Against the Padres on Sunday, Joe Ross was unable to build off his last start. This was the same scenario that hurt him to begin the season. On April 19, he had a good start against the Braves. He followed that with two tough starts against Colorado and the Mets in which he allowed a combined 10 runs over 8 2/3 innings. After working on his mechanics at Triple-A Syracuse and building his velocity back up, Ross returned to D.C. and had a very solid effort in a 10-1 win over Seattle on May 23. In...

With Adam Eaton out for the season, the pressure on the top of the order to get on base and create offense almost completely falls on talented shortstop Trea Turner. However, Turner has recently been going after first pitches too often, and opposing pitchers started throwing him more off-speed stuff. His numbers began to wane. His average had dropped to .236 on May 18 after an 0-for-5 against the Pirates. Since then, Turner has accumulated eight hits in his last seven games. His average is up...

Chris Speier is substituting for Dusty Baker as acting manager for this series against the Padres. Baker is back in California to attend his son Darren's graduation from high school and will rejoin the team Monday in San Francisco. Speier's job when Baker is here is as bench coach. The Nationals have added co-field coordinator Jeff Garber to assist on the bench for this weekend. Speier said during pregame that his bench coach responsibilities will not change and he will not delegate those...