Friday morning Nats news and notes

Some news and notes before the Nationals open their weekend series with the Padres ...

* If you missed the news yesterday, Dusty Baker will be away from the team all weekend as he attends his son's high school graduation in California.

Baker flew home after yesterday's loss to the Mariners. And since the Nationals will be heading out west themselves to begin a three-city trip Monday in San Francisco, the manager will simply reconnect with everybody then.

That leaves Chris Speier to manage all three games against San Diego, a nice little opportunity for the longtime bench coach.

Baker won't lose all track of the Nationals while he's away.

"Oh yeah, I'll watch 'em," he said. "I'll watch 'em at home, I'll watch 'em during graduation, I'll watch 'em probably in my sleep or in bed."

Darren Baker, best remembered by so many baseball fans as the precocious 3-year-old Giants bat boy who nearly got run over at the plate during the 2002 World Series, has grown up since. He'll be playing infield at Cal-Berkeley next season, and before that will play this summer in Washington for the D.C. Grays team that competes in the Cal Ripken Collegiate Baseball League.

* If you thought the Mariners were an anonymous bunch, wait 'til you see the Padres this weekend. San Diego comes to town with an 18-31 record and very few recognizable names on the roster.

Starting pitchers for the series: Luis Perdomo, Clayton Richard and Jhoulys Chacin. Offensively, they're led by Wil Myers, Ryan Schimpf and Hunter Renfroe. Their best reliever has been journeyman Brad Hand (owner of a 1.73 ERA).

You will recognize one member of the Padres bullpen: Craig Stammen. The popular longtime National has made it back to the big leagues after missing most of 2015 and all of 2016 while recovering from a flexor tear in his right forearm.

Stammen has a 5.40 ERA in 16 appearances, but he's proving valuable for his ability to throw a lot of pitches. Five of his six appearances this month have been for at least two innings, with four of them exceeding three innings.

* Matt Wieters' 11-game hit streak came to an unfortunate end yesterday. Wieters wasn't in the starting lineup but he got a chance to pinch-hit with two outs in the ninth. He proceeded to fly out to left field to end the game and end his streak (even though he didn't have the typical four opportunities at the plate to extend it).

The 11-game hit streak matched the longest of Wieters' career.