Nats calling up Dylan Crews for battle with Aaron Judge, Yanks

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Dylan Crews is expected to make his major league debut when the Washington Nationals host Aaron Judge and the New York Yankees on Monday night in the opener of a three-game series.

Judge rolls into Washington after hitting his 50th and 51st home runs of the season on Sunday in a 10-3 win over the Colorado Rockies. He now has three 50-homer seasons in his career and is on pace to go deep 63 times this year, which would break an American League record that Judge currently holds.

Multiple media outlets have reported that Crews, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2023 draft, will be promoted from Triple-A Rochester prior to Monday night's game. The 22-year-old outfielder, Washington's No. 1 prospect according to MLB Pipeline, debuts on a night in which former Nationals star Juan Soto returns to the nation's capital.

Crews began the year at Double-A Harrisburg, where he hit .274 with five home runs, 38 RBIs and 15 stolen bases in 51 games. After being promoted to Triple-A, he hit .265 with eight homers, 30 RBIs and 10 steals in 49 games.

"He's having a great year, he really is," Nationals manager Dave Martinez said of Crews. "We all know that he's a big part of our future."

Crews is set to be the eighth prospect to make his big-league debut for the Nationals this year, a group that includes James Wood, who is hitting .284 with five homers and 30 RBIs through 48 games.

Left-hander Nestor Cortes (7-10, 4.00 ERA) will try to slow down Washington's young talent when he starts for New York on Monday.

Cortes has posted virtually identical pitching lines in back-to-back outings, earning wins over the Cleveland Guardians (last Wednesday) and Chicago White Sox (on Aug. 13) by allowing three hits across seven scoreless innings each time out.

Monday will mark Cortes' first career appearance against the Nationals.

Washington will turn to fellow southpaw Mitchell Parker (7-7, 4.26), who is facing the Yankees for the first time.

Parker most recently earned a win over Colorado, giving up one run and five hits in seven innings last Wednesday. He'll have to find a way to contain Judge, who has New York atop the AL East, 1 1/2 games in front of the Baltimore Orioles.

"I got to this point trying to be a good hitter and a good teammate, so that's what I'm going to try to do," Judge said. "I feel like if I can do that, we can look up at the end of the year, and I think the numbers will be where they're supposed to be."

The Yankees led 4-3 after six innings on Sunday before Soto, Judge and Giancarlo Stanton cracked back-to-back-to-back blasts in the seventh. Gleyber Torres added a three-run shot in the eighth.

CJ Abrams had two hits and two RBIs for Washington in a 5-1 win over the Atlanta Braves on Sunday. Jacob Young also had two hits and scored two runs as the Nationals salvaged the finale of the three-game series.

The Nationals have clinched the season series with Atlanta, leading 7-4 with two games remaining.

"That's a stepping stone for us," Martinez said. "Teams that we play, they always say the same thing: 'You guys play hard. You just don't give up.' That's a good thing. Now we've just got to understand how in some of these close games, how to finish games, get that extra run. When we do that, we're going to be fine."

--Field Level Media