The Washington Nationals finished their suspended game from last night with a 7-5 extra innings win, and by doing so got their road record to .500 at 22-22. This game is the second game of this doubleheader, and Jake Alu has been called up as the 27th player.
Jeimer Candelario has a bone bruise on his thumb, and is not in the starting lineup today. No decision has been made as to whether they will place him on the IL.
With a lefty on the mound in Steven Matz, the Nats will have Michael Chavis at second base in place of Luis Garcia who is mired in a slump on both offense and defense. In the early game, he had the angle for a pop-up in short right field by the line and Garcia just stopped running and let Dom Smith make a play at the ball. Fortunately Smith caught the ball over his shoulder, but it begs the question, what is up with Garcia? On May 26, his OPS was .724 after that 6-for-6 game, and since then his OPS has been .648 to take his season OPS to .684. Worse than that he was a Top-3 defender in April, and now he is last in defense for second baseman.
“It was a good day for our hitters. I wish we would’ve won a little bit earlier, but the bullpen came in and held it down. We played well.”
— manager Dave Martinez said
The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 4.57 for 20th best in MLB.
Here is how they rank:
No. 5 Starter: Patrick Corbin 4.89
No. 4 Starter: Jake Irvin 4.60
No. 3 Starter: Trevor Williams 4.42
No. 2 Starter: MacKenzie Gore 4.42
No. 1 Starter: Josiah Gray 3.41
Here is your Baseball Savant Statcast Link for the game.
Washington Nationals vs. St. Louis Cardinals
Stadium: Busch Stadium, St. Louis, Missouri
1st Pitch: 7:15 pm EDT
TV: MASN
Radio: 106.7 The Fan radio and via the MLB app
