Starlin Castro is the star for the offense; Photo by Katie Moran for TalkNats
If Starlin Castro was the star today for the Nationals offense, then Carter Kieboom has to be the second star, and Michael A. Taylor gets the third star. All of the pitchers had their moments today from Erick Fedde to Ryne Harper to Sam Freeman to Javy Guerra to Tanner Rainey, and then to Daniel Hudson for the first team save of the season. The bullpen had to cover 4 2/3 innings, and Rainey worked three straight days and 47 pitches, and Daniel Hudson had two tough back-to-backs. Maybe these four days off this weekend due to the COVID postponements and into Monday will help those overused arms.
At the perfect time, Victor Robles flashed his defense skying up the wall robbing the Blue Jays of a double to start their inning. The Nats defense overall responded well since Tuesday’s sloppy effort.
The Nats knocked out Hyun Jin Ryu in the 5th inning and collared him with 5 earnies as they ran his pitch count up and he exited with 93 pitches in only 4 1/3 innings. Carter Kieboom worked Ryu hard, and posted up a 2-for-2 game and 2 walks along with some nice defense. As mentioned Castro was the offensive star and he was 4-for-5 in this game. Adam Eaton has hit safely in every game this season and had the only hit on Opening Day.
Of note on the pitching, Erick Fedde pitched well, but he hit the wall in the 4th inning and manager Dave Martinez seemed to have a good feel by pulling him with two men on-base. Also you will notice the Nats are staying away from two key bullpen arms of Will Harris and Sean Doolittle and leaning on Rainey and Hudson.
“Harris has a little bit of a groin thing,” Martinez said. “Doo is just working on some things with mechanics. He is going to throw on Saturday. … Huddy and Rainey got the bulk of the last five games.”
The Nats improve to 3-4 on the season, and technically this was a road sweep of 2-games (in Nationals Park), and the Nats now have a 10-game winning streak on road games dating back to last year in Game 2 of the NLDS in Los Angeles.
Daniel Hudson gets the #Nats first save of the season and he does it against the Blue Jays who traded him to the #Nats last season. Thanks Blue Jays. #Huddy pic.twitter.com/tFtfGtjCzh
— Talk Nats ⚾ (@TalkNats2) July 30, 2020
