Rays at Nationals
What began as a spectacular road trip for the Washington Nationals over a week ago and even saw the defending National League East champions take a brief lead in their division ended on a bit of a downer. Washington will attempt to bounce back from a disappointing series over the weekend Tuesday when it hosts the first of two interleague games against the Tampa Bay Rays.
The Nationals handled Miami and Baltimore in impressive fashion at the beginning of their 10-game trek, allowing two runs or fewer five times while winning all six contests. Their pitching didn't regress much in Atlanta over the last four games of the road trip, but only a two-run outburst in the 14th inning of Saturday's 5-3 victory over the Braves kept Washington from getting swept in four games during a series in which it tallied two runs or fewer three times. The Rays enter the final leg of their nine-game trek with a similar story, as they blanked Oakland twice and won the first three games of their series. Tampa Bay has since proceeded to drop four straight and managed only five runs over the weekend while getting swept in Seattle.
TV: 7:05 p.m. ET, FS Sun (Tampa Bay), MASN 2 (Washington)
PITCHING MATCHUP: Rays RH Nathan Eovaldi (1-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Nationals RH Max Scherzer (9-1, 1.92)
Eovaldi completed his comeback from a pair of elbow surgeries in Wednesday's victory at Oakland, walking only one batter while throwing 70 pitches over six no-hit innings. It was quite the rebound for the 28-year-old Texan, who pitched in the majors for the first time since August 10, 2016, after giving up eight runs in four frames in his final rehab outing one week earlier. Bryce Harper is 7-for-16 with a homer versus Eovaldi, who is 2-4 with a 5.12 ERA in nine starts against Washington.
Scherzer claimed his eighth straight decision Wednesday in Baltimore, allowing two hits and one walk while fanning 12 over eight scoreless innings. While he improved to 6-1 with a 2.05 ERA on the road as a result, the three-time Cy Young Award winner has been even more dominant at home (3-0, 1.77, .132 batting average against). Matt Duffy is 2-for-2 with a homer against Scherzer, who is 4-2 with a 2.91 ERA versus the Rays but hasn't faced them since 2014.
WALK-OFFS
1. Rays C Wilson Ramos - a former National - has hit cleanup in 24 games this season, eight more times than the Rays had started a catcher at that spot in the order in club history prior to 2018.
2. Washington rookie OF Juan Soto is batting .469 in his team's eight wins and is 0-for-14 in its six losses since his big-league debut on May 20.
3. Tampa Bay 1B/DH C.J. Cron (hand) is expected to play Tuesday after he was hit by a pitch near his right hand Sunday.