Photo by Andrew Lang/TalkNats
The Washington Nationals had another blown save turn into a loss, the third of that kind of the season. The 4-7 Nats could easily be 7-4 if they converted those games to victories. Just when you didn’t think it could get worse than 2025, this new bullpen lacks steady heartbeats. Look how they did in non-save situations they have a 5.29 ERA versus a 9.00 ERA in save situations. OK, 5.29 isn’t great due to Andre Granillo‘s 12.46, and he is off the roster.
Even with the bullpen woes, the Nats have good starts from everyone not named Miles Mikolas who happens to be the starter today against the team he was a star for in St. Louis.
The Nats offense once again scored at least 5-runs in a game yesterday, and have done that in 9-of-11 games so far this season. The Nats are 2nd in baseball with the most home runs (16) and 3rd with the most runs scored. The team is 4th in on-base percentage at .351. The Nats are doing this with a .545 OPS from the catcher position which is 7th worst in baseball.
One player who is stepping up on the offense is James Wood who has homered in three straight games plus some great defense. Wood’s WAR is now up to +0.2. Last week he was at a -0.4. Joey Wiemer‘s hot first week has kept him at the top of the production charts at a +0.8 WAR, and the hot CJ Abrams is just under him at +0.7.
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: 4:05 PM EDT
TV: Nationals.TV
Radio: 106.7 The Fan radio and via the MLB app. On Sirius/XM, tune to Channel 89 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.
