The Morning Briefing: August 6

Good morning, Washington Nationals fans.

Here are the latest headlines and analyses around the Washington Nationals and Major League Baseball for today, August 6.

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Welcome to the Morning Briefing!

Leading this Morning's Briefing: Ten More Timex Starts

Trivia; since he signed with the Nationals prior to the 2019 season, name the only two pitchers in baseball who have started more games than Patrick Corbin (answer at the bottom). Corbin took the mound yesterday hoping to bounce back from his disastrous three-inning, eleven-run outing in Arizona last week, but molten-hot rookie Tyler Fitzgerald (who now has eleven homers in seventeen games) and Matt Chapman had other ideas. After Chapman's third inning blast, Corbin's ERA briefly ventured north of 6.00, but he allowed no more runs and finished the day at 5.88, which is currently the second-worst ERA of his Nats tenure (the 6.31 in 2022 seems pretty safe). Unless Trevor Williams gets healthy and/or the Nats decide to use September as an audition month for Andrew Alvarez (who will be added to the 40-man roster this winter and is nowhere near an innings limit) and Jackson Rutledge, it feels like a safe bet that Corbin will be heading to the hill every fifth day for the rest of the season. We will see him on Saturday in his fourth try for that elusive 100th win against the Angels, the team that drafted him in 2009.

Last Game Out

The Giants arrived for a four-game set starting yesterday with their top pitcher, Logan Webb, on the mound. Even though Webb, a strike-throwing sinker-baller who gets ahead and works quickly, is the exact kind of pitcher who typically shuts down the Nats while barely breaking a sweat, and although he was spotted an early four-run lead, they actually made him work and chased him in the sixth inning at 95 pitches with two men aboard, although they could never fully capitalize. The Nats went 1-for-8 with RISP and the Giants just 1-for-7, but the difference was that the Nats' one was a standard-issue single and the Giants' one traveled 404 feet to the back of Section 106.

Nationals Headline of the Day: Gallo to Begin Rehab Assignment

Not that it matters a ton with Juan Yepez producing and Joey Gallo unlikely to remain a National beyond next month, but Gallo is headed to Rochester to begin a rehab assignment this week, per MLB.com

Down on the Farm

There were no minor league games yesterday, but the Nats did officially assign their top five picks (Seaver King, Caleb Lomavita, Luke Dickerson, Kevin Bazzell, and Jackson Kent) to the FCL Nats - despite the FCL season ending ten days ago. Stay tuned to see if King, Lomavita, and Bazzell get reassigned to Fredericksburg shortly.

Featured Baseball Story of the Day

A family found themselves stuck in Miami yesterday, unable to make their scheduled flight home to upstate New York because of Tropical Storm Debby, so they decided to get cheap seats at the Marlins game (there were tens of people attending a Monday game between the Marlins and Reds). Naturally, Marlins outfielder Jesús Sánchez hit the longest home run of the season, a 480-foot blast well into the upper deck that they retrieved for a memorable souvenir.

*Trivia answer: Aaron Nola (165 GS) and José Berríos (163) are just ahead of Corbin's 161.

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