Game 124 lineups: Nats at Phillies

PHILADELPHIA – After winning three of their last four heading into Wednesday’s finale against the Orioles, the Nationals have now dropped three straight games. Following Thursday’s blowout loss to the Phillies, there were some encouraging signs last night before Trea Turner walked it off in the bottom of the ninth. And now there are question marks heading into tonight’s game.

Will the starting pitcher get deeper into the game? Will the offense score in the early innings? What is the state of the bullpen after covering nearly 10 innings over the last two nights?

MacKenzie Gore’s struggles over the last 2 ½ months have been well-documented and disappointing. The only positive sign lately is that the five runs he gave up against the Angels on Sunday were all unearned. The Nationals worked on some things with the young left-hander in his bullpen session on Wednesday in Baltimore. Hopefully that translates into better results tonight, otherwise the Nats may have a serious problem on their hands.

Offensively, the Nats will look to get some early production off Cristopher Sánchez, the only southpaw starter they will face this weekend. Sánchez is 8-8 with a 3.63 ERA and 1.325 WHIP. An All-Star this year, he does an excellent job of keeping the ball in the yard with his 0.3 home runs allowed per nine innings leading the major leagues. He started the only game the Nats have won against the Phillies this year on April 7, when he gave up three runs in 4 ⅓ innings. But he came back on May 18 to hold them to two runs over seven innings.

Tonight’s game is listed as starting at 6:05 p.m., but the actual start time is closer to 6:30 p.m. The Phillies are hosting a pregame ceremony for an enshrinement into their Wall of Fame and listed an earlier start time to get more people into the stadium for it. MASN’s “Nats Xtra” pregame show starts at 6 p.m. on MASN2 and will take you up to first pitch, whenever it is. And yes, the Nats were here last year for the same ceremony.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES
Where: Citizens Bank Park
Gametime: 6:05 p.m. EDT (but more like 6:30 p.m. EDT)
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 The Fan, DC 87.7 (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Cloudy, 79 degrees, wind 10 mph out to left-center field

NATIONALS
RF Alex Call
SS CJ Abrams
1B Juan Yepez
LF James Wood
DH Andrés Chaparro
3B Ildemaro Vargas
C Riley Adams
2B Luis García Jr.
CF Jacob Young

LHP MacKenzie Gore

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

LHP Cristopher Sánchez