Yesterday, the Washington Nationals held their crossover night with the Washington Commanders at Nationals Park. It was a show of unity of the two most prominent teams in the DMV. Last night, it was Patrick Corbin, who caught the ceremonial first pitch, from Commanders’ owner Josh Harris. Tonight, Corbin takes the mound to get a win for his Nats’ team after they were crushed by the Braves’ relentless offense last night.
Once again, there are a lot of milestones to be broken by players before the end of the season and both Lane Thomas and CJ Abrams have a shot to reach the prestigious 20/20 Club in Nats’ history, and Abrams, 22, has a chance to get to the 20/40 Club to join Mike Trout, Cesar Cedeno, Alex Rodriguez, and Corbin Carroll as the only players since 1900 to do this by their age 22 season. Even if Abrams cannot hit two more homes to get to 20, he would still be in this rare club with his current stats.
Last season, Thomas was the Nationals’ Player of the Year, and today the team announced that he earned that honor again this season. Kyle Finnegan was named the Pitcher of the Year and Josiah Gray got the Good Guy Award.
In another pre-game announcement, manager Dave Martinez has said that Jackson Rutledge would start Sunday’s game which was a TBD after Martinez said that Trevor Williams start would be skipped. While Rutledge would be pitching on five days’ rest, he had been pitching on six days of rest. The thought is with a tropical depression pushing to the mid-Atlantic, there might not be a game on Saturday or Sunday anyway.
We knew this day would come but did not know it would be this soon that Sean Doolittle would announce his retirement. Today is the day as fans get to celebrate Doolittle who is appearing at the ballpark. Unfortunately fans only had about a six hour notice that the team would be honoring Doolittle in a pre-game ceremony. The 2019 World Series champ for the Nats joined the team midway through the 2017 season via a trade with the Oakland A’s. His popularity went well beyond baseball as the man with 75-saves for the Nats kind of pushed himself harder than he probably should have because he was never the same after the 2019 season. There is a good chance that Doolittle will stay with the team in some capacity.
“Lane Thomas has been unbelievable. Not just because of the home runs, but his overall play. He’s getting better and better. I say it all the time: ‘I still don’t think he has reached his full potential.’ I think there’s still more there in the tank, and you’ll see it. He’s developed this confidence … and I saw that this year.”
— manager Dave Martinez said
The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 4.98 for 25th best in MLB.
Here is how they rank by starter’s ERA:
No. 7 Starter: Jackson Rutledge 8.10
No. 6 Starter: Joan Adon 6.39
No. 5 Starter: Trevor Williams 5.55
No. 4 Starter: Patrick Corbin 5.00
No. 3 Starter: Jake Irvin 4.61
No. 2 Starter: MacKenzie Gore 4.42
No. 1 Starter: Josiah Gray 4.00
Here is your Baseball Savant link for the game.
Atlanta Braves 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
