No more excuses — just win! After manager Dave Martinez has faced the media following 57 losses this season, he’s becoming a regular on answering the media as to why the Nationals lost. We have heard a variety of reasons that are starting to sound like excuses like “they played hard” and “they played well”.
Yesterday, we heard that the team has to be “fundamentally better” but with over 70% of the regular season complete — shouldn’t they be fundamentally sound at this point in the season? According to Martinez, everyone was well aware of the “back pick” as the entire baseball world saw Game 5 of last year’s NLDS and most of the players were in the dugout when Jose Lobaton was caught like a deer in the headlights like Juan Soto was yesterday essentially ending another Nationals chance to win. “That’s just a young mistake,” said Martinez about the Soto pick-off. “We talked to Soto. He knew Willson [Contreras] is going to back-pick at any time.”
How can that happen? What was Tim Bogar doing at the time? This is why we see the Nationals lose so many one-run games with only winning 11-of-30 this season for a .367 winning percentage. The competition at the top of the NL East have been winners in one-run games. The Phillies are 20-of-31 (.645), and the Braves are 15-of-23 (.652). They say the best indicator of a manager is his record in one-run games.
We just found out that Anthony Rendon was scratched from the line-up today after his HBP on the hand/wrist area. That begs the question why he remained in the game. No wonder he went 0-3 yesterday.
Rendon scratched with hand/wrist pain after HBP yesterday. That begs the question, why did he remain in the game? He was 0-3.
New lineup: Eaton RF, Turner SS, Harper CF, Zimmerman 1B, Soto LF, Reynolds 3B, Murphy 2B, Wieters C, Roark RHP
— Talk Nats (@TalkNats) August 11, 2018
Today’s starting pitchers are Tanner Roark who grew-up nearby, and lefty Jon Lester for the Chicago Cubs.
Washington Nationals vs. Chicago Cubs
Stadium: Wrigley Field, Chicago, Illinois
1st Pitch: 4:05 pm EDT
TV: MASN; MLB.TV app out-of-network
Nats Radio: 106.7 The Fan and via the MLB app
Line-ups subject to change without notice:
- Adam Eaton RF
- Trea Turner SS
- Bryce Harper CF
- Ryan Zimmerman 1B
- Juan Soto LF
- Mark Reynolds 3B
- Daniel Murphy 2B
- Matt Wieters C
- Tanner Roark RHP
