The Washington Nationals have just 30-games remaining on the season. And tonight’s matchup of starting pitchers evoke memories to Game 7 of the 2019 World Series that should bring a temporary smile to your face. Patrick Corbin, starting for the Nats tonight was a Game 7 reliever (and earned the win) while the Yankees starter tonight, Gerrit Cole, was warmed up in the Houston bullpen as a reliever — and never entered the game. Of course the Nats won on Howie Kendrick‘s “Clang heard ’round the world” off of the Astros’ bullpen as Cole watched.
With Corbin coming off of a nice start and career win No. 100, the Nats have to find a way to get CJ Abrams back on track. He has been in an horrific spiral down on offense and defense that started the day after he was named an All-Star on July 7. During that span of 40-games that Abrams has played since that point, he is batting just .173 with a .539 OPS. His BABIP is .207 which says Abrams has been unlucky but his contact has not been good. Again, what is hitting coach Darnell Coles doing to fix him? Abrams WAR has dropped to +1.9 on the season.
That pitching matchup and the mismatch in the respective lineups has Vegas handing victory to the Yankees before the game is even played. The Nats are huge underdogs today, at +220 to win on the moneyline. That means if you bet $100 you would win $220. Bet $10.00 and you win $22.00.
Based on last year’s win total of 71-games, the Nats need to go 13-17 or better to beat that total. To beat the 66-win total from FanGraphs, the Nats need to win 8 more games. There are just 30-games remaining in the season. The team needs to win 4 more games to avoid triple-digit losses.
Nats’ manager Dave Martinez only got 4-innings from his starter, Mitchell Parker, and the bullpen combined for 5.0 innings to finish it up. Unfortunately the bullpen gave up more runs that Parker. Joe La Sorsa certainly took on the burden after Tanner Rainey got in trouble.
This is what the Nats schedule looks like going forward:
- Tuesday: Patrick Corbin vs. Yankees
- Wednesday: MacKenzie Gore vs. Yankees
- Thursday: Day-Off August 29
- Friday: Jake Irvin vs. Cubs
- Saturday: DJ Herz vs. Cubs
- Sunday: Mitchell Parker vs. Cubs
- Monday: Day-Off September 2
- Tuesday: Corbin vs. Marlins
- Wednesday: Gore vs. Marlins
Your top Washington Nationals on the FanGraphs’ WAR leaderboard has Luis Garcia Jr. atop of the WAR rankings at +3.0, Jacob Young at +2.7 and CJ Abrams at +1.9. In total, 27 Nats’ players are in positive WAR and another seven are at a neutral 0.0 WAR.
“We’re trying to contend again. It’s going to happen. With this core group, it’s going to happen. We’re heading in the right direction. … The next step is that I don’t want to be close anymore — I want to be there.”
— Nats’ manager Dave Martinez said after yesterday’s game
The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 4.40 and 22nd in MLB.
Here is how they rank:
No. 5 Starter: Patrick Corbin 5.73
No. 4 Starter: MacKenzie Gore 4.51
No. 3 Starter: Mitchell Parker 4.26
No. 2 Starter: DJ Herz 3.84
No. 1 Starter: Jake Irvin 3.80
Washington Nationals vs. New York Yankees
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 180 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 133:
The Nationals won on 08/30 at home against Miami with a record of 75-58. The Nats are in second place in the NL East. But you knew this already. Box Score / Standings
The Senators won on 09/06 at home against the Boston Red Sox resulting in a record of 78-55. The Senators have sole possession of first place and ahead of the Yankees. Box Score / Standings
