The Washington Nationals start their weekend series tonight in Minnesota, a team with a lineage that began as the original Washington Senators. In fact, Bucky Harris, the unlikely player/manager of the 1924 World Series champion Washington Senators, is still that franchise’s winningest manager in Senators/Twins history with 1,336 wins. Harris made his permanent home in Montgomery County, Maryland like many baseball players back in the day.
The Twins began as Walter Johnson‘s original Washington Senators team when they relocated for the 1961 season when it was Harmon Killebrew’s Senators and the Griffiths relocated them to the L’Étoile du Nord.
The Nats only have 6-games and 6-days remaining after today until the trade deadline. Rumors are flying all over the internet on who will be traded. It is that time of year to be on “hug watch” in case any player gets traded mid-game. Of course MacKenzie Gore, tonight’s scheduled starter for the Nats, is a central figure in trade rumors.
The Nats added LHP reliever Konnor Pilkington to the roster Tuesday — and he has pitched 3.0 innings in relief and did not disappoint. Pilkington has now thrown 3.0 perfect innings in with four strikeouts and five outs on contact. One of the best first series for a Nats reliever in a long time. Now of course is what can you do next. Baseball is all about being consistently good.
Did you know that the Nats are now 26-14 when James Wood has an RBI? The team is 15-47 with no RBI from Wood. One of the rare games the Nationals won yesterday without offensive production from Wood.
“Everyone’s got to contribute. We cannot be using the same guy all the time, because I don’t want to break their arms.”
— Miguel Cairo said after Wednesday’s game
The bullpen usage looks like this:
Here are your Nats’ WAR leaders with James Wood at +3.6, MacKenzie Gore at +2.8 CJ Abrams at +2.8, and . Add those up, and you get a total of +9.1 WAR. The issue is the large gap between those players and the next tier. Brady House in his pre-rookie showing is already up to a +0.5 WAR.
On defense, the stats are clear as to what his defense is all about. Jacob Young is the team’s OAA leader at +8.0 and Brady House is 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.
Then you have Daylen Lile who is already at a -5.0 OAA although he has been playing league average defense lately. Luis Garcia Jr. is at -5.0 — and with CJ Abrams, they combine for -13.0 OAA. Did you know that Garcia is a +3.0 defender in the month of July?
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 -0.4 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.
“Everyone is doing the little things, and when you’re given the chance to be put in the best situation to succeed, that’s what happens.”
— Cairo said after Wednesday’s game
The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 4.83 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 5.74 and now the worst in baseball in ERA.
Here is how the starters rank by ERA:
No. 5 Starter: Brad Lord 3.39 (starting/relieving)
No. 4 Starter: Michael Soroka 4.85
No. 3 Starter: Mitchell Parker 5.00
No. 2 Starter: Jake Irvin 4.81
No. 1 Starter: MacKenzie Gore 3.59
Washington Nationals vs. Minnesota Twins
Stadium: Target Field, Minneapolis, Minnesota
1st Pitch: 8:10 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 184 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.
Line-up subject to change (without notice):
