Photo by Intrepid for TalkNats
The Washington Nationals suffered through another Jake Irvin dud last night. He couldn’t overcome a 2-out double that just missed James Wood‘s glove and unraveled on the mound once again in a first inning. You have to wonder if interim-GM Mike DeBartolo will shutdown Irvin for the remainder of the season that only has him scheduled for four more starts.
Now the hope today is that Brad Lord finds his previous success and locks-in for this start at Wrigley Field. The Nats only have 22-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 7-15 or better to avoid 100-losses. A winning month of September should be the goal with about 3 weeks remaining on this 2025 season. How close can the Nats get to the 72 wins that Vegas set for their Over/Under?
With 5-runs given up in the first inning yesterday, it felt like Groundhog Day. The Nats lost 11-5 but certainly would have gone with a different bullpen configuration if the game was closer.
❝
— Interim manager Miguel Cairo said after yesterday’s game
I know [Irvin] is batting out there, and I know he’s giving it everything he’s got. We’ve just got to find a way that he can be more effective in those innings that go away from him. That’s our job as coaches.
❞
The bullpen usage looks like this:
Here are your Nats’ WAR leaders with, CJ Abrams at +3.3, James Wood at +3.1, MacKenzie Gore at +2.8. Add those up, and you get a total of +9.2 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 yesterday’s game
Get back at it.
❞
The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 5.31 and that places the starters at 2nd from last in MLB. The reliever’s ERA sits at a 5.37 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 5.71
No. 1 Starter: MacKenzie Gore 4.15
Washington Nationals vs. Chicago Cubs
Stadium: Wrigley Field, Chicago, Illinois
1st Pitch: 2:20 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 175 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.
Line-up subject to change (without notice):
