The Washington Nationals are mired in a 4-game losing streak. It’s unfortunate. Of course, last night the bullpen pitched great with Brad Lord and Zak Kent — and it was the offense that didn’t do their job as they scored just 1-run en route to a 4-1 loss.
The Nats will pin their hopes on Foster Griffin tonight to be the stopper. He’s been that guy so often this season. And you hope that manager Blake Butera has a better plan than last night. The best hit of the game was delivered by Jacob Young who hit a liner off the top of the wall in left-center field and scored the lone run — yet, once again, Butera pulled him for Jose Tena that ended in a weak pop-up. It feels like Groundhog Day watching a hot hitter pulled and then weakening the defense after the player is pulled. Don’t make moves for the sake of making moves.
❝[Pitchers] have to attack. You have to throw strikes. If we’re afraid to do so, we will keep giving the next guy an opportunity until someone steps up, and shows they want the ball and ready to go attack. … The 7th, 8th, 9th, those are big innings. … There’s no excuse. … We need someone to step up. … My job is to continue to put our guys in positions to do the best they can. … When we’re walking guys late in the game, it’s not going to set ourselves up for success.❞
— Butera said in his Thursday night postgame presser
On offense, the Nats are at the top of MLB for the most runs scored this season at 439 runs and that is an impressive 5.29 runs per game. With the Nats pitching giving up 4.74 earned runs per game, the difference is really those pesky unearned runs due to the errors. Overall, the Nats have a +5 run differential on the season.
The FanGraphs WAR chart is now large in its sample size. You can certainly start to extrapolate the numbers for the full-season. The OAA defense stat is now giving us a picture of what the Nats have — and don’t have.
Washington Nationals vs. Baltimore Orioles
Stadium: Orioles Park at Camden Yards, Baltimore, Maryland 1st Pitch: 7:05 PM EDT TV: Nationals.TV Radio: 106.7 The Fan radio and via the MLB app. On Sirius/XM, tune to Channel 182 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.
