Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Patrick Corbin of the Washington Nationals has been working all season on his mechanics. His past two games showed signs of improvement until he hit the wall in his final inning of work which ruined two starts that were going to be good.
The Braves have lefty Max Fried on the mound, but manager Dave Martinez is not altering his lineup to add righties at this point in the season. Luis Garcia and Yadiel Hernandez are both starting, and the switch-hitting Josh Bell will start at first base, not Ryan Zimmerman who had been getting most of the starts against lefties this season.
With the Nats at a season’s worst 16-games under .500, the record just no longer matters. If the season ended today, the Nats would be choosing 7th in the MLB amateur draft. A bunch of teams are right around 14-17 games under .500 at this point, and the consolation prize for the Nats losing games is that they have really improved their drafting order at this point. The four worst teams which include the annual tankers like the Orioles and Pirates are joined this year by the Diamondbacks and Rangers. Those four teams seem to have locked up the top-4 spots in the draft.
The Nats find themselves just 1.0 game from the last-place Marlins in the NL East. Sure, everyone expected the Marlins to be a bottom dwelling team while the Nats were projected to win in the mid-80’s and compete in the NL East. the next 45 games will be interesting on how the NL East cellar shapes up.
Atlanta Braves vs. Washington Nationals
Stadium: Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.
1st Pitch: 6:05 pm EDT
TV: MASN2, Bally Sports Southeast, MLB.TV
Nats Radio: 106.7 FM The Fan; SiriusXM® ( Streaming Internet 869)
Line-ups subject to change without notice:
1. Victor Robles CF
2. Alcides Escobar SS
3. Juan Soto RF
4. Josh Bell 1B
5. Yadiel Hernandez LF
6. Carter Kieboom 3B
7. Luis Garcia 2B
8. Tres Barrera C
9. Patrick Corbin LHP
