Photo by Jake Stephens/TalkNats
The Washington Nationals are in third place, and that was made possible because both the Phillies and Mets are in horrific downward spirals this season. But the Nats are at their low-point of the season at 5-games under .500. Another self-inflicted loss last night. The Nats should have won the game running away, and once again bad base running, bad defense, and bad pitching turned a lead into a loss. The team is now a disappointing 2-5 in 1-run games.
Analysts feel that a team’s record in 1-run games is a reflection on the manager. But these are team wins and losses. No, it did not go well for Riley Cornelio in his debut game. His statline has an 18.0 BB/9 which is hard to do. His 9.00 ERA isn’t the worst on the team. But his blown save and loss in the same game will wake you up in the middle of the night thinking it was just a bad dream.
As it goes on the pitching carousel, Cornelio was optioned back last night, and the team will bring in a fresh arm for today’s game. The problem is with the 15-day option rule, that the only 40-man pitchers who are eligible to be called up are only Andre Granillo and Luis Perales. Well, Perales just pitched Thursday and threw 64 pitches in a 2-run outing. It won’t be him. Granillo was not good in his first stint with the Nats while his statline shows a terrible 2.538 WHIP and a 10.4 BB/9 to go with it. If not him, then who? It could be a DFA situation to make room for a newbie like Seth Shuman or another chance for someone like Trevor Gott. Those are names in Rochester Triple-A. What about Sandy Gaston at Double-A or Luke Young or Connor Van Scoyoc?
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 a few more weeks when the sample sizes get larger. The OAA defense stat is now giving us a picture of what the Nats have — and don’t have. We will start adding more statistics as the sample sizes get larger.
Washington Nationals vs. Chicago White Sox
Stadium: Rate Field, Chicago, Illinois
1st Pitch: 4:10 PM EDT
TV: Nationals.TV
Radio: 106.7 The Fan radio and via the MLB app. On Sirius/XM, tune to Channel 179 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.
