The Washington Nationals had several opportunities to take the lead yesterday in Miami. It wasn’t an issue with the Nats scoring runs, it was more of a problem of the Nats’ pitching that allowed the Marlins to score their season-high of seven runs. It was another one-run loss for the Nationals. This goes back to our previous articles on the value of one singular run.
Today’s series finale will send the Nationals to Pittsburgh either one game under .500 or three games under .500. On the mound for the Nationals will be their Opening Day starter, MacKenzie Gore, as the Marlins go with RHP Cal Quantrill.
In Saturday’s game you can point to a Trevor Williams Wild Pitch that scored a run, and a ball that couldn’t be gloved by Amed Rosario as two key plays on defense. This has been a pattern in these close losses.
“That’s just a little bit unlucky right now, but like I said, man, [Trevor] is throwing the ball really, really well. He got out of a couple of jams. All in all, I thought we played pretty well. We were down early and came back, and we just couldn’t finish today.”
— said Nats’ manager Dave Martinez
While Williams allowed four earned runs on his own, both of his inherited runners scored on Colin Poche to make it six earnies on Williams. On top of that, one Poche’s runners scored. Once again, the Nats needed a stopper, not a belly flopper. That needs to change in the future. A similar problem that the Nats had last year. That typical role when you leave men-on-base — and in this case two outs, you need a competent reliever. Some call it a fireman’s spot. Rolaids used to give out an award to the Fireman Of The Year which was a prestigious award for the best relievers in those spots. Poche served up a 2-run double to the first batter he faced. By the way, the rest of the bullpen through a shutout.
You can see the recent bullpen usage here:
Here are your Nats’ WAR leaders with Keibert Ruiz on top and fractionally followed by MacKenzie Gore. Paul DeJong is your OAA leader, and here are your stats leaders on BBRef. There are certainly some surprises on there — good and not so good — but the gap is
“We had a good, good day at the plate. I’ve said this before that if we can get the ball in the zone and not chase and accept our walks, it lengthens our lineup really, really well. And then we get on for the next guy. That’s what we’re looking for. We’ve done a way better job here in the past few days of doing that. It gives us a chance to score some runs and have a big inning. So I’m proud of the guys. They’re battling. [Sunday] we got a chance to come out here and win the series.”
— Martinez said
The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 4.26 and 21st best in MLB. The reliever’s ERA sits at a 5.33 and neutralizing.
Here is how the starters rank by ERA:
No. 5 Starter: Trevor Williams 7.36
No. 4 Starter: Michael Soroka 7.20
No. 3 Starter: Mitchell Parker 1.96
No. 2 Starter: Jake Irvin 5.63
No. 1 Starter: MacKenzie Gore 2.65
Washington Nationals vs. Miami Marlins
Stadium: loanDepot park, Miami, Florida
1st Pitch: 1:40 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 179 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.
Line-up subject to change (without notice):
