Photos by Marlene Koenig for TalkNats
The Washington Nationals were in a Saturday pitcher’s duel between the starting pitchers, and then the Nats got some hustle and clutch hitting from the combo of Dylan Crews and Robert Hassell III as they manufactured a run that broke the ice. And by the way, Crews broke up Bubba Chandler‘s perfect game in the 6th inning. But the Nats bullpen wasted Andrew Alvarez‘s 6-inning scoreless gem. The Nats took their 1-0 lead into the 8th inning and just couldn’t finish it off, and lost 5-1 after a bullpen implosion.
For those who forgot, Alvarez was only pitching because MacKenzie Gore had shoulder inflammation at the end of August. Alvarez has been great in his three MLB starts and lowered his ERA today to 1.15 (2 ER/15⅔ IP). Only Tanner Roark (0.95 ERA) produced a lower mark in his first three career starts in Nationals history.
With the Nats using a 6-man rotation that began on Thursday with MacKenzie Gore inserted into the rotation, it is Cade Cavalli pitching today in a morning start at 11:35am first pitch.
The Nationals have recalled Orlando Ribalta from Triple-A Rochester and placed Cole Henry on the 15-day Injured List with a back strain.
Including today’s game, there are 14-games and just two weeks remaining in this season, and 61-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 11-3 to get there — but let’s see how close this team can get to 70 wins. They still need two more wins to avoid the century mark in losses. That has to be the first hurdle to cross.
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— Interim manager Miguel Cairo said after yesterday’s game
You’re not going to be perfect all the time.
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The bullpen usage looks like this:
Here are your Nats’ WAR leaders with, CJ Abrams at +3.4, James Wood at +3.3, MacKenzie Gore at +2.9. 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 -9. 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.
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— Miguel Cairo said after yesterday’s game
The bullpen has been outstanding the last 3-4 weeks. Sometimes, you’re just not going to have it, and you’ve got to move on. Come back the [next day] and be good.
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The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 5.17 and that places the starters at 2nd from last in MLB. The reliever’s ERA sits at a 5.47 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 4.14
Pittsburgh Pirates vs. Washington Nationals
Stadium: Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.
1st Pitch: 11:35 AM 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 175 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.
