The Washington Nationals had chances on Friday and Saturday night for walk-offs. There was no final celebration for the home team as they couldn’t get the final hit to win. Maybe the issue is they lost it on mistakes earlier in the game. This is the learning a young team must do to take one-step back to move two forward. The Nats are now back in salvage mode in a series. They need that Curl W today.
Today is also September 1 when rosters expanded from 26 to 28 players. The Nats added a name that many fans will recognize in Darren Baker, the son of Dusty Baker, and the other player they added is a Scrabble word name you should remember in Zach Brzykcy.
Baker and Brzykcy came to the Nationals in much different ways. Baker through the traditional route via the draft in the 10th round in 2021 out of college, and Brzykcy was undrafted out of Virginia Tech and signed a UDFA which is an undrafted free agent. Both persevered through injuries and getting back to showing that they deserved a callup.
Both will have their families in attendance for this game today, and Baker’s father, Dusty, will attend his first game at Nationals Park as a fan with a vested interested in his son as an MLB player.
Speaking of familial connections, the Cubs starter, Jordan Wicks, is the brother-in-law of Evan Lee who is in the Nats’ minor league system. Lee debuted in 2022 with the Nats and since then has fought numerous injuries.
Based on last year’s win total of 71-games, the Nats need to go 11-15 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 26-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 +105 to win on the moneyline. That means if you bet $100 you would win $105. Bet $10.00 and you win $10.50.
Nats’ manager Dave Martinez used Tanner Rainey in another close game and Rainey looked great against a tough Cubs’ lineup. Kyle Finnegan sat again with the Nats’ behind, and Martinez pushed on Robert Garcia in this one. With Brzykcy added to the bullpen, there are now nine bullpen arms.
This is what the Nats schedule looks like going forward:
- 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: DJ 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, 28 Nats’ players are in positive WAR and another five 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 Friday’s game
The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 4.43 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: DJ Herz 4.09
No. 1 Starter: Jake Irvin 4.08
Washington Nationals vs. Chicago Cubs
Stadium: Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.
1st Pitch: 1:35 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 177 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 137:
The Nationals won on 09/03 at home against the Mets with a record of 78-59. The Nats are in second place in the NL East. But you knew this already. This was the KURT SUZUKI walk-off game in which he hit the Weaver for the 7th run in the 9th inning to win it. Box Score / Standings
The Senators won on 09/10 on the road against the Philadelphia Athletics resulting in a record of 80-57. The Senators have sole possession of first place and ahead of the Yankees. Box Score / Standings
