Lucas Giolito’s promising 1st start in the Major Leagues was interrupted by a lengthy rain delay as he only gave up 1 hit and no runs in that game, but Mother Nature cut his outing short at 4.0 innings. Now it is exactly 2 months to the day of his MLB debut, and Mike Rizzo and Dusty Baker want to get Giolito back on the mound.
There are complications here as Giolito did not go deep in the games in his next two starts, and we can only hope that the third time is the charm as this bullpen is taxed. It is quite possible that the Nationals will be forced to bring up a long-man today as Yusmeiro Petit will not be available as well as others.
The Nationals 3.16 bullpen ERA through August 20th was the best in the Majors. Since then, it has been 6.46 while allowing 7 home runs. Most of the recent problems is the work load has been extensive with night after night of starters who have not gone deep into games. Max Scherzer went 8 innings on Thursday to change that trend, but Gio Gonzalez and A.J. Cole were not able to go deep in the games the last two games and the Nationals used 4 relievers on Friday and yesterday the game went 11 innings straining the bullpen even further.
The Rockies will pitch righty Chad Bettis who the Nationals just faced.
Here are the Nats stats against Bettis:
Washington Nationals and Colorado Rockies
Stadium: Nats Park, Washington, DC
1st Pitch: 1:35 pm EDT
TV: MASN2, ROOT-Rockies, MLB.tv
Line-ups (subject to change without notice):
- Trea Turner CF
- Ben Revere LF
- Daniel Murphy 2B
- Bryce Harper RF
- Anthony Rendon 3B
- Wilson Ramos C
- Ryan Zimmerman 1B
- Danny Espinosa SS
- Lucas Giolito RHP
