The Washington Nationals will have another MLB debut tonight with Jackson Rutledge getting his big opportunity. The Nats’ 1st round pick of 2019 is a large man at 6’8″ with an upper 90’s fastball, and the kid from St. Louis actually got offseason help from former Nats’ pitcher Ross Detwiler who helped Rutledge add better shaper to his changeup. Drew Millas, his teammate in the minors, will catch him tonight. Add his curveball and slider to his repertoire and he throws both the 4-seam and 2-seam varieties of the fastball.
The Nats need a win tonight for a chance to win this series in Pittsburgh. Unfortunately, Joan Adon did not pitch a good game last night, and the offense faltered. The Nats bullpen lost Mason Thompson today as he was the player sent back to Rochester to make room on the roster for Rutledge.
For more on Rutledge, we wrote this exclusive on him in 2020.
“Rutledge is gonna start for us tomorrow. So yah, we will get him going. Another young prospect of ours, we get him up here. Biggest thing for him is just go out there, try to have some fun and attack the strike zone.”
— manager Dave Martinez said
The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 4.89 for 24th best in MLB.
Here is how they rank:
No. 6 Starter: Joan Adon 6.00 (starter’s ERA only)
No. 5 Starter: Trevor Williams 5.44
No. 4 Starter: Patrick Corbin 5.13
No. 3 Starter: MacKenzie Gore 4.42
No. 2 Starter: Jake Irvin 4.20
No. 1 Starter: Josiah Gray 4.13
Here is your Baseball Savant link for the game.
Washington Nationals vs. Pittsburgh Pirates
Stadium: PNC Park, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
1st Pitch: 6:35 pm EDT
TV: MASN2
Radio: 106.7 The Fan radio and via the MLB app
