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Shelby Miller
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Gio Gonzalez
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| Jean Segura - 2B | Trea Turner - 2B |
| Chris Owings - SS | Ben Revere - CF |
| Paul Goldschmidt - 1B | Anthony Rendon - 3B |
| Welington Castillo - C | Clint Robinson - 1B |
| Brandon Drury - LF | Jayson Werth - LF |
| Yasmany Tomas - RF | Brian Goodwin - RF |
| Jake Lamb - 3B | Danny Espinosa - SS |
| Mitch Haniger - CF | Jose Lobaton - C |
| Shelby Miller - RHP | Gio Gonzalez - LHP |
We'll see what happens with the weather today and tomorrow, with the forecast not exactly promising. This could cause significant issues, because any canceled games could have to be made up - likely on the Monday after the official end of the regular season. Importantly, that would only take place in the event there is not a decisive result between the Dodgers and Nationals, with regard to home-field advantage in the NLDS. Right now, Washington are two up on Los Angeles, with five to play. However, LA owns the season series (the first tiebreaker), having beaten Washington five of their six contests.
This means If there's a cancellation today or tomorrow, and the Nationals finish the season with the same number of wins as the Dodgers and one fewer loss, then the canceled game would have to be played: if Washington wins it, they get home-field advantage. But if they have more wins, it wouldn't matter, so no replay needed. If they have even one fewer win, it won't matter either, because winning the make-up would put them in a tie with the Evil Empire, which would still go to Los Angeles .At least, that's my reading of how everything would shake down, anyway! If both today and tomorrow get canceled, things get a great deal more complex, so I suspect we'll see a strenuous effort to get at least one game in.
Assuming there is a game, Arizona fans will be most interested in the performance of Miller, who looked as good last time as he has all season, throwing six shutout innings against a very good Baltimore line-up. It's the first time in 2016 we could genuinely say, "He should have got a W, but didn't" He's got a shot at ending with his ERA at a low for the year, if he can get it below the current best mark of 6.36, set on June 20. Hey, we will take these small victories where we can find them, and hopefully Miller can finish with a couple of decent starts, to give him, the team and us fans something positive to take into the off-season.