The Washington Nationals shocked the 28,000 fans in Baltimore last night as the Nats have now taken 2-of-3 games from the Orioles this season with the season finale tonight. The crowd was well-attended by Nats fans, and they had a lot to cheer about in the blow-out win last night. The Nationals were deep underdogs at the sportsbooks, and there is a reason you play the games. There is roughly 25 percent of the season remaining to play.
Before today’s game, the Nationals announced that they have signed their entire coaching staff to contracts for the 2025 season. Yes, that includes hitting coach Darnell Coles who is overseeing a team that is 17th in runs scores — but much of that is attributed to the running game — not the hitting game where the Nats are 22nd in OPS. In power hitting, the Nats are the sixth worst in baseball. Some would say the pitching isn’t much better at 23rd overall in team ERA — but much of that is based on carrying Patrick Corbin in the starting rotation. The pitching has greatly improved from last year — and much of the credit goes to Sean Doolittle in his role as the assistant pitching coach.
Based on last year’s win total of 71-games, the Nats need to go 17-25 or better to beat that total. To beat the 66-win total from FanGraphs, the Nats need to win 12 more games. There are just 42-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. What an impact Jose Tena made in his debut, and how’s about what Alex Call has added to the outfield with James Wood and Jacob Young. Last night, Andres Chaparro joined a small group of players that hit three extra-base hits in their MLB debut.
The Nats are deep underdogs today, at +145 to win on the moneyline. That means if you bet $100 you would win $145. Bet $10.00 and you win $14.50.
Nats’ manager Dave Martinez‘s bullpen got the day-off on Monday, and with the large lead — the Nats were able to give Orlando Ribalta his MLB debut. Kyle Finnegan now hasn’t pitched in 4-days. Besides Ribalta, Robert Garcia, Jose A. Ferrer, and Derek Law took care of the rest.
This is what the Nats schedule looks like going forward:
- Wednesday: DJ Herz vs. Baltimore
- Thursday: Mitchell Parker vs. Phillies
- Friday: Patrick Corbin vs. Phillies
- Saturday: MacKenzie Gore vs. Phillies
- Sunday: Jake Irvin vs. Phillies
- Monday: Day-Off
- Tuesday: Herz vs. Rockies
- Wednesday: Parker vs. Rockies
- Thursday: Corbin vs. Rockies
- Friday: Gore vs. Braves
- Saturday: Irvin vs. Braves
- Sunday: Herz vs. Braves
Your top Washington Nationals on the FanGraphs’ WAR leaderboard has Luis Garcia Jr. atop of the WAR rankings at +2.7, and Jacob Young at +2.4 and CJ Abrams at +2.3. In total, 26 Nats’ players are in positive WAR and another eight are at a neutral 0.0 WAR.
“On a short-term basis, you can’t really tell. We get seven weeks with these guys [we just called up]. We can see a lot, and try to help them get better. I wish we had some veteran guys, I really do, but to get a lot of these young players up here, it excites me, too. One, they deserve to be up here because they’ve done so well, and we get a broader spectrum of what they can do. That’s definitely going to help us for the future.”
— Nats’ manager Dave Martinez said after yesterday’s game
The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 4.42 and 22nd in MLB.
Here is how they rank:
No. 5 Starter: Patrick Corbin 5.98
No. 4 Starter: MacKenzie Gore 4.50
No. 3 Starter: DJ Herz 4.41
No. 2 Starter: Mitchell Parker 3.83
No. 1 Starter: Jake Irvin 3.72
Washington Nationals vs. Baltimore Orioles
Stadium: Orioles Park at Camden Yards, Baltimore, Maryland
1st Pitch: 6:35 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 179 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 121:
The Nationals won on 08/16 at home against the Brewers in a record of 66-55. 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 08/24 at home against the Chicago White Sox resulting in a record of 69-52. The Senators have sole possession of second place. Box Score / Standings
