Photo by Andrew Lang/TalkNats
The Washington Nationals showed hustle, grit, and teamwork yesterday to mount one of the best comeback wins in a long time. They did to the Cardinals what the Dodgers just did to the Nats over the weekend. All the players seemed engaged, and every position player contributed in this game. Starting pitcher Zack Littell had a very good start for his team, and the Nats send Cade Cavalli to the mound for his first start at home this season.
Manager Blake Butera‘s promise that his players would run a Hard-90 might have finally sunk-in as CJ Abrams made hard contact and immediately ran out of the box in what turned out to be a home run. And James Wood was running hard on defense and offense for his best defensive play of his career — and later Wood added another 3-run homer.
The team had two roster moves, Andre Granillo was sent to Triple-A Rochester, and Paxton Schultz was taken off the 15-day IL and activated. This gives Butera another fresh arm. So far, the entire bullpen has been inconsistent and overall they have not been good. Most felt that Paul Toboni could build a better bullpen than his predecessor, Mike Rizzo. Well, the bullpen has blown two wins with large leads and almost blew another yesterday until they were rescued by the Nats’ offense.
In 10-games, the reliever ERA is an horrific 6.34 with a 1.705 WHIP. Cionel Perez (14.73 ERA/2.455 WHIP) has the worst numbers, but he got a second chance (or was that his fifth chance) last night and closed out the game without allowing a run. Ken Waldichuk has a 7.o4 ERA and a 1.565 WHIP, and he has to be on thin ice. Granillo certainly had five chances and had to go. Are you surprised that Toboni didn’t send Waldichuk out for Mitchell Parker?
On some positive defensive news, CJ Abrams got himself back to league average fielding on the OAA stat. Compared to last year, that’s a large improvement. You know who else is fielding at league average? Daylen Lile is, and that is improvement for him over last year. Luis Garcia Jr. is close to league average at 1st base right now. The team just has to get Brady House to make some better throws, and James Wood has looked improved on defense the past few days. Unfortunately Statcast doesn’t adjust for catch difficulty at walls so yesterday’s amazing catch by Wood didn’t change his OAA rating at -2.0.
Here is a chart of usage on manager Butera‘s bullpen:
The FanGraphs WAR chart is accumulating data. This will start to give us a clearer picture in six weeks when the sample sizes get larger. The OAA defense stat requires a minimum of 10 defensive plays. We will start adding more statistics as the sample sizes get larger.
St. Louis Cardinals vs. Washington Nationals
Stadium: Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.
1st Pitch: 6:45 PM EDT
TV: Nationals.TV
Radio: 106.7 The Fan radio and via the MLB app. On Sirius/XM, tune to Channel 180 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.
