Washington Nationals: 5 storylines to watch as Phillies make final trip to DC

The Washington Nationals begin a four-game series against the Philadelphia Phillies tonight; here are five storylines to keep an eye on.

The Washington Nationals are coming off of a series sweep against the Miami Marlins, which featured two offensive explosions. After scoring just five runs in three games against the Milwaukee Brewers, the Nats put up 17 runs in three games in Miami.

Daniel Murphy, a National League MVP candidate, had been struggling a bit coming into this series, but rediscovered his swing in a big way. He received a scheduled day off in the series finale, but went 5-for-9 with two homers in the first two games.

Meanwhile, the Phillies are coming off of a series loss to the reeling New York Mets. The Mets are only 3-7 in their last ten games, but still managed to win two of three against the Phillies and scored 18 runs in three games.

September should be an interesting month for the Phillies, as it typically is for teams in the rebuilding process. Many of their productive players from early in the season have been traded to contenders, and prospects are getting their first opportunities in the big leagues.

The Nats need to take advantage of playing against the rebuilding Phillies, as the Mets did. With the Nats’ magic number down to six, they can at least come close to clinching the division with a series win.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at five key storylines for what should be an exciting four-game set between two NL East foes.

First meeting since May 14

The Nationals and Phillies are both in the National League East, so they play each other a whopping 19 times. However, the schedule was weird this season and 12 of those matchups came in the first month and a half.

Despite being in the same division, the Nats and Phillies have not played each other since May 14. To put things into perspective, Chris Heisey (currently a free agent), Jeremy Hellickson (currently on the Orioles), Joaquin Benoit (currently on the Pirates), and Michael Saunders (currently on the Blue Jays) all appeared in the May 14 matchup.

Another significant difference between when the Nats last played the Phillies and now is the fact that only two of the current divisional leaders were leading their division on May 14: the Nats and Astros.

The Dodgers, dubbed the greatest team of all time and currently on pace for 109 wins, were in second place behind the Rockies. The Cubs, the defending world champions, were only half a game above .500 and were in fourth place in the NL Central.

Both the Nats and Phillies have regressed since May 14, but only the Nats had room to. On May 14, the Nats had a .649 winning percentage, as opposed to their current .609 winning percentage. The Phillies, on the other hand, had a minuscule .400 winning percentage on May 14, as opposed to their current winning percentage of .384. The Phillies are currently the second-worst team in the MLB, 1.5 games ahead of the Giants.

The Nats and Phillies played each other early and often this season, and their matchups were very competitive, with the Nats winning seven of the 12 games. The two teams haven’t seen each other in nearly four months, so it will be interesting to see how much has truly changed throughout the season.

Nats’ first look at Rhys Hoskins

Since debuting on August 10, Rhys Hoskins has done nothing but mash. Catching everyone by surprise, the rookie has hit home runs at a pace rivaling Giancarlo Stanton. He even became the fastest player to reach 11 homers, doing so in just his 18th game.

Now, Hoskins has played in 27 games and while his homers aren’t coming quite as often, he is still raking. In his first 27 games in the majors, he owns a slash line of .309/.425/.734 with 12 homers and 27 RBI’s. He has also walked 17 times. To put things into perspective, he has walked as much as Wilmer Flores, despite playing 83 fewer games. Hoskins has also walked more than Alcides Escobar, despite playing 111 fewer games.

While Hoskins was not well-known as a prospect, he has always possessed impressive power. In a partial minor league season this year, he hit 29 homers. Despite being in the majors for about a month, Hoskins still has the third-most homers in the International League (AAA) this season.

Hoskins enjoyed his first outstanding professional season last year, crushing 38 homers, which was good for the second-most in the Eastern League (AA). Although he was always a threat to hit a homer, he struck out way too much; his 125 strikeouts were fifth-most in the Eastern League last season. However, Hoskins has appeared to figure everything out in the majors, walking almost just as much as he strikes out.

In addition to his offensive prowess, Hoskins provides defensive versatility. In his brief MLB career, he has appeared both in left field and at first base. With the way he’s hitting and his ability to play multiple positions, he has been extremely valuable for the Phillies and appears to be a long-term building block.

The Nats have yet to face Hoskins, so how they pitch to him and how he fares will be worth keeping an eye on.

Max Scherzer scheduled to start Friday

In the first inning of Max Scherzer‘s start last Saturday in Milwaukee, Travis Shaw hit a line drive back up the middle. Both fortunately and unfortunately for the Nats, it hit Scherzer in the calf. The fortunate part is Scherzer was able to retrieve the ball and throw Shaw out at first. The unfortunate part is Scherzer’s calf tightened up and he was forced to be removed from the game after just five innings and 75 pitches.

Scherzer has dealt with neck stiffness on multiple occasions within the last month, so this calf injury was extremely frustrating. It appears the Nats dodged a bullet, though, because Scherzer is scheduled to start on Friday.

On Tuesday, Scherzer said that he would throw a bullpen session on Wednesday and then on Wednesday, the Nats announced that he’d start on Friday, so the bullpen presumably went well.

The Nats are very lucky that Scherzer will most likely not be forced to take another trip to the disabled list because it is now September; any missed time means missing final tune-ups before the postseason.

Another thing to keep in mind is the fact that Scherzer will be pitching on five days rest. This could be beneficial because his arm will be more rested, which he especially needs considering his heavy workload.

One potential downside of his time off, however, is the fact that Scherzer may not have been able to follow his normal program for between starts. He was getting treatment on his leg and was unable to run, so his off-day conditioning is automatically out of the picture. He was probably unable to progress through his normal throwing program as well. Baseball players are creatures of habit, and it’ll be interesting to see how Scherzer will fare on a sore leg and out of his normal routine.

J.P. Crawford’s first week in the majors

J.P. Crawford, former first-round draft pick and top prospect, was recently called up and debuted on Tuesday in New York. The rookie recorded his first major league hit in his debut, but is just 1-for-7 in his first two games.

Primarily a shortstop in the minors, Crawford has played both games at third base. Freddy Galvis is currently entrenched as the Phillies’ shortstop, and has remained there despite Crawford’s promotion.

While Galvis has been playing shortstop since Crawford’s promotion, Crawford is viewed as the shortstop of the future and is likely to eventually take over shortstop duties. Galvis saw limited action in the outfield prior to Crawford’s promotion, presumably to prepare for a position change.

Despite being a top prospect, Crawford has struggled in the upper levels of the minor leagues. This season in AAA, he hit just .243. He wasn’t much better last season, batting .250 between AA and AAA.

Crawford has been a highly regarded prospect since being drafted 16th overall in 2013, so it will be interesting to finally see what he is capable of at the big league level. He did not hit very well in the minor leagues and, while it is an extremely small sample size, he has not hit well in the majors either. How and where J.P. Crawford plays throughout the four-game series in DC will definitely be something to keep an eye on.