The Washington Nationals had starter, Mitchell Parker, on the mound for his final start of 2024 — and for him, another chance to show that he deserves a roster spot for 2025. Parker’s night started with a Trey Lipscomb error that Parker had to pitch-around — and the lefty went 5.0 innings of scoreless baseball to better his ERA to 4.29. Before the season started, we etched the line of demarcation at 4.20ish for the average of success. Parker might have sealed a No. 5 spot on the 2025 roster. Tonight is DJ Herz‘s final start of 2024 (weather permitting). Parker just moved ahead of Herz by 0.01 in team ERA. Herz was looking like the ace of the staff until his blowup start last week. So yes, you want Herz to pitch well tonight and finish strong. That is the goal for all of the Nats starters.
Yesterday’s game moved the Nats record at 14-23 in 1-run games (.378 winning %). They are 5-12 in extra inning games (an awful .294 winning %). That points to the luck factor, execution, defense, pitching, and scoring runs. If your starters go close to 6.0 innings and hold the opponent to 3-runs or less — the pitcher is giving the team a good chance to win — and the four projected young starters for next season have all done that.
The Nats need to go 3-2 or better to surpass their 2023 win total and that is now looking bleak. Can the Nats win at least one more to get to 70-wins?
The Nats are slight underdogs today at +120 to win on the moneyline. That means if you bet $100 you would win $120. Bet $10.00 and you win $12.00.
Nats’ manager Dave Martinez went to his “A” bullpen last night in a 0-0 tie game with Derek Law and Jose A. Ferrer taking on 2.0 innings each, and Kyle Finnegan took on the extra innings and took the loss on a throwing error.
Here is a look at the matchups:
- Wednesday: DJ Herz vs. Royals
- Thursday: Patrick Corbin vs. Royals
- Friday: Trevor Williams vs. Phillies
- Saturday: MacKenzie Gore vs. Phillies
- Sunday: Jake Irvin vs. Phillies (Final Game of the Season)
Your top Washington Nationals on the FanGraphs’ WAR leaderboard has MacKenzie Gore at the top at 2.9 and just ahead of Luis Garcia Jr. at +2.8. Jacob Young is at +2.6. CJ Abrams whose season has ended is at +1.8 WAR. There are 30 Nats’ players in positive WAR with another 7.
“It all came down to one play, and execution. Not being able to hit the ball. It’s kind of been a common theme these last few weeks.”
— said manager Dave Martinez yesterday
The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 4.42 and 24th in MLB.
Here is how they rank:
No. 5 Starter: Patrick Corbin 5.58
No. 4 Starter: DJ Herz 4.30
No. 3 Starter: Mitchell Parker 4.29
No. 2 Starter: Jake Irvin 4.22
No. 1 Starter: MacKenzie Gore 4.04
Washington Nationals vs. Kansas City Royals
Stadium: Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.
1st Pitch: 6:45 pm EDT
TV: MASN2
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.
