Game #31 time is ticking for the Nats; Finale in Boston!

Posted on August 30, 2020 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Fenway Park by Sol Tucker for TalkNats

Digest this record at the halfway point of a 162-game season: 32-49. If this was early July in a normal season, the Nats would be 17-games under .500 based on their disappointing .400 winning percentage and would be sellers at a July trade deadline. Those are facts, yet they are 12-18 in reality in a 60-game season while desperately needing a Ruthian 10-game winning streak to force Matt Williams to fulfill his promise and do his “Great Bambino” circling the bases. Okay, right right, Williams is out of MLB. Manager Dave Martinez needs to do his version of the Babe Ruth to get a 10-game winning streak. Anything is possible as the 2019 Nats showed.

“Anything is possible — in this game especially, anything is possible so. You make the promise — you have to live to it,” Williams said.

There’s the answer. Anything IS possible. The Nats are playing in the same stadium that Ruth won the 1918 World Series along with 1915 and 1916 also. Fenway opened its doors in 1912. Little has changed over the years for a stadium built to fit inside the Fenway–Kenmore neighborhood. No stadium has an outfield that features “The Triangle,” Pesky’s Pole, and the Green Monster in leftfield. Howie Kendrick was victimized twice last night in “The Triangle” and Fenway giveth and taketh.

It is a sprint to the finish, and the Nats need to start to “taketh” any way they can. It should mean quicker hooks, and late inning adjustments. This team needs that long winning streak or else the season is going to end abruptly.

By the way, Juan Soto and Trea Turner are two of the best players in MLB. In all of MLB if you look at who is on top of the MLB leaderboards.

From ESPN stats board

Additionally, the WAR stats for the Nats have a dozen players in positive WAR per FanGraphs. Again, Soto and Turner top the Nats in those two categories followed by Max Scherzer and Patrick Corbin.

From FanGraphs 8 29 2020

There are certainly positives on this 2020 Nats team if you want to look at the obvious. The issue is that this team has to click in all facets to win games, and that is a reality in team sports. It takes more than just Soto, Trea, Max, and Corbin along with Tanner Rainey and Kyle Finnegan.

The Red Sox continue their sell-off and Austin Voth won’t have to face the lefty Mitch Moreland who was just traded to the Padres. Interestingly enough, when the Nats were looking at first baseman they chose Eric Thames over Moreland, and general manager Mike Rizzo was “on” Moreland according to our sources. When you look at personnel moves that have not worked out so far, Thames would be at the top of the list. He is batting just .219 with 1 home run in the first half of this season. Moreland has been one of the best players in baseball slashing .328/.430/.746/1.177 with 8 home runs.

Washington Nationals vs. Boston Red Sox
Stadium: Fenway Park, Boston, Massachusetts
1st Pitch:  1:35  pm EDT
TV: MASN; NESN; MLB App out-of-market
Nats Radio: 106.7 The Fan and via the MLB app

Line-ups subject to change without notice:

 

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