The Washington Nationals have Mitchell Parker back on the mound after normal rest, and having just thrown a career-high 100 pitches against the Braves. Parker faced the Dodgers for his MLB debut in mid-April when the Dodgers were the top scoring offense, and now he faces the American League’s top offense today in Cleveland.
There was much talk about the Nats looking lethargic last night after their charter jet arrived in Cleveland at 3:45 AM in the wee hours of Friday morning, and didn’t reach their hotel rooms until after 5 AM when the sun was peaking out at sunrise.
In the past week, Jake Irvin, Mitchell Parker, MacKenzie Gore, Trevor Williams, and Patrick Corbin combined for just three earned runs in their first five innings of work. Now the Nats need Parker to pitch a gem to get the team back into the W column.
For the bullpen, Robert Garcia has pitched three games in a row. Jacob Barnes and Jordan Weems also pitched last night. In the 8th inning and a 6-1 deficit, manager Dave Martinez opted for Weems over Tanner Rainey which was odd since he hadn’t pitched since May 21.
With Corbin’s two-run quality start last night, he has most likely solidified his spot once again in this rotation — or at least until Cade Cavalli and/or Josiah Gray are ready.
Here’s what we think the starting rotation could look like going forward:
- Saturday June 1: Mitchell Parker vs. Cleveland
- Sunday: Jake Irvin vs. Cleveland
- Monday: MacKenzie Gore vs. Mets
- Tuesday: Trevor Williams vs. Mets
- Wednesday: Patrick Corbin vs. Mets
- Thursday: Parker vs. Braves
- Friday: Irvin vs. Braves
- Saturday: Gore vs. Braves
- Sunday: Williams vs. Braves
- Monday: Day-off June 10
Your top Washington Nationals on the FanGraphs’ WAR leaderboard has a new leader with Trevor Williams at +1.7 WAR, and MacKenzie Gore at +1.5 WAR followed by Jake Irvin at +1.3. Jacob Young takes the top spot at +1.0 for position players and Hunter Harvey is at the +1.0 mark. In total, 19 Nats’ players are in positive WAR and another seven at a neutral 0.0 WAR.
“We could have turned two double plays and couldn’t do that, and [gave up] six walks. You walk that many guys, and put that much traffic out there — those guys put the balls in-play. “
— manager Dave Martinez said after yesterday’s game
The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 3.93 and 14h in MLB. The Nats are now 24 points from 12th best in baseball. Think about shaving about one-third runs off of that ERA total and what that would mean.
Here is how they rank:
No. 5 Starter: Patrick Corbin 5.83
No. 4 Starter: Mitchell Parker 3.45
No. 3 Starter: Jake Irvin 3.43
No. 2 Starter: MacKenzie Gore 2.91
No. 1 Starter: Trevor Williams 2.22
Washington Nationals vs. Cleveland Guardians
Stadium: Progressive Field, Cleveland, Ohio
1st Pitch: 4:10 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 online only, and the opposing team on Channel 180.
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 57:
The Nationals lost on 05/31 on the road against the Cincinnati Reds resulting in a record of 24-33. But you knew this already. Box Score / Standings
The Senators won on 06/23 on the road against the Yankees resulting in a record of 31-26. Box Score / Standings
