When you hear that a team is at their 30th game, you know that you are approaching that 20 percent mark in the season. That is when sample sizes are getting large enough to do some meaningful analysis.
The Washington Nationals will not be able to get to April 30th with a winning record. In fact, that continues to add to manager Dave Martinez‘s record of never having a winning record on April 30 in his 8-season tenure with the team. Having a losing record on April 30 isn’t a death knell as we saw Martinez’s 2018 team finished with a winning record — and his 2019 team won the World Series — but it does put you behind the 8-Ball to play catch up.
The Nats enter this game with a 13-16 record. Sweep the Phillies, and things will be looking up for the Nationals. Good luck with that. We will see if MacKenzie Gore can get the Nats into the winner’s lane tonight. He was brilliant against the Phillies on Opening Day with a scoreless outing and 13 strikeouts. The Nats blew that game in the bullpen. The Nats bullpen has been like a horror movie. Fourteen runs given up by the bullpen yesterday raised the ERA by 1.10 to 7.30 on the season. Guess what, the Nats are the worst bullpen in the Majors and the Phillies are the second worst.
“It was a good game [yesterday] until it wasn’t. The bullpen came in and had a rough day today.”
— said manager Dave Martinez
“But we had our chances early offensively. Just once again, as I always say, when we chase, nothing good comes out of it. So we got to stop chasing, especially with guys on-base. We gotta get good pitches to hit. When we do that, we’re pretty good. … We have to take our walks.
You can see the recent bullpen usage here:
Here are your Nats’ WAR leaders with MacKenzie Gore followed by James Wood, Mitchell Parker, and Keibert Ruiz. On defense, Paul DeJong and Nasim Nunez are your OAA leaders , and Luis Garcia Jr. has slumped to a -3.0 already — and with CJ Abrams they combine for -6.0 OAA. Another issue that we have discussed is the positioning of Nathaniel Lowe at first base as he is too often out of position to make a play — and OAA has his chance at success at only 57 percent which must improve. These are your stats leaders on BBRef. There are certainly some surprises on there — good and not so good — but the gap is widening.
“He just fell behind. That’s the biggest thing: He’s got to get ahead of hitters. He’s been really good against left-handed batters, that’s what we need him for. After that, he threw the ball. But we need him to get left-handed hitters out.”
— Martinez said when asked about Colin Poche‘s struggles
The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 3.84 and 13th best in MLB. The reliever’s ERA sits at a 7.30 and is the worst in MLB.
Here is how the starters rank by ERA:
No. 5 Starter: Trevor Williams 5.70
No. 4 Starter: Michael Soroka 7.20
No. 3 Starter: Mitchell Parker 2.65
No. 2 Starter: Jake Irvin 3.19
No. 1 Starter: MacKenzie Gore 3.34
Washington Nationals vs. Philadelphia Phillies
Stadium: Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1st Pitch: 6:45 pm EDT
TV: MASN2
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, tune to Channel 179 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.
Line-up subject to change (without notice):
