The Washington Nationals put up game results yesterday that looked like their April results with little offense and a bullpen meltdown after a great effort by a starting pitcher. Michael Soroka finished at 6.0 innings of 1-run baseball and exited with a 2-1 lead. The bullpen managed to give up 7-runs in their 2.0 innings of combined work. It took four relievers to get the 6-outs, and of course they didn’t need to pitch a 9th inning because the Nats were losing in a road game.
In this game, the Nats will turn to Mitchell Parker to try and win this series. How great would that be to finish the month of June with the team’s only series win of the month.
After 10-days on the road, the Nationals will finally head back to Washington, D.C. with a day-off tomorrow, making today’s game the final game in the month of a very disappointing June that followed a great showing in the month of May. What went wrong? Defense, bullpen, and inconsistencies from the offense and the starting pitchers are a summary of what went wrong. In the June losing streak, we learned the following:
“It’s never on coaching. Never on coaching.”
— manager Dave Martinez said during the team’s 11-game losing streak they endured in mid-June
“Coaches work their asses off every single day. We’re not going to finger-point here and say it’s [on the] coaches. It’s never on the coaches. They work hard. The message is clear. All the work is done prior. Sometimes they got to go out there and they got to play the game. It’s always been about the players. Always.”
Here is the bullpen usage:
Here are your Nats’ WAR leaders with James Wood at +3.5 and MacKenzie Gore at +2.8 followed by CJ Abrams at +2.6.
On defense, the stats are clear as to what his defense is all about. Jacob Young is the team’s OAA leader at +5.0 and Brady House is now on the list at +2.0. 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 -5.0 OAA and that is unsustainable as that is one of the worst marks in baseball if you extrapolated it for a full-season. Luis Garcia Jr. has slumped this season defensively to a -8.0 already — and with CJ Abrams, they combine for -15.0 OAA. That is the worst middle infield in baseball and entirely unacceptable.
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 66 percent which must improve. His OAA is at -0.1 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 or should he only DH and PH? 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.
“Honestly, if we got through that [seventh] inning, [Kyle Finnegan] probably would’ve started the eighth and see how far he got — but we didn’t get there. He understands the situation where we’re at. We’ve said if we get through this inning, we might send him out for the eighth to see how far we can take him.”
— manager Dave Martinez said after yesterday’s game
The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 4.48 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 5.74 and now the second worst in baseball in ERA.
Here is how the starters rank by ERA:
No. 5 Starter: Trevor Williams 5.65
No. 4 Starter: Michael Soroka 4.70
No. 3 Starter: Mitchell Parker 4.59
No. 2 Starter: Jake Irvin 4.73
No. 1 Starter: MacKenzie Gore 3.09
Washington Nationals vs. Los Angeles Angels
Stadium: Angel Stadium, Anaheim, California
1st Pitch: 4:07 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 188 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
- Brady House 3B RH
- Daylen Lile RF LH
- Drew Millas C SH
- Jacob Young CF RH
