Washington Nationals’ Trea Turner pulled from game after testing positive for COVID-19...

Anything out of the ordinary right now, when everyone on the Washington Nationals’ roster but Juan Soto is reportedly available in the right deal with MLB’s July 30th Trade Deadline fast approaching, is going to cause a stir, and Trea Turner singling, going first to third on a hit by Soto, and scoring on a three-run home run by Josh Bell, then quietly leaving the game tonight between the top and bottom of the first in Citizens Bank Park was sure to get the old rumor mill going, and it did, with the TV folks going all Zapruder film on the video of Turner running to first, sliding in at third, and then trotting home. It looked like there might be an injury of some sort... or maybe a trade? But that talk didn’t last that long...

But then there were these odd reports:

Fortunately it wasn’t just an injury, or a tweak or something that took Turner out, but as the team announced, it wasn’t good news either: Turner actually tested positive for COVID-19 and was thus removed from the game...

Here’s hoping Turner was fully vaccinated so that there is less risk of the virus hitting him hard, and so we don’t have to get into a discussion about vaccines around the latest bad news to hit the team, which did have an outbreak in the clubhouse before Opening Day.

Erick Fedde, who’s starting tonight in Philly, also tested positive and reliever Tanner Rainey was deemed to have been in close contact and was put in quarantine earlier this season.

And the Nationals also just learned this afternoon that Stephen Strasburg is having season-ending surgery for neurogenic thoracic outlet syndrome.

The hits keep coming for your 2021 Nats. This season is a special one. Real special. What’s next for the Nationals? Probably best not to ask....

At least there’s this: