Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats
Losing games and losing Kyle Schwarber happened as the team was 40-39 during that July 2nd game, The Washington Nationals were very much in the pennant race at that time. Since then, their chances are fading. The team was 0-4 in that same stretch without Trea Turner, and now the team will be without catcher Yan Gomes and Schwarber for the foreseeable future, and of course Stephen Strasburg has been gone most of the season and Joe Ross just joined him on the IL. The imperfect storm has also shown the presumed strength of the team, the starting pitching, as a struggling part of the equation recently.
Just when we thought Juan Soto had found his power stroke in San Diego, it disappeared just as quickly in San Francisco — like a big tease. He is back to driving balls hard into the infield in the City by the Bay. How many times will we see 4-3 groundout on the scorer’s sheet?
So where do the Nats go from here? We enter this final game before the All-Star break at 42-46 and will exit San Fran either at 43-46 or 42-47. The Nats are facing San Fran’s best with Kevin Gausman and his 1.74 ERA. That’s okay. The Nats have Erick Fedde on the mound today.
The voices are getting louder to SELL, SELL, SELL. While some still say wait to see how the next 2 ½ weeks go to set the stage.
Of course the Nats could easily regroup after the All-Star break and go on a long winning streak if they could take a few from San Diego then dominate Miami and Baltimore and Philly leading to decision day.
Today is also the first round of the MLB Draft. The Nats pick at No. 11 and should get a top player to add to a farm system ranked at No. 29 in the Majors. We will have postgame coverage on that.
Washington Nationals vs. San Francisco Giants
Stadium: Oracle Park, San Francisco, California
1st Pitch: 4:05 pm EDT
TV: MASN2, NBC Sports Bay Area, MLB Network out-of-area only, MLB.TV
Nats Radio: 106.7 FM The Fan; SiriusXM® ( Streaming Internet 869)
Line-ups subject to change without notice:
The #Nats lineup against righty Kevun Gausman:
1. Alcides Escobar – 2B
2. Trea Turner – SS
3. Juan Soto – RF
4. Josh Bell – 1B
5. Starlin Castro – 3B
6. Josh Harrison – LF
7. Tres Barrera – C
8. Victor Robles – CF
9. Erick Fedde – RHP
