The Senators and Baysox will meet for their second series of the 2026 season. The Sens won a rain shortened 5 game series 3 games to 2 at the end of June. The Baysox and Senators will be making up the postponed game 6 of the previous series in a double header Wednesday night. The Baysox and Sens are in a virtual dead heat for 2nd place in the Eastern League’s Southwest Division standings. Chesapeake is currently in 2nd place by a ½ game over the Sens with a record of 18-14. They come into tonight’s game 4-6 in their last 10 and losers of 3 of their last 4. The Senators come into the game this evening at 17-14. They have lost 2 straight and are 5-5 in their last 10.

The Sens had the ball to RHP Issac Lyon who continues to build on an impressive run here of late. He’s won 3 of 5 outings and pitched well enough to get the win in last week’s outing against Portland. Lyon continues to solidify himself as a centerpiece of the rotation.

The Baysox will counter with Caden Hunter. Hunter will be making only his 2nd appearance for the Baysox after his promotions from A- and A+. He’s pitched in 17 games this season and is 4-1 with a 1.32 ERA. He’s thrown 75 innings and has 112 strikeouts. Opponents are hitting a eye opening 1.49 against him this season. He was fantastic in his first game with Chesapeake last week against Altoona. He went 7 innings, allowing 1H, walking 2 and striking out 10.

The Sens need a big series. It’s a big one against a division rival they’re neck and neck with. They also need to keep pace with division leading Erie. The completion of this series will essentially be the mid way point of the second half. As they say in the baseball world.. Gotta have it! Lineups are out and listed below. Senators and Baysox from Prince George’s Stadium. First pitch is at 6:35.

Harrisburg Senators Lineup: 1. Johnathan Thomas CF 2. Cortland Lawson SS 3. Branden Boissiere DH 4. Kervin Pichardo 2B 5. Ethan Petry 1B 6. Caleb Lomavita C 7. Sam Brown LF 8. TJ White RF 9. Devin Ortiz 3B

Bowie Baysox Lineup: 1. Aron Estrada 2B 2. Brandon Butterworth RF 3. Thomas Sosa DH 4. Wehiwa Aloy SS 5. Victor Figueroa 1B 6. Griff O’Ferrall 3B 7. Frederick Bencosme LF 8. Dom Keegan C 9. Tavian Josenberger CF

In another series which showed a ton of promise for the visiting Senators. The Sens lead 4-0 after 2 ½ innings in Game 5 against Portland. From that moment forward not much went right for the Sens. The Senators were outscored 19-2 for the remainder of the series. After the 4-0 lead the Sens would go onto allow 7 unanswered runs where they took the lead with a big 4 run 6th. Portland went onto defeat the Sens 7-4. Despite the loss in Saturday’s game the Sens still had an opportunity to win a series in Sunday’s Game 6 finale. Portland jumped out to a 4-0 lead after the home half of the 4th. The Sens would answer with a run in the top of the 6th inning on an Ethan Petry RBI single. Any evidence of chipping away was loudly put to bed by the Sea Dogs in the home half of the 6th. Portland put up an 8 spot, game deciding inning that saw 11 batters come to the plate. The big blow was a grand slam by Sea Dogs slugger Ronald Rosario. The Sens would settle for a split with the Sea Dogs at 3 games a piece.

On Deck…

The Senators and Baysox will play games 2 and 3 of the 7 game set tomorrow as part of a double header. The Southwest Division mates were rained out in the finale of the previous series in late June. The Sens will give the ball to Alex Clemmey for Game 1. Clemmey didn’t make it out of the 3rd inning in his last start last week against Portland. Clemmey will be opposed by Sebastian Gongora. This will be Gongora’s second time facing the Sens this season. He earned the win in Game 5 of the previous series. The Senators will open Game 2 with relief pitcher Blake Brown. Blake has pitched well at AA in his fives appearances. He hadn’t allowed a run until his most recent outing when he ran into a little bit of trouble last week against Portland in the finale of the series. The Baysox will counter with Christian Herberholz in Game 2. This will be Herberholz third appearance since his demotion from AAA Norfolk.

The Washington Nationals made the following moves during yesterday's trade deadline. I made a post on Jack Cebert and Ben Grable from the Yankees organization. One thing I didn't mention yesterday is the Cebert is currently on the IL with a blister. Should come off the IL to the active list soon. Cebert is the Nationals # 14 prospect and Grable is the # 26 prospect.

The Baltimore Orioles traded RHP Joe Glassey to the Nationals. The 25 year old right hander was just recently promoted to AA Chesapeake. With the Nats acquiring him in the Christian Franklin trade, the Nationals assigned him to the Sens.. so he won't have far to travel this week with the Senators visiting Chesapeake. Glassey has a 2.64 ERA, 53Ks and 8BBs in 30 2/3 innings out of the pen this year. Only 2 innings of his 30 2/3 have come at AA.

The Cleveland Guardians traded LHP Will Dion, LHP Josh Hartle, OF Nick Mitchell and RHP Kendeglys Virguez to the Washington Nationals for big league pitcher Foster Griffin. All 4 have reportedly been assigned to the Sens.

LHP Hartle was also acquired in the Foster Griffin deal. He's pitch the entire '26 season thus far with the Akron Rubber Ducks. He's 4-4 with a 3.86 ERA in 19 games. He's pitched 93 1/3 innings and allowed 44 runs on 92 hits, walking 37 and striking out 88. Opponents are hitting .257 against him. Hartle pitched 4 times against the Sens this year, twice in Harrisburg on April 10th and May 23rd. He earned the win in the May 23rd game. Hartle is ranked as the Washington Nationals # 29 overall prospect

OF Nick Mitchell was also acquired in the Foster Griffin deal. In 75 games and 275 at bats, Mitchell is hitting .240 with 5 home runs and 39 RBIs. He was also with the Rubber Ducks and has played in 15 games against the Sens this year.

RHP Kendeglys Virguez was the final player acquired in the Foster Griffin deal. He was recently promoted to AA Akron and pitched in only 2 games for the Rubber Ducks. He did get the win in one of those appearances and has pitched 2 2/3 innings allowing 0 runs, 0 hits walking 1 and striking out 6. In total on the year he's 4-1 with a 4.13 ERA in 28 1/3 innings. Opponents are hitting .263 off of him this season.

One thing is for certain.. the Sens went from struggling for arms with the injuries and promotions to absolutely loaded with talented pitchers for the rest of the 2nd half. We'll see what this does to the roster. I have not seen any moves regarding any of the players who were with the Sens prior to the trade deadline but I have to assume there will inevitably be some shuffling. As I've mentioned the Sens roster can only be at 28 active players.