In yesterday’s Morning Breifing, I shared that the odds-on favorite to get demoted in the wake of Dylan Crews’s reinstatement from the 60-day injured list was probably José Tena, but that what they should do was cut bait on Nathaniel Lowe and his apparent bad energy, worse defense, subpar offense, and spare tire that he picked up over the winter.

Lo and behold, interim GM Mike DeBartolo did the right thing and did DFA Lowe, and not only that, Tena collected the game-tying and eventual game-winning RBIs with a bases-loaded single in the seventh inning of last night’s game. Given that he held onto Nelson Cruz and César Hernández until the bitter end, I bet that Mike Rizzo would have kept Lowe on the roster and waited for him to “play to the back of his baseball card.” But DeBartolo accepted the sunk cost (and got the Lerners to accept the sunk cost) of the Nationals’ highest-paid active player. Bravo, Mike!

The addition of Crews (who had a diving catch of a Nick Castellanos line drive in the top of the sixth) and subtraction of Lowe - Josh Bell played first base instead and made at least one play Lowe would have waved at, although Bell is not known for his defense - seemed to have a very positive effect on team energy in last night’s series opener against the Phillies. Paul DeJong blasted a long home run in the fourth inning to tie the game at 1-1, and after a Kyle Schwarber double pushed the Phillies back in front, the Nats took advantage of flagging Jesús Luzardo to load the bases in front of that Tena single (off of reliever Orion Kerkering).

Once again, Brad Lord had a strong start, allowing two runs over six frames, further cementing his growing status as the #2 starter on this staff. Four relievers - Jackson Rutledge, Shinnosuke Ogasawara, Jose A. Ferrer, and Cole Henry - covered three scoreless innings to close it out, although Henry made it interesting by allowing the tying run to get to third before handcuffing Trea Turner on a wicked, boring sinker to end the game 3-2.

Now that the Nats have turned the page on Lowe, it will be interesting to see how they manage playing time for the five outfielders across the three positions on the grass and the DH spot. Josh Bell will presumably take most of the starts at first base, with perhaps either Brady House or DeJong spelling him if necessary. Among the outfielders, Jacob Young will only play center field, and likely just start against southpaws from this point forward. Robert Hassell III will take the strong side of the CF platoon, moving to right when Crews gets a break to DH (Crews might also handle some spot duty in the middle).

Wood and Lile figure to trade off between left field and DH most of the time, although hopefully Wood will get the majority of the innings in the field. Regardless, the various iterations of the outfield will be perhaps the most compelling storyline for this team the rest of the season, because it will tell us a lot about who will be here next year - it might get even crazier on September 1st if they add the newly acquired Christian Franklin (who has walked more at AAA this year than anyone at any level of the Nats’ organization, including Wood) to the mix as well.

📌 Riley Cornelio Earns Well-Deserved Promotion to Rochester (The Nats Report)

📌 MLB negotiating with Netflix, ESPN, NBC, Apple for possible broadcast packages: Sources (The Athletic)

📌 Owen Caissie makes ‘surreal’ MLB debut, but Chicago Cubs waste Matthew Boyd’s strong start in 2-1 loss (Chicago Tribune)