The Padres were a perfect team to beat the Nats. It was elsewhere but basically the Nats win bc their pitching staff doesn't give free passes or a lot of home runs. The Padres score their runs by stringing together hits. The Padres lose bc their pitchers, especially a bad pen, give up too many long balls. The Nats don't really hit longballs.The Padres hit 3 homers and took 9 walks over 3 games (both under league average). The Nats managed only 2 long balls. Sweep.
Ok not a big thing to be right about and the games were close and it's just one series, not particularly telling.
The real problem, for those wanting the Nats to try for a playoff spot, is that the Padres were one of the numerous teams in competition for a WC spot. The Nats sweep put them into WC2.
That will be the talking point for the run to the ASG. After dealing with the Rays (in spitting distance of the much more competitive AL wild card), they'll play the Mets and Cardinals for 11 games (4NYM, 4STL, 3 NYM). Both these teams are ahead of the Nats in the playoff race and any negative showing, even a 5-6 run, likely sets the Nationals up on the outside looking in. If the Nats are making a serious play to playoff contention it will probably be decided now and then the usual All-Star break trade talk can take whatever form it will.
In other news - James Wood has played back to back days once since being called up. You could say it's being cautious, you could say it's being extra cautious, you could say it's slow playing his build up to a point that it makes sense when you don't call him up until he can definitely be in the ROY race next year. I'd agree with all of those.
This all ties together in how I see the next couple months go.
Nats don't make an undeniable push toward the playoffs. The front office trades away the bullpen and what they can elsewhere. At that point there isn't much of a reason to call up Wood in early August as opposed to early September so they hold on the move probably citing Crews needing more AAA seasoning and wanting to bring up these guys so they can play everyday together. Called up for Yankees/Cubs series? Maybe depends on the rookie dates and you might not even need the push for that to be well attended though.
So prepare for a muddle through of the dog days with the highlight being what lottery ticket Dylan Floro can bring back before the sweet sweet relief of Labor Day weekend and actual prospects that matter
Update I know nothing https://x.com/andrewcgolden/status/1806728939240321070