the Nationals went 2-5 (including Sunday's win against the Cubs and not including the three game Philly series) and lost a series against division rival NY Mets. The Nationals enter the half-way point with a record of 51-34, which can be improved to 54-34 if they sweep the Phillies July 8th-10th in Philadelphia, or, in a worse case scenario, they could end up 51-37 at the half-way point.

At the moment, waiver claim starting pitcher Ryan Drese (6-7, 5.27 overall, 2-1 with an era of 2.08 with the Nationals) will start Friday against 1-1 Robinson Tejada in his 6th start of the season (ESPN Stat pack for Friday's game; Nationals.com preview). On Saturday, John Patterson (3-2, 3.16 era) will face Corey Lidle (8-6, 3.92 era). And the last game of the half will see a Estaben Loaiza (5-5; off of a great start against Pedro Martinez), Jon Leiber (8-8, 5.13 era) match-up.

Will the Nationals enter the second half of the season leading the NL East? They are currently just 2.5 games above Atlanta, with three games to go (both teams have 3 games remaining). The Braves will battle the 40-45 Brewers and the Nationals will face division rival Philadelphia Phillies (43-43; 8.5 games back).

(results for last three games: ESPN box score for the July 5th's win, July 6th's loss, and July 7th's loss; National's recap of July 7th loss).