A happy flight home from LAX on Wednesday with an early Thursday arrival in Washington, D.C. was followed by a much-needed day off work. Today is the first game of 2023 against the rival Phillies, and separated by just 1.0 game in the standings.
This is no easy task facing the Phillies best pitcher in Zack Wheeler against the Nats best pitcher, Josiah Gray, per ERA. But Gray has been walking batters too often in his last few starts, and struggling in high pitch counts.
The hope with an extra day’s rest that Gray finds his best for this crucial game that the Phillies enter with a 4-game losing streak.
The Nats will wear their City Connect blossom gray jerseys today with a special Lou Gehrig patch for ALS disease. It is the same disease that struck general manager Mike Rizzo’s family and his sister Kim was a victim of this cruel disease, and they are raising money on this day through Nationals’ Philanthropies. Also, StarsForSarah.org was set-up for donations for Sarah Langs who is currently fighting the disease. Sarah is one of the most talented people in the baseball industry.
“…We’ve always been given the [financial] resources here to compete at a high level… I could definitely see in the next year or so to put our resources into play again and cap off this rebuilding process with some good prudent free agent signings to get us over the hump.”
— GM Mike Rizzo on MLB Network
The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 4.42 for 16th best in MLB. The Nats are just 0.02 from 14th best in MLB in ERA.
Here is how they rank:
No. 5 Starter: Jake Irvin 5.67 ERA
No. 4 Starter: Patrick Corbin 4.92
No. 3 Starter: Trevor Williams 3.93
No. 2 Starter: MacKenzie Gore 3.57
No. 1 Starter: Josiah Gray 2.77
Here is your Baseball Savant Statcast link for the game.
Philadelphia Phillies vs. Washington Nationals
Stadium: Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.
1st Pitch: 7:05 pm EDT
TV: MASN
Radio: 106.7 The Fan radio and via the MLB app
Line-up subject to change (without notice):
