Photo by Jake Stephens/TalkNats
The Washington Nationals first trip to Cincinnati in Daylen Lile‘s career proved to be powerful. He grew up about 90 miles away in Louisville, Kentucky. A trip up I-71 and across the Ohio River, and you’re there. In front of family and friends, Lile smashed two no-doubter homers and finished with three hits as he powered the Nats to a victory.
Tonight’s starting pitcher, Jake Irvin, will face the Reds lefty Nick Lodolo for the first time since they matched up in college on April 6, 2018 while Irvin was with Oklahoma and Lodolo was with TCU. It was the Oklahoma Sooners who won that game, 8-6, powered by two homers by Kyler Murray. Yes, that is the same Murray who did not sign after being drafted by the Oakland A’s at No. 9 overall in 2018, and he went into the NFL Draft as a quarterback.
It aligned well yesterday as the Nats were able to give extra time off for Mitchell Parker, Gus Varland, and Richard Lovelady as both Brad Lord and Paxton Schultz took most of the innings for the bullpen and Zak Kent finished the game. Here is a quick look at the use and usage in 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 even larger. The OAA defense stat is now giving us a picture of what the Nats have — and don’t have.
Washington Nationals vs. Cincinnati Reds
Stadium: Great American Ball Park, Cincinnati, Ohio
1st Pitch: 6:40 PM EDT
TV: Nationals.TV
Radio: 106.7 The Fan radio and via the MLB app. On Sirius/X, tune to Channel 178 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.
