Dave Martinez and his original coaching staff in 2018; (Photo by Andrew Lang for TalkNats)
The schedule for Dave Martinez’s managerial debut posted him in Cincinnati, Ohio to begin his managerial career in 2018. Maybe that was a positive for him because his Washington Nationals dominated and swept the Reds in a 3-game series to begin his career. By Martinez’s fourth career game his team was 4-0 with a +16 run differential. This season seems to be the opposite for Dave Martinez. It has been a struggle from the first game of the season.
Like the Nationals, the Reds roster looks different from last year’s. The Reds have added Derek Dietrich and Yasiel Puig. and others. The Puig acquisition was a salary dump by the Dodgers who also sent Matt Kemp and Alex Wood to the Reds. Wood has been on the IL and Kemp was DFA’d.
These two teams swapped “Tanners” in an off-season trade that sent Tanner Roark to the Reds and Tanner Rainey to the Nats. The Nats will get to face Roark tomorrow as he is scheduled to make the start. It is a very different Roark who is essentially pitching to his optimal analytics. He is generally pitching two times through the opposing team’s batting order (5.1 innings on average) and pulled before he breaks a sweat which won’t let him get too far into a pitch count above 98-pitches with few exceptions. While that formula has made Roark look better than last year, he is leaving much of the fate of the game to his bullpen.
The Reds send the right-handed Tyler Mahle to the mound tonight to face the Nats ace lefty Patrick Corbin who has been the Nats best pitcher if you go by Baseball Reference’s WAR.
Washington Nationals vs. Cincinnati Reds
Stadium: Great American Ballpark, Cincinnati, Ohio
1st Pitch: 7:10 pm EDT
TV: MASN2; MLB App out-of-market
Nats Radio: 106.7 The Fan and via the MLB app
Line-ups subject to change without notice:
