Goodbye Rendon and may your memories of 2024 never fade It seems unlikely that….

In the new MLB scheduling, the Washington Nationals have the Los Angeles Angels in Nationals Park on even years, and hopefully one day for a World Series. Both teams are rebuilding now, and by the looks of it, the Nats are far ahead in the rebuilding process. This week in fact, Baseball America ranked the Nats as the 4th best farm system in baseball, while the Angels were ranked at dead last. If the Angels were a playoff team now, maybe you could justify their barren farm system — but they are a 3 1/2 games ahead of the lowly Oakland A’s in the AL West standings. Sadly, the Nats are only 1/2 game ahead of the Angels in MLB standings.

Three former Nats’ legends are at the game tonight in different capacities. Chad Cordero is attending the game as a fan, Ian Desmond as the color analyst on the MASN broadcast along with Ryan Zimmerman, and 2019 World Series star, Anthony Rendon, is at Nats Park for the first time since he departed as a free agent after the 2019 season. Rendon is in the starting lineup for the Angels.

Based on last year’s win total of 71-games, the Nats need to go 20-26 or better to beat that total. There are just 46-games remaining in the season, and the rest of this season is really supposed to help to determine the players who could help impact the 2025 roster. Expect some changes soon as we get closer to 45-days remaining in the season as well as September 1 when rosters can expand to 28-players. Triple-A players Jose Tena, Andres Chaparro, Brady House, and Dylan Crews are all on the watchlist, and of course there’s Joey Gallo who is rehabbing in Triple-A — and should return no later than Monday.

The Nats are slight favorites today, at -115to win on the moneyline. That means if you bet $115 you would win $100. Bet $11.50 and you win $10.00.

Nats’ manager Dave Martinez‘s bullpen had to cover 7 1/3 innings due to the rain delay and extra innings. Every pitcher except for Jose A. Ferrer and Tanner Rainey pitched yesterday. Kyle Finnegan needed to throw 28-pitches to get just two outs yesterday. Derek Law threw another 2.0 innings, and nobody deserves a few days off than Law.