None of that changes what each team is actually playing for. San Diego is fighting to hold the NL's final wild-card spot with a slim division-record margin over Arizona breathing down its neck, while Washington is well outside any race and mostly evaluating what it has for next year. Both clubs still have games to get through first — Washington closes out a set with the Dodgers and San Diego wraps one with the Yankees — plus an already-scheduled series opener between these two before this game, so neither team's exact shape here is fully set yet.
Washington's rotation attrition is the deeper problem. Gray, Herz, Early, Parker and Ken Waldichuk are all out for the year in some form, which has pushed the Nationals into bullpen games more often than they'd like down the stretch. Luis García Jr. has been one of the few bright spots, hitting .283 with 23 home runs and 76 RBI, giving Washington's lineup at least one hitter worth building a game plan around even in a lost season.
San Diego's counter is that its lineup has carried the club through the injuries. Fernando Tatis Jr. and Jackson Merrill have each gone deep a dozen times since the All-Star break, part of a stretch that's had the Padres near the top of the league in scoring. That kind of offense is exactly what a wild-card team needs when its pitching depth is running thin — the question is whether it can keep it up against a Nationals team with nothing left to lose.