Photo by Kevin Nibley for TalkNats
The Washington Nationals have to win at least three games in this series in Miami to technically win this 4-game series. The Nats have won seven of their previous eight games, and the one pitcher they really need to step up is Jake Irvin who is on the mound for Washington tonight.
Before today’s game, manager Miguel Cairo announced that MacKenzie Gore would come off the 15-day IL tomorrow and start the game. The Nats, by rule, have to remove a pitcher from the active roster tomorrow and have not named that player.
The Nationals finished 37-53 (.411) under the prior management as of their firings on July 6. If the Nats can go at least 7-11 to finish this season, that would set interim-GM Mike DeBartolo and Cairo‘s record at 30-42 (.416) or better, and ahead of their predecessor’s marks. While that would still be a disappointing 67-95 record with a 7-11 finish, that is still much better than what looked like a lock for 100-losses a little over a week ago.
Including today’s game there are 18-games remaining in this season, and 60-wins in the books. How close can the Nats get to the 72 wins that Vegas set for their pre-season Over/Under? Probably won’t happen as they would have to go 12-6 to get there, however, that should be the goal.
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— Interim manager Miguel Cairo said after yesterday’s game
It’s not always going to be a masterpiece, but they battled. We got good at-bats. We scored [seven] runs. The most important thing is we got a W.
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The bullpen usage looks like this:
Here are your Nats’ WAR leaders with, CJ Abrams at +3.6, James Wood at +3.2, MacKenzie Gore at +2.8. Add those up, and you get a total of +9.6 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 -9.
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.
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— Miguel Cairo said after yesterday’s game
We’ve just got to keep going — and keep playing the way we’ve been playing.
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The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 5.23 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 4.67
No. 4 Starter: Mitchell Parker 5.69
No. 3 Starter: Brad Lord 4.20 (starting/relieving)
No. 2 Starter: Jake Irvin 5.71
No. 1 Starter: MacKenzie Gore 4.15
Washington Nationals vs. Miami Marlins
Stadium: loanDepot park, Miami, Florida
1st Pitch: 6:40 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 181 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.
Line-up subject to change (without notice):
