The Washington Nationals have a salvage operation in their final game of this series with the Boston Red Sox. Today’s game matches up Shinnosuke Ogasawara for his MLB debut against one of the best pitchers in baseball, Garrett Crochet.
On top of that, the Nationals have just not played well in day games. Per Baseball Reference’s website, the team is 13-25 in day games and just 2-games under .500 in night games. The Nats have a day-off tomorrow, with a midwest road trip that begins on Tuesday in St. Louis. The MLB Draft is a week from today, and the Nats have the No. 1 pick.
There were swirling rumors and unconfirmed reports that Cade Cavalli was going to start today. Sources tell TalkNats that the Nats might only use Ogasawara for this spot start and make another move in the upcoming week.
In order to officially add Ogasawara to start today, the Nationals will have to take a player off the active roster. The left-handed Ogasawara is the first free agent the Nats have ever signed directly from Asia. He was on the injured list with an oblique strain for two months from Spring Training where he struggled with an 11.25 ERA in five appearances and 12 innings. The 27-year-old, who signed a two-year, $3.5 million contract on January 24th will face a Red Sox team that has not been kind to the Nats pitching so far.
“He went down there, he understood what he needed to do. Before he got hurt, he was throwing the ball pretty well. He got hurt, he’s coming back, he’s throwing the ball well. We get him here tomorrow, we’ll see what happens. … Strikes. Strikes. Throw strikes.”
— manager Dave Martinez said after yesterday’s game
The bullpen usage looks like this:
Here are your Nats’ WAR leaders with James Wood at +3.9, CJ Abrams at +2.9, and MacKenzie Gore at +2.8. Add those up, and you get a total of +9.6 WAR.
On defense, the stats are clear as to what his defense is all about. Jacob Young is the team’s OAA leader at +7.0 and Brady House is now on the list at +1.0. 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 -7.0 already — and with CJ Abrams, they combine for -13.0 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.
“I want the young guys to appreciate what [the veteran players] do.”
— manager Dave Martinez said after the game on Wednesday
The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 4.70 and 26th 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 5.85 and now the worst in baseball in ERA.
Here is how the starters rank by ERA:
No. 5 Starter: Trevor Williams 6.21
No. 4 Starter: Michael Soroka 5.40
No. 3 Starter: Mitchell Parker 4.72
No. 2 Starter: Jake Irvin 4.71
No. 1 Starter: MacKenzie Gore 3.11
Boston Red Sox vs. Washington Nationals
Stadium: Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.
1st Pitch: 1:35 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 177 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.
Line-up subject to change (without notice):
