The Washington Nationals have won the first two games of this three game series and have already sealed a series win. Now we are in Game 2 of this doubleheader with Brad Lord poetically pitching on Easter Sunday.
Tonight’s split admission doubleheader finished with a thrilling 3-2 win in the first game of the twin bill. The Nationals enter this game at 9-12, and the Rockies are 3-17. After the game, the Nats will fly back to Dulles Airport ahead of their Monday day-off.
A congratulations to Kyle Finnegan for his 96th career save in today’s first game, Finnegan has passed Drew Storen for the second-most saves in Nationals history (2005-pres.). Finnegan did this in his 300th appearance and in 300 innings while getting his 300th strikeout in this game.
“That was almost like déjà vu there. Similar situation, but regardless of how the game has gone prior to coming in, you treat it the same. You separate it, you execute one pitch at a time.”
— Finnegan said after the first game of the doubleheader
The Nats have promoted RHP Andry Lara to the roster as the 27th player for this doubleheader. He is ranked 16th on MLB Pipeline’s list for the Washington Nationals prospects. Lara is the lone remaining healthy pitcher on the 40-man roster who was available for a call-up. If he gets into a game today, that would mark his MLB debut. If he pitches well, maybe he stays and someone else leaves. The Nationals have the worst bullpen in baseball by a large margin. Since Jorge Lopez was suspended yesterday and the first game today, his suspension is completed, and he is eligible to return today.
You can see the recent bullpen usage here:
Here are your Nats’ WAR leaders with MacKenzie Gore followed by James Wood, Mitchell Parker, and Keibert Ruiz. On defense, Paul DeJong is your OAA leader, and Amed Rosario who barely plays is a -2.0 already. Unfortunately Luis Garcia Jr.‘s defensive struggles are back, and he is also a -2.0 OAA on defense. Here are your stats leaders on BBRef. There are certainly some surprises on there — good and not so good — but the gap is widening.
“We always want to be aggressive. Today, we were going to try. We know we have two games. We’re going to push the envelope a little bit. And we capitalized.”
— Martinez said
The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 3.85 and 12th best in MLB. The reliever’s ERA sits at a 7.49 and is the worst in MLB by over two runs per game.
Here is how the starters rank by ERA:
No. 5 Starter: Trevor Williams 5.95
No. 4 Starter: Michael Soroka 7.20
No. 3 Starter: Mitchell Parker 1.85
No. 2 Starter: Jake Irvin 3.68
No. 1 Starter: MacKenzie Gore 3.41
Washington Nationals vs. Colorado Rockies
Stadium: Coors Field, Denver, Colorado
1st Pitch: 8:10 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 188 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.
Line-up subject to change (without notice):
