Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats
The Washington Nationals have to win three games in this series in Miami to technically win this 4-game series. The Nats have won two of the three games in this series, and the finale is tonight. Yes, no getaway early start time for this game. As MASN’s Bob Carpenter said on-air, he expects a 3AM arrival back in D.C.
Before yesterday’s game, manager Miguel Cairo announced that MacKenzie Gore would come off the 15-day IL tomorrow and start tonight’s game. The Nats, by rule, had to remove a pitcher from the active roster and reliever Orlando Ribalta was optioned back to Triple-A Rochester.
The Nationals finished 37-53 (.411) under the prior management as of their firings on July 6. If the Nats can go at least 7-10 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 7-10 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 17-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 12-5 to get there, however, that should be the goal.
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— Interim manager Miguel Cairo said after yesterday’s game
Irvin was pitching really good, and I kind of feel bad for him because he was dealing. We could’ve been sharper.
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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 do the little things. We’ve got to make the routine plays, but they’ve been playing good. We’ve just got to come back tomorrow and win the game.
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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 5.41 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 5.70
No. 1 Starter: MacKenzie Gore 4.15
Washington Nationals vs. Miami Marlins
Stadium: loanDepot park, Miami, Florida
1st Pitch: 6:40 PM EDT
TV: MASN
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.
