The Washington Nationals ended their 7-game losing streak last night. They did not even play close to perfection. Yet, the Braves made more mistakes in the end that gave Washington a 5-4 win in what felt like a must-win game.
Yesterday, manager Dave Martinez penciled up possibly the worst defensive alignment of the season with Amed Rosario back at third base, and benching his best defender and last year’s Gold Glove finalist, Jacob Young. While Jose Tena has been slightly above average at third base, Martinez had him playing second base. Almost immediately the defense caused a promising start by Mitchell Parker to turn to trouble. A reversed home run ruled a triple could have been an out if Tena cut the throw from the outfield to tag the runner out at third base. The next batter hit a flyball to center field that would have been routine for Young, yet Dylan Crews got a poor read and couldn’t sprint in to catch it. The runner on third would have scored as a sacrifice fly — but now scored as a single that extended a long inning — and that runner eventually scored. That put two earnies on Parker and a high pitch count.
Then you have the base running mistakes. Josh Bell gets himself on-base so infrequently that he once again made a base running mistake. This time Bell thought he had a home run and for a split second watched the ball before he started running, and then tried to stretch his single into a double. Originally ruled safe at second base, Bell’s helmet popped off and he was actually out when replay showed his dreadlocks were tagged by the infielder before he reached the base.
To start the game, the Nats should have had bases loaded and no outs — but third base coach Ricky Gutierrez sent CJ Abrams home, and he was out by at least 30-feet. Fortunately, the trail runner, Amed Rosario got to third base and scored on the next play. Martinez made an unfortunate statement in his postgame presser that lacked honesty and integrity and tried to justify a terrible decision by Gutierrez. Maybe that placates the casual fan who does not know better. If the Nats lose, the defense and base running would have been the culprits.
“I’d rather be overly aggressive than passive. We’re not going to play passive. I think that’s a momentum builder when we’re playing aggressive like that and pushing the envelope.”
— manager Dave Martinez said
You can see the recent bullpen usage here:
Here are your Nats’ WAR leaders with CJ Abrams and James Wood at +1.5b followed by MacKenzie Gore and Mitchell Parker. On the negative side, Josh Bell has fallen to a -0.9 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.
“When your margin for error is smaller, you have to play a cleaner brand of baseball.”
— General Manager Mike Rizzo said yesterday on the Sports Junkies radio show
The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 4.49 and 6th worst in MLB. The reliever’s ERA sits at a 6.86 and no longer the worst in baseball in ERA.
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 4.32
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: 12:15 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):
