Game 115 lineups: Nats at Phillies

PHILADELPHIA – Two games down, two to go in this four-game set in the City of Brotherly Love.

After splitting yesterday’s doubleheader, the Nationals have won five of their last six games, six of their eight and seven of their last 10. Don’t look now, but they are only 1 ½ games back of the Mets in the National League East and down to single digits in the Wild Card race at only nine games back of the Reds and Cubs for the final playoff spot.

Don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up, but just for comparison’s sake, they were 13 ½ games behind the fourth-place Marlins and 24 ½ games out of the final Wild Card spot at this time last year.

MacKenzie Gore will get his shot at some of the Phillies’ left-handed power hitters tonight. The southpaw is 6-8 with a 4.34 ERA and 1.420 WHIP in 22 starts. He too will be tasked to keep the Phillies in the ballpark after they hit five home runs between the two games yesterday. Gore has allowed 1.4 home runs per nine innings on the year, but has allowed four longballs over his four starts since the All-Star break.

He’s also looking for a little payback after getting knocked around for seven runs in just 2 ⅔ innings in his start here in early July.

Michael Lorenzen makes his second start with the Phillies after being a trade deadline acquisition from the Tigers. The right-hander was an All-Star for Detroit before being dealt to Philadelphia for a minor league infield prospect. On the year, he’s 6-7 with a 3.48 ERA and 1.082 WHIP in 19 starts. He gave up just two runs over eight innings while winning his Phillies debut against the Marlins.

A longtime member of the Reds, Lorenzen is 0-1 with a 5.87 ERA and 1.261 WHIP in 13 appearances (two starts) against the Nationals, though only Keibert Ruiz and Lane Thomas have faced him before from the current roster.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES
Where: Citizens Bank Park
Gametime: 6:40 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 The Fan, MLB.com
Weather: Mostly sunny, 85 degrees, wind 11 mph from left to right

NATIONALS
SS CJ Abrams
RF Lane Thomas
DH Joey Meneses
1B Dominic Smith
C Keibert Ruiz
2B Jake Alu
3B Ildemaro Vargas
LF Blake Rutherford
CF Alex Call

LHP MacKenzie Gore

PHILLIES
DH Trea Turner
3B Alec Bohm
1B Bryce Harper
RF Nick Castellanos
C J.T. Realmuto
2B Rodolfo Castro
LF Weston Wilson
SS Edmundo Sosa
CF Johan Rojas

RHP Michael Lorenzen