The Washington Nationals had a 2-1 lead into the sixth inning with a fully rested back of the bullpen — but allowed starter Patrick Corbin to meltdown on the mound with Derek Law as the bullpen arm to replace Corbin. We all know Law’s record as the anti-fireman who has allowed at least one inherited runner to score in 82.4 percent of those appearances — and that is a lot of scorched earth. He did not disappoint last night as Corbin’s two inherited runners quickly scored. The Nats lost 6-2. The Nats have now sunk to a season’s worst 9-games under .500, and now are on a 73 win pace.
For Corbin, he pitched well enough to win if a good plan was in place to pull him at the first sign of trouble with that 2-1 lead. Instead he ate 3 additional earnies and saw his ERA go up to 5.57 with a W/L record of an horrific 1-9 mark. The tough decision was whether you pull Corbin after the lead-off single because Pete Alonso was on-deck — and of course Alonso hit a 107.2 mph screamer to put runners at 3rd and 2nd base with no outs — and still Corbin remained in the game to give up a booming double off of the wall to the next batter. First man out of the bullpen was Law. What are we doing here? This is insanity. You know — doing the same thing over and over — and actually the 14th time Law has come in to allow inherited runners to score this year in 17 of those situations.
Manager Dave Martinez rested Kyle Finnegan and Hunter Harvey again, and neither have pitched in 5-days. That has been so long that we worry that they have to shake off rust. Martinez only used Law, Dylan Floro and Jacob Barnes in yesterday’s game.
The Nationals are the slight betting underdogs today, at +120 to win on the moneyline. That means if you bet $100 you would win $120. Bet $10 and you win $12. This afternoon’s match is MacKenzie Gore and David Peterson in a battle of lefties.
After this game, the Nationals will fly to Milwaukee for their final series before the All-Star break. Time is flying by and after today there are just 68-games remaining in the season. The Nats have just just 3-games after today’s game in this marathon of 17-games in a row. The team will have played 97-games before the All-Star break, and that leaves just 65-games after the All-Star break.
Here is what the rotation could look like with a spot starter needed for tomorrow. The candidates are a bullpen game led by Joan Adon possibly, a Jackson Rutledge spot start, or a Brad Lord start that would be his MLB debut.
- Thursday: MacKenzie Gore vs. Mets
- Friday: TBA vs. Brewers
- Saturday: Mitchell Parker vs. Brewers (All-Star Futures’ Game)
- Sunday: Jake 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. Reds – July 19
- Saturday: TBA vs. Reds
- Sunday: TBA vs. Reds
Your top Washington Nationals on the FanGraphs’ WAR leaderboard has CJ Abrams on the top at +2.2 for position players and the team’s All-Star. He is just fractionally behind of MacKenzie Gore at +2.3. Jake Irvin is at +2.1. Jacob Young is at +1.7 as the second best position player. In total, 22 Nats’ players are in positive WAR and another six are at a neutral 0.0 WAR.
“Not good — you saw the game. It’s not good. We’ve got to clean that up. We can’t beat ourselves, and today we beat ourselves a little bit.”
— Nats’ manager Davey Martinez said after Monday’s game and just keep that on repeat
The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 4.03 and 14th in MLB. The Nats are 19 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 5.57
No. 4 Starter: DJ Herz 5.17
No. 3 Starter: MacKenzie Gore 3.83
No. 2 Starter: Mitchell Parker 3.44
No. 1 Starter: Jake Irvin 3.13
Washington Nationals vs. New York Mets
Stadium: CitiField, Queens, New York, New York
1st Pitch: 1:10 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, tune to Channel 177 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 92:
The Nationals lost on 07/17 on the road against the Baltimore Orioles in a record of 50-44. They won’t drop below .500 the rest of the season. But you knew this already. Box Score / Standings
The Senators lost on 07/26 on the road against the Cleveland Indians resulting in a record of 53-41. Washington tied for second place with the Yankees. Box Score / Standings
