Baseball is a strange game. The Phillies threw a bullpen game yesterday, and shut down the Nats offense to a total of two runs. The series is even at 1-1, and the Washington Nationals can take this series with a win today.
On the mound for the Nats is Trevor Williams as he hopefully can deliver a gem for his team today. The Nats back of the bullpen all got a day of rest yesterday, and tomorrow is a scheduled team day-off.
Going for the Phillies, is the lefty Ranger Suarez who has struggled through his 2023 season with an ERA north of 7.00. Countering the lefty, Nats’ manager Dave Martinez will only have two players swinging from the left side in this game with Luis Garcia and Dom Smith.
The umpiring in this series has been very good so far — but unfortunately some of the worst calls went against the Nats — and particularly against Lane Thomas who was struck out twice on balls well off of the plate. One of the mistakes was early in the game with two runners on base in a 1-2 count. It seems like there are daily rhubarbs with umpires from other teams. Last night, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. of Toronto got a strike 1 called against him, and his manager, John Schneider, went after the ump. Truthfully, that pitch to Guerrero was closer than the pitch to Thomas. In the second K to Thomas, he argued vehemently, and Martinez did not budge from his perch in the dugout. That is Davey, and you have to wonder as the umpire scorecard website has the Nats with the most missed calls against them in the Majors.
“Let’s be honest: They’re not tough, they were horrible, alright? We’re gonna be honest about that one. It was two horrific calls.
— manager Dave Martinez on two strike-3 calls against Lane Thomas yesterday that were well off of the plate
It stinks as a hitter you go up there battling and you get called strikes like that. Like I said, I never get angry with the umpires. They got a job to do and it’s a tough job. But in a big moment like that, those are bad calls.”
The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 4.46 for 17th best in MLB. The Nats are just 0.30 from 10th 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 3.66
No. 1 Starter: Josiah Gray 3.09
Here is your Baseball Savant Statcast link for the game.
Philadelphia Phillies vs. Washington Nationals
Stadium: Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.
1st Pitch: 1:35 pm EDT
TV: MASN
Radio: 106.7 The Fan radio and via the MLB app
Line-up subject to change (without notice):
