Photos by Sol Tucker for TalkNats
The Washington Nationals have a scheduled doubleheader for today just as a storm is moving up the east coast to wreak havoc in the Mid-Atlantic region. If the games get played, it is Jake Irvin on the mound for the first game followed by MacKenzie Gore for the nightcap.
Was anyone surprised last night that Mitchell Parker got rocked for six earned runs after he pitched into the 8th inning last week? Can anyone then explain why Parker was left in the game to pitch 103 in this one? Going into the 5th inning it was just a 2-1 game as Parker’s luck ran out, and his manager, Miguel Cairo, left him in to blow the game. Like history repeating itself, the other time Parker pitched into the 8th inning of a game — he gave up six earned runs in the next start. Different managers, same results.
By the way, who will end up the season with the higher OPS, Daylen Lile or James Wood? It just shows you how home runs are often overvalued when you see that Lile is ahead of Wood in SLG .470 to .467.
There are 12-games and less than two weeks remaining in this season, and 62-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 10-2 to get there — but let’s see how close this team can get to 70 wins. They still need one more win to avoid the dreaded 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
I know [Parker] goes out there and competes. He’s a competitor. [Monday] was just one of those days. He left everything up, and you cannot leave anything up against this team right there. They will make you pay.
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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 +2.9. Add those up, and you get a total of +9.3 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 -10. That is actually quite the improvement over last year’s -18 for Abrams who is on pace to finish at -11.
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 didn’t hit [Monday]. They just hit better than us [Monday]. They were better. They beat us.
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The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 5.21 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 4.76
No. 4 Starter: Mitchell Parker 5.85
No. 3 Starter: Brad Lord 4.20 (starting/relieving)
No. 2 Starter: Jake Irvin 5.70
No. 1 Starter: MacKenzie Gore 4.14
Atlanta Braves vs. Washington Nationals
Stadium: Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.
1st Pitch: 1:05 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 175 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.
