The Washington Nationals had found something special in Alex Call who was a sparkplug in so many ways for the Nats. In two separate callups, Call said that he had made a mechanical tweak but also a mental adjustment that had changed his game. In his 30-games this season, Call batted an impressive.343 with a .950 and delivered some clutch hits including another memorable walk-off. This time, Call was hitting with power and a consistency at the plate. Unfortunately, his season might come to an end as he suffered, per our source, a tear in his plantar fascia in the heel of his left foot. He will head to the 10-day IL.
In baseball’s twists, Dylan Crews is getting called up on Monday, and it would have pushed Call into a fourth outfielder and DH role as it was — and now looks like Call will be lost for a while. The good news, if you are an optimist, is that many thought this was an achilles injury that would have cost Call most of the 2025 season too.
With the Nats about to call up Crews, they could have opted to bring him up today to replace Call — but it looks like they will patch together a replacement with possibly Joey Gallo in right field and bring up Drew Millas as an extra player. That would still cause the Nats to send down a player on Monday when Crews is activated. Of course on September 1, the Nats can raise their roster to 28-players.
Based on last year’s win total of 71-games, the Nats need to go 14-19 or better to beat that total. To beat the 66-win total from FanGraphs, the Nats need to win 9 more games. There are just 33-games remaining in the season, and the rest of this season is really supposed to help to determine the players who could help impact the 2025 roster.
The Nats are underdogs today, at +150 to win on the moneyline. That means if you bet $100 you would win $150. Bet $10.00 and you win $15.00.
Nats’ manager Dave Martinez had a tie game going into extra innings and saved their closer, Kyle Finnegan. The bullpen work was shared by Jacob Barnes, Eduardo Salazar. Robert Garcia, and Jose A. Ferrer.
This is what the Nats schedule looks like going forward:
- Saturday: Jake Irvin vs. Braves
- Sunday: DJ Herz vs. Braves
- Monday: Mitchell Parker vs. Yankees
- Tuesday: Patrick Corbin vs. Yankees
- Wednesday: MacKenzie Gore vs. Yankees
- Thursday: Day-Off August 29
- Friday: Irvin vs. Cubs
- Saturday: Herz vs. Cubs
- Sunday: Parker vs. Cubs
- Monday: Day-Off September 2
Your top Washington Nationals on the FanGraphs’ WAR leaderboard has Luis Garcia Jr. atop of the WAR rankings at +3.1, Jacob Young at +2.4 and CJ Abrams at +2.1. In total, 29 Nats’ players are in positive WAR and another five are at a neutral 0.0 WAR.
“We played well. We played really well — until the last play of the game.”
— Nats’ manager Dave Martinez said after yesterday’s game
The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 4.44 and 22nd in MLB.
Here is how they rank:
No. 5 Starter: Patrick Corbin 5.73
No. 4 Starter: MacKenzie Gore 4.51
No. 3 Starter: Mitchell Parker 4.26
No. 2 Starter: DJ Herz 4.15
No. 1 Starter: Jake Irvin 3.81
Washington Nationals vs. Atlanta Braves
Stadium: Truist Park, Atlanta, Georgia
1st Pitch: 7:20 pm EDT
TV: MASN
Radio: 106.7 The Fan radio and via the MLB app; In Spanish on DC 87.7 FM and La Pantera 100.7 FM/1220 AM. On Sirius/XM, tune to Channel 186 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.
Line-up subject to change (without notice):
TalkNats is Celebrating the 5 and 100 year anniversaries of World Series Wins by providing Game-by-Game Summaries.
Game 130:
The Nationals won on 08/24 on the road against the Chicago Cubs in a record of 73-57. They won’t drop below .500 the rest of the season. The Nats are in second place in the NL East. But you knew this already. Box Score / Standings
The Senators won on 09/01 at home against the Philadelphia Athletics resulting in a record of 75-55. The Senators have sole possession of first place and ahead of the Yankees. Box Score / Standings
