It’s as if we just rewatched the Nats beat Bumgarner again in a 1-0 game on a Wilson Ramos home run and a Tanner Roark gem. The only thing missing was no Web Gem from Ben Revere.
There were a few hundred Mets fans in attendance today at Nats Park that are self-named as the 7 Line Army who were very boisterous to start the game, and Tanner Roark and Wilson Ramos gave them nothing to cheer about as they were sent back to Queens, New York dejected with a tough 1-0 loss.
Chris Speier did a good job of managing in Dusty Baker‘s absence. Of note, he had the bullpen up and warming in the 7th inning as Tanner Roark got to 90 pitches. As it turned out, Roark breezed through the 7th inning, and Speier did not push it any further and went to the bullpen to start the 8th inning. Speier confessed in his post-game presser that he made a mistake in positioning in the 1st inning that allowed Asdrubal Cabrera to get a single.
Speaking of the bullpen, Blake Treinen was excellent in the 8th inning as he had to face the top of the Mets line-up and struck out Jose Reyes and Asdrubal Cabrera who were both batting left-handed adding to how improved Treinen now is against left-handed batters. With 2 outs, Treinen then threw a 97.3 mph power sinker to Yoenis Cespedes and got him to roll over a weak grounder for the 3rd out of the inning. Mark Melancon threw a 1-2-3 9th inning for his 12th save for the Nationals in 12 appearances. It was Melancon’s 5th appearance in 6 days and Chris Speier said it was Mike Maddux‘s call that Melancon was up to the task and he was.
Wilson Ramos was the star of the offense as he hit the solo home run in the 7th inning to reinforce our stat of the morning of the “Late & Close” stat. Just another game winning RBI for the Buffalo. Trea Turner had 2 of the Nationals 6 hits in the game, and it was Turner’s 29th multi-hit game in just his 54th start of the season.
Blake Treinen has improved greatly against left-handed batters, and the batting averages against are now almost identical versus right-handed batters (.219/.218), and the only remaining issue is his walks to left-handed batters needs to be reduced as his OBP splits are (.384/.293).
Tanner Roark has now thrown 9 games this season where he has shutout his opponent for the first 7 innings of the game which leads the Majors. Roark lowered his ERA to 2.75, and his pitching record is now 15-8. Roark is now 5th in the Majors for the ERA leaders, and he lowered his lifetime ERA to 2.99.
Here is some math: The Nationals improved to a record of 87-59 and matched their season’s best 28 games over .500 with a Magic Number of 7. The team has 16 games remaining on the schedule. The 2012 Nationals still hold the best record, and they were 89-57 at this same point in the season and finished with 98 wins that season.
