The Washington Nationals have the St. Louis Cardinals in for the weekend. This series will have the first postgame concert of the season with Rockville’s O.A.R. as the band tonight. They created a song to commemorate the new City Connect theme with a song titled, “Our Diamond. Our District.” This will be the first time the entire song will be heard in public. You have heard clips of it. Now you get the full release.
After two days of extra rest, you hope that does the trick for Mitchell Parker who threw an 8.0 inning gem over two weeks ago then threw two straight stinkers. On the Cardinals side is Erick Fedde who was drafted in 2014 as a 1st round at pick №18.
In the lineup, Josh Bell is back in the lineup and pushed back to 7th. While Amed Rosario is back in the lineup in a non-platoon role, it is most likely because Jose Tena is slumping with the bat. But still, Tena was hitting better than Bell. We will see how this new-look lineup looks today.
“I think at this particular moment, we’ll probably push [Brad Lord] back to the bullpen. Kind of give him a breather, and then we’ll see what happens in the next couple weeks.”
— manager Dave Martinez said mid-week
You can see the recent bullpen usage here:
Here are your Nats’ WAR leaders with James Wood at +1.5 and MacKenzie Gore +1.3 and followed by CJ Abrams and Mitchell Parker. On the negative side, Josh Bell has fallen to a -0.8 at this point and the worst on the team. The team is 4-2 when Bell doesn’t start a game.
On defense, the stats are starting to give you an idea of what this defense is all about. Paul DeJong is your OAA leader and he hasn’t played in almost a month dating back to April 15. Luis Garcia Jr. has slumped to a -4.0 already — and with CJ Abrams, they combine for -7.0 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 59 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.
“These guys, they’re relentless. No matter what, they’re going to come back and try to make the game interesting, but when you’re winning a game like that, 3-0, your starting pitcher is pitching well, those are games that should be won.”
— Martinez said after Wednesday’s game
The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 4.26 and 8th worst in MLB. The reliever’s ERA sits at a 7.22 and is the worst in MLB.
Here is how the starters rank by ERA:
No. 5 Starter: Trevor Williams 5.86
No. 4 Starter: Michael Soroka 7.20
No. 3 Starter: Mitchell Parker 3.48
No. 2 Starter: Jake Irvin 3.94
No. 1 Starter: MacKenzie Gore 3.33
St. Louis Cardinals vs. Washington Nationals
Stadium: Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.
1st Pitch: 6:45 pm EDT
TV: APPLE TV+
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 176 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.
Line-up subject to change (without notice):
