The Washington Nationals had a great chance last night to take an early lead with their ace, MacKenzie Gore, on the mound. Gore had thrown 6.0 innings of zeros until he came out for the 7th inning. Suffering from a deep bruise on his thigh after he was nailed by a line drive earlier in the game, Gore’s lead-off walk that he left as an inherited runner scored, and that is all the Giants needed in a 4-0 game that ended the Nats 5-game winning streak.
If the Nats won last night, they would have had their longest winning streak since the 2019 season. Maybe there was some magic there if they achieved that. Now, the team has to get back in the win column with Jake Irvin on the mound.
Speaking of 2019, today is a significant day in Washington Nationals history. In 2019, the Nats found themselves at 19-31 in the standings at the 50-game mark, and they got an improbable win on May 24th to get their way back into the W column. What went wrong in last night’s game might have started with leaving Gore in the game too long, given that his leg was aching.
“We put some heat on it right after it happened, and by the seventh [inning], it was just pretty heavy and dead. It was the back leg.”
— MacKenzie Gore said after last night’s game
You can see the recent bullpen usage here:
Here are your Nats’ WAR leaders James Wood at +1.9 with MacKenzie Gore at +1.8 followed by CJ Abrams, and Mitchell Parker. Those are impressive numbers that you can multiply by a factor of 3.20 to extrapolate to a full-season of results.
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 over a month dating back to April 15. Luis Garcia Jr. has slumped this season defensively to a -5.0 already — and with CJ Abrams, they combine for -8.0 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. With as little as Amed Rosario has played on defense, he is at -7.0 OAA this season and the worst on the team. Per Statcast, his defense has cost the Nationals 5-runs. Is his offense good enough to make up that deficit if he plays the field? Keibert Ruiz, per Statcast, has a -6.0 OAA also. The Nationals were supposed to be better on defense. What has happened?
These are your stats leaders on BBRef. There are certainly some surprises on there — good and not so good — but the gap is widening.
“We just got away from our plan. There was a lot more pull-side ground balls. When we stayed on the ball, we hit it well to the other side of the field. I think that should’ve been our approach against this guy today.”
— manager Dave Martinez said after last night’s game
The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 4.54 and 5th worst in MLB. The reliever’s ERA sits at a 6.27 and no longer the worst in baseball in ERA.
Here is how the starters rank by ERA:
No. 5 Starter: Trevor Williams 6.39
No. 4 Starter: Michael Soroka 5.95
No. 3 Starter: Mitchell Parker 4.39
No. 2 Starter: Jake Irvin 3.88
No. 1 Starter: MacKenzie Gore 3.67
San Francisco Giants vs. Washington Nationals
Stadium: Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.
1st Pitch: 4:05 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 178 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.
Line-up subject to change (without notice):
