Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats
The Washington Nationals won another 1-run game; a strength of this team in the 2025 season. Their 24-18 record shows what they can do in close games. It is the 44 blow-out losses against only 16 blow-out wins as the reason this team has a losing record. That happens when you have a pitching staff that easily clinched the second worst ERA in all of baseball.
If the Nats win today to finish the season, they would go 30-42 (.416) under Mike DeBartolo/Miguel Cairo which is a better winning percentage than the 37-53 (.411) under Mike Rizzo/Davey Martinez. That would still be a disappointing 67-95 overall — but better than the outlook in July.
This is expected to be interim-manager Miguel Cairo‘s final game as the skipper of the Nationals. Expect more changes to come.
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— Cairo said after yesterday’s game
It’s going to be nice to see them next year, because it’s going to be a force.
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The bullpen usage looks like this:
Here are your Nats’ WAR leaders with, James Wood at +3.3, CJ Abrams 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 -11. 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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— Interim-manager Miguel Cairo said after yesterday’s game
Heck, yeah, it’s nice to see these guys, the work they’ve put in every single day, and still doing it at the end of the season. It tells you what they are, and what they’re going to be about.
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The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 5.15 and that places the starters at 2nd from last in MLB. The reliever’s ERA sits at a 5.59 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 5.70
No. 1 Starter: MacKenzie Gore 4.17
Chicago White Sox vs. Washington Nationals
Stadium: Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.
1st Pitch: 3:05 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 180 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.
