Photo by Andrew Lang for TalkNats
For manager Dave Martinez, he was always a slow starter in his career as a player. The month of April was his worst statistical month, and he had hoped that as a manager he could come out of the gates strong this year. It almost looked like it was going to happen until Anthony Rendon got injured. If only the Nationals could have just treaded water until Rendon, Juan Soto and Trea Turner returned from the injured list, they could go on a run when their opening day roster was intact. Unfortunately, Martinez’s team has been sinking under the weight of the water and are now 8-games under .500. As their luck has it, they are facing the team with the best record in the National League for the next four days. Last week, the Cardinals had the best record in the National League and the Nationals had to face them for three games. The Dodgers got red hot and have surpassed the Cardinals now for the top spot in the NL. The Dodgers just swept the Braves and have won 16-of-their-last-23 games which followed a 6-game losing streak.
If ever the Nationals needed a hot streak after a losing streak like the Dodgers — it is now. For the Dodgers, they want to continue their success. The Nationals of course want to show great pitching beats great hitting. Will it feel like a playoff game, we will see.
“It’s a different hero every night,” Justin Turner of the Dodgers said. “A lot of guys in here are capable of changing the game with a swing of the bat.”
The Dodgers are very familiar with the former NL West pitcher, Patrick Corbin, who starts tonight for the Nationals. Corbin has had many successful starts in Dodger Stadium and he hopes to continue that. What is different for Corbin is that he is coming off a career high 118-pitches five days ago. We will see how his arm reacts to that workload. Corbin’s former teammate in Arizona, Gerardo Parra, we reported is set to join the team at the stadium after his release from the Giants. Parra has had a lot of career success against Dodger pitching.
| Name | PA | AB | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | BA ▼ |
OBP | SLG | OPS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dylan Floro | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 2.000 |
| Brock Stewart | 4 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .750 | .750 | .750 | 1.500 |
| Caleb Ferguson | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .500 | .500 | .500 | 1.000 |
| Dennis Santana | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .500 | .500 | .500 | 1.000 |
| Ross Stripling | 13 | 12 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | .417 | .462 | .667 | 1.128 |
| Pedro Baez | 8 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .375 | .375 | .500 | .875 |
| Clayton Kershaw | 44 | 41 | 13 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 9 | .317 | .364 | .512 | .876 |
| Kenley Jansen | 21 | 20 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 9 | .300 | .333 | .350 | .683 |
| Hyun-Jin Ryu | 20 | 20 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | .250 | .250 | .300 | .550 |
| Walker Buehler | 13 | 12 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | .250 | .308 | .500 | .808 |
| Julio Urias | 5 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .200 | .200 | .200 | .400 |
| Joe Kelly | 11 | 11 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .182 | .182 | .273 | .455 |
| Kenta Maeda | 20 | 19 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | .158 | .200 | .211 | .411 |
| Tony Cingrani | 7 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | .000 | .143 | .000 | .143 |
| Scott Alexander | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 |
| Yimi Garcia | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 |
| Rich Hill | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 |
| Total | 180 | 172 | 48 | 11 | 1 | 2 | 11 | 6 | 35 | .279 | .311 | .390 | .701 |
The Nationals will need to make at least one roster to move to accommodate the addition of Parra to the roster. The signing makes sense for many reasons including his success on the road this season that hopefully is a positive sign that his issues were related specifically to San Francisco. For his salary, the Nats are only on the hook for a prorated portion of the league minimum. The Nationals will have to move a player off the active roster which most expect would be Andrew Stevenson as well as clearing a spot on the 40-man roster. There is the possibility the Nats could move a reliever off of the roster like Dan Jennings or Matt Grace. Stay tuned on that.
Washington Nationals vs. Los Angeles Dodgers
Stadium: Dodgers Stadium, Chavez Ravine, California
1st Pitch: 10:10 pm EDT
TV: MASN; MLB App out-of-market
Nats Radio: 106.7 The Fan and via the MLB app
Line-ups subject to change without notice:
