Game 87 lineups: Nats at Giants

The beauty of baseball is the everyday nature of the sport, making it easy to shake off bad losses and move on to the next game. So even though it wasn't a happy flight from San Diego to San Francisco following last night's heartbreaking loss to the Padres, the Nationals can put it behind them right away with tonight's opener against the Giants.

Paolo Espino will take the mound for his first road start of the season (and the first since his major league debut back on May 19, 2017 with the Brewers). He'll look to improve upon his surprisingly spectacular start to the season with a 2-2 record and 2.48 ERA over his first 19 appearances.

Of course, Espino will have to keep pitching well to carry over his success into tonight's start, but he would probably also enjoy some help from the scorching-hot Nationals offense. This lineup just scored 34 runs over four games in San Diego and is third in the majors in runs (45), doubles (17), RBIs (41) and average (.271) over this early part of July.

Noteworthy in tonight's lineup, though, is Gerardo Parra starting in center field and batting eighth in place of Victor Robles. The last time Parra played at Oracle Park, he was a member of the Nationals facing his former team that had designated him for assignment earlier in the year and hit a three-run home run to help his then-new team sweep the Giants in 2019.

Meanwhile, the Nationals reportedly added some utility depth by signing veteran Derek Dietrich. The 31-year-old recently opted out of his minor league deal with the Yankees after playing 36 games with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

Stay tuned for more information from manager Davey Martinez in a little bit.

Logan Webb was activated off the 10-day injured list to start tonight for the Giants. The 24-year-old right-hander has been out since May 29 with a right shoulder strain and was supposed make a rehab appearance with Triple-A Sacramento on Tuesday with the expectation of throwing about 45 pitches. Now it looks like he'll open a bullpen game for the major league club. Buster Posey was placed on the 10-day IL (retroactive to July 6) with a left thumb contusion as the corresponding roster move.

Webb is 4-3 with a 3.86 ERA in 10 games (nine starts) this season and has never faced the Nationals.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS
Where: Oracle Park
Gametime: 9:45 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Sunny, 62 degrees, wind 15 mph out to left-center field

NATIONALS
2B Alcides Escobar
SS Trea Turner
RF Juan Soto
1B Josh Bell
3B Starlin Castro
C Yan Gomes
LF Josh Harrison
CF Gerardo Parra
RHP Paolo Espino

GIANTS
RF Mike Yastrzemski
LF Alex Dickerson
3B Wilmer Flores
SS Brandon Crawford
1B Darin Ruf
CF Steven Duggar
2B Donovan Solano
C Curt Casali
RHP Logan Webb