The Washington Nationals had a happy flight to Los Angeles after the James Wood walk-off home run to end their longest losing streak since Wood was just five years old. For the next 10-days, the Nats will call southern California their home as they have consecutive series against the Dodgers, Padres and Angels.
Tonight’s matchup is a battle of lefties with Nats’ ace MacKenzie Gore, and Clayton Kershaw with the Dodgers. As expected, Nats’ manager Dave Martinez has adjusted his lineup.
“For me, it’s just about him getting a strike. For a minute there, I thought they’ll probably pitch around him. But he was poised. He took a splitter. But as he always does, he’s got that slow heartbeat. He got a good pitch to hit and he hit it to center field. I just was like, ‘Hey, man, please go. I don’t want to play no more. Let’s go. Let’s get on the plane and let’s win a game.’ It was awesome.”
— manager Dave Martinez said after yesterday’s game
Here is the bullpen usage:
Here are your Nats’ WAR leaders with James Wood at +3.3 and MacKenzie Gore at +2.7 followed by CJ Abrams.
On defense, the stats are clear as to what his defense is all about. Jacob Young is the team’s OAA leader and James Wood got to a 1.0 on his OAA, and that is a good sign from where he had been early in the season. One of the newest Nats, Daylen Lile, is already at a -3.0 OAA.
Luis Garcia Jr. has slumped this season defensively to a -7.0 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 0.0 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 -7.0 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.
“It was just a sigh of relief, really. I feel like we’ve been playing hard. Just things haven’t gone our way. So it just felt good for things to switch up a little bit.”
— Wood said after yesterday’s game
The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 4.37 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 5.77 and now only the second worst in baseball in ERA.
Here is how the starters rank by ERA:
No. 5 Starter: Trevor Williams 5.54
No. 4 Starter: Michael Soroka 5.06
No. 3 Starter: Mitchell Parker 4.59
No. 2 Starter: Jake Irvin 4.23
No. 1 Starter: MacKenzie Gore 2.89
Washington Nationals vs. Los Angeles Dodgers
Stadium: Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, California
1st Pitch: 10:10 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 89 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.
Line-up subject to change (without notice):
- CJ Abrams SS LH
- Amed Rosario 2B RH
- James Wood LF LH
- Andres Chaparro DH RH
- Nathaniel Lowe 1B LH
- Brady House 3B RH
- Alex Call RF RH
- Riley Adams C RH
- Jacob Young CF RH
