Gomes starts six in a row, but Read likely to catch Saturday

MINNEAPOLIS - Yan Gomes starts his sixth consecutive game behind the plate tonight. That's not something the Nationals ever planned to do this season, not with Kurt Suzuki sharing time as part of a potent one-two catching punch. But with Suzuki now nursing a right elbow injury, the Nats have had little choice but to keep putting Gomes out there and hope for the best.

It's been a hit-or-miss proposition. Literally. Gomes clubbed two homers during Sunday's win in Atlanta, but has otherwise gone hitless in his four other starts during this road trip.

Davey Martinez is less worried about Gomes' production at the moment and more worried about how he handles the pitching staff and how he feels physically during his first prolonged stretch of heavy playing time all season. The Nationals manager knows he can't keep running the 32-year-old out there forever.

"We'll see how he feels," Martinez said. "Yan's in great shape. I definitely want to get one of the other two guys in there, possibly one of the games this weekend. We'll see."

The other two guys are Raudy Read and Tres Barrera, two rookies who have combined to start one major league game. One of them, likely Read, appears to be in line to start Saturday against the Braves, catching fellow rookie Austin Voth.

"Right now, I'm looking at Raudy catching, and then we'll see from there," Martinez said. "But we've got to get them involved, just in case Suzuki comes back and he really can't throw."

A timetable for Suzuki's return remains up in the air. The 35-year-old had to come out of Saturday's game after he felt a tingling sensation in his right elbow trying to throw out a basestealer. He's still waiting for anti-inflammatory medication to take full effect before he's cleared to hit or throw.

"They're going to hold him off from throwing, I know right now, for a few days," Martinez said. "They want to get all the inflammation out of there before he does anything."

Meanwhile, both Adam Eaton and Juan Soto are back in tonight's lineup after dealing with brief scares during last night's win.

Eaton's right knee buckled for a moment as he approached second base on his first-inning double, scaring the Nationals dugout.

"I got nervous, yeah," Martinez said. "I was already looking to get someone in there."

Eaton, who is playing through a bad bone bruise on the side of that knee, waved off trainers and insisted he was fine. He would end up scoring from second on Soto's RBI single and would play the rest of the game until Michael A. Taylor took over for defense in the bottom of the ninth.

"It looked like when he went to slow down, he just kind of buckled a little bit," Martinez said. "But he said he was fine. You saw he played the remainder of the game til the last inning. I talked to him this morning and he said he was good to go. So hopefully it was just something where he went to slow down and he tweaked it a little bit."

Soto appeared to need work on his left hand after making a diving catch in left field, though he also played the entire contest and is back in the lineup tonight.

"He's good," Martinez said. "He said he's a little stiff from the dive, and he'll be good to go today."