Game 95 lineups: Nats at Braves

ATLANTA - No team in baseball has a better winning percentage since May 25 than the Nationals: .690. The next-best winning percentage after that: .659, by the Braves. And so the Nats, in spite of their torrid pace for nearly two months, have barely gained any ground on the National League East leaders, who enter play today 6 1/2 games up (only five in the loss column).

Dozier-Receives-Throw-Gray-Acuna-Sidebar.jpgThere are, however, 14 head-to-head games still on the schedule between these teams. A whopping 21 percent of the Nationals' remaining games in 2019 will come against the Braves. So there is a golden opportunity to gain ground on the division leaders, starting tonight.

This weekend series at SunTrust Park is arguably the Nationals' most important of the season to date. A four-game split wouldn't kill them - certainly not their wild card hopes - but if they could take three of four, they'd leave town late Sunday night having picked up two games in the standings and would sit only three games back in the loss column.

Pitching is going to be the dominant storyline to this series, and both teams have rotations in a state of flux. The Nationals are set with Stephen Strasburg tonight and Patrick Corbin tomorrow, but we're still waiting to see if Max Scherzer will be ready to come off the injured list later in the weekend. The Braves, meanwhile, decided to call up rookie Kyle Wright (1.99 ERA in his last four starts at Triple-A Gwinnett) to start the opener and push back Julio Teheran and Mike Soroka to the next two nights.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at ATLANTA BRAVES
Where: SunTrust Park
Gametime: 7:20 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 1500 AM, MLB.com
Weather: Chance of storms, 87 degrees, wind 6 mph out to left field

NATIONALS (50-44)
SS Trea Turner
RF Adam Eaton
3B Anthony Rendon
LF Juan Soto
1B Ryan Zimmerman
C Kurt Suzuki
2B Brian Dozier
CF Victor Robles
RHP Stephen Strasburg

BRAVES (58-39)
LF Ronald Acuña Jr.
SS Dansby Swanson
1B Freddie Freeman
3B Josh Donaldson
RF Nick Markakis
2B Ozzie Albies
C Brian McCann
CF Ender Inciarte
RHP Kyle Wright




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