The Washington Nationals are back to .500 and after that 4-game losing streak — .500 feels like an accomplishment. A win by the Nats today would win the series and get Washington back over .500.
The Nats are set with Zack Littell as their bulk starter today. The bullpen had to do a lot of work even though Saturday’s starter, Foster Griffin pitched 7.0 innings last night. But the extra innings game forced manager Blake Butera to use four relievers to cover the final 3.0 innings last night.
❝I appreciate every time [Griffin’s] on the mound. We all have a ton of confidence in Foster. He pitches his tail off for us and leaves it all out there every single time.
… It goes a long way. Those guys know he’s over 100 pitches and is working his butt off against this tough lineup, and the fact that he wants to stay in the game and doesn’t want to come out speaks volumes.❞
— Butera said
On offense, the Nats are at the top of MLB for the most runs scored this season at 443 runs and that is an impressive 5.28 runs per game. With the Nats pitching giving up 4.70 earned runs per game, the difference is really those pesky unearned runs due to the errors. Overall, the Nats have a +9 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: 1:35 PM EDT TV: Nationals.TV Radio: 106.7 The Fan radio and via the MLB app. On Sirius/XM, tune to Channel 176 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.
