Photo by Andrew Lang for TalkNats
The Washington Nationals played great and poor in the same game last night. A great effort wiped out by four errors and five unearned runs given up that made it a frustrating loss that wasted a three home run performance by Luis Garcia Jr. That was a feat that has only been done seven times before in Nats’ history. Add to that, Daylen Lile hit a game-tying 3-run homer to bring the Nats back from a 8-1 deficit. Unfortunately, Jose A. Ferrer blew his first 9th inning as the closer, and the Nats lost 10-9.
Defense matters and in this game, the defense cost the Nats a win that would have been the best comeback of the season. In one game, you saw the best and worst of the Nats. Garcia showed everyone why he should be a part of the future — albeit, maybe not at second base where he has struggled on defense.
This game will be the final start of this season for Jake Irvin. And the White Sox will have Sean Burke, a local product from the University of Maryland, on the the mound.
Read these words from interim-manager Miguel Cairo, and you would have thought his team won. How is “losing” awesome?
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— Cairo said after yesterday’s game
It was awesome. The boys keep coming back. … They’re fighting to the end, and that’s what you’re looking for. There’s no giving up.
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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 +3.2, and MacKenzie Gore at +2.9. Add those up, and you get a total of +9.4 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
Tomorrow is a new day.
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The Nats finished 37-53 (.411) under Mike Rizzo/Davey Martinez, and if the Nationals go 2-0 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.
The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 5.14 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 2.31
No. 4 Starter: Cade Cavalli 4.25
No. 3 Starter: Brad Lord 4.12 (starting/relieving)
No. 2 Starter: Jake Irvin 5.69
No. 1 Starter: MacKenzie Gore 4.17
Chicago White Sox vs. Washington Nationals
Stadium: Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.
1st Pitch: 4:45 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 179 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.
