In the new MLB scheduling, the Washington Nationals have the Los Angeles Angels in Nationals Park on even years, and hopefully one day for a World Series. Both teams are rebuilding now, and by the looks of it, the Nats are far ahead in the rebuilding process. This week in fact, Baseball America ranked the Nats as the 4th best farm system in baseball, while the Angels were ranked at dead last. If the Angels were a playoff team now, maybe you could justify their barren farm system — but they are a 3 1/2 games ahead of the lowly Oakland A’s in the AL West standings. Sadly, the Nats are only 1/2 game ahead of the Angels in MLB standings.
Three former Nats’ legends are at the game tonight in different capacities. Chad Cordero is attending the game as a fan, Ian Desmond as the color analyst on the MASN broadcast along with Ryan Zimmerman, and 2019 World Series star, Anthony Rendon, is at Nats Park for the first time since he departed as a free agent after the 2019 season. Rendon is in the starting lineup for the Angels.
Based on last year’s win total of 71-games, the Nats need to go 20-26 or better to beat that total. There are just 46-games remaining in the season, and the rest of this season is really supposed to help to determine the players who could help impact the 2025 roster. Expect some changes soon as we get closer to 45-days remaining in the season as well as September 1 when rosters can expand to 28-players. Triple-A players Jose Tena, Andres Chaparro, Brady House, and Dylan Crews are all on the watchlist, and of course there’s Joey Gallo who is rehabbing in Triple-A — and should return no later than Monday.
The Nats are slight favorites today, at -115to win on the moneyline. That means if you bet $115 you would win $100. Bet $11.50 and you win $10.00.
Nats’ manager Dave Martinez‘s bullpen had to cover 7 1/3 innings due to the rain delay and extra innings. Every pitcher except for Jose A. Ferrer and Tanner Rainey pitched yesterday. Kyle Finnegan needed to throw 28-pitches to get just two outs yesterday. Derek Law threw another 2.0 innings, and nobody deserves a few days off than Law.
This is what the Nats schedule looks like going forward:
- Friday: Mitchell Parker vs. Angels
- Saturday: Patrick Corbin vs. Angels
- Sunday: MacKenzie Gore vs. Angels
- Monday: Day-off (August 12)
- Tuesday: Jake Irvin vs. Baltimore
- Wednesday: DJ Herz vs. Baltimore
- Thursday: Parker vs. Phillies
- Friday: Corbin vs. Phillies
- Saturday: Gore vs. Phillies
- Sunday: Irvin vs. Phillies
Your top Washington Nationals on the FanGraphs’ WAR leaderboard has Luis Garcia Jr. atop of the WAR rankings at +2.5, and CJ Abrams and Jacob Young are both at +2.0. In total, 23 Nats’ players are in positive WAR and another six are at a neutral 0.0 WAR.
“[Finnegan] just got caught up in the moment with the base hit. He thought he made a good pitch, and he just stood there. That’s one of many mistakes we made those couple of innings.”
— Nats’ manager Dave Martinez said after yesterday’s game
The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 4.46 and 23rd in MLB.
Here is how they rank:
No. 5 Starter: Patrick Corbin 5.88
No. 4 Starter: MacKenzie Gore 4.66
No. 3 Starter: DJ Herz 4.41
No. 2 Starter: Mitchell Parker 4.06
No. 1 Starter: Jake Irvin 3.76
Washington Nationals vs. Los Angeles Angels
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, tune to Channel 176 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 117:
The Nationals won on 08/11 on the road against the NY Mets in a record of 62-55. They won’t drop below .500 the rest of the season. The Nats are in second place in the NL East. But you knew this already. Box Score / Standings
The Senators won on 08/19 at home against the Detroit Tigers resulting in a record of 65-52. The Senators on that day took over sole possession of second place. Box Score / Standings
