Going Deep with The Nats

The Washington Nationals had a golden opportunity to dominate in a struggling Pirates team in Pittsburgh, and once again, the Nats’ starting pitching did them in again. With 16-games remaining in this season, the Nats need to make hay while the sun shines. With 65 wins in the books, the Nats need to get back to winning ways to finish strong on this season.

The Washington Nationals will have another MLB debut tonight with Jackson Rutledge getting his big opportunity. The Nats’ 1st round pick of 2019 is a large man at 6’8″ with an upper 90’s fastball, and the kid from St. Louis actually got offseason help from former Nats’ pitcher Ross Detwiler who helped Rutledge add better shaper to his changeup. Drew Millas, his teammate in the minors, will catch him tonight. Add his curveball and slider to his repertoire and he throws both the 4-seam and 2-seam varieties of the fastball.

The Washington Nationals are just 1.0 game behind the Pirates in the NL standings after the Nats celebrated a Patrick Corbin gem last night and his 10th win this season. That win against the Pirates in the first of this 4-game series leads into the second game tonight.

The Washington Nationals are just 2.0 games behind the Pirates in the NL standings, and the teams have a long 4-game series that will probably determine where they finish in relation to each other. Both are almost guaranteed losing seasons unless a baseball miracle happens.

The Washington Nationals had a lead that they lost in the bullpen last night, but in the end, the Nats won on an 11th inning wild pitch walk-off. After a rain delay of over four hours, and a very long extra innings game — it was over 8.0 hours to get most Nats fans door-to-door last night. They got a 6.0 inning one-run gem from Jake Irvin who pushed his ERA down to 4.20 — and the most impressive part is his 3.76 ERA in the second half. Josiah Gray‘s second half slide only has him 0.07 in ERA ahead of Gray for the team lead.