shires. He’s been diagnosed with a strained right groin muscle.

Manager Brandon Hyde was relieved to learn that Mullins could return ahead of a lengthy absence.

“It’s what I was hoping for, honestly, in that, you never know how bad those can be and it sounds like we’re getting some positive news in it being weeks and not months,” Hyde said.

“When you see a guy pull up like that, your first instinct is, not good, but because he pulled up, it seems like he helped himself. He didn’t get a hit out of it. He sacrificed maybe a hit for some weeks. We’re going to do everything we can to get him back as soon as possible. We’ll see how it goes, but I think the news was positive, at least for how bad it looked.”

LOS ANGELES – You don’t often find the Kansas City-Los Angeles trip on a major league club’s schedule, but that’s what the Nationals are experiencing this week. They just took two of three from a rebuilding Royals team. Now they’ve got three games against one of the sport’s true powerhouses.

Davey Martinez’s bullpen should be in good shape tonight after all of the prominent guys were held out of both Friday and Sunday’s games. Now, the rest of the team just has to figure out a way to put themselves in position to need those top relievers late, which is no small task.

It starts with Trevor Williams, who has done a very good job of giving his team a chance just about every time he’s pitched. Williams, though, faces a tough Dodgers lineup tonight, even if that group doesn’t look quite as star-studded as it has in recent years. Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman are still some kind of 1-2 punch.

The Nationals have all the regulars back in their lineup after several of them got Sunday off. Martinez has made a few changes in the order, most notably Joey Meneses bumped down to the cleanup spot behind Jeimer Candelario, and CJ Abrams moving up to the eighth position with Alex Call now batting ninth. Those guys will be taking their hacks against rookie right-hander Bobby Miller, who impressed in his major league debut last week. Miller was the Dodgers’ first-round pick in 2020, a mere seven spots behind Cade Cavalli, for what that’s worth.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at LOS ANGELES DODGERS
Where: Dodger Stadium
Gametime: 9:10 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Mostly cloudy, 64 degrees, wind 7 mph out to center field

Guaranteed of having another winning month, the Orioles continue their homestand today against the Guardians with Adley Rutschman on the bench and Austin Hays moved to second in the order.

Hays has eight RBIs in his last eight games and nine in his last 11.

Adam Frazier is batting seventh. Ryan McKenna gets the start in right field.

Tyler Wells has allowed eight runs and 11 hits in his last two starts covering 10 innings. He’s walked three batters, struck out 15 and surrendered five home runs.

Wells has made three career appearances against Cleveland, including one start, and allowed two runs and three hits in 6 2/3 innings.

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

The Orioles will try to avoid a sweep today and recapture the second-best record in baseball with Anthony Santander back in the lineup as the right fielder and cleanup hitter.

Santander didn’t play yesterday.

Ramón Urías is the second baseman and Gunnar Henderson is playing third. Adam Frazier moves to the bench.

James McCann is the designated hitter.

Kyle Bradish made his season debut in Texas on April 3, was hit on the foot by a line drive, and exited after only 1 2/3 innings. He didn’t pitch again until April 19.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Nationals won Friday night’s series opener, but it required all manner of wackiness to pull it off, especially when it came to bullpen usage in the final three innings. Davey Martinez can only hope for an easier path to victory this afternoon as his team tries to secure a series win.

Josiah Gray gets the start, so that helps right off the bat. The right-hander has been the club’s most consistent starter, allowing two or fewer runs in eight of his 10 outings. He did, however, walk six batters Sunday against the Tigers, and that limited him to only five innings even though he gave up only one run. Gray will need to be around the strike zone more this afternoon, especially against what on paper is a weak Royals lineup (last night’s 10-run outburst notwithstanding).

For the second straight day, Kansas City sends a starter to the mound with an ERA over 7.00. Friday night, it was Jordan Lyles. Today, it’s Brady Singer, the one-time top prospect who has not yet come close to realizing his full potential. The 26-year-old right-hander is 3-4 with a 7.48 ERA and 1.642 WHIP, and he’s been hit hard by everybody: Left-handed batters own a .948 OPS against him, righties are at .881.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at KANSAS CITY ROYALS
Where: Kauffman Stadium
Gametime: 4:10 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Sunny, 79 degrees, wind 7 mph out to left field

NATIONALS
RF Lane Thomas
2B Luis García
DH Joey Meneses
3B Jeimer Candelario
LF Corey Dickerson
C Keibert Ruiz
1B Dominic Smith
CF Alex Call
SS CJ Abrams

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The nicest thing about Major League Baseball’s new schedule this season is that it allows every team from one league to play every team from the other league every year, alternating between a home series one year and a road series the next. For the Nationals, that means road trips to some places they haven’t visited much in the past, and Kansas City is high on that list.

The Nats have played at Kauffman Stadium only twice in club history. In August 2013, they took two of three from the Royals, the lone loss coming when Craig Stammen allowed two runs in the bottom of the eighth. And in May 2016, they also took two of three from the Royals, the lone loss coming thanks to a blown save by Jonathan Papelbon in the bottom of the ninth. Now the Nationals are back here, facing a Kansas City team that would have the worst record in the majors if not for the sham that is the 2023 Oakland Athletics.

Tonight’s pitching matchup is a doozy: Patrick Corbin vs. Jordan Lyles, owners of the two highest ERAs in baseball from 2020-22 (minimum 400 innings pitched). The good news for the Nats: Corbin has turned things around this season, with six quality starts in his last seven outings. Lyles, meanwhile, continues to be one of the worst pitchers in baseball, entering tonight a staggering 0-8 record with a 7.15 ERA. His biggest problem (and it’s certainly something Corbin can relate to): He has surrendered a league-leading 14 homers in 56 2/3 innings.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at KANSAS CITY ROYALS
Where: Kauffman Stadium
Gametime: 8:10 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Clear, 74 degrees, wind 12 mph in from right field

NATIONALS
RF Lane Thomas
2B Luis García
DH Joey Meneses
3B Jeimer Candelario
LF Corey Dickerson
C Keibert Ruiz
1B Dominic Smith
CF Alex Call
SS CJ Abrams

How are we at Game 50 already? It’s almost Memorial Day Weekend and this season seems to be flying by.

Also, who would have taken a 21–28 Nationals record through the first 49 games? That’s a three-game improvement from where they were at this point last season.

To add one more to the win column and take this three-game series against the Padres, the Nats will turn to Jake Irvin, who is 1-2 with 5.50 ERA and 1.611 WHIP over his first four major league starts. After allowing only one earned run over his first two starts, he’s allowed 10 over his last two, going only 7 ⅓ innings. The young right-hander will look to get back to what led to his early success.

The Padres are throwing veteran left-hander Blake Snell for this getaway-day finale. The 30-year-old has struggled to start the year, going 1-6 with a 5.60 ERA and 1.556 WHIP over his first nine starts. He was knocked around for six runs in just four innings in his last start against the Red Sox.

Snell is 2-0 with a 2.45 ERA and 1.182 WHIP in four career starts against the Nats.

Tuesday night’s series opener had some extra emotions attached to it, what with Juan Soto returning to D.C. and MacKenzie Gore facing the Padres for the first time. Tonight’s game shouldn’t carry quite the same vibes, even though Soto obviously will still be playing in D.C. And he’ll be facing a guy who hasn’t pitched for the Padres before but is from San Diego.

Yes, Trevor Williams grew up there, so it’s always a bit of a big deal for the right-hander to face the Padres. More than anything, Williams wants to give the Nationals some length tonight and take some pressure off the bullpen, which wasn’t great in the wake of Gore’s 4 2/3-inning start Tuesday night.

The Nats will look to get something going offensively against Ryan Weathers, yet another left-hander. They’re currently in a stretch of facing nine opposing lefties in 15 games. The good news: They’ve hit much better against lefties, to the tune of a .299/.359/.441 slash line (it’s only .247/.307/.358 against righties).

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs. SAN DIEGO PADRES
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 7:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Mostly clear, 79 degrees, wind 6 mph out to left field

NATIONALS
RF Lane Thomas
2B Luis García
DH Joey Meneses
3B Jeimer Candelario
LF Stone Garrett
1B Dominic Smith
C Keibert Ruiz
CF Alex Call
SS CJ Abrams

Hey, have you heard Juan Soto is back in town? OK, so it is of course a big deal that the 24-year-old slugger is back in D.C. for the first time since mid-August, the second time since he was traded to the Padres. We’ll see what kind of reaction he gets from the crowd when he comes up to bat in the top of the first tonight … against one of the guys he was traded for.

Yes, adding some spice to tonight’s series opener is the presence of MacKenzie Gore on the mound for the Nationals. This will of course be Gore’s first career start against San Diego, and he’ll be challenged to keep his emotions in check and not get too amped up about the matchup.

Yu Darvish starts for the Padres, and that’s always a challenge for any lineup, let alone one with as little experience as the Nats have. Given how many different types of pitches Darvish throws, guys will have to be patient and focus on swinging at good pitches, not just anything that looks like a strike (especially early in the count).

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs. SAN DIEGO PADRES
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 7:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Hazy, 72 degrees, wind 11 mph in from right field

NATIONALS
RF Lane Thomas
2B Luis García
3B Jeimer Candelario 
DH Joey Meneses 
LF Corey Dickerson 
C Keibert Ruiz 
1B Dominic Smith 
CF Alex Call 
SS CJ Abrams

The Nationals ended a four-game losing streak Saturday with a solid, 5-2 victory over the Tigers. They’d love to make it two in a row today and take the weekend series in the process.

The Nats have Josiah Gray on the mound, and that usually means they’re going to have an excellent chance of winning. The right-hander really has become their most reliable starter, having allowed three or fewer runs in each of his eight starts since his rough season opener and two or fewer runs in all but one of those starts. He’s also completed seven innings each of the last two times he’s pitched, further evidence of his growth since last year.

The Nationals have faced a bunch of lefties recently, and they get another one today in Detroit’s Joey Wentz. The 25-year-old impressed as a rookie last season, posting a 3.03 ERA and 1.102 WHIP in the first seven starts of his career. He’s been far less successful so far this season, with a 6.38 ERA and 1.445 WHIP through eight starts. Strangely enough, Wentz’s strikeout and walk rates have remained almost the same. The biggest difference from last year: He’s giving up a lot more hits, especially home runs (seven in only 36 2/3 innings).

Davey Martinez is going with a different look in his lineup this afternoon. Stone Garrett will bat cleanup against the lefty, and Riley Adams is giving Keibert Ruiz a well-deserved day off. But the most notable difference is that both CJ Abrams and Luis García are on the bench (García for the second straight day). So it’s Ildemaro Vargas and Michael Chavis up the middle of the infield.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs. DETROIT TIGERS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 1:35 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Sunny, 74 degrees, wind 11 mph in from left field

Happy Star Wars Day from Nationals Park! The team is giving away dueling light side vs. dark side Hawaiian shirts to fans today, so make sure you get to the gates on time.

On the field, the pitching duel sees Patrick Corbin making his 10th start of the season for the light side and Alex Faedo starting for the dark side.

Corbin is 2-5 with a 4.65 ERA and 1.430 WHIP entering this afternoon’s game. He has pitched much better over his last six starts, to the tune of a 3.47 ERA, though he is only 1-3 in those outings and the Nats have split them evenly.

Faedo is the only right-hander scheduled to start for the Tigers this weekend. The 27-year-old former first-round pick is making his third start of the season. He is 0-1 with a 4.22 ERA over his first two, with the Tigers having lost both games. He is 1-5 with a 5.32 ERA and 1.492 WHIP over the first 14 starts of his young career.

There’s a chance of rain tonight, supposedly starting around 6 p.m. Here's hoping we can avoid a repeat of last Saturday’s suspended game and either finish this one in time or avoid getting wet all together.

TORONTO - After yet another series-opening victory the Orioles today have a chance to win yet another series if they can beat the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 2 of the weekend set.

The Orioles have been hitting more homers lately, and added three more in Friday's 6-2 win as Ryan Mountcastle hit a three-run shot, Anthony Santander a solo and Adam Frazier a two-run home run. The Birds have hit 11 homers in the last five games. With 56 on the year as a team, they rank seventh in the American League in home runs.

Right-hander Grayson Rodriguez (2-1, 6.57 ERA) will make his ninth start today, coming off an outing Monday when he allowed nine hits and eight runs in 3 1/3 innings versus the Los Angeles Angels. Over his past three starts, he has an ERA of 11.37, allowing six, two and eight runs. But on a positive note, the Orioles are 6-2 in his starts this year, a better winning percentage than the team's overall win percentage of .644, which is second-best in the major leagues.

The Orioles would be in first place today in five of the six divisions in Major League Baseball.

Right-hander Alek Manoah (1-4, 5.40 ERA) pitches for Toronto. Last season he finished third in the AL Cy Young Award voting, going 16-7 with a 2.24 ERA. But this year he has an ERA of 6.59 his past three starts and has allowed 1.800 WHIP with a 1.6 homer rate.

It was a frustrating three days for the Nationals in Miami, where they lost three straight to the Marlins by a grand total of four runs. They continue to play close games, but they’re still learning how to consistently win a majority of those games.

They’ll give it another try this weekend with an interleague series against the Tigers, a team that’s also rebuilding and is also performing a little better than expected so far this season. Detroit is 19-22 despite a run differential of minus-48. (For comparison’s sake, the Nats are 18-26 with a run differential of minus-24.)

Like the Nationals, the Tigers don’t hit a lot. They’re last in the American League in runs, hits and on-base percentage, second-to-last in homers, walks, slugging percentage and OPS. Catcher Jake Rogers leads the team with five homers. Shortstop Javier Báez leads the team with 19 RBIs. Veteran left-hander Matthew Boyd, in his second stint with Detroit, is on the mound tonight. He was roughed up by the Mariners in his last start, allowing five runs and failing to get through the second inning.

Jake Irvin makes his fourth career start for the Nats, hoping to do what he’s done through the majority of his first three and just avoid the one bad inning that plagued him last week against the Mets.

Joey Meneses is back from his paternity leave and the Nationals have optioned Jake Alu back to Rochester to make roster room.

MIAMI – After dropping the first two games here against the Marlins, the Nationals need a win this afternoon to avoid a sweep.

That’s a position they are all too familiar with from last year. The Nationals lost five of their six series against the Fish in 2022, putting themselves in position to get swept in all five, and actually losing each game of the series three times.

They’ll rely on former Marlins draft pick Trevor Williams to help get the job done. Williams, who was a second-round pick by the Marlins in 2013, brings a 1-1 record, 4.23 ERA and 1.304 WHIP to his ninth start of the season. Having pitched in the National League his entire career to date, and with the Mets the previous two seasons, he has substantial history against Miami, going 1-1 with a 3.60 ERA in nine appearances (four starts).

Eury Pérez gets the call for his second major league start for the home team. He is young, but has a big presence on the mound as the 20-year-old right-hander is listed at 6-foot-8 and 220 pounds. Signed as an international free agent out of the Dominican Republic in 2019, he is the Marlins’ top-ranked prospect, the No. 7 ranked prospect in all of baseball and the No. 2 ranked right-handed pitching prospect in the sport, per MLB Pipeline. He had a 2.32 ERA over six starts with Double-A Pensacola before getting the call to the majors, skipping Triple-A ball.

Pérez gave up two runs on four hits and two walks with seven strikeouts over 4 ⅔ innings in his major league debut Friday against the Reds. He has a fastball that sits at 94-97 mph and peaks at 100, a deceptive upper-80s changeup, an upper-70s curveball and a mid-80s slider.

MIAMI – The Nationals will try to bounce back after last night’s heartbreaking loss to the Marlins when Hunter Harvey surrendered a two-run walk-off home run to Jorge Soler.

There are still two games left to play in this series and the Nats will have another good chance to get a win tonight with MacKenzie Gore on the mound. The young left-hander is 3-2 with a 3.29 ERA and 1.463 WHIP over his first eight starts, while still sporting an impressive 11.2 strikeout-per-nine-innings rate. Gore gutted through four shutout innings Friday against the Mets, a high pitch count of 96 shortening his outing. He’ll try to keep it down tonight in his first career start against the Marlins.

Edward Cabrera gets the start for the Fish. The 25-year-old right-hander is 2-3 with a 5.35 ERA and 1.670 WHIP over his first eight starts. He has struggled to get deep into games this year, only pitching into the sixth once. Cabrera is 1-1 with a 3.94 ERA and 1.063 WHIP in three career starts against the Nats.

The Nationals are planning to platoon left field with Corey Dickerson getting the starts against right-handers and Stone Garrett starting against lefties. With Cabrera on the mound for Miami, Dickerson returns to the lineup for the first time since being reinstated from the injured list on Monday, but as the designated hitter. He only appeared in the first two games of the season, as a pinch-hitter on Opening Day and as the starting left fielder on April 1 before hurting his calf in the eighth inning.

A roster move is expected to come before the game. Jake Alu has a locker in the Nats clubhouse and Joey Meneses doesn’t. Meneses’ wife is pregnant and due soon, so he should land on the paternity list. Ildemaro Vargas is playing left field while Dickerson is the DH.