The Washington Nationals are now stuck in a 7-game losing streak. And if that wasn’t bad enough, Nats’ manager Dave Martinez, during his postgame presser, drew a line in the sand to give his coaches a pass on any blame — and essentially put it all on the players to execute. Whatever happened to coaches putting players in the best situations to succeed? If Martinez doesn’t give an apology before today’s game, you have to wonder if he can survive this.
“It’s never on coaching. Never on coaching. Coaches work their asses off every single day. We’re not going to finger-point here and say it’s coaches. It’s never on the coaches. They work hard. The message is clear. All the work is done prior. Sometimes, they’ve got to go out there — and play the game. It’s always been about the players, always. I played this game a long time. Never once did I blame the coaches for anything.”
— manager Dave Martinez said after yesterday’s game
“We can’t hit for them. We can’t catch the balls for them. We can’t pitch for them. We can’t throw strikes for them. They’ve got to do that.”
While much of that speech is true, you don’t throw you players under the bus. What Martinez said essentially did just that. Now he has to find a way if he can to dial it back. There are media people calling for his immediate firing. That seems doubtful.
Of course the best thing that could happen is a win today by the Washington Nationals to end this ugly losing streak. The team has their ace, MacKenzie Gore, on the mound.
This whole weekend was setup to be a fun time at the ballpark. The Nelly concert on Friday. Bruce the Bat Dog on Saturday, and a Father’s Day celebration for today with three distinguished alumni players returning with Adam LaRoche, Daniel Murphy, and Wilson Ramos. In fact, Ramos is set to sign a ceremonial one-day contract to retire as a Washington National.
Here are your Nats’ WAR leaders with James Wood at +2.8 and MacKenzie Gore at +2.6 followed by CJ Abrams.
On defense, the stats are clear as to what his defense is all about. Paul DeJong is your OAA leader and he hasn’t played in nearly two months dating back to April 15. Jacob Young has missed a large chunk of the season and he is just below DeJong.. Luis Garcia Jr. has slumped this season defensively to a -6.0 already — and with CJ Abrams, they combine for -13.0 OAA. That is the worst middle infield in baseball.
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 64 percent which must improve. His OAA is at +1.0 now. 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. That clearly isn’t the case.
These are your stats leaders on BBRef. There are certainly some surprises on there — good and not so good.
“I’ve been all over. I feel like coaching is a very tough gig. They’re here before we are, and they leave after we leave. We all have different personalities in here, and sometimes we’re willing to listen and sometimes we’re not. They’re just trying to chip away and help us become the best version of ourselves, and hopefully it shows up in between the lines. It’s a long season. It can be a grind. But it’s not about pointing fingers. It’s about looking in the mirror for us as players and understanding that if we do what we can, whatever we’re able to do on the baseball field, we’ll be in a good place.”
— Josh Bell said after yesterday’s game
The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 4.44 and 24th 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 5.70 and now only the second worst in baseball in ERA.
Here is how the starters rank by ERA:
No. 5 Starter: Trevor Williams 5.71
No. 4 Starter: Michael Soroka 5.14
No. 3 Starter: Mitchell Parker 4.84
No. 2 Starter: Jake Irvin 4.21
No. 1 Starter: MacKenzie Gore 2.88
Miami Marlins vs. Washington Nationals
Stadium: Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.
1st Pitch: 1:35 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 179 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.
Line-up subject to change (without notice):
