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Defending champion Nats return healthy, careful on protocols

Baseball's defending champions got camp underway with 57 healthy bodies and a 2020 first-round pick on the way.
Credit: AP
Washington Nationals' Adam Eaton (2), center, speaks with a staff member as the team holds its first baseball training camp workout at Nationals Stadium, Friday, July 3, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

WASHINGTON — The Washington Nationals showed up to training camp hoping to follow manager Dave Martinez's mantra on the way to winning the World Series: go 1-0 every day. 

Only, under the circumstances of a global pandemic, that has taken on new meaning. 

Baseball's defending champions got camp underway with 57 healthy bodies and a 2020 first-round pick on the way. 

Martinez learned depth catcher Welington Castillo was joining Ryan Zimmerman and pitcher Joe Ross in opting out of the 60-game major league season. 

But aces Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg looked sharp on the first day of workouts, and there's plenty of hope ahead as long as the Nationals can remember all the protocols in place. 

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