The Washington Nationals are back home after a very successful 5-2 road trip. The team is bobbing and weaving by the .500 level, and at 15-16 it won’t be easy as the team will face the Blue Jays best two pitchers tonight and tomorrow while the Nats send the struggling Patrick Corbin (0-3, 6.82 ERA) to the mound this evening.
With a lefty on the mound tonight, expect manager Dave Martinez to stack his lineup with right-handed bats. Will this be a day-off for lefty Jesse Winker who has started every game this season except on April 3. With this being the 11th consecutive game with no days-off, Winker and Abrams have started every game. Expect Abrams the team’s top player in there. He might be the only lefty in the starting lineup. Also, at three hours before first pitch, are the Nats making any roster moves today?
Here’s what we think the schedule could look like going forward:
- Friday: Patrick Corbin vs. Toronto
- Saturday: Jake Irvin vs. Toronto
- Sunday: MacKenzie Gore vs. Toronto
- Monday: Day-off May 6
- Tuesday: Trevor Williams vs. Orioles
- Wednesday: Mitchell Parker vs. Orioles
- Thursday: Day-off May 9
- Friday: Corbin vs. Red Sox
- Saturday: Irvin vs. Red Sox
- Sunday: Gore vs. Red Sox
- Monday: Williams vs. White Sox
- Tuesday: Parker vs. White Sox
- Wednesday: Corbin vs. White Sox
- Thursday: Day-off May 16
Your top Washington Nationals on the FanGraphs’ WAR leaderboard has CJ Abrams at the top at a +1.2 WAR followed by MacKenzie Gore and Trevor Williams at +0.9. Hunter Harvey and Mitchell Parker are at +0.8 WAR, and Jake Irvin at +0.7. In total, 21 Nats’ players are in positive WAR and another five at a neutral 0.0 WAR.
“We’ve got to start working better at-bats. Start seeing a little bit more pitches. We’re going up there, and it’s swing, swing, swing, swing. We’ve got to start working counts a little better.”
— manager Dave Martinez said in Texas
The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 4.40 and tied for 22nd in MLB. Obviously the sample sizes are still small at this point considering we are just under the 20 percent completion mark in the season. The Nats have been slowly moving up in the rankings. At this point in the season, the ERA movement is in smaller increments due to the total innings increasing well over triple-digits.
Here is how they rank:
No. 5 Starter: Patrick Corbin 6.82
No. 4 Starter: Jake Irvin 4.28
No. 3 Starter: MacKenzie Gore 3.19
No. 2 Starter: Mitchell Parker 2.53
No. 1 Starter: Trevor Williams 2.27
Toronto Blue Jays vs. Washington Nationals
Stadium: Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.
1st Pitch: 6:45 pm EDT
TV: APPLE TV+
Radio: 106.7 The Fan radio and via the MLB app; In Spanish on DC 87.7 FM and La Pantera 100.7 FM/1220 AM. On Sirius/XM, the Nats will be on Channel 179, and the opposing team on only online.
Line-up subject to change (without notice):
TalkNats is Celebrating the 5 and 100 year anniversaries of World Series Wins by providing Game-by-Game Summaries.
Game 32:
The Nationals won on 05/04 on the road resulting in a record of 14-18 in a good Patrick Corbin start. The Nats bats came alive and had home runs by Victor Robles, Kurt Suzuki, and Brian Dozier. Box Score / Standings
The Senators won on 05/28 at home against the NY Yankees resulting in a record of 14-18. Box Score / Standings
