The Washington Nationals won the first two games of this series against Baltimore to take their record to 11-13. This series wraps up tonight against the Orioles. A key is for the Nationals who must go 5-2 or better to finish with a winning record on April 30 — something that manager Dave Martinez has not been able to do in his managerial career that began with the Nats in the 2018 season.
Last night, James Wood and Josh Bell both crushed first inning home runs, and it was a manufactured run in the 8th inning from Luis Garcia Jr. that pushed across the winning run on a Sac Fly. In his postgame presser, Martinez pointed out the hustle of Nathaniel Lowe to beat-out a grounder that could have been a double play. That was the key to allowing Garcia to hit the game winning sac fly. Also, a key pinch hit single to start that inning by Alex Call.
With a single last night, Dylan Crews is just six points from crossing over the Mendoza line. His home run and single on Tuesday night showed that if you remove his first week, which was miserable, Crews has been actually good since that point and batting .269 with a .758 OPS. He has also hit into some bad luck while also getting more than his fair share of bad umpiring on close calls. Per StatCast, Crews’ xBA is at .283 with an xSLG of .504. Maybe the disjointed umpiring is factoring into his poor 3.8 percent BB% — that has to improve. If you go by the BBRef WAR, Crews is a +0.1, and on FanGraphs a -0.2.
“Dylan Crews‘ last eight games or so have been what we think he should be. He’s been a slow starter every rung in the minor leagues, he starts slow and kind of figures out a league and does well. We’re all very hopeful that this is just another part of his development where it starts a little slow, starting to get a feel for it.”
— General Manager Mike Rizzo said on his JunksRadio weekly radio appearance
“Pitchers made an adjustment to him, and he’s starting to make adjustments to them. They did a few mechanical tweaks with his swing, got a little bit more upright so I think he feels a lot better in the box. And, they’re getting Gold Glove defense from him in the outfield, and he’s a great base runner. He’s just a good baseball player, so excited to see him get going.”
You can see the recent bullpen usage here:
Here are your Nats’ WAR leaders with MacKenzie Gore followed by James Wood, Mitchell Parker, Nathaniel Lowe 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. Another issue that we have discussed is the positioning of Nathaniel Lowe at first base as he is too often out of position to make a play — and OAA has his chance at success at only 56 percent which must improve. These are your stats leaders on BBRef. There are certainly some surprises on there — good and not so good — but the gap is widening.
“I might think about it for a second, but if CJ can get on for James, it would be pretty nice. CJ, rightfully so, he deserves to get back here and get in the leadoff spot. When he gets going, which he will, those two guys at the top of the order will be pretty good.”
— Martinez said
The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 3.55 and 8th best in MLB. The reliever’s ERA sits at a 6.96 and is the worst in MLB.
Here is how the starters rank by ERA:
No. 5 Starter: Trevor Williams 5.11
No. 4 Starter: Michael Soroka 7.20
No. 3 Starter: Mitchell Parker 1.39
No. 2 Starter: Jake Irvin 3.68
No. 1 Starter: MacKenzie Gore 3.41
Baltimore Orioles vs. Washington Nationals
Stadium: Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.
1st Pitch: 6:45 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 89 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.
Line-up subject to change (without notice):
