The Washington Nationals faced a hot pitcher last night while having a cold pitcher on the mound. The Nats defense was terrible and the clutch hitting was even worse. The result was a 15-1 loss. That’s ok, the Nats can win the series today and take a happy flight to Colorado.
For the Nats, they have their All-Star pitcher, Foster Griffin, on the mound. Hopefully he can pitch as effective or better than the outing that Cade Cavalli had on Friday. Griffin was incredible in his 1-inning of work on Tuesday in the All-Star game while pitching a perfect inning with two strikeouts.
The Lerner ownership group has a golden opportunity after today's game with Foster Griffin to extend him on a 3-year deal. Both sides have risk given his age and based on 3.5 months of MLB success. We wrote about the 5 ways this could go with Griffin:https://t.co/eMH4t0W8AE
The Nats made three roster moves today. They re-signed reliever Matt Krook and placed PJ Poulin on the 15-Day Injured List (retroactive to 7/16) with a left flexor strain. To clear a roster spot on the 40-man, the team transferred Richard Lovelady to the 60-Day Injured List. Krook was released last week and opted for free agency.
❝We talk through all these different strategies depending on who we’re facing, what the lineup looks like, who’s available in the bullpen — all these different things. Obviously, the first inning did not go [Zack Littell‘s] way, so it’s something we’ll consider next time, for sure.❞
On offense, the Nats have the 1st in MLB for the most runs scored this season at 540 runs, and that is an impressive 5.45 runs per game. With the Nats pitching giving up 4.85 earned runs per game, the difference is really those pesky unearned runs due to the errors. Overall, the Nats have a +12 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. Sacramento Athletics
Stadium: Sutter Health Park, West Sacramento, California 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 185 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.
