The Washington Nationals had a successful Cinco de Mayo, and now on Siete de Mayo is the first sign of a Nationals and Orioles truce. We had hoped that the first sign of a truce would be the splitting of the MASN TV network. But instead of that being announced, an olive branch was extended in a different form. This was a cherry blossom branch that was extended in a sign of peace between new Orioles’ owner, David Rubenstein, and Nats’ principal owner, Mark Lerner. The teams are doing a Washington x Baltimore City Connect collab for tonight’s game.
There was a surprising roster move today when the team activated LHP Robert Garcia from the 15-day Injured List. Instead of DFA’ing their weakest link, Tanner Rainey, the Nationals designated RHP Matt Barnes for assignment. While Barnes stats are not great with a 3.52 FIP and 1.500 WHIP, they are much better than Rainey who has an awful 8.06 FIP and a 2.667 WHIP. Both players have dealt with injuries, and Rainey does get some extra rope from being a member of the 2019 World Series team. But who would you want pitching between those two relievers if you had to choose one? The 40-man roster is now at 39.
As of this writing, the Nats did not add back Joey Gallo or Victor Robles from their rehab assignments in the minor leagues. While there is no rush with Robles, the team could use Gallo’s glove at first base for improved defense.
Manager Dave Martinez has Trevor Williams on the mound today, and he will face the best of the Orioles in Corbin Burnes. This is the day that Williams has to throw up all zeroes.
With plans to get Josiah Gray back into a rehab assignment, you have to wonder if he can make it back in the month of May. Here’s what we think the schedule could look like going forward:
- Tuesday: Trevor Williams vs. Orioles
- Wednesday: Mitchell Parker vs. Orioles
- Thursday: Day-off May 9
- Friday: Patrick Corbin vs. Red Sox
- Saturday: Jake Irvin vs. Red Sox
- Sunday: MacKenzie Gore vs. Red Sox
- Monday: Williams vs. White Sox
- Tuesday: Parker vs. White Sox
- Wednesday: Corbin vs. White Sox
- Thursday: Day-off May 16
- Friday: Irvin vs. Phillies
- Saturday: Gore vs. Phillies
- Sunday: Williams vs. Phillies
- Monday: Parker vs. Twins
- Tuesday: Corbin vs. Twins
- Wednesday: Irvin vs. Twins
Your top Washington Nationals on the FanGraphs’ WAR leaderboard has CJ Abrams at the top at a +1.3 WAR followed by Luis Garcia Jr. at a +1.0 WAR. Hunter Harvey, MacKenzie Gore and Trevor Williams at +0.9. Jacob Young, Mitchell Parker and Jake Irvin are at +0.8. In total, 21 Nats’ players are in positive WAR and another four at a neutral 0.0 WAR.
“Like I’ve said before, They’re relentless. They keep coming, and keep coming. [Sunday] was a hitter’s duel, basically. I’m glad we ended up on top.”
— manager Dave Martinez said about his team’s MLB-best 12 come-from-behind wins
The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 4.30 and 20th in MLB. The Nats are now 31 points from 14th best in baseball. The Nats have been slowly moving up in the rankings it seems week by week. At this point in the season, the ERA movement is in smaller increments due to the total innings increasing to the 200 inning mark. In the old-days that was a good workload for one starter.
Here is how they rank:
No. 5 Starter: Patrick Corbin 6.45
No. 4 Starter: Jake Irvin 3.72
No. 3 Starter: MacKenzie Gore 3.44
No. 2 Starter: Mitchell Parker 2.53
No. 1 Starter: Trevor Williams 2.27
Baltimore Orioles vs. Washington Nationals
Stadium: Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.
1st Pitch: 6:45 pm EDT
TV: MASN
Radio: 106.7 The Fan radio and via the MLB app; In Spanish on DC 87.7 FM and La Pantera 100.7 FM/1220 AM. On Sirius/XM, the Nats will be on Channel 180, and the opposing team on only online.
Line-up subject to change (without notice):
TalkNats is Celebrating the 5 and 100 year anniversaries of World Series Wins by providing Game-by-Game Summaries.
Game 35:
The Nationals lost on 05/07 on the road resulting in a record of 14-21. The Nats got Anthony Rendon back from the DL, but were still missing Trea Turner and Ryan Zimmerman. Bet you couldn’t guess that Howie Kendrick was playing first base. Box Score / Standings
The Senators won on 05/30 on the road against the Red Sox in Fenway resulting in a record of 16-19. Box Score / Standings
