The Washington Nationals were in control last night until Miguel Cairo tried to push Cade Cavalli for more. That was such a Davey Martinez type of move that almost always backfired in more ways than one. Cavalli has shown that he just does not have the stamina to go deep in games. The 4-2 lead through 5.0 innings — should have been sufficient. Instead of pulling Cavalli at the first sign of trouble in the 6th inning, Cairo let Cavalli self-destruct then went to the team’s worst statistical reliever and brought in Jackson Rutledge who turned it from a tie game to a 2-run deficit. When will they learn?
Tonight is Mitchell Parker versus Michael Wacha. With a righty on the mound, we will get Robert Hassell III in center field, Daylen Lile starting in right field again, and Jacob Young on the bench. This seems like a competition between Hassell and Lile because you can expect Dylan Crews to be the starting center fielder when he returns later this week.
“I was just hoping [Cade Cavalli] would keep the damage down, and he did. It was awesome to see him come out of there, his second start coming back to the big leagues. To do that, it was nice to see.”
— Miguel Cairo said after yesterday’s game
The bullpen usage looks like this:
Here are your Nats’ WAR leaders with James Wood at +3.1, CJ Abrams at +2.7, MacKenzie Gore at +2.7. Add those up, and you get a total of +8.5 WAR. The issue is the large gap between those players and the next tier.
On defense, the OAA stats showed some improvement with a good defensive game yesterday. Jacob Young leads the team at +11, and CJ Abrams is on the opposite end at -9. That is actually quite the improvement over last year’s -18 for Abrams who is on pace to finish at -12.
These are your stats leaders on BBRef. There are certainly some surprises on there — good and not so good. The issue is the consistency on this team.
“It was really impressive.”
— Cairo said after yesterday’s game of Cavalli’s pitching
The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 4.94 and that places the starters at 3rd from last in MLB. The reliever’s ERA sits at a 5.86 and now the worst in baseball in ERA.
Here is how the starters rank by ERA:
No. 5 Starter: Cade Cavalli 3.86
No. 4 Starter: Mitchell Parker 5.43
No. 3 Starter: Brad Lord 3.28 (starting/relieving)
No. 2 Starter: Jake Irvin 4.90
No. 1 Starter: MacKenzie Gore 4.09
Washington Nationals vs. Kansas City Royals
Stadium: Kauffman Stadium, Kansas City, Missouri
1st Pitch: 7:40 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 182 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.
Line-up subject to change (without notice):
