The Morning Briefing: August 2

Good morning, Washington Nationals fans.

Here are the latest headlines and analyses around the Washington Nationals and Major League Baseball for today, August 2.

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Welcome to the Morning Briefing!

Leading this Morning's Briefing: Nats Open 10-Game Homestand

From a travel perspective, the schedule gets much easier starting today. The Nats lead the National League with 59 road games thus far, and now they won't have to board a plane for over two weeks (after these ten games against the Brewers, Giants, and Angels, their next two series are at Baltimore and Philadelphia, where they will take a train). Hopefully this will help their play on the field as well.

Last Game Out

The Nats were swept by Arizona two nights ago after a ninth-inning comeback attempt fell 90 feet short. The good news is that they are done visiting the Pacific Time Zone this season (in fact, their westernmost remaining destination is Chicago).

Nationals Headline of the Day: Cheering the Non-Trade of Finnegan

Every once in awhile Thomas Boswell comes out of retirement to stretch his brilliant writing "muscles" and this week he opined on why it is a good thing that the Nats did not trade Kyle Finnegan along with all the other players who departed recently.

Down on the Farm

Yohandy Morales, last year's second-round pick out of the University of Miami, had been out since May with a broken thumb (suffered on a slide) but recently began a rehab assignment with low-A Fredericksburg. Yesterday he homered for the second consecutive game while with the FredNats, which is a great sign because his power had been weirdly absent all season.

Featured Baseball Story of the Day

Various beat writers at MLB.com have a post-trade deadline question for each team. The question for the Nats, unsurprisingly, is who will help carry the offense with Jesse Winker and Lane Thomas gone?

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