The Washington Nationals are mired in a losing streak that just feels like they cannot put together enough runs to make up for the issues with the pitching. We will see if Patrick Corbin has a gem in him and can be a stopper for his team that could use a win in September.
MacKenzie Gore returned from the bereavement list and Joe La Sorsa returned to Triple-A Rochester. Tomorrow, is decision day on Tanner Rainey who is trying to return from his UCL Tommy John surgery last year. Rainey will have used up his 30-days of rehab time which has been a mixed bag of results with his command and control.
The Nats will face lefty Jose Quintana tonight. Expect manager Dave Martinez to add in a couple of right-handed bats into his lineup.
With the day-off yesterday, the Nats bullpen should be sufficiently rested. The Nats also have a day-off on Thursday. Today, they will go over 500 innings for the season, and have averaged 3.6 innings per game.
The bullpen has been collectively poor this season pitching to a 5.15 ERA and a 1.433 WHIP. Only the Royals, Angels, Rockies, and Athletics have had bullpens that have performed worse this season in WHIP or ERA. The good news is the Nats are 13th in most saves. It kind of highlights the issues are in the front of the bullpen and not the back. The bullpen has also worked their way back to 15th in most bullpen wins and 16th best in bullpen losses. That is quite the improvement, and some of that is attributed to the late inning scoring from the Nats offense.
Certainly this offseason, the key should be upgrading the front of the bullpen -or adding to the back of the bullpen for more set-up options.
With Gore back, Patrick Corbin will pitch tonight, Joan Adon tomorrow, and Gore gets the first game of the weekend series against the Dodgers.
“We have some guys who have never played this much baseball, and have never played a full season in the big leagues. We have some guys who are just now coming here. It’s a grind, but 29 other teams are doing the same thing. We’ve just got to forget about the schedule, forget about how many games we’re playing, take that day off [yesterday] and come back Tuesday ready to play baseball.”
— manager Dave Martinez said
The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 4.78 for 24th best in MLB.
Here is how they rank:
No. 6 Starter: Joan Adon 6.00 (starter’s ERA only)
No. 5 Starter: Trevor Williams 5.21
No. 4 Starter: Patrick Corbin 4.90
No. 3 Starter: Jake Irvin 4.35
No. 2 Starter: MacKenzie Gore 4.28
No. 1 Starter: Josiah Gray 4.13
Here is your Baseball Savant link for the game.
New York Mets vs. Washington Nationals
Stadium: Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.
1st Pitch: 7:05 pm EDT
TV: MASN
Radio: 106.7 The Fan radio and via the MLB app
