The Washington Nationals finish up their pre-All-Star game schedule in Milwaukee with James Wood out of the starting lineup. After this game, the season is 60 percent complete. Both Wood and MacKenzie Gore will head on a private jet for Atlanta after the game, while their teammates get a few days off to go on vacation.
For the Nats’ front office, they are assembled in Washington, D.C. in their war room preparing for the draft as they hold the coveted No. 1 pick in this draft. Tonight, we will get to see the first three rounds on MLB Network.
This afternoon’s game will feature Jake Irvin with the start. The team will have Andry Lara to pitch today as we broke the news he was getting called up in place of Shinnosuke Ogasawara who was optioned back to Triple-A.
“That was beautiful. It was good. Now [Brady House] is getting to the rhythm of hitting. He can play defense. So that’s something that there’s no question about it. So it was nice to see him start hitting [with power] a little bit.”
— interim manager Miguel Cairo said
The bullpen usage looks like this:
Here are your Nats’ WAR leaders with James Wood at +3.7, MacKenzie Gore at +3.1 CJ Abrams at +3.0, and . Add those up, and you get a total of +9.8 WAR. The issue is the large gap between those players and the next tier. Brady House in his 22-games jumps to a +0.4, and that extrapolates to +2.9 for a full season.
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 +2.0. 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 -6.0 already — and with CJ Abrams, they combine for -12.0 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 65 percent which must improve. His OAA is at -0.4 now, and that just makes the situation even worse. 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.
“The guys battled back.”
— Miguel Cairo said after yesterday’s game
The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 4.82 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 5.80 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 5.35
No. 3 Starter: Mitchell Parker 5.12
No. 2 Starter: Jake Irvin 4.78
No. 1 Starter: MacKenzie Gore 3.02
Washington Nationals vs. Milwaukee Brewers
Stadium: American Family Field, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
1st Pitch: 2:10 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 183 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.
Line-up subject to change (without notice):
CJ Abrams was scratched and this is the new lineup:
- Alex Call LF RH
- Nathaniel Lowe 1B LH
- Josh Bell DH SH
- Paul DeJong SS RH
- Luis Garcia Jr. 2B LH
- Brady House 3B RH
- Daylen Lile RF LH
- Riley Adams C RH
- Jacob Young CF RH
