Going Deep with The Nats

The Washington Nationals got a laugher win in Miami, and needed it. While the game not start off as a laugher, the Nats ran away with the game in the fifth inning capped by a Jesse Winker grand slam. At the top of the 9th inning, the Nationals had an 11-1 lead. The Marlins didn’t opt to pitch a position player, but manager Dave Martinez inserted Tanner Rainey for the 9th inning. Rainey gave up more runs than the Marlins had scored in the previous 17 innings off of Nats pitching. The good news, the Nationals have now won the first two games of this four game series.

The Washington Nationals came away with a win to open their series in Miami by a final score of 3-1. It took a while for the Nationals’ offense to push across some runs, and the highlight of the game happened on a 2-run single by Joey Meneses to score CJ Abrams on the back-end of the play with a Matrix slide that was impressive.

The Washington Nationals start their first of thirteen games this season against the Miami Marlins. While the Nats have been dealing with injuries, the Marlins have been decimated with injuries on their pitching staff. The Nats are in fourth place in the NL East, and the Marlins are in the cellar.

The Washington Nationals were crushed last night 11-2 in the final score. But when you dig into the numbers and watch the game, two key plays that weren’t made at first base resulted in three runs. Two runs came off of a scoop of a throw that Trey Lipscomb couldn’t handle at first base from Luis Garcia Jr. Another on a double down the line past a lunging Lipscomb put up another run. Other plays were hard grounders past the middle infielders. Suffice it to say if just the two plays were made at first base, starter Jake Irvin easily finishes 5.0 innings at a 3-2 score — worst case. Instead, he exited during the fifth inning at a score of 6-2, and the Nats’ bullpen imploded for five more runs, and gave up 13 balls contacted at 100 mph or over.

In total, the Dodgers hit 18 balls at 100 mph and over, and amazingly 14 were hits. Contrastingly, the Nats smoked eight balls at 100 mph and over and only two were hits. The difference between the two teams on those triple-digit balls was a .778 batting average versus .250. It was more than BABIP luck as the Nats’ bullpen, especially Tanner Rainey, was serving up meatballs with a 9.125 inch circumference as the hors d’oeuvres before the main meal and dessert. But yes, BABIP, poor positioning, and lackluster defense all played its parts in last night’s feast for Dem Bums.

The Washington Nationals have had their best rotation span this season with just four runs given up by the starters in their previous five games, and that equates to just0.80 runs per game. Unfortunately, the offense has been struggling with pushing runs across. The team has only scored a measly 81-runs over 22 games this season and that is 3.68 runs per game. Not good enough. Five Nats’ starters are batting well below the Mendoza divide.

The Washington Nationals start their longest span of games today without a day-off as they have 13-games in a row until their next day-off on May 6. The Dodgers are in D.C. for three games to finish up their season series.