The Washington Nationals have dropped 4-in-a-row and call on their All-Star ace, MacKenzie Gore, to be the stopper. After throwing a career-high 111 pitches in his previous start, Gore will pitch on two extra days of rest. Why he pitched 111 is more of the mystery.
Today we learned that Trevor Williams will be having UCL ligament surgery on his elbow after throwing 54 pitches in the first inning of his last start — be glad that Dave Martinez is no longer making decisions about the pitchers on this Nats’ staff. Some of his decisions boggled the mind. But then again, Miguel Cairo pulled a Davey last night and shoved a fatigued Jake Irvin into the 6th inning in a 3-2 game that quickly turned to 4-2. Irvin had pitched a season-high 107 pitches last week and got zero extra rest days and was actually moved up from starting Thursday to pitch last night to give Gore extra rest. What are we missing in this picture?
Just because a pitcher says “I can give you another” doesn’t mean you should. With a manager and two pitching coaches in the dugout, plus analytics people, when are they going to learn? People wonder why pitchers leave the Nationals and find instant success elsewhere. The answer usually starts with not shoving pitchers past fatigue. It also helps if you have a good defense along with a good catcher, and a bullpen to save you from trouble.
Just look at what Texas did with Patrick Corbin. He’s gone from a 5.62 to a 4.18 ERA after changing teams. I guarantee you a smart team could take Irvin’s 4.78 and turn him into a 3.20 ERA pitcher the same way. We saw it with Gio Gonzalez when he was traded to Milwaukee in 2018, and then Austin Voth in the 2022 season went from a 10.13 to a 3.04 after going to Baltimore. Yes, they can certainly regress but for the rest of Voth’s career he was never worse than a 5.19 ERA. Then you have the Cardinals Erick Fedde. These aren’t coincidences — this is an indictment on this Nationals team — and interim GM Mike Debartolo better get a grasp of this!
“Simply stepping up our game is not enough. We need real change.”
— Interim GM Mike DeBartolo said before yesterday’s game
The bullpen usage looks like this:
Here are your Nats’ WAR leaders with James Wood at +3.8, CJ Abrams at +2.9, and MacKenzie Gore at +2.8. Add those up, and you get a total of +9.5 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 is at +0.0 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 -4.0 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 -0.3 now. With as little as Amed Rosario has played on defense, he is at -8.0 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.
“This team is resilient. We’re going to play 27-outs. We’re going to be in it to the end. Those were really good at-bats by everyone, and that’s what you’re looking for. Today was a good first step, and we’re going to keep going.”
— Miguel Cairo said in his first postgame presser as interim manager
The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 4.75 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 5.79 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 4.78
No. 1 Starter: MacKenzie Gore 3.11
Washington Nationals vs. St. Louis Cardinals
Stadium: Busch Stadium, St. Louis, Missouri
1st Pitch: 7:45 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 185 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
- Amed Rosario 2B RH
- Josh Bell DH SH
- Nathaniel Lowe 1B LH
- Alex Call RF RH
- Brady House 3B RH
- Riley Adams C RH
- Jacob Young CF RH
