Going Deep with The Nats

The Washington Nationals have averaged 6.5 runs per game so far in San Diego, and that should have been enough to produce two wins if the defense and pitching did their jobs. They didn’t.

The Nationals are the 6th worst defensive team in baseball not counting their catching defense — and if you remove Jacob Young — the Nats are the worst by far. The plays not made are piling up. A flyball to Lane Thomas, a grounder to Luis Garcia Jr., a throw to Nick Senzel, a scoop by Joey Meneses are all recent costly missed plays … in the past few days. The infield has looked like swiss cheese for groundballs finding the fertile green outfield grass for back-breaking hits.

Would you be surprised if you learned that Abrams leads the Nationals in the worst fielding per Statcast, and also most recently in the worst baserunning. You want to be paid like Bobby Witt Jr.? Play a complete game like Witt! Going 3-for-3 then getting picked-off twice won’t get you the massive contract. You have to play all parts of the game, not just hit the ball.

The Washington Nationals had one of their best comebacks of the season yesterday, with contributions from players in the back of the lineup. Unfortunately, another blown save negated a great win. That happens to all teams in experiencing a heartbreak loss. It is what you do in the next game that says more. That is what the Nats did on Sunday, after a Saturday night blown save.

The Washington Nationals arrived in San Diego last night just one-half game behind the Padres in the Wild Card standings. A Nationals win tonight, and the teams flip-flop spots. Can Patrick Corbin and his team replicate what they did with him on the mound in Boston? Corbin has pitched four games this season giving up 1-run or less, can he make it five games tonight?

The Washington Nationals had to play the Colorado Rockies last night and the umps. In the end, the Nats lost on a blown-save on a bases loaded pitch violation with Kyle Finnegan giving up four consecutive singles and a walk with not one out recorded. He just couldn’t miss a bat last night in his 18 pitches. Not one swing-and-miss induced. He might have blown a bigger lead if he had it. Just a gut punch of a loss in an 8-7 final. The Nats drop to 6-11 in one-run games which is one of the reasons this team isn’t running away with a Wild Card berth right now.

In last night’s game, there were 12 strike calls in favor of the Rockies last night and only four in favor of the Nationals. That is a net of eight incorrect calls that went against the Nationals. A huge disparity, and some calls were costlier than others. Then you had a steal from CJ Abrams that was overturned on a replay challenge. Two replay angles shown on TV backed up that the base was stolen. Was there another angle? Well, the replay umpire reversed the call. It was a huge play at the time, and could have blown the game open.

The Washington Nationals had an offensive explosion last night in Colorado. A much-needed win for the Nats to get them back on track. Tonight, it is Mitchell Parker‘s turn to take the mound, and he hopes to improve on his previous start.

The Washington Nationals flew out of Dulles Airport after 8 pm last night and landed in Denver just before midnight in the east. The team now has to get used to the altitude, and the hope is that tonight’s pitcher, DJ Herz, got into Colorado on an earlier flight to go for a jog and get acclimated to the thin air. Of course Herz is trying to replicate what he did last week in his gem. As they say in altitude, fastballs and changeups work the best, and that could help Herz. Sliders don’t always slide the same, and Herz is using it sparingly.