The Washington Nationals bullpen helped to secure the 7-5 win last night in a comeback with 7-unanswered runs to make today’s game a chance for the Nats to split this series with the Mets on this July 4th matinee showdown. Luis Garcia Jr. had two home runs as the offensive star, and James Wood had the game-winning RBI. That was Wood’s first RBI with the Nats.
Maybe the biggest news is that manager Dave Martinez has now used Kyle Finnegan, Hunter Harvey, and Robert Garcia in 3-games in a row, and they are redlining. Jacob Barnes was the first man out of the bullpen last night. The bullpen was a walk-shy of 3.0 perfect innings last night, and that walk absolutely should have been a K.
The Nationals are slight betting underdogs today, at -105 to win on the moneyline. That means if you bet $100 you would win $95. Bet $10 and you win $9.50. Remember, this betting line is based a lot on how the bets are made, and the money is coming in for the Mets.
By the way, there are no more days-off going forward until the All-Star break, and this is another 17-games in a row marathon that the Nats just started last weekend. If there are no rain-outs affecting games, the team is set to play 97-games before the All-Star break, and that would leave just 65-games after the All-Star break.
Here is what the rotation could look like:
- Thursday: Jake Irvin vs. Mets – July 4
- Friday: Patrick Corbin vs. Cardinals
- Saturday: MacKenzie Gore vs. Cardinals
- Sunday: DJ Herz vs. Cardinals
- Monday: Mitchell Parker vs. Cardinals
- Tuesday: Irvin vs. Mets
- Wednesday: Corbin vs. Mets
- Thursday: Gore vs. Mets
- Friday: Herz vs. Brewers
- Saturday: Parker vs. Brewers (All-Star Futures’ Game)
- Sunday: Irvin vs. Brewers (MLB Draft)
- All-Star Break (HR Derby)
- All-Star Break (All-Star Game)
- All-Star Break
- All-Star Break
- Friday: TBA vs. Brewers – July 19
Your top Washington Nationals on the FanGraphs’ WAR leaderboard has the two top pitchers as MacKenzie Gore at +2.2, and Jake Irvin at+1.8 WAR. For the position players, CJ Abrams is at +2.1 and Jacob Young at +1.8. In total, 22 Nats’ players are in positive WAR and another eight are at a neutral 0.0 WAR.
“All the guys battled. A good win for us.”
— Nats’ manager Davey Martinez said after yesterday’s game
The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 3.92 and 13th in MLB. The Nats are 20 points from being a Top-10 starting rotation by ERA. Look at those rankings of teams.
Here is how they rank:
No. 5 Starter: Patrick Corbin 5.49
No. 4 Starter: DJ Herz 4.67
No. 3 Starter: Mitchell Parker 3.61
No. 2 Starter: MacKenzie Gore 3.47
No. 1 Starter: Jake Irvin 3.03
Washington Nationals vs. New York Mets
Stadium: Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.
1st Pitch: 11:05 am 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, tune to Channel 175 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.
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 87:
The Nationals lost on 07/05 at home against the Marlins resulting in a record of 45-42. They won’t drop below .500 the rest of the season. But you knew this already. Box Score / Standings
The Senators lost on 07/18 at home against the St. Louis Browns resulting in a record of 48-39. Box Score / Standings
