Good morning, Washington Nationals fans.

Here are the latest headlines and analyses around the Washington Nationals and Major League Baseball for today, July 11.

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Welcome to the Morning Briefing! I neglected to mention this yesterday, but I (Owen Ranger) am taking over the Morning Briefing for the rest of the season. If you have not read much of my work before, I have largely been focused on weekly reports about the AA Harrisburg Senators in the Monday Morning Filibuster, and monthly trade value reports. We won’t always have Morning Briefings on Sundays, but after that game yesterday and the trade that immediately followed, how could we not?

Leading this Morning's Briefing: What a Comeback!

The emergence and consistent production of rookie southpaw Mitchell Parker has been one of the two or three biggest reasons that the Nationals have hung around the fringes of wild card contention in the first half of the season. That it took seventeen starts (!!!) for him to finally have a blowup outing is pretty remarkable. Thanks in large part to sixteen foul balls, Parker threw forty-six pitches yesterday and was only able to record two outs, leaving an already overworked bullpen to cover a minimum of twenty-two outs. Naturally, Jordan Weems immediately allowed two inherited runners to score, digging an early 5-0 hole that could have felt insurmountable.

Fortunately, Brewers starter Dallas Keuchel is very hittable these days, and after putting runners on in each of the first two innings, the Nats broke through and chipped away at the deficit in the top of the fourth, opening the frame with five straight hits from Juan Yepez, James Wood, Harold Ramírez, Ildemaro Vargas, and Riley Adams to bring in three runs, chasing Keuchel. The inning ended quickly after that thanks to a pop-up and a double play, with the Nats probably feeling like they had left runs on the table. Three innings later, Luis García Jr. pinch-hit for Trey Lipscomb and took Jakob Junis deep to left-center, trimming the margin to 5-4 (Weems, Jacob Barnes, and Dylan Floro had held the Brewers scoreless for five innings in the interim). Floro and Derek Law gave the Nats two more scoreless innings, and García Jr. led off the top of the ninth with a single off of Brewers closer Trevor Megill. After Jacob Young bunted García Jr. into scoring position, CJ Abrams made the question of small ball moot by blasting Megill’s second pitch 416 feet into the upper deck, adding a long celebratory stare into the Nats dugout and an excellent bat flip for good measure. Kyle Finnegan walked the second batter he faced in the bottom half of the inning, and Lane Thomas hauled in an opposite-field smash by Joey Ortiz a step before hitting the right-field wall to seal a very impressive 6-5 win. It very well might be the most exciting Nats win of the year!

Nationals Headline of the Day: Harvey Traded to Kansas City

Most midseason trades happen within a couple days of the end-of-month deadline, but with the draft looming (tonight!), Mike Rizzo struck early, sending top setup man Hunter Harvey (under team control through 2025) to the Royals for AA third baseman Cayden Wallace (the Royals’ second-round pick in 2022) and their competitive balance pick from Round A (the 39th pick, which adds $2.4 million to the draft bonus pool for the Nats). Either the player or the pick by themselves would have been an acceptable return for Harvey; to get both is something of a coup.

Down on the Farm

New acquisition Wallace has been a bit snakebit by injuries this season, straining an oblique in mid-May. Six weeks later, while rehabbing in the Arizona Complex League, Wallace was hit by a pitch that fractured a rib, probably delaying his return until August. He should slide right into the third base spot in Harrisburg recently vacated by Brady House, and is immediately a top-ten prospect in the system.

The AAA Rochester Red Wings beat Worcester 4-3 yesterday behind a solid start from Brad Lord and a Travis Blankenhorn home run.

After getting rained out on Friday, the AA Harrisburg Senators swept a road doubleheader at Richmond, winning the first game 4-2 behind a strong effort from Andry Lara and the second game 2-0 thanks to an even more impressive start by Rodney Theophile, whose introduction to AA (he replaced Lord at the end of June) could not be going better.

High-A Wilmington beat the Brooklyn Cyclones 3-2 with several contributors chipping in, including Phillip Glasser, Johnathon Thomas, Richard Guasch, and Matt Cronin.

Low-A Fredericksburg was also rained out on Friday and completed the organizational full-season sweep by winning both halves of their doubleheader, 5-2 and 5-0. Elijah Green hit a mammoth home run in the opener (110 mph off the bat).

Featured Baseball Story of the Day

The MLB Futures Game was yesterday, and Reds third baseman Cam Collier won MVP honors, per MLB. Why MLB doesn’t put this game on national television in the Sunday Night Baseball slot right ahead of the All-Star break (and limits it to seven innings) instead of having it compete with eight other games on Saturday afternoon is beyond me


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