The Washington Nationals showed up big last night, and they have plenty of work ahead of them to not get complacent on this road trip where they have won 3-of-4 games against the Twins and the win against the Mets last night behind the strong performance from Josiah Gray.
So tonight, it is MacKenzie Gore‘s turn to step up and help his team win a game. He struggled with command in his previous start and struggled against lefty batters. That got him into trouble as he gave up four walks but limited the damage to only three runs scored.
After scoring five runs yesterday, manager Dave Martinez will not change his lineup today from what he played yesterday. That is unusual as Davey has been putting out new lineups in mix and match almost daily.
“We got so many young guys, for me, it’s trying to figure out where they fit best for our lineup. I mean that’s what it comes down to. So we’ve been moving guys around, but my biggest thing is, like I said yesterday, to kind of get Luis up there, keep him second against righties, spread the lefties out a little bit and see how that plays out.
— manager Dave Martinez in his pre-game media session
Yesterday was a good day. So I thought, hey, today this guy is kind of similar, and we’ll keep the same lineup.”
The Nats starters ERAs are a combined 4.49, and now it is MacKenzie Gore‘s turn to try to improve upon his previous start. The Nats now have the 11th best team ERA in baseball, and we will see if they can get into the coveted Top-10. The Nats are close to leapfrogging both the Dodgers and Padres for starter ERAs.
Here is how they rank:
No. 5 Starter: Chad Kuhl 7.36 ERA
No. 4 Starter: Patrick Corbin 5.88
No. 3 Starter: MacKenzie Gore 3.43
No. 2 Starter: Trevor Williams 3.38
No. 1 Starter: Josiah Gray 2.93
On the Nats schedule, yesterday began that stretch of 16 straight days without a day-off until May 11. Martinez went with only one reliever yesterday, and with Monday’s day-off, every reliever has had at least two full days of rest except for Mason Thompson who earned the rare 3-inning save yesterday.
Here is your Baseball Savant Statcast link for the game.
Washington Nationals vs. New York Mets
Stadium: CitiField, Queens, New York
1st Pitch: 7:10 pm EDT
TV: MASN2
Radio: 106.7 The Fan radio and via the MLB app
Line-up subject to change (without notice):
