The Washington Nationals were this |—–| close to a walk-off last night against the Cubs. Dylan Crews had already homered in the game and was a single from tying it in the 9th inning and probably a double from winning it with the speedy Jacob Young on 1st base. A home run would have been a story book ending as the Nats were clawing back from a 7-3 score entering the 9th inning. In the end, it was a 1-run loss — but it showed how close the Nationals were.
Pitcher DJ Herz will face the Cubs team that traded him a year ago to the Nats. All Herz has done is find ways to improve and compete. He was drafted by the Cubs in the 8th round of the 2019 draft and traded for infielder Jeimer Candelario at the trade deadline in 2023. On June 4th, Nats’ starting pitcher Trevor Williams went on the 10-day IL, and Herz was called up. With nearly three months at the MLB level, Herz has turned in some of the best games of the year for this team. Everyone loves a good “revenge game” so let’s see what Herz can do against his former team.
Based on last year’s win total of 71-games, the Nats need to go 11-16 or better to beat that total. To beat the 66-win total from FanGraphs, the Nats need to win 6 more games. There are just 27-games remaining in the season. The team needs to win 2 more games to avoid triple-digit losses.
The Nats are slight underdogs today, at +110 to win on the moneyline. That means if you bet $100 you would win $110. Bet $10.00 and you win $11.00.
Nats’ manager Dave Martinez was able to rest Kyle Finnegan and Jacob Barnes as that pair have been taking on most of the bullpen usage recently. Last night, Martinez used Robert Garcia in a tight situation early in the game, and Eduardo Salazar, Joe La Sorsa, Orlando Ribalta, and Tanner Rainey. They all threw zeroes to keep the game in slam range, and nearly got the Nats a win.
This is what the Nats schedule looks like going forward:
- Saturday: DJ Herz vs. Cubs
- Sunday: Mitchell Parker vs. Cubs
- Monday: Day-Off September 2
- Tuesday: Patrick Corbin vs. Marlins
- Wednesday: MacKenzie Gore vs. Marlins
- Thursday: Jake Irvin vs. Pirates
- Friday: Herz vs. Pirates
- Saturday: Parker vs. Pirates
- Sunday: Corbin vs. Pirates
- Monday: Day-off September 9
Your top Washington Nationals on the FanGraphs’ WAR leaderboard has Luis Garcia Jr. atop of the WAR rankings at +2.9, Jacob Young at +2.7 and CJ Abrams at +1.8. In total, 27 Nats’ players are in positive WAR and another six are at a neutral 0.0 WAR.
“Like I said before, we’re going to play hard for the last out of the game, and they did that tonight. … They never feel like they’re out of a game — and I love that about them. They’re going to play hard. So I’m proud of them. We were down five runs early, and we made it interesting late.”
— Nats’ manager Dave Martinez said after yesterday’s game
The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 4.41 and 22nd in MLB.
Here is how they rank:
No. 5 Starter: Patrick Corbin 5.50
No. 4 Starter: MacKenzie Gore 4.45
No. 3 Starter: Mitchell Parker 4.26
No. 2 Starter: Jake Irvin 4.08
No. 1 Starter: DJ Herz 3.84
Washington Nationals vs. Chicago Cubs
Stadium: Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.
1st Pitch: 4:05 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 178 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 136:
The Nationals lost on 09/02 at home against the Mets with a record of 77-59. The Nats are in second place in the NL East. But you knew this already. Box Score / Standings
The Senators lost on 09/10 on the road against the Philadelphia Athletics resulting in a record of 79-57. The Senators have sole possession of first place and ahead of the Yankees. Box Score / Standings
