Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats
The Washington Nationals were in last night’s game until the end. The score was tied 1-1 at the top of the 6th inning. Interim-manager Miguel Cairo shoved starter Brad Lord for one more inning to face the hot Braves’ lineup for a third time, and he quickly gave up a homer. Sure, two runs over 6.0 innings is good — but with a 10-man bullpen, why not see what your bullpen could do. The Nats lost 3-2.
Maybe the most significant part of last night’s game was that this had to be the best we have seen of James Wood in months. He started his night with a double then in his next at-bat he sprinted to first base on a groundout and was out by one stride, and in his final at-bat, Wood hit a homer off of a lefty reliever. He had one walk, and no strikeouts in the game. The 6’7″ lefty looked like our All-Star we fell in love with in the first half of the season.
Whatever clicked in for Wood — you hope it continues for the final four games. There are a few other of Wood’s teammates who need great finishes to their seasons. Yesterday was the first base debut for Luis Garcia Jr. who played well and was challenged with one scoop on a low throw and he nailed it. Baseball will test you in many ways.
In this Atlanta finale, it will be the final start of the debut season for Andrew Alvarez. This afternoon game will put the lefty up against a lineup that the Braves will overload with right-handed batters.
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— James Wood said after yesterday’s game
It would have been nice to get the win, but it felt good. I’ve been talking to a lot of teammates just trying to find out what type of adjustments to make. So it’s kind of good to see. I mean, I feel like I’ve tried everything. So it felt good to see some of them work.
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The bullpen usage looks like this:
Here are your Nats’ WAR leaders with, CJ Abrams at +3.2, James Wood at +3.1, and MacKenzie Gore at +2.9. 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 +14, 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 -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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— Interim-manager Miguel Cairo said after yesterday’s game
[Lord] was good. He was throwing. Just a couple of fastballs that he left over the plate, but he was dealing. He pitched good. He threw a good fastball, a good slider, and good changeups. He was attacking the zone. That’s Lord right there.
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The Nats finished 37-53 (.411) under Mike Rizzo/Davey Martinez, and you are correct, if the Nationals go at worst 3-1 to finish the season, they would go 30-42 (.416) under Mike DeBartolo/Miguel Cairo. That would still be a disappointing 67-95. And that is still 5-wins under the pre-season Vegas odds. It sure would be nice to win tonight in Atlanta.
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 5.61 and now the worst in baseball in ERA.
Here is how the starters rank by ERA:
No. 5 Starter: Andrew Alvarez 2.84
No. 4 Starter: Cade Cavalli 4.23
No. 3 Starter: Brad Lord 4.12 (starting/relieving)
No. 2 Starter: Jake Irvin 5.69
No. 1 Starter: MacKenzie Gore 4.17
Washington Nationals vs. Atlanta Braves
Stadium: Truist Park, Atlanta, Georgia
1st Pitch: 12:15 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.
