The Washington Nationals are mired in a 7-game losing streak, and the Nats actually jumped out to a 2-0 lead — and then it was the slow bleed as the game got away from the Nationals. It is tough to watch, but at some point the ball has to bounce in the Nats’ favor.
Manager Dave Martinez looked almost despondent last night as the camera panned to him many times during the game and especially after a bad call on the Nationals. The game ended on a bad call against Dylan Crews — and Martinez had no expression on his face and could not even make eye contact with Crews as he walked back to the dugout.
The Nationals were without Luis Garcia Jr. as he was placed on the paternity list before Tuesday’s game. Taking his roster spot is Trey Lipscomb.
“We couldn’t sustain. Like I said, we get good at-bats in between and carry it over. I mean, CJ led the game off with a homer. We scored another run, we got a hit-and-run base hit by [Amed Rosario], and then we just couldn’t sustain our offense.”
— manager Dave Martinez said
You can see the recent bullpen usage here:
Here are your Nats’ WAR leaders with James Wood at +1.4 and MacKenzie Gore +1.2 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.
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 this season defensively to a -3.0 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 61 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.
“So as I’ve been saying, in order for us to continue to do something offensively, we got to accept our walks. We got to swing at strikes. We took a lot of balls today that we probably shouldn’t hit. For me right now, they’re trying too hard. They’re pressing a little bit. They’re trying to create a win. We just gotta go out and play baseball. As I always talk about, we gotta just focus on little things. Get ahead and stay ahead.”
— Martinez said after last night’s game
The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 4.43 and 6th worst in MLB. The reliever’s ERA sits at a 7.07 and is the worst in MLB.
Here is how the starters rank by ERA:
No. 5 Starter: Trevor Williams 5.88
No. 4 Starter: Michael Soroka 6.43
No. 3 Starter: Mitchell Parker 3.97
No. 2 Starter: Jake Irvin 4.00
No. 1 Starter: MacKenzie Gore 3.59
Washington Nationals vs. Atlanta Braves
Stadium: Truist Park, Atlanta, Georgia
1st Pitch: 7:15 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 182 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.
Line-up subject to change (without notice):
