The Washington Nationals had yesterday’s game won until they didn’t. Another case of the wins can’t be counted until final score is determined in the end. The Nats suffered another 1-run loss in extra innings. The value of 1-run and executing on the “little things” continue to bite this team in the W/L column.
Starter MacKenzie Gore had a perfect game going until a 3-2 pitch on the corner was ruled in favor of the batter, a rookie callup, with 2-outs in the 6th inning. Of course that runner scored on a double — and should have been out by a mile at the plate. A good throw would have easily beat the runner to the plate, but CJ Abrams threw the ball into the dirt, and it bounced 3-times and allowed the runner to score. The Nats came back with a 3-run 8th inning to take the lead, but Kyle Finnegan blew the save in the 9th inning.
To add insult to injury, the late night getaway game in Miami got the Nats into Pittsburgh just after 2 AM, and the players got into their hotel rooms after 3 AM. For the light sleepers, you know how noisy it gets early in the morning with noise of doors closing and vacuum cleaners whirling.
Based on last year’s win total of 71-games, the Nats need to go 10-13 or better to beat that total. To exceed the 66-win total from FanGraphs, the Nats need to win 5 more games. There are just 23-games remaining in the season. The team needs to win 1 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 $105 you would win $100. Bet $10.50 and you win $10.00.
Nats’ manager Dave Martinez had a rusty birthday boy in Kyle Finnegan last night, and he took over with 2-outs and immediately blew the save.
This is what the Nats schedule looks like going forward:
- Thursday: Jake Irvin vs. Pirates
- Friday: DJ Herz vs. Pirates
- Saturday: Mitchell Parker vs. Pirates
- Sunday: Patrick Corbin vs. Pirates
- Monday: Day-off September 9
- Tuesday: MacKenzie Gore vs. Atlanta
- Wednesday: Irvin vs. Atlanta
Your top Washington Nationals on the FanGraphs’ WAR leaderboard has Jacob Young at +2.9 to lead the team. Luis Garcia Jr. is next with a WAR of +2.9, and CJ Abrams has sunk all the way back to +1.5. In total, 28 Nats’ players are in positive WAR and another eight are at a neutral 0.0 WAR.
“For me, the story is MacKenzie, man. That was really good. He pitched really well. Gave us six strong innings. His changeup was really good, but his fastball was electric, too. He pitched well. He pitched really well.”
— Nats’ manager Dave Martinez said after yesterday’s game
“We just can’t chase. The biggest thing with our offense, when we chase, we just take ourselves out of at-bats, especially with guys on-base. Yesterday, we did a better job. We scored some more runs. Today, we took a lot of balls we should hit, and we started chasing a lot of balls we shouldn’t have swung at.”
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 5.41
No. 4 Starter: MacKenzie Gore 4.32
No. 3 Starter: Mitchell Parker 4.27
No. 2 Starter: DJ Herz 4.09
No. 1 Starter: Jake Irvin 4.08
Washington Nationals vs. Pittsburgh Pirates
Stadium: PNC Park, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
1st Pitch: 6:40 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 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 140:
The Nationals lost on 09/06 on the road in Atlanta with a record of 78-62. The Nats are in second place in the NL East. But you knew this already. Box Score / Standings
The Senators lost on 09/14 on the road against the Detroit Tigers resulting in a record of 82-58. The Senators have sole possession of first place and ahead of the Yankees. Box Score / Standings
