The Washington Nationals had a golden opportunity to notch their biggest road win of the season in the first game of this Phillies series and failed to hold their lead in the 9th inning. Kind of sounds like Opening Day. Just like the opening series, the Nationals will try to salvage a game in the series prior to heading on their charter jet to Cincinnati after midnight.
Several Nats are happy that the calendar turns from April 30 to May 1 today. There are several Nats who want their April to continue. James Wood finishes April with a .903 OPS. Mitchell Parker has a 2.65 ERA and the team is 5-1 in games that he starts. They would be your two MVPs in the first month of the season. There are several honorable mentions like CJ Abrams, MacKenzie Gore, and Nathaniel Lowe. Unfortunately, Josh Bell has a huge lead in the other direction for the most disappointing player finishing April with a .137 batting average and a .503 OPS. His FanGraphs WAR is -0.8, the third worst in the Majors.
“He is working with Darnell. He’s very streaky. When he gets going, he’s going to carry us for a while.”
— manager Dave Martinez said about Josh Bell. A fact check, Bell had four mini hot streaks last year but didn’t carry his team.
The Nats enter this game with a 13-18 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 just part of the hope coming into the series. As we know, hope isn’t a strategy.
“If I can hit the balls in the air at 101 [mph] and up, I’ll be in a good place, but it seems like most of the balls I’m hitting in the air are under that, 95 to 96 mph. So I got to make a change here soon. Hopefully it starts tomorrow.”
— Bell said
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 is your OAA leader , 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.
“The big thing is, we’re playing catch-up a lot. We’ve got to come out tomorrow, score some early runs and put the pressure on them.”
— Martinez said after last night’s game
The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 4.04 and 18th best in MLB. The reliever’s ERA sits at a 7.41 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 4.01
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: 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, tune to Channel 89 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.
Line-up subject to change (without notice):
