Photo by Jake Stephens/TalkNats
The Washington Nationals had Cade Cavalli on the mound last night for the first game in the series. Cavalli just didn’t have his swing-and-miss pitch, and the game as well as his defense just got away. Cavalli’s own fielding error led to three unearned runs. Those unearned runs made it 30 through the Nats’ 36th game. That is 0.83 free runs per game on average. The Nats lead baseball in the most unearned runs and lead MLB with 33 errors. The next closest team has 25 errors.
What the Nationals also need to do is start playing better with their home field advantage as the team is a very disappointing 4-13 at Nationals Park.
Tonight, it will be Miles Mikolas with the start. Brady House is back in the starting lineup and playing third base after two consecutive games on the bench. Drew Millas gets the start at catcher.
On the health of Luis Garcia Jr., he won’t start again today. The question is, why wasn’t he put on the 10-day IL that could have been backdated? He is considered day-to-day with a sore wrist.
The Nats did make several roster moves in the past 24 hours. Andre Granillo was optioned to Triple-A Rochester, Zak Kent was called up from Triple-A, and Jackson Rutledge was DFA’d to give Max Kranick a 40-man spot. Kranick was signed as a free agent and simultaneously put on the 15-day IL due to his recovery from an arm injury. Kranick’s deal includes a team option to potentially buy-out his second year of arbitration, and there is a third year of team control also.
Here is a quick look at the use and usage in the Nats’ 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.
Minnesota Twins 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 185 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.
