With tough September looming, Nats need to finish August strong

The Nationals' weekend series in Chicago was big. Big because of the opponent. Big because of the result. Big because of the impact on the standings (at least, the National League wild card race).

And there are plenty more big series still to come before this season is complete. But not this week.

Seven of the Nationals' 10 remaining regular season series come against fellow contenders: two with the Braves, one with the Mets, Phillies, Cardinals, Twins and Indians.

The other three series come against last-place clubs: two with the Marlins, one with the Orioles. And those are the opponents on this week's schedule.

Which doesn't mean these games are unimportant. Quite the contrary. The Nationals need to win a bunch of these games. Given the daunting challenge of the rest of the schedule, not to mention the manner in which the Braves keep holding serve and refuse to let these guys gain any significant ground on them in the division, the Nats can't afford to have any slip-ups.

To their credit, they've done a good job against bad teams this year. The only non-contender they don't boast a winning head-to-head record against is the Padres, having gone 3-4 against them much earlier in the season when things weren't going so well.

Against all opponents who are more than one game under .500, the Nationals have gone 34-18. (Against everyone else, they're 39-39.)

So they need to clean up this week against the Orioles and Marlins, owners of two of the four worst records in baseball.

The matchups certainly look favorable on paper. The Nationals send Patrick Corbin and Max Scherzer to the mound against the Orioles' Aaron Brooks and Asher Wojciechowski. Though you may remember both right-handers pitched relatively well when they faced the Nats last month at Camden Yards.

The Nationals haven't announced weekend pitching plans yet, but things line up for Aníbal Sánchez, Joe Ross and Stephen Strasburg to face the Marlins, unless they decide to give Erick Fedde a start as well and temporarily go with a six-man rotation.

The schedule also should help keep the bullpen relatively fresh, with a pair of off-days surrounding the two-game Battle of the Beltways. We'll find out later today whether Hunter Strickland is headed for the paternity leave list after his wife gave birth to a baby girl on the off-day.

Once they finish this week, the task gets far tougher for the Nationals. They face the Mets and Braves next week, then the Twins and Braves after that. They head out on their final road trip to St. Louis and Miami, then return home for the season's final eight games (five of which come against the Phillies in a four-day span).