The Washington Nationals have been getting exceptional starting pitching for most of the season. The starting pitching ERA is the 5th best in all of baseball with a 3.44 ERA. But the Nats offense is not getting the job done in games when the bullpen is actually good — like yesterday in a 2-0 Nats loss. The combination of Josh Bell, Nathaniel Lowe, and Keibert Ruiz in the weekend part of the series were a combined 1-21.
In fact, the Nats offense is 12th from the bottom in OPS at .688. Which players are below that level? The answer is too many. Josh Bell will get a day-off and much needed. Lowe had an 0-fer weekend, but he also hit into some tough luck.
“Look, say what you want with the first inning with Mitchell. If he doesn’t do what he does, I don’t even know how we’re going to put that together. Him going out there and giving us five innings like that was awesome.”
— said manager Dave Martinez
You can see the recent bullpen usage here:
Here are your Nats’ WAR leaders with MacKenzie Gore followed by James Wood, Mitchell Parker, and Kyle Finnegan. Yes, FINNEGAN. On defense, Paul DeJong and Nasim Nunez are your OAA leaders , and Luis Garcia Jr. has slumped to a -2.0 already — but there was some improvement over the weekend. 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.
“We’ve always been able to fight. We’ve always been able to scratch and claw like that. We have great guys in the clubhouse, and everyone’s pulling for each other in these moments. It’s cool to see it pay off.”
— catcher Riley Adams said
The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 3.68 and 9th best in MLB. The reliever’s ERA sits at a 6.20 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 2.65
No. 2 Starter: Jake Irvin 3.19
No. 1 Starter: MacKenzie Gore 3.34
New York Mets vs. Washington Nationals
Stadium: Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.
1st Pitch: 4:05 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 175 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.
Line-up subject to change (without notice):
