The Washington Nationals got another ace performance from DJ Herz as he has stepped up as the team’s No. 1 starter this season. He was never even in the plans until Trevor Williams went down with an injury in the first week of June. With 17-starts in the books, Herz lowered his ERA to an impressive 3.70. Can he improve further? Herz will get back into the pitching lab this offseason to try to emerge next season as the team’s ace.
Today, it is Patrick Corbin‘s third start from the end of his checkered Nats’ career that will finish hopefully on an up-note. His World Series contributions in the 2019 season started his 6-year deal on a high note — but it is hard to sugarcoat his 5.10 ERA in his Nats’ tenure.
The Nats got some great defense from all of their players last night, and defense and hustle have started to define what Dylan Crews brings. Along with a developing bat at the MLB level, he will get his reps and try to keep pushing his numbers up.
The Nats need to go 6-9 or better to beat their 2023 win total. How great would that be to finish in the mid-70’s for a win total? After this 4-game series with the Marlins, the Nats will only face teams in competition for the postseason.
The Nats are favorites today, at -145 to win on the moneyline. That means if you bet $145 you would win $100. Bet $14.50 and you win $10.00.
Nats’ manager Dave Martinez need 4.0 innings last night from the bullpen to seal the victory, which they did. Eduardo Salazar, Jose A. Ferrer, and Kyle Finnegan combined for four zeroes, and Ferrer covered 2.0 innings.
This is what the Nats schedule looks like going forward, and the plan is to get Trevor Williams back into the rotation and finish the final week-and-a-half of the season with a 6-man rotation:
- Saturday: Patrick Corbin vs. Marlins
- Sunday: MacKenzie Gore vs. Marlins
- Monday: Jake Irvin vs. Mets
- Tuesday: Mitchell Parker vs. Mets
- Wednesday: DJ Herz vs. Mets
- Thursday: Corbin vs. Cubs
- Friday: Gore vs. Cubs
- Saturday: Irvin vs. Cubs
- Sunday: Parker vs. Cubs
- Monday: Day-off September 23
- Tuesday: Herz vs. Royals
- Wednesday: Corbin vs. Royals
- Thursday: Gore vs. Royals
- Friday: Irvin vs. Phillies
- Saturday: Parker vs. Phillies
- Sunday: Herz vs. Phillies (Final Game of the Season)
Your top Washington Nationals on the FanGraphs’ WAR leaderboard has Jacob Young at +2.8, Luis Garcia Jr. at a WAR of +2.8, and CJ Abrams has sunk all the way back to +1.6. In total, 29 Nats’ players are in positive WAR and another seven are at a neutral 0.0 WAR.
“When we first saw [Herz], he was all over the map. We got him, talked to him in Spring Training about just controlling the strike zone. Be aggressive in the zone. You have to be in the zone. You can’t pitch here when you’re walking three, four, five guys a game. He took it to heart, and went [to Triple-A], and really was just trying to throw the ball over the plate. He gets up here, and he’s had his moments. … When he does that, he’s really good.”
— 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 5.60
No. 4 Starter: MacKenzie Gore 4.34
No. 3 Starter: Mitchell Parker 4.29
No. 2 Starter: Jake Irvin 4.19
No. 1 Starter: DJ Herz 3.70
Washington Nationals vs. Miami Marlins
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.
