The Washington Nationals are now mired in a 4-game losing streak and once again looking like a team on a shell rowing aimlessly and with some misdirection from the coxswain. Once again, the Nats offense had no walks last night, and were shutout due to a bad call at homeplate that wasn’t overturned. But how in the world didn’t Luis Garcia Jr. score on Jacob Young‘s single? All you hear are a lot of excuses, and the only player who has taken on blame is the kid with the least tenure, Robert Hassell III. Make plays! Step up and accept your walks.
Manager Dave Martinez has penciled up a lineup with both Keibert Ruiz, Josh Bell, and Hassell in the lineup. All three went hitless on Tuesday night and were part of the problem as the rest of the offense was producing. At what point will we see Bell, as promised, carry this offense? Fine, credit him with contributing to 4-wins, but what about the 31 losses when he starts. The team is 23-31 this season when Bell starts and even worse at 0-2 when he enters off the bench.
The Nats have Michael Soroka on the mound trying to replicate what he did six days ago with his best start of the season with 6.0 scoreless innings.
“We need to stay on the ball a little bit better, and hit the ball. I know he’s pitching inside, but we need to lay off some of those balls. They weren’t strikes in there. Look for the ball up and out over the plate. That’s when the damage is done against him. But like I said, he kept us off-balance, he threw some really good changeups. He pitched a complete game.”
— manager Dave Martinez said after yesterday’s game
You can see the recent bullpen usage here:
Here are your Nats’ WAR leaders MacKenzie Gore at +2.6 with James Wood at +2.5 followed by CJ Abrams.
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 nearly two months dating back to April 15. Luis Garcia Jr. has slumped this season defensively to a -6.0 already — and with CJ Abrams, they combine for -13.0 OAA. Clearly, that is an issue.
Another defensive 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 63 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 -8.0 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.
“We got to start hitting. The key is to start taking our walks, like I said, and start utilizing the middle of the field. That’s when we’re really good. We do that, we’ll be in good shape. Like I said, the boys are playing hard, but we got to start hitting. We got shut out [Wednesday]. We got t0 come back [Thursday] and score some runs.”
— Martinez said after yesterday’s game
The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 4.34 and 23rd best in MLB. You might be surprised at the team just ahead of the Nationals in the rankings. The reliever’s ERA sits at a 5.77 and now only the second worst in baseball in ERA.
Here is how the starters rank by ERA:
No. 5 Starter: Trevor Williams 5.91
No. 4 Starter: Michael Soroka 4.86
No. 3 Starter: Mitchell Parker 4.44
No. 2 Starter: Jake Irvin 4.21
No. 1 Starter: MacKenzie Gore 2.88
Washington Nationals vs. New York Mets
Stadium: CitiField, Queens, New York
1st Pitch: 1:10 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 176 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.
Line-up subject to change (without notice):
- CJ Abrams SS LH
- James Wood LF LH
- Luis Garcia Jr. 2B LH
- Nathaniel Lowe 1B LH
- Josh Bell DH SH
- Alex Call RF RH
- Jose Tena 3B LH
- Keibert Ruiz C SH
- Robert Hassell III CF LH
