The Nationals should have been looking to make this two wins in a row and now must fight to split this two game series with Stephen Strasburg facing Carlos Carrasco.
Stephen Drew heads to the 15 day DL with a bout of vertigo and Wilmer Difo the speedster replaces him on the roster.
We do not know if Papelbon is available to pitch today, and you would hope not as his velocity was done sharply, and seemed to have ‘dead arm’ aka fatigue while we hope he is not injured from over-use. It seems that Jonathan Papelbon will never say that he is not available. It is the manager’s job to know the difference with his players, and the same goes with Wilson Ramos who has caught an 18 inning game and both games of a doubleheader and is back for a noon game after a late night game. Don’t expect any of these players to ‘tap out’ as they are competitors, but these are not machines that can go seemingly forever with just a can of oil and some coolant.
As we have learned with Dusty Baker, it is what it is, and you cannot expect him to change after all these years. Baker came to the Nationals with a known resumé, and this is exactly what he did with his Cincinnati Reds team a few years ago. The only person who can step in is Baker’s boss, Mike Rizzo, who cannot ignore the failures of recent weeks where mistakes have mounted and wins have turned to losses. Last night was the latest example to tactical mistakes that began in the 7th inning of the game. Many of the problems though have to be put back on the players who have not executed.
Ryan Zimmerman’s offense and defense continues to be an issue, Bryce Harper’s high leverage at-bats have been compounding problems, and Danny Espinosa continues his struggles at the plate since July 4th.
Today is a new day as they say.
Here is the Nationals stats against Carrasco and the player who hit him best just got moved to the DL:
Here is Stephen Strasburg’s stats against the Indians:
Washington Nationals and Cleveland Indians
Stadium: Progressive Field, Cleveland Ohio
1st Pitch: 12:10 pm EDT
TV: MASN, Sports Time Ohio, MLB.tv
Line-ups (subject to change without notice):
- Trea Turner CF
- Bryce Harper RF
- Daniel Murphy 2B
- Wilson Ramos C
- Jayson Werth DH
- Anthony Rendon 3B
- Ryan Zimmerman 1B
- Danny Espinosa SS
- Ben Revere LF
Stephen Strasburg RHP
