The Washington Nationals are readying themselves in a few hours for the All-Star Futures Game in Texas, and 24-hours before the 2024 MLB Draft in Texas. Last night, the Nats were the deepest they have been all season as an underdog — and Jackson Rutledge delivered along with the bullpen, some timely defense, and some key hits. At about the time the All-Star Futures Game gets going — the Brewers will be pitching to the Nats in Milwaukee.
In the All-Star Futures Game, Dylan Crews will bat second in the starting lineup, and represents the highest ranked prospect in the game at No. 4 overall. Brady House will be in the first All-Star Futures Game skills competition.
The team is about 24-hours from the first round of the MLB Draft. Teams still don’t know who is picking which players, and kind of like last year we have to wait to see who is chosen ahead of the Nats. Last year, it was just waiting for the Pirates to pick at No. 1 to know the Nats were taking Crews as the second pick in the draft. Tomorrow, the Nats will have to sit through 9-picks before they know who they will choose.
The Nats also were not done with pre-All-Star break roster maneuvers. As expected, Rutledge was sent back to Triple-A, and the team called up RHP Eduardo Salazar from Triple-A Rochester. The team will continue for a while with 9-bullpen arms and 4-starting pitchers.
Manager Dave Martinez used Kyle Finnegan, Hunter Harvey, Robert Garcia last night for tw0-games in a row, and each have now thrown over 34-pitches combined in those two games. Derek Law pitched last night also, and Jordan Weems warmed up but was not used. Tanner Rainey has once again not been seen in a while. Both Jordan Barnes and Dylan Floro got the night off.
The Nationals are the slight betting underdogs today, at +110 to win on the moneyline. That means if you bet $100 you would win $110. Bet $10 and you win $11.
Time is flying by and after today there are just 66-games remaining in the season. The Nats have just just 1-game 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.
This is what the Nats schedule looks like going forward:
- 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 +2.1 for position players and the team’s All-Star. He behind MacKenzie Gore at +2.4. Jake Irvin is at +2.1. Jacob Young is at +1.8 as the second best position player. In total, 23 Nats’ players are in positive WAR and another six are at a neutral 0.0 WAR.
“I think you go out and you score some runs early and guys tend to relax and the at-bats get better. The pitchers actually can relax a little bit. ….”
— Nats’ manager Davey Martinez said after yesterday’s game
The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 4.06 and 15th in MLB.
Here is how they rank:
No. 5 Starter: Patrick Corbin 5.57
No. 4 Starter: DJ Herz 5.17
No. 3 Starter: MacKenzie Gore 4.01
No. 2 Starter: Mitchell Parker 3.44
No. 1 Starter: Jake Irvin 3.13
Washington Nationals vs. Milwaukee Brewers
Stadium: American Family Field, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
1st Pitch: 4:10 pm EDT
TV: MASN2
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 184 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 96:
The Nationals lost on 07/19 on the road against the Atlanta Braves in a record of 51-45. They won’t drop below .500 the rest of the season. But you knew this already. Box Score / Standings
The Senators lost on 07/28 on the road against the Cleveland Indians resulting in a record of 54-42. Box Score / Standings
