The Washington Nationals got an ace of aces start by Jake Irvin to rest the bullpen and secure a Curly W yesterday. Tonight, the Nats hope is on Patrick Corbin to set the tone in this series as Cardinals are in for the weekend for a four game wrap-around series to conclude on Monday.
The Nationals made three roster moves and sent the struggling Joey Meneses to Triple-A and brought up Juan Yepez, the former St. Louis Cardinals player, from Triple-A. Because Yepez was not on the 40-man roster, general manager Mike Rizzo cleared a spot by moving Josiah Gray to the 60-day IL. Yepez had a good rookie season in 2022 for the Cardinals with a .742 OPS — but struggled in a small sample size of just 60 at-bats in 2023 and the Cardinals DFA’d the 26 year old. Coincidentally, Yepez was acquired by the Cardinals in a trade for Matt Adams in 2017.
After manager Dave Martinez used Kyle Finnegan, Hunter Harvey, and Robert Garcia in 3-games in a row on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, the team had to go to the other five relievers, and when Irvin pitched 8.0 innings, it was Derek Law who put up a quick 1-2-3 inning thanks to great defense behind him. Everyone but Law got the day-off, and you hope to rest the lefty Robert Garcia who has thrown 51 pitches in that 3-game span, and 40 pitches on Tuesday and Wednesday. Tanner Rainey wasn’t used at all in the 4-game Mets series, and Jordan Weems just once.
The Nationals are betting underdogs today, at +135 to win on the moneyline. That means if you bet $100 you would win $135. Bet $10 and you win $13.50. Even with Sonny Gray going for the Cardinals, the money isn’t robust for the Cardinals. This line might move closer to game time.
By the way, there are no more days-off going forward until the All-Star break, and this is another 17-games in a row marathon that the Nats just started a week ago on Friday. If there are no rain-outs affecting games, the team is set to play 97-games before the All-Star break, and that would leave just 65-games after the All-Star break.
Here is what the rotation could look like:
- Friday: Patrick Corbin vs. Cardinals
- Saturday: MacKenzie Gore vs. Cardinals
- Sunday: DJ Herz vs. Cardinals
- Monday: Mitchell Parker vs. Cardinals
- Tuesday: Jake Irvin vs. Mets
- Wednesday: Corbin vs. Mets
- Thursday: Gore vs. Mets
- Friday: Herz vs. Brewers
- Saturday: Parker vs. Brewers (All-Star Futures’ Game)
- Sunday: Irvin vs. Brewers (MLB Draft)
- All-Star Break (HR Derby)
- All-Star Break (All-Star Game)
- All-Star Break
- All-Star Break
- Friday: TBA vs. Brewers – July 19
Your top Washington Nationals on the FanGraphs’ WAR leaderboard has Jake Irvin and MacKenzie Gore tied at +2.2 WAR with the top position players, CJ Abrams is at +2.0 and Jacob Young at +1.8. In total, 24 Nats’ players are in positive WAR and another five are at a neutral 0.0 WAR.
“That was unbelievable, it really was. We definitely needed that.”
— Nats’ manager Davey Martinez said after yesterday’s game
The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 3.85 and 11th in MLB. The Nats are 9 points from being a Top-10 starting rotation by ERA. Look at those rankings of teams.
Here is how they rank:
No. 5 Starter: Patrick Corbin 5.49
No. 4 Starter: DJ Herz 4.67
No. 3 Starter: Mitchell Parker 3.61
No. 2 Starter: MacKenzie Gore 3.47
No. 1 Starter: Jake Irvin 2.80
Washington Nationals vs. St. Louis Cardinals
Stadium: Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.
1st Pitch: 6:45 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 177 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 88:
The Nationals won on 07/06at home against the Marlins resulting in a record of 46-42. They won’t drop below .500 the rest of the season. But you knew this already. Box Score / Standings
The Senators won on 07/20 at home against the St. Louis Browns resulting in a record of 49-39. Box Score / Standings
