The Washington Nationals had a golden opportunity to notch their biggest road win of the season last night, but they failed to execute on a few pitches in the 9th inning that put the tying and winning run on the bases. All of that could have been righted with 2 outs when outfielder Dylan Crews threw a bullet to catcher Keibert Ruiz that was not caught at the plate — moments later the Phillies walked-off on the Nats via wild pitch.
“I think that was a good throw [from Crews]. I tried to catch it maybe too fast, tried to get to the ball and not wait for the ball. That was my mistake. I take charge of that. I don’t want to make any excuses. I need to do a better job.”
— Ruiz said after last night’s game
The Nats enter this game with a 13-17 record. The dreams of sweeping the Phillies and leapfrogging them into second place won’t happen in this series. All of the visions of grandeur were basically ruined last night.
“I feel like I let one get away from us there. We had a great chance to steal a really important game for us, the first game of the series against a good team. The boys battled the entire game, a late comeback. It’s a game that we should’ve won, and I didn’t do my job tonight.”
— said closer Kyle Finnegan
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 the negative side, Josh Bell has fallen to a -0.7 to this point.
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.
“I was just trying to hit it fair, and not necessarily even hit it hard. Just give it a chance to find some grass and ideally tie it up there. I felt like I got beat all night, but I got an opportunity to do something, and thankfully I did.”
— Nathaniel Lowe said about his 9th inning 3-run home run to temporarily put the Nats ahead in the game
The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 3.84 and 14th best in MLB. The reliever’s ERA sits at a 7.47 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 3.51
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 184 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.
Line-up subject to change (without notice):
