The Washington Nationals need a stopper, and tonight’s game will put Mitchell Parker on the mound against former Nat, Reynaldo Lopez, in a game the Nationals desperately need to win. The Braves have their best four starters going in this series, and the Nats have their best four available pitchers.
For the bullpen, manager Dave Martinez has his closer, Kyle Finnegan, and main set-up man, Hunter Harvey, fresh as well as lefty Robert Garcia. Other than that, Dylan Floro has been doing a one-day on and one-day-off pattern since May 30. He threw 19 pitches in a scoreless inning yesterday. Jacob Barnes threw 39 pitches between Monday and Tuesday, and Derek Law pitched 3.0 innings but only 37 pitches on Monday. It was Jordan Weems who got most of the burden of short outings by the starters, and he covered 4.0 innings and 59 pitches on Monday and Wednesday. Tanner Rainey pitched his best inning of the season in a 9-1 game last night.
With Patrick Corbin‘s downs and ups this season, you have to wonder what his future is in this rotation — but with DJ Herz up now and Trevor Williams injured, there is nobody to step in until Cade Cavalli and/or Josiah Gray are ready. Here’s what we think the starting rotation could look like going forward:
- Thursday: Mitchell Parker vs. Braves
- Friday: Jake Irvin vs. Braves
- Saturday: MacKenzie Gore vs. Braves
- Sunday: DJ Herz vs. Braves
- Monday: Day-off June 10
- Tuesday: Patrick Corbin vs. Tigers
- Wednesday: Parker vs. Tigers
- Thursday: Irvin vs. Tigers
- Friday: Gore vs. Marlins
- Saturday: Herz vs. Marlins
- Sunday: Corbin vs. Marlins
- Monday: Day-off June 17
After tonight’s game, there are just 100 games remaining in the season, the Nats enter this game at 27-34 and in third place in the NL East. A win by the Nats tonight, and they would match the 28-34 mark of the 2019 team.
Your top Washington Nationals on the FanGraphs’ WAR leaderboard has Trevor Williams at +1.7 WAR, and Jake Irvin at +1.6. Jacob Young is at the top spot with +1.3 for position players, and MacKenzie Gore is also at +1.3 WAR. Hunter Harvey and Mitchell Parker are at the +1.0 mark. In total, 20 Nats’ players are in positive WAR and another five are at a neutral 0.0 WAR. Lane Thomas is back into neg territory at -0.2.
“Keep the train rolling. Walks are good sometimes. Base hits are good sometimes. All of a sudden you get a ball you can juice, and all of a sudden you have three or four runs. But we have to get back to TEAM at-bats. Get on-base, and move baserunners. … We have to work better at-bats.”
— manager Dave Martinez said after yesterday’s game
The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 4.19 and 17th in MLB.
Here is how they rank:
No. 5 Starter: Patrick Corbin 6.15
No. 4 Starter: Mitchell Parker 3.60
No. 3 Starter: MacKenzie Gore 3.57
No. 2 Starter: Jake Irvin 3.39
No. 1 Starter: Trevor Williams 2.22
Washington Nationals vs. Atlanta Braves
Stadium: Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.
1st Pitch: 6:45 pm EDT
TV: MASN
Radio: 106.7 The Fan radio and via the MLB app; In Spanish on DC 87.7 FM and La Pantera 100.7 FM/1220 AM. On Sirius/XM, the opposing team will be online and the Nats broadcast will be on Channel 180.
Line-up subject to change (without notice):
TalkNats is Celebrating the 5 and 100 year anniversaries of World Series Wins by providing Game-by-Game Summaries.
Game 62:
The Nationals lost on 06/06 on the road against the Padres resulting in a record of 28-34. But you knew this already. Box Score / Standings
The Senators won on 06/28 at home against the Philadelphia Athletics resulting in a record of 35-27. Box Score / Standings
