The Washington Nationals suffered their 26ᵗʰ blown save last night, and this one was the dreaded blown save coupled with a loss. Manager Blake Butera wanted a lefty to face a lefty but none of that matters if that lefty pitcher isn’t good and that was the issue in the loss as Matt Krook missed his location, and the ball was hammered for the game-losing two-run homer.
Miles Mikolas still has not heard on his appeal of his suspension in the fracas in Boston last week, and he is scheduled to be the bulk starter in today’s game after PJ Poulin starts the game as an opener. Cade Cavalli completes his suspension after today’s game, and he is scheduled to pitch tomorrow in the finale before the All-Star break. Today’s challenge is facing one of the best pitchers in baseball as the Yankees have Cam Schlittler pitching today.
❝The main reason is just because of what was coming up. Especially with Domínguez and Chisholm much better against right-handers. Historically, [Chisholm] is a lot better against righties than he is lefties, and then he hits a home run against us and you’re sitting here wondering if that was the right thing to do. Krook was slightly better against Domínguez. He’s slightly better against righties than PJ is. So that was the thought, just with Domínguez there in the middle of those three.❞
On offense, the Nats have the 1st in MLB for the most runs scored this season at 511 runs, and that is an impressive 5.38 runs per game. With the Nats pitching giving up 4.76 earned runs per game, the difference is really those pesky unearned runs due to the errors. Overall, the Nats have a +11 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.
New York Yankees vs. Washington Nationals
Stadium: Nationals Park, Washington, D.C. 1st Pitch: 4:05 PM EDT TV: Nationals.TV Radio: 106.7 The Fan radio and via the MLB app. On Sirius/XM, tune to Channel 179 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.
