Photo by Sol Tucker/TalkNats
The Washington Nationals are in Atlanta for a weekend series. Weather could be a factor tonight. The Nats will go with Richard Lovelady as the opener, and then to Miles Mikolas with possibly long-man Mitchell Parker behind him. The Braves have Bryce Elder scheduled to start.
What is impressive is the Nats Big-3, the L.A.W. firm of Lile, Abrams, and Wood have a combined +4.6 WAR going into this game. Add Young who has only started 44 games this season, and his +1.0 WAR along with Keibert Ruiz‘s +0.8 gives them a combined +6.4.
Manager Blake Butera‘s bullpen is operating with three long-men and have Clayton Beeter back and that gives Butera options for the back of his bullpen. Beeter and Orlando Ribalta were the only two relievers needed yesterday with Andrew Alvarez covering Wednesday’s bullpen work. That has given the other four relievers at least two days off. Here is what the bullpen usage looks like going into today’s game:
The FanGraphs WAR chart is accumulating data. The numbers are getting very large as the season is nearly one-third completed. The OAA defense stat is now giving us a picture of what the Nats have — and don’t have.
Washington Nationals vs. Atlanta Braves
Stadium: Truist Park, Atlanta, Georgia
1st Pitch: 7:15 PM EDT
TV: Nationals.TV
Radio: 106.7 The Fan radio and via the MLB app. On Sirius/XM, tune to Channel 183 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.
