The Washington Nationals had an offensive explosion last night in Colorado. A much-needed win for the Nats to get them back on track. Tonight, it is Mitchell Parker‘s turn to take the mound, and he hopes to improve on his previous start.
Manager Dave Martinez got 5 1/3 innings from his bullpen yesterday with Robert Garcia and Dylan Floro throwing 2.0 innings combined for the “A” bullpen. Both Hunter Harvey and Kyle Finnegan got the night off. Derek Law went 1 1/3 key innings, and Tanner Rainey pitched 2.0 perfect innings with 2 Ks. Both Jacob Barnes and Jordan Weems got the night off.
Last night, Cade Cavalli pitched a 3.0 inning no-hit appearance for Wilmington High-A to get back on-track. That gives Cavalli a base to build on for his next start coming up.
Here’s what we think the starting rotation could look like going forward without Gray, Williams, and Cavalli:
- Saturday: Mitchell Parker vs. Rockies
- Sunday: Jake Irvin vs. Rockies
- Monday: Patrick Corbin vs. Padres
- Tuesday: MacKenzie Gore vs. Padres (Josiah Gray pitches in Triple-A)
- Wednesday: DJ Herz vs. Padres (Cade Cavalli rehab start)
- Thursday: Day-off June 27
- Friday: Parker vs. Rays
- Saturday: Irvin vs. Rays
- Sunday: Corbin vs. Rays
- Monday: Gore vs. Mets
- Tuesday: Herz vs. Mets
- Wednesday: Parker vs. Mets
- Thursday: Irvin vs. Mets – July 4
- Friday: Corbin vs. Cardinals
- Saturday: Gore vs. Cardinals
- Sunday: Herz vs. Cardinals
Your top Washington Nationals on the FanGraphs’ WAR leaderboard has MacKenzie Gore at +2.1, and Jake Irvin with a +1.7 WAR. Trevor Williams is at +1.7 WAR, and Jacob Young has the top spot with +1.3 for position players with CJ Abrams right behind him at +1.2 WAR. Mitchell Parker is at the +1.3 mark. In total, 23 Nats’ players are in positive WAR and another five are at a neutral 0.0 WAR. Eddie Rosario dropped to -1.0 WAR and Keibert Ruiz is at -1.1 WAR. Kyle Finnegan is back into positive WAR.
“I think I mentioned earlier about pitching here [in Colorado]. For starters, it’s tough. When you go out and throw 25-30 pitches in an inning, you get exhausted.”
— manager Dave Martinez said after yesterday’s game
The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 3.87 and 14th in MLB. The Nats are 11 points from being a Top-10 starting rotation by ERA. Look at those rankings of teams.
Here is how they rank, and if we insert DJ Herz, he would be ahead of Patrick Corbin at a 4.50 ERA:
No. 5 Starter: Patrick Corbin 5.60
No. 4 Starter: MacKenzie Gore 3.49
No. 3 Starter: Jake Irvin 3.24
No. 2 Starter: Mitchell Parker 3.06
No. 1 Starter: Trevor Williams 2.22
Washington Nationals vs. Colorado Rockies
Stadium: Coors Field, Denver, Colorado
1st Pitch: 9:10 pm EDT
TV: MASN
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, tune to Channel 89 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.
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 76:
The Nationals lost on 06/22 at home against the Braves resulting in a record of 37-39. But you knew this already. Box Score / Standings
The Senators won on 07/9 at home against the Tigers resulting in a record of 43-33. Box Score / Standings
