The Washington Nationals and the Pittsburgh Pirates as well as all of baseball will be wearing jersey No. 42 tonight for Jackie Robinson Day. Today commemorates the 78th anniversary of Robinson’s debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. This day celebrates his historic achievement of breaking the color barrier in Major League Baseball, his achievements to the game and as a leader in civil rights.
The Nats were in a 3-3 tie yesterday in the middle innings, and had a chance to win a game started by Pirates’ ace Paul Skenes. In an instant, the wheels came off and the Pirates added seven runs to stretch their lead to 10-3. In the postgame, manager Dave Martinez did not hold back on the criticism of his bullpen, and one play that was not made on what appeared to be an easy popup just beyond the infield dirt. When that play happened, the game was tied, and that would have been the second out in the inning.
“We couldn’t catch a popup. That ball has to be caught 100 out of 100 times” — Martinez said in the postgame. All Luis Garcia Jr. had to do was turn around and catch the ball. Here is the play:
Every loss seems to have that one singular play that turns the game in a negative direction. Garcia has now missed two routine plays, both ruled hits, that turned games like yesterday, and the one loss in the Dodgers’ series. It’s more than Garcia of course. The base running mistakes, bullpen meltdowns, chasing pitches out of the zone, and of course some poor coaching decisions. A lot goes into a loss — but too often there is one play that seems to stand-out above others.
“There’s got to be a little more intensity from this bullpen when they come into games to keep it close. Right now, there’s two guys back there, we can’t even get to them — Ferrer and Finnegan.”
— said Nats’ manager Dave Martinez
“For me, it’s the walks that have really been hurting us. We walk guys, and they score. We’ve got to come in and throw strikes.”
“I always tell them that when they come into a game, it’s a closing situation. They’ve got to close that inning out, keep us in the game and give our offense a chance to come back.”
You can see the recent bullpen usage here:
Here are your Nats’ WAR leaders with MacKenzie Gore taking back the team lead just ahead of Keibert Ruiz. Paul DeJong is your OAA leader, and Amed Rosario who barely plays is a -3.0 already. Why is he playing if you have alternatives? Here are your stats leaders on BBRef. There are certainly some surprises on there — good and not so good — but the gap is widening.
The Nationals have three daily starters who are well below the .200 batting average line known as the Mendoza Line. The season is now 10 percent complete, and the early results are worrisome based on underlying statistics such as chasing balls out of the zone. Luis Garcia Jr., Josh Bell, and Dylan Crews are all on this list. Each have started most of the season. Bell has the lowest exit velo of his career, and his in-zone misses are as troublesome as the out-of-zone misses. As a primary DH, if you are facing a pitcher pumping 97-99 fastballs, you should be in the indoor cage between innings to get your timing ready for the fastball!
“Go 1-0 today.”
— Martinez said
The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 4.59 and 8th worst in MLB. The reliever’s ERA sits at a 6.91 and is the worst in MLB.
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 3.52
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 177 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.
Line-up subject to change (without notice):
