Photo by Sol Tucker/TalkNats
The Washington Nationals enter this game with a chance to win and leave Atlanta with a .500 record along with a series win at the one-third mark of the season. The Nats have Foster Griffin on the mound in this getaway game as the Nats will head to Cleveland after this game. Of course the weather needs to cooperate with rain in the area.
What is impressive is the Nats Big-3, the L.A.W. firm of Lile, Abrams, and Wood have a combined +5.0 WAR going into this game. Add Jacob 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 +6.8.
The Nats placed Jake Irvin on the 15-day IL with a shoulder strain (said to be minor) with PJ Poulin getting called back up. Will it be Andrew Alvarez replacing Irvin or will the Nats use the Thursday day-off to skip Irvin’s spot and go with a 9-man bullpen?
Manager Blake Butera‘s bullpen usage looks like this 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: 4:10 PM EDT
TV: Nationals.TV
Radio: 106.7 The Fan radio and via the MLB app. On Sirius/XM, tune to Channel 184 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.
