NEW YORK – Two key Nationals relievers are ready to start facing live hitters in game-like situations. The club is motivated to get one of them off the injured list as soon as possible, not as much with the other.

Carl Edwards Jr. and Tanner Rainey are both scheduled to face hitters in a simulated game Friday in West Palm Beach, Fla., the first time each right-hander will reach that stage of his respective rehab program.

A simulated game is usually the final step for a recovering pitcher before he begins a minor league rehab assignment, but while Edwards may be ready to take that final step soon, the Nats appear likely to wait a bit longer with Rainey.

Edwards, on the 15-day IL with inflammation in his shoulder, has been out since June 19. The 31-year-old, who had a 3.69 ERA and two saves in 32 appearances before getting hurt, was going to be one of the Nationals’ top trade chips this summer. With the Aug. 2 deadline now only five days away, Edwards is almost out of time to make it back onto the active roster to prove to interested clubs he’s fully healthy again.

Teams are allowed to trade players who are on the IL – the Nats did it with Kyle Schwarber in 2021 – but the return for injured players is almost always going to be diminished to some extent. If the Nationals can get Edwards back on the active roster and to pitch at least once for them before Aug. 2, they might be able to find a taker willing to give up a prospect of more consequence for the veteran setup man.

NEW YORK – The Nationals just completed their best homestand of the season. They’ve won nine of their last 14 overall. Now they’ll see if they can keep it up on the road against a Mets team that desperately needs to turn things on, lest they actually become sellers at next week’s trade deadline.

Yeah, the situation is that dire here in Flushing, where the most expensive team in baseball has the eighth-worst record in baseball, is 17 1/2 games out of first place and 7 1/2 games out of the wild card race, with five teams to chase in front of it. If we’re being realistic, the Mets probably need to sweep this four-game series to make a compelling case for owner Steve Cohen to buy before Tuesday’s deadline.

The Nats will try to prevent that with their All-Star starter on the mound for the series opener tonight. Josiah Gray is coming off an excellent outing against the Giants, when he allowed one run and four hits over seven innings. He’s already pitched very well here at Citi Field this year, shutting out the Mets over six innings April 25.

Kodai Senga starts for New York. The 30-year-old rookie from Japan hasn’t allowed more than two earned runs in a month, lowering his ERA to 3.27 in the process. He faced the Nationals in that same late-April series, allowing two runs in five innings but taking the loss.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at NEW YORK METS
Where: Citi Field
Gametime: 7:10 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Chance of storms, 81 degrees, wind 6 mph out to left field

The All-Star break is now over and the Nationals will continue their season tonight. They start the second half with three games against the Cardinals in St. Louis before moving on to face the Cubs in Chicago.

Their 36-54 record puts them in last place in the National League East but on pace for a 10-win improvement from last year.

Not that the Nationals would ever do this, but the new rules are designed to prevent tanking and the Nats can’t pick higher than 10th overall in the first round of next year’s draft anyway. So they’ll be staying in the fight each game the rest of the way, as they did throughout the first half.

September baseball means expanded rosters and playoff chases. Will the Nats bring up any of their top prospects? Could they play spoiler to some of their October-hopeful rivals?

We now know the 2024 schedule. The first five most intriguing series of the 2023 second half are here. Here are five more of the most intriguing matchups as the Nats finish out the 2023 season:

The MLB Draft and All-Star Game festivities are over. Today is the last day without baseball until the end of October.

The Nationals start the second half tomorrow with a six-game midwest road trip against the Cardinals and the Cubs.

As things stand, the Nationals are in last place in the National League East but are on pace to win 65 games this year, a 10-win improvement from 2022.

With the Collective Bargaining Agreement and the new lottery system in the draft preventing tanking across the league, the Nationals cannot pick higher than No. 10 overall in next year’s first round after selecting Dylan Crews with the No. 2 overall pick this year. Not that the ultra-competitive Mike Rizzo and Davey Martinez would ever intentionally lose, but that’s part of the reason those rules are in place.

So we’re in for an exciting second half of baseball as the Nationals continue to develop both at the major and minor league levels. Who will stand out over the next 2 ½ months? Will any trades be made before the deadline? Which prospects will be promoted and perhaps make their major league debuts?

No, Joey Meneses hasn’t come close to duplicating his remarkable two-month debut for the Nationals late last season. But the 31-year-old hasn’t come close to falling completely flat, either.

It may have taken him a while to find his swing again, but Meneses is now producing at the plate in a manner that suggests his out-of-nowhere August and September of 2022 wasn’t a total mirage. With a four-hit, three-double, four-RBI performance Monday in a 10-3 thumping of the Mets, he raised his batting average to an even .300, his OPS to a respectable .722.

“That’s what I’m looking for,” Meneses said, via interpreter Octavio Martinez. “I’m just getting that confidence that I had last season and I’m helping the team on the offensive side.”

Meneses still isn’t hitting for a ton of power. The man who wowed the baseball world with 13 homers and a .563 slugging percentage in his first 56 major league games has hit only two balls out of the park while slugging .394 in his first 40 games this season.

But there are encouraging signs, and they keep growing in number each day. Over his last 27 games, Meneses is batting .345 with 20 RBIs and an .809 OPS. He is starting to pull the ball in the air with some consistency for the first time this year, from his go-ahead homer 10 days ago in Arizona to two of his run-scoring doubles in Monday’s win.

There is little reason to believe that, come season’s end, the Nationals and Mets will be anywhere near each other in the National League East standings. The rebuilding Nats are supposed to finish at the bottom of the division. The $330 million Mets are supposed to challenge for the division title and play deep into October.

But the season is now 25 percent complete, and the difference between the two clubs is 1 1/2 games. In part because the Nats have now beaten the Mets in four of their seven head-to-head matchups after today’s 10-3 thumping in the finale of a wraparound series on South Capitol Street.

"It was a good series," manager Davey Martinez said. "These guys, they've been playing hard. Let's forget about the first week of the season (when they went 1-6 against the Braves and Rays). We've been playing really well. I want them to take that into consideration. Not just playing one team. But understanding where we're at and what we're doing. It's been fun. They're playing with a lot of energy."

The Nationals have more than held their own against New York, taking two of three last month at Citi Field and now splitting this four-game series. They’ve done so with quality pitching, some improved offensive punch and a whole lot of CJ Abrams.

Abrams was back at it this afternoon, launching a solo homer into the second deck in right field in the sixth inning, his latest blast in a recent power surge by the 22-year-old shortstop. Abrams now has hit four homers this season, three of them against the Mets, two of them in the last two days. He’s suddenly tied with Lane Thomas and Jeimer Candelario for the team lead in homers, and he leads the team with 22 RBIs despite typically batting ninth.

The Nationals entered the season planning to utilize Corey Dickerson as their starting left fielder, certainly against opposing right-handers. More than six weeks later, they’ll finally be able to implement that plan.

Dickerson was activated off the 10-day injured list this afternoon, and though he’s not in the lineup for the team’s series finale against the Mets, he is eligible to play for the first time since straining his left calf on April 1. Utility man Jake Alu was optioned to Triple-A Rochester to clear a spot on the active roster.

Dickerson hurt himself in the season’s second game, his first start after signing a $2.25 million contract with the Nationals over the winter. The veteran outfielder, who turns 34 next week, spent more than a month rehabbing the injury, then departed Friday for a quick rehab assignment in Rochester, where he went 2-for-10 with a double, a walk and four strikeouts over three games.

Owner of a career .287/.331/.504 offensive slash line against right-handed pitching – those numbers have dropped a bit to .280/.326/.418 over the last three seasons – Dickerson will get a chance to be the player the Nats believed they were getting all along when they signed him.

“What I’ve known of him, he’s such a streaky hitter that he can go on a roll where he can hit in the middle of the lineup, or even the top of the lineup,” manager Davey Martinez said. “I’ve seen him work unbelievable at-bats, 10-, 12-pitch at-bats, and then rocket a ball to left field. He also has a little juice. Right now, having his bat against right-handed pitching is very nice.”

It’s been a long, often frustrating weekend at Nationals Park. And yet, there’s still a chance for the home team to emerge with an encouraging end result.

If the Nationals can win today’s finale of their four-game, wraparound series with the Mets, they’ll have continued their trend of playing .500 baseball over an extended stretch. They would split the series and improve to 17-17 since their 1-6 start to the season. Nothing to complain about there, right?

They’re going to need to do more in the clutch today than they did yesterday, when CJ Abrams drove in all four of their runs across 16 innings of play while the rest of the team went 0-for-15 with runners in scoring position. They won’t be facing Max Scherzer today; it’s left-hander David Peterson, who enters with a 1-5 record and 7.68 ERA.

Speaking of 1-5 records, Patrick Corbin starts for the Nats. That record isn’t entirely indicative of how he’s pitched. Over his last five starts, the lefty has a 3.56 ERA, 1.088 WHIP and 21 strikeouts to only three walks. And yet he’s gone 0-3 in those games, with the Nationals winning his two no-decisions.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs. NEW YORK METS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 4:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Sunny, 75 degrees, wind 8 mph out to center field

Not that Mason Thompson truly expected to dominate to such a dramatic extent all season, but the Nationals reliever had every reason to believe he was capable of continuing to pitch at a high level all year long after a brilliant April.

In his first 10 appearances of the season, Thompson sported an 0.96 ERA, 0.589 WHIP and a staggering 17-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

Then came a three-inning save at Citi Field on April 25, a milestone moment for the Nationals right-hander cause for concern for anyone worried about the health of the 25-year-old’s arm. And sure enough, in six appearances since, Thompson has been roughed up. He’s given up runs in five of those six outings. He’s allowed a whopping 15 batters to reach base in only 3 2/3 innings of work. He’s walked as many batters (four) as he’s struck out.

What happened?

“I’m just not getting the ball where I need to get it right now,” Thompson said Sunday after his latest rough appearance in the Nationals’ 8-2 loss to the Mets. “Just leaving too many pitches over the plate, and they’re taking advantage of it.”

When the ball left Brandon Nimmo’s bat and started rolling toward the second base position, Jake Irvin could’ve been excused for believing he had just escaped a fifth-inning jam and was about to head back to the dugout having completed yet another impressive outing in this most unexpected run of them.

If Luis García fields that routine grounder and starts a 4-6-3 double play, the inning is over and Irvin is done for the day, the proud owner of a sparkling 0.67 ERA through the first three starts of his career, best in Nationals history.

Yes, better than Stephen Strasburg, who had a 1.86 ERA in his first three career starts. Yes, better than Max Scherzer, who had an 0.83 ERA in his first three starts as a National.

That grounder toward second, though, did not turn into a 4-6-3 double play. García was shaded a bit toward the hole and couldn’t get there, so the ball rolled through for an RBI single.

And then the wheels fell off, both for Irvin and for the Nationals, who would ultimately suffer an 8-2 loss to the Mets that could’ve produced a far different outcome with just a little bit of better luck for the home team in the second half of a pseudo Mother’s Day doubleheader.

The Nationals pulled out all the stops to win the opener of today’s pseudo doubleheader, using five relievers en route to a 3-2 victory over the Mets. What does that leave for the nightcap? We’ll have to wait and see.

Jake Irvin makes his third career start, hoping to pick up where he left off last week in San Francisco, when he reached the seventh inning in impressive fashion. This is a very tough Mets lineup the right-hander is facing; he’ll have to throw strikes to avoid a high pitch count and an early exit.

If Irvin has any trouble, the Nationals have some length in the bullpen in the form of Cory Abbott. Turns out the team brought both Abbott and Joan Adon here from Triple-A Rochester, waiting to decide which pitcher would make more sense to add as the 27th man for this game. They decided to go with Abbott, who has bullpen experience, over Adon, who does not.

The lineup, meanwhile, will do its best against a guy named Max Scherzer, who returns to his old stomping grounds wearing blue and orange instead of his more familiar red and white uniform. Scherzer has made only one start since his 10-game suspension for sticky hands, and this start was pushed back due to neck spasms.  

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs. NEW YORK METS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 4:35 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Partly cloudy, 77 degrees, wind 77 mph in from left field

With only seven innings of baseball to play in the opener of today’s pseudo-doubleheader at Nationals Park, every moment of consequence was magnified just a bit more. Big outs, even early in the game, were a little bit bigger. Big hits, whether early or late, carried a little bit of extra significance.

And CJ Abrams found himself delivering the two biggest hits of all, propelling the Nationals to victory long after the game technically began.

Abrams twice drove in the go-ahead run, producing a two-out RBI single in the fourth, then blasting a leadoff homer in the seventh for the decisive run in a 3-2 win over the Mets.

"When it's time, I can step up," said Abrams, who entered the day batting .343 with an .852 OPS in "high-leverage" situations, according to Baseball-Reference. "I've got confidence in myself and in my team. We're doing good."

In the completion of Saturday night’s controversial suspended game, the Nats got 6 2/3 innings of one-run ball from five members of their bullpen, with Hunter Harvey churning out five big outs in the seventh and eighth, and Kyle Finnegan pitching the ninth to seal the narrow victory in his first appearance since a blown save in Arizona eight days ago.

So, here we are again. After a fiasco of a Saturday afternoon and evening, the Nationals and Mets are back at it this afternoon for what amounts to nearly a full doubleheader. Today’s originally scheduled 1:35 p.m. game has been pushed back to 4:35 p.m., with Jake Irvin and Max Scherzer still expected to start. But first, the teams have to complete Saturday’s game, which was suspended with one out in the top of the third, the Nats leading 1-0.

The Mets were threatening when the game finally went into a rain delay, with Michael Perez’s double to deep center leaving runners on second and third with one out and Brandon Nimmo due to bat. Trevor Williams had been on the mound for the Nats, but he won’t be back out there today. Davey Martinez was still contemplating Saturday night how to approach this. The hunch here: He’ll try to use one of his better relievers to get out of the jam in the third, then turn to his multi-inning relievers in the fourth inning and beyond.

Joey Lucchesi won’t return for the Mets, either, so Buck Showalter will need to decide who to use out of his bullpen for a clean bottom of the third, with Luis García due to lead off. There are at least 16 innings of baseball that need to be played today; it’s going to be a challenge for both clubs to get through it in one piece.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs. NEW YORK METS (resumption of suspended game)
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 12:35 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Partly cloudy, 72 degrees, wind 7 mph in from center field

NATIONALS
RF Lane Thomas
*2B Luis García
DH Joey Meneses
C Keibert Ruiz
CF Alex Call
1B Dominic Smith
3B Jeimer Candelario
LF Stone Garrett
SS CJ Abrams

Against all odds, today’s game at Nationals Park began on time, with Trevor Williams getting Brandon Nimmo to fly out on his very first pitch at 4:05 p.m., only a few minutes after a steady rain began to fall from the sky.

The intensity of that rain only increased over the ensuing 38 minutes as the Nats took a 1-0 lead, then as the Mets put two runners on base with one out in the top of the third. At that point, with the infield soaked and outfielders unable to get any kind of solid footing chasing down fly balls, crew chief Paul Emmel finally called for the grounds crew to roll out the tarp, putting the game into a rain delay.

More than two hours later, the rain had stopped, the tarp was pulled and the grounds crew furiously got to work prepping that previously soaked infield. And kept prepping. And kept prepping. Never to the satisfaction of those who had the final say on whether or not to resume the game.

And then, finally, nearly four hours into the delay, the announcement was made: The field could not be made playable again, so the game was suspended, the Nationals still leading 1-0, both starting pitchers having long since run out of time to return.

They’ll now have to resume the game from this point at 12:35 p.m. Sunday, with only tickets from today’s game accepted. They’ll then have to play Sunday’s originally scheduled 1:35 p.m. game, now moved to 4:35 p.m. Fans holding those tickets can only attend the later game.

Bullpens are an ever-evolving beast, even in good times. Few relievers hold a single role from Opening Day through Game 162, aside from a handful of the most established closers in the sport.

This has already proven the case for the Nationals, who only a few weeks ago seemed to have established a bullpen hierarchy but have since been forced to mix and match on a nightly basis while manager Davey Martinez tries to find the right combination late in close games.

“Honestly, it’s basically right now the matchups we’re looking at more than anything,” Martinez said this afternoon, prior to the Nats’ game against the Mets.

It wasn’t like that not long ago. Martinez had pretty much stuck with a plan that included Mason Thompson setting up Hunter Harvey for the eighth inning and setting up Kyle Finnegan for the ninth inning. But Thompson, after a dominant April, has hit a rough spot since, getting scored upon in four of his last five appearances. Finnegan, meanwhile, hasn’t enjoyed a clean inning since April 27, and he hasn’t pitched at all since blowing a save exactly one week ago in Arizona.

Add in some recent struggles from Carl Edwards Jr., who took the loss Friday night in relief of MacKenzie Gore, and what looked like a real club strength a few weeks ago now looks far less stable.

It’s not exactly a beautiful day for baseball in the nation’s capital. Rain is expected all afternoon, so there’s a reasonable chance the second game of his four-game series between the Nationals and Mets doesn’t start on time. Will it be played at all today? Well, according to my sources (aka the same weather app all of you use), it’s supposed to rain from 2-7 p.m., then clear up after that. So, this late-afternoon game could very well turn into a night game. Stay tuned.

The Nats are looking to bounce back from a tough, one-run loss Friday night in which their starter lasted only four innings. They’ll need more than that from Trevor Williams, who faces his former team for the second time this season. Williams wasn’t great two weeks ago at Citi Field, allowing four runs on nine hits in five innings. The Nationals could sure use a more efficient outing from the right-hander today.

Williams was opposed that night by Joey Lucchesi, and he’ll again be opposed by the Mets left-hander today. The Nats got to Lucchesi for three runs in 5 1/3 innings, with Alex Call homering. Call is batting fifth today, ahead of Dominic Smith, Jeimer Candelario and Stone Garrett (who gets the nod in left field).

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs. NEW YORK METS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 7:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Rain, 68 degrees, wind 9 mph in from left field

NATIONALS
RF Lane Thomas
2B Luis García
DH Joey Meneses
C Keibert Ruiz
CF Alex Call
1B Dominic Smith
3B Jeimer Candelario
LF Stone Garrett
SS CJ Abrams

It was unrealistic to expect MacKenzie Gore to repeat a career-best outing this time against the Mets. That’s a difficult feat to accomplish on any given night, much  less twice against the same team in about a two-week time frame.

And sure enough, tonight’s outing was unlike when the young left-hander took the mound at Citi Field on April 26 and shoved for six innings of one-run ball with four hits and two walks while matching a career high with 10 strikeouts.

Though not as impressive tonight, Gore still gutted through four scoreless innings. Unfortunately, it was all for naught as the Nationals bullpen broke down, leading to a 3-2 loss to the Mets in front of an announced crowd of 31,904 at Nats Park.

Gore’s high pitch count did him in early. He needed 37 pitches to get through the first inning, in which he faced six batters while giving up a single and two walks with two outs. He needed 22 pitches to complete the second while giving up two hits. Then he needed 25 pitches to get out of the third after another couple of singles.

The Mets did what they could not do while striking out 10 times two weeks ago: wore Gore down with long at-bats. They took balls out of the strike zone and fouled off tough pitches to extend their time at the plate.

The Nationals are back home after a 3-3 road trip and Thursday’s off-day. It’s an odd setup for this four-game series before the Nats head back on the road to Miami: They’ll play these four games against the Mets on Friday-Monday this Mother’s Day weekend.

MacKenzie Gore returns to the mound to start this series for the home team. The young left-hander is 3-2 with a 3.65 ERA and 1.432 WHIP over his first seven starts. His 11.68 strikeout-per-nine-innings rate is fifth in the major leagues, thanks to two recent outings. He struck out nine over six innings on Saturday against the Diamondbacks, and he tied his career high with 10 strikeouts over six frames against these Mets two weeks ago in New York.

Tylor Megill will make his eighth start for the Mets, going 3-2 with a 4.33 ERA and 1.500 WHIP to start the season. Since starting the year 3-0 with a 2.25 ERA, the right-hander is 0-2 with a 6.05 ERA over his last four starts, with the Mets losing three of those games.

Since starting the season 1-6, the Nationals have played .500 ball with a plus run differential over their last 30 games. Meanwhile, the Mets have been reeling. Starting with that series at Citi Field in which the Nats won two of three, the Mets are 4-11 with a -34 run differential. Entering this weekend, the Nats are only 1 ½ games behind the Mets in the National League East.

NEW YORK METS at WASHINGTON NATIONALS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 7:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 The Fan, MLB.com
Weather: Mostly cloudy, 83 degrees, wind 8 mph out to right-center field

NEW YORK – It might have been too much to ask for the Nationals’ first three-game sweep since June 2021 and first three-game sweep on the road since August 2019.

After dominating performances in the first two games at Citi Field, going home with just a series win should be satisfactory for the last-place Nats. But, man, did they put up a fight for the sweep.

After a dramatic comeback to take the lead in the top of the eighth, the Nats bullpen had a rare meltdown in the bottom half of the inning, as they couldn’t complete the sweep with a 9-8 loss to the Mets in front of 20,726 stunned fans in Queens.

With an 8-7 lead thanks to CJ Abrams’ first career grand slam, Mason Thompson, who has been one of the best relievers in baseball but who also threw 28 pitches over three innings here two nights ago, entered the bottom of the eighth to try to get it to the ninth.

Thompson surrendered a leadoff single to Brandon Nimmo, who then stole second base. Starling Marte moved him up to third with a flyout to center and then back-to-back RBIs from Francisco Lindor on a double and Pete Alonso on a single brought home the tying and go-ahead runs.

NEW YORK – Here we go again: For the second straight series, the Nationals have put themselves in position to earn their first three-game sweep since June 14-16, 2021, when they took three straight at home against the Pirates. It’s also the second straight series they’ll have this opportunity on the road, this time at Citi Field against the Mets, who entered this series only a half-game out of first place in the National League East. The Nats last swept a three-game road series Aug. 23-25, 2019 against the Cubs at Wrigley Field.

Trevor Williams will look to become the fourth straight Nats starting pitcher to turn in a quality start and fifth in the last six games. He’ll also be doing so while taking the mound at Citi Field for the first time since signing a two-year, $13 million contract with the Nats this offseason.

Williams is off to a strong start with his new team. He’s a respectable 1-1 with a 3.38 ERA and 1.078 WHIP over his first four starts, completing at least five innings each time out and allowing no more than three runs per start.

The Nationals offense will be tasked with facing their first left-hander of this series in Joey Lucchesi. The 29-year-old made his first major league start since recovering from Tommy John surgery last year on Friday in San Francisco, completing seven shutout innings and allowing just four hits and two walks while striking out nine in a win over the Giants.

Victor Robles is the only Nationals regular to have faced Lucchesi ahead of tonight, going 4-for-8 with a solo home run. Meanwhile, Dominic Smith gets a day off and Stone Garrett will DH against Lucchesi, moving Joey Meneses to first base. And Luis García takes tonight off, but it’s Michael Chavis playing second base instead of Jeter Downs.