The Morning Briefing: September 9

Good morning, Washington Nationals fans.

Here are the latest headlines and analyses around the Washington Nationals and Major League Baseball for today, September 9.

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Welcome to the Morning Briefing!

Leading this Morning's Briefing: Bayou Battle Will Have to Wait

Despite this being a four-game series, Pittsburgh's recent move to a six-man rotation meant that Paul Skenes and Dylan Crews will not face each other until at least 2025, which - whenever it happens - should make for great theater.

Last Game Out

A day after a fairly grueling and emotional sweep of a doubleheader, the Nationals were pretty lifeless for much of yesterday's series finale against the Pirates, as Jared Jones and Jalen Beeks combined to retire 19 straight Nationals beginning with the final out of the second inning. Patrick Corbin, meanwhile, had to wear it today thanks to all the bullpen work in two games yesterday, allowing seven runs in six innings and killing the momentum from the nice three-start stretch he just had.

Live Game updates

Here are the most-read in-game updates that we have published 

📌 Davey Martinez Post-Game Press Conference highlights

📌 Video highlight: Relay Race 7 ➡️ 6 ➡️ 2

📌 VIDEO: Nationals pitching strategist Sean Doolittle on MLB Now

📌: The Nats Report Minor League Report: Video highlight: Robert Hassell III's first Triple-A hit

Nationals Headline of the Day: Williams Beginning Rehab

Trevor Williams, a free agent at the end of this season, will begin a rehab assignment tomorrow with AA Harrisburg from his right flexor strain injury that has had him on the shelf for three months. He is pitching for his next team as much as for this one, but hopefully all goes well and he can make a couple of starts in the final two weeks of the season to reduce the load on the young starters.

Down on the Farm

The Fredericksburg Nationals will be playing in the Carolina League playoffs, starting a best-of-three series against the Carolina Mudcats (Brewers) tomorrow. The FredNats currently have the following players on their roster that are worth keeping tabs on for the future (deep breath): Travis Sykora, Seaver King, Alex Clemmey, Elijah Green, Cristhian Vaquero, Caleb Lomavita, Brenner Cox, Kevin Bazzell, Rafael Ramírez Jr., Nate Ocho Leyva, Jorgelys Mota, and Sam Petersen. Sykora will almost certainly get the start in Game One.

Featured Baseball Story of the Day

Jordan Shusterman, whom I would call the more measured half of the Céspedes Baseball BBQ tandem, wrote a fun piece last week about the absurd dominance of Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase.

Former National of the Day

Until this very year Michael A. Taylor (5th round, 2009) was the only non-first round draft pick of the Mike Rizzo era to total 2.0 bWAR as a National. MAT debuted in 2014 and remained a National through 2020, hitting four big playoff home runs in 2017 and 2019. He has since become something of a "have glove, will travel" center fielder, playing two years for the Royals (winning a Gold Glove in 2021), one for the Twins, and now this season for the Pirates. Placed on waivers not two weeks ago in the midst of a .190/.249/.274 season, MAT went unclaimed and remained on the roster, which meant that today he was around to hit his 100th career home run off of Patrick Corbin. Michael A. is definitely the starting CF on the Washington Nationals Cult Favorite All-Stars - he would have a hard time ever buying a drink in this city, and not just because he still looks young enough for his mom to call him home for dinner when the sun goes down.

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