Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats
The Washington Nationals have a weekend series in Wrigley Field, and it is starter Jake Irvin‘s turn to keep the Nats’ modest 3-game winning streak moving forward. We will see if Irvin is up to the task to follow what Andrew Alvarez, Cade Cavalli, and Mitchell Parker accomplished in their turns in the rotation this week.
With today’s game, there are just 23-games remaining in this season and just seven series. The Nats only have 56-wins at this point in the season, and now must go 7-16 or better to avoid 100-losses. A winning month of September should be the goal with less than four weeks remaining on this 2025 season. How close can the Nats get to the 72 wins that Vegas set for their Over/Under?
This team goes as James Wood goes. The team is 31-17 when Wood has an RBI. If you think that is an obvious stat, why would the Nats be 17-25 when Abrams has an RBI in a game? Now if Abrams has two or more RBIs in a game, the Nats are 7-2.
❝
— Interim manager Miguel Cairo said after Wednesday’s game
They’re doing everything they’re supposed to do to win a ballgame. Pitching, defense, hitting. It’s teamwork. They’re fighters.
❞
The bullpen usage looks like this:
Here are your Nats’ WAR leaders with James Wood at +3.3, CJ Abrams at +3.3, MacKenzie Gore at +2.8. Add those up, and you get a total of +9.4 WAR. The issue is the large gap between those players and the next tier, and of course the negative tier after them of which many of those players are off the roster.
On defense, the OAA stats showed some improvement with a good defensive game yesterday. Jacob Young leads the team at +13, and CJ Abrams is on the opposite end at -8. That is actually quite the improvement over last year’s -18 for Abrams who is on pace to finish at -10.
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.
❝
— Miguel Cairo said after Wednesday’s game
We lost eight in a row, and they didn’t give up. We talk about finishing the season strong — and so far (Cairo tapped his head) … September has been good.
❞
The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 5.24 and that places the starters at 2nd from last in MLB. The reliever’s ERA sits at a 5.35 and now the worst in baseball in ERA.
Here is how the starters rank by ERA:
No. 5 Starter: Cade Cavalli 4.85
No. 4 Starter: Mitchell Parker 5.87
No. 3 Starter: Brad Lord 4.34 (starting/relieving)
No. 2 Starter: Jake Irvin 5.42
No. 1 Starter: MacKenzie Gore 4.15
Washington Nationals vs. Chicago Cubs
Stadium: Wrigley Field, Chicago, Illinois
1st Pitch: 2:20 PM EDT
TV: Apple + TV
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 89 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.
Line-up subject to change (without notice):
