The Washington Nationals pulled off another stunning win yesterday. Today, the Nats go for a series sweep as well as a .500 road record. A happy flight to Toronto after this game would be wonderful. First things first is the Nats need to win today. By the way, these Marlins are in D.C. on Thursday for a 4-game series leading into September when rosters can expand. More on that later.
Manager Dave Martinez once again pushed all of the right buttons en route to cholaring a blown-save loss on veteran closer David Robertson to shock the Marlins. It kind of made up for that Nats’ blown-save that turned into a walk-off loss in Miami back on May 16. Sort of. The Nats should have been a winner, and 19-24 with momentum. That was a setback game. That started the spiral down to 28-47 a month later — before the team seemed to find some managerial swagger in Houston and some Natitude in San Diego. Do you remember this staredown? How the tables have been turned.
Waking up this morning, you can find the Nats a full 2.0 games ahead of the Mets, and tied with identical records with Juan Soto’s Padres of San Diego. Who knows how this season will finish up. But it has to feel good being toe-to-toe with two of the biggest spending teams in baseball and just 1.0 game behind the Yankees. The Nats are 4.0 games behind the Marlins for third place in the NL East. Who could have thunk that?
In 2013, the Marlins drafted Trevor Williams in the second round. His WAR is actually higher than all but nine first rounders that year. The Nats forfeited their first round pick that year due to signing free agent Rafael Soriano, and the rumor was the Nats would have drafted Aaron Judge with their pick — if they had it. If. This game is just made up of so many ifs.
“We scratched and clawed to get a couple of runs. They came back … and as I always say, our guys don’t quit. They’re gonna play hard for 27 outs. We get a couple of guys on-base. Jake Alu with a big single right there. A good heads-up play by Michael Chavis, who just pinch-ran, and Finnegan comes in and closes out the game. Well done. I loved the way we played today. We stayed in there.”
— manager Dave Martinez said
The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 4.62 for 19th best in MLB.
Here is how they rank:
No. 6 Starter: Joan Adon 5.21 (starter’s ERA only)
No. 5 Starter: Trevor Williams 4.95
No. 4 Starter: Patrick Corbin 4.70
No. 3 Starter: MacKenzie Gore 4.38
No. 2 Starter: Jake Irvin 4.30
No. 1 Starter: Josiah Gray 3.85
Here is your Baseball Savant link for the game.
Washington Nationals vs. Miami Marlins
Stadium: loanDepot Park, Miami, Florida
1st Pitch: 1:40 pm EDT
TV: MASN2
Radio: 106.7 The Fan radio and via the MLB app
