Washington Nationals

They're one and a half games behind the White Sox for the final post-season spot.

Let's take you out to DC where the Phillies get one back against the Nationals in a three-nothing shutout behind Zach Wheeler.

Let's go to Connor Thomas, your colleague at 97.5 The Fanatic of Locked On Phillies, to tell us what was good about this one.

Turns out the Philadelphia Phillies can still win a baseball game.

I also don't know what the Phillies did, uh, in their final game of their series against who they're playing right now.

Is it the Cubs, I believe? Uh, the Nationals.

I don't know why I got the Cubs.

Maybe the Braves are playing the Cubs, but regardless.

Um, uh, by the way, Dave, uh, Jeff, Dave Jagger also pointed this out, and, uh, this doesn't mean that, hey, I see everything, but I did see this, and I just love it.

He made the point that, uh, Yoan Cruz of the Nationals the other night got Brian De La Cruz of the Phillies to fly out to right fielder Dylan Crews-

No

...

Mm.

So over the last 15 years, Jeff, there has been an inside the park homer Hit in the 11th inning only twice, and both of them happened against the Mets at Citi Field.

It was done last year by Dalin Lyle of the Nationals, September 20th, 2025.

So they- it's only happened twice in the last 15 years, and both times it happened to the Mets at Citi Field.

I'm Al Galdi, host of the Al Galdi Podcast.

I'm joined by Washington Nationals insider Mark Zuckerman of NatsJournal.com.

He is at Nationals Park.

And what had become inevitable now is official.

What happened with the Nats from a pitching standpoint in this game was something.

The Nats went with a bullpen game.

Six Nats relievers combined to allow three runs in nine innings despite issuing 13 walks, tying the record for most walks allowed by the Nats in a regular season game since the franchise moved to Washington, D.C.

The six Nats relievers totaled 176 pitches, 96 strikes, 80 balls.

Uh, yeah, he was great.

Seven shutout innings, uh, again, against a good Nationals lineup that had their guys in.

Unlike Tuesday, they had Wood in the lineup, they had Abrams in the lineup, they had Lyle in the lineup.

So, you know, that's a good lineup that scores a lot of runs, and, uh, and Zach shut them down.

But if they are secured, if they are in their spot at that point, uh, he would not pitch in that game, and they'll, they'll have him ready to go, whether it be for game one or game two of that wild card series.

So they need Zach to be Zach, and he, uh, he has sure looked like Zach, uh, for his last handful of starts, and he certainly did on Wednesday.

Especially against a Nationals lineup-

Yeah

Cardinals get the day off on Thursday.

They'll host the Nationals over the weekend for the final three games at Busch.

Uh, Kyle Leahy will start against, uh, tough right-hander Cade Cavalli on Friday night.

First pitch will be at 7:15 St. Louis time.

It's not your fault.

This team felt very supported two weeks ago when Bo Bichette hit that home run in a surprisingly loud Sunday afternoon crowd when they swept the Nationals.

And it's like, man, team's going nowhere.

They're like dozens of games under 500.

The following segment, discussion of the defense, including a breakdown of the team's initial injury report for this game at Dallas in terms of defensive players, Washington placing inside linebacker Jordan McGee on the reserve slash injured list, more from Dan Quinn on having put cornerback Mikey Saner still on notice, an update on recovering cornerback Trey Amos, and what Washington is getting and outside linebacker Dorrance Armstrong and him being set to make his 2026 regular season debut off serving a one-game suspension.

And also on the show, I'll talk Washington Nationals and Baltimore Orioles.

The Nats, their four-game winning streak is over.

A 3-0 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies at Nationals Park on Wednesday evening for a split of a two-game series.

He, on Wednesday morning, came out with farm system grades for all 30 MLB teams.

The focus of the grades was, quote, on performance this season, examining how each system delivered this year in a number of key areas, including farm system rank, key MLB graduations, breakouts, disappointments, injuries, key additions, end quote.

The Washington Nationals got an A.

The Baltimore Orioles, in case you're curious, got an A-.

A three-game series against Texas where we'll probably spoil their season.

And then a battle to stay at a last place against the Washington Nationals.

I'm happy we're done with this.

Before we break down game three, some more thoughts on the first two games of this series.

You got your Thursday game, you got your Friday game, but you've got the Carlos Beltran Hall of Fame ceremony on Saturday, number retirement ceremony, and then obviously the great tribute to the voice of the Mets, Howie Rose, on Sunday.

So you got this series with the Phillies, a series in Texas against the Rangers, and then the Mets attempting to stay out of last place.

with a series against the Washington Nationals.

We'll be here the entire time to Rico it until we get to the bitter end.