The Washington Nationals suffered a season-ending injury with Stone Garrett who broke his left fibula on a freak play as his spike got caught in the outfield wall as he jumped to try to rob a home run ball. Garrett had just taken over as a full-time player from his previous role as a platoon bat. Loved by all with his great smile and kind words, Garrett will hopefully be healthy in plenty of time for Spring Training next year. To take his roster spot, Jeter Downs is back up again. Because the team has players like Ildemaro Vargas, Joey Meneses, and Jake Alu who can all play the outfield — there was no need to call up a pure outfielder at this time. With Victor Robles still not able to come back, the only remaining outfielder on the 40-man roster is Jeremy De La Rosa.
The Nats could have made a move to add Jacob Young or Travis Blankenhorn to the roster, or even Drew Millas to move Riley Adams to DH, and Meneses to the outfield — but the team went the easiest route. Garrett was only put on the 10-day IL, and could have gone directly to the 60-day IL. The team could also do the same with Carl Edwards Jr. who is still on the IL. But until the team needs the 40-man roster spots, they won’t make those moves.
A win this afternoon would give the Nats another series win, and that is the goal of course. The Yankees stopped their 9-game losing streak last night, and instead of going to Gerrit Cole today on regular rest, they opted for the right-handed Michael King. The Nats have Patrick Corbin, a New York native, from a family of former Yankees fans. At Corbin’s wedding, his brother Kevin delivered the best man’s speech in a Yankees hat during his brother’s free agency.
Potentially the only good news from a blowout-loss last night was the “A” bullpen got another day off which coupled with Monday has to be great for Jordan Weems, Hunter Harvey, and Kyle Finnegan.
“When [Stone Garrett] went down like that, my heart dropped. He was wincing, he was pretty hurt. Hopefully he’s OK. … He’s one of our clubhouse favorites. I love the kid. I hope everything’s OK.”
— manager Dave Martinez said
The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 4.69 for 21st best in MLB.
Here is how they rank:
No. 6 Starter: Joan Adon 7.62 (starter’s ERA only)
No. 5 Starter: Trevor Williams 4.95
No. 4 Starter: Patrick Corbin 4.71
No. 3 Starter: Jake Irvin 4.47
No. 2 Starter: MacKenzie Gore 4.38
No. 1 Starter: Josiah Gray 3.85
Here is your Baseball Savant Statcast Link for the game.
Washington Nationals vs. New York Yankees
Stadium: Yankee Stadium, Bronx, New York
1st Pitch: 1:05 pm EDT
TV: MASN
Radio: 106.7 The Fan radio and via the MLB app
