Good morning, Washington Nationals fans.

Here are the latest headlines and analyses around the Washington Nationals and Major League Baseball for today, July 17.

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Welcome to the Morning Briefing!

Leading this Morning's Briefing: AL Scores 5 Unanswered to win All-Star Game

The baseball was good last night, although you could certainly be forgiven for turning off your TV if you felt like the color controls were broken after seeing those gawdawful uniforms (in particular, the NL set). Can we go back to players wearing their own uniforms with the stars above their nameplates, please? Is Nike forcing those down our throats because a couple of dozen people will buy those monstrosities? Even commissioner Rob Manfred said during his annual ASB press conference that the league would look into going back to the old ways (and why not?). Lots of players complained as well.

Anyway, there was baseball as well, and a fair number of former Nationals were involved. Bryce Harper and Trea Turner started for the National League, Juan Soto for the American League (he had a two-run double and scored the tying run), and Reynaldo López pitched a third of an inning for the National League, in addition to the Nats’ two All-Stars. Shohei Ohtani got the scoring started with a 400-foot blast off of Tanner Houck with two men on (it looked even like he got it towards the end of the bat), but Soto and the AL answered in the bottom half of the frame. Two innings later, Jarren Duran of the Red Sox followed an Anthony Santander single off of Hunter Greene with a 413-foot homer of his own that put the AL up for good. Duran won MVP honors, naturally.

Nationals Headline of the Day: Abrams Ks, Finnegan Doesn’t Play

Shortstop CJ Abrams entered the game in the bottom of the sixth as a substitute for starter Trea Turner, fielding a groundout and striking out on a nasty splitter in his one plate appearance against Rangers reliever Kirby Yates. I had been worried that the presence of Reds shortstop Elly De La Cruz meant that maybe Abrams would not even see that much time in the game, but NL manager Torey Lovullo solved that by having Elly play third base next to Abrams (while Ryan McMahon played second base). Finnegan, who got the call to be a replacement while he was at Hershey Park with his family, was held in reserve to close in case the NL came back, so he did not make it into the game.

Down on the Farm

All of the full-season leagues are off until Friday, but the rookie levels play on as they wind toward the ends of their respective seasons next week. Dustin Saenz threw three innings of one-run ball in a rehab appearance in the FCL, and should be back in AA Harrisburg (the level he finished at in 2023) no later than the end of the month.

Featured Baseball Story of the Day: The One That Got Away

Rookie Paul Skenes, drafted one pick ahead of Dylan Crews a year ago, started on the mound for the National League, and ESPN’s Jeff Passan has a good article about that.

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