The Washington Nationals looked like they were ready to celebrate their first series win since August of 2021 in yesterday’s game, but it was not meant to be. From a MacKenzie Gore 7.0 inning gem and a 2-1 lead into the eighth inning, it all slipped away on the team’s 11th blown save, and 11th bullpen loss. An error by the normally sure-handed Dom Smith, in Bill Buckner style, turned into the winning run in the final inning for the Royals. The Nats will now face the Dodgers for three games with this contest marking the one-third pole in the season.
For the Nats, they will have Trevor Williams pitching tonight, Jake Irvin tomorrow night, and Patrick Corbin in the afternoon finale on Wednesday. After that, the team will enjoy a day-off on Thursday before they start a weekend series against the Phillies.
“We left 11 guys on-base today. All day long we had opportunities. We just couldn’t capitalize. … When you do that, you leave the door wide open for these things to happen.”
— manager Dave Martinez said last night
The Nats starters have a combined ERA of 4.43 for 15th best in MLB and just 0.01 ahead of the Dodgers and only 0.03 behind the Padres for 14th. On the Nats staff, Gore takes over on FanGraphs WAR as the team’s top pitcher. BaseballReference.com still has Josiah Gray as the team’s top player.
Here is how they rank:
No. 5 Starter: Jake Irvin 5.32 ERA
No. 4 Starter: Patrick Corbin 4.88
No. 3 Starter: Trevor Williams 4.32
No. 2 Starter: MacKenzie Gore 3.57
No. 1 Starter: Josiah Gray 2.77
The Nats will face righty Bobby Miller in this game, and he was called up last week and had a very good debut for the Dodgers.
Here is your Baseball Savant Statcast link for the game.
Washington National vs. Los Angeles Dodgers
Stadium: Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, California
1st Pitch: 9:10 pm EDT
TV: MASN
Radio: 106.7 The Fan radio and via the MLB app
Line-up subject to change (without notice):
