(Photo credit: Brett Davis-Imagn Images)

The San Diego Padres resume their playoff push when they open a three-game series at the Washington Nationals on Friday.

San Diego opens the second half 5 1/2 games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League West and a half-game ahead of the San Francisco Giants for the final NL wild-card spot.

The Padres got off to a great start and stood 27-15 on May 14. They cooled a bit but come out of the All-Star break still eight games above .500 and having won three of four.

'I think we're in a good spot,' All-Star third baseman Manny Machado told MLB.com. 'Obviously, we got hot early. We've been kind of just surviving after that. It's a roller coaster, man. You can't really be hot all year. We know what we've got as a group. ... It's going to be a fun second half.'

San Diego opens the second half with a 10-game road swing through Washington, Miami and St. Louis.

The Nationals had an eventful first half, but not in a good way. The franchise entered the season hoping their long rebuild would finally show results. Instead, general manager Mike Rizzo and manager Dave Martinez were fired before the All-Star break and the team resumes play 20 games below .500.

Washington has lost four straight and eight of nine, but there were first-half bright spots. Outfielder James Wood and starting pitcher MacKenzie Gore -- both acquired in the trade with San Diego for Juan Soto -- became All Stars.

Wood hit 24 home runs before the break and could become the fourth different player after Bryce Harper (42), Vladimir Guerrero (44, 42) and Alfonso Soriano (46) to have a 40-plus homer season in Nationals/Expos history. Gore, meanwhile, sports a 3.02 ERA and is ranked fifth in the majors in strikeouts (138).

The Nationals, under interim manager Miguel Cairo, will be looking for consistent offense and improved defense over their final 66 games.

'We're going to take care of details,' Cairo said before the break. 'We're going to do the little things better than everyone else. We've got the talent, we have the players, we have the team to do it. ... We're going to continue working really hard to become the team that we're supposed to be.'

The Padres will start right-hander Dylan Cease (3-9, 4.88 ERA) against right-hander Michael Soroka (3-7, 5.35) on Friday.

Cease has struggled of late, going 0-3 with a 7.31 ERA over his past three starts. Last time out in a loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks, he allowed six runs on five hits -- three of them home runs.

'When you trend in a lot of positive areas consistently with the kind of stuff Dylan has, all you can do is keep going and eventually those balls will be flyouts or ground balls or fly balls,' manager Mike Shildt said at the time.

Cease is 2-0 in his career against Washington, including a shutout, and has not allowed a run in 16 innings.

Soroka pitched well in June but is 0-2 with a 10.13 ERA in two July starts. Last time out, he allowed two runs in four innings of an 8-1 loss to the Cardinals.

'The last couple of games have not been very good,' Soroka said. 'So obviously, there's going to be some work to do during the break.'

He is 2-0 with a 0.60 ERA in three games (two starts) against the Padres.

--Field Level Media