Photo by Jake Stephens/TalkNats
The Washington Nationals came out flat yesterday on offense. Managing only three hits, two walks, and two HBPs, CJ Abrams was 4/7ths of the offense yesterday. He is now the third most valuable position player in baseball per FanGraphs at a +1.2 WAR. The only thing holding him back is his defense. In the first inning, he had a brain freeze with two outs and hesitated to get the force and second base — and that hesitation allow the baserunner to beat his throw to first base — scoring the runner from third base. A huge run in a final score of 2-0.
But let’s be real here, with Jacob Young getting a day-off, and James Wood narrowly missing two home runs, who else is stepping up? Joey Wiemer is batting .154 since March 31, the catchers are batting below their weight, Brady House has 0-fers in 8-of-17 games which is a real consistency issue, and Daylen Lile is batting .196 after April 1. And don’t forget about Nasim Nunez who thinks he’s a home run hitter. He’s batting .208 with just one extra-base hit, a double.
So yes, consistency is the name of the game here. Abrams and Wood have been carrying the offense with some cast members chipping in for different games. But it feels like Wiemer has turned into a pumpkin, and Lile and House are hit-or-miss with too much “miss” recently. And I’ve said it before that Nunez is channeling Wilmer Difo — and that’s not a good thing. If they can play to their strengths, the team wins. The team doesn’t need everyone to be a hero. They need team players willing to take their walks and move the line.
The Nats must get a win today to leave Pittsburgh with a split in this 4-game series. The Nats have Foster Griffin on the mound for this afternoon finale against the Pirates. The team will fly back to Washington, D.C. later this afternoon ahead of a weekend series against the Giants.
With Brad Lord covering the team as a tandem starter yesterday, the rest of the bullpen got to rest. That was huge given the workload on Mitchell Parker and PJ Poulin. Here is a chart of usage on manager Blake 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.
Washington Nationals vs. Pittsburgh Pirates
Stadium: PNC Park, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
1st Pitch: 12:35 PM EDT
TV: Nationals.TV
Radio: 106.7 The Fan radio and via the MLB app. On Sirius/XM, tune to Channel 175 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.
