Good morning, Washington Nationals fans.

Here are the latest headlines and analyses around the Washington Nationals and Major League Baseball for today, May 13.

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Welcome to the Morning Briefing! Haden here. Let’s talk about the weekend slate of games.

Leading this Morning’s Briefing: Nationals Farm System Shines

After taking game one on Friday, the Nationals dropped the next two games to the Boston Red Sox. Patrick Corbin threw five innings, allowing just one earned run in Friday’s victory. Eddie Rosario started what turned out to be a monster weekend by going 2-5 with a double. Victor Robles went 2-4 in his first game back from the injured list. The bullpen was lights out in this game, throwing four scoreless innings between five relievers. As a collective, they struck out five Red Sox, but Jacob Barnes pulled a bulk of that weight with a three punchout ninth inning.

Things were going smoothly for the Nationals on Saturday. Joey Meneses hit a home run for the first time since September 20. Eddie Rosario hit one of his own. But in the bottom of the eighth, Davey Martinez intentionally walked Tyler O’Neill after Robert Garcia fell behind 2-0. This put runners on first and second with two outs and gave Garcia a left-on-left matchup against Rafael Devers. Devers smacked a low four-seamer the other way, over Rosario’s head, and both runners scored. It does not help that Rosario misplayed the ball off the Green Monster, but the Nationals would have relinquished the lead either way. It put a damper on the day, which sucks for Jake Irvin as he threw seven innings, striking out six and allowing just two runs.

Then on Sunday, the tires came off. MacKenzie Gore threw six innings, striking out nine, and allowed three runs, one of which was unearned. Rosario hit a home run again, but that came after he allowed a ball to drop for a ground rule double. Robles also missed an easy catch and a base-running mistake. In all, it was a sloppy game for the Nationals.

To make matters worse, Jesse Winker was injured attempting a sliding catch. We will learn more about the severity of the injury, but if he misses significant time Alex Call will likely rejoin the team.

On to the positives though. Despite the defensive woes, Rosario has broken out big for the Nationals. After hitting .088/.137/.162 for the first month of the season, Rosario has gotten lightning hot. In his nine games in May, Rosario is hitting .417/.533/.958. These are obviously tiny samples, but it has helped Rosario salvage his season. He’ll have an opportunity to keep it up against a 12-29 White Sox team over the next three days.

The Nationals head to the Southside to take on the Chicago White Sox over the next three days. The Nats face the big three for the White Sox. Even with the tougher pitching matchups, this should be an easy series for a Nationals team that has played contender over the past couple of weeks. First pitch tonight is at 7:40 ET and the game will be televised on MASN2.

Down in the Minors

We will also be spotlighting the Rochester Red Wings this week, so make sure to check the site and our Twitter account to get more in-depth coverage of the Triple-A affiliate

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Featured Stories of the Day

Meneses credits his mom for ending HR drought via MLB.com

M’s closer Brash undergoes TJ surgery via MLB Trade Rumors

Giants CF Lee leaves game with dislocated shoulder via MLB Trade Rumors

MLB makes bat-tracking data available via Baseball Savant

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The Nats Report is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.