On paper, the Washington Nationals starting pitching looked like an upgrade over last year. It still might be, and only because the bar was so low last year with a 5.18 ERA for the starters and 5.59 for the relievers.

Newly acquired starters Foster Griffin and Zack Littell had been looking serviceable until Littell threw a dud last night and pushed his ERA from 4.20 to 7.11. Miles Mikolas was the third of the starters who was acquired before this season. He hasn’t been good at all with his 11.49 ERA. And we warned you days ago that the pitching was the problem with the team. The main reason the Nationals are 9-11 is because of the top-rated offense in baseball.

We often quote Hall-of-Fame manager Earl Weaver‘s keys to winning, “pitching, defense and three-run homers.” Weaver would tell that two ways in his lifetime. Pitching and three-run homers were a constant in the quote. Sometimes he would say defense, and sometimes he would say fundamentals. Maybe it should read: pitching defense, fundamentals, and three-run homers. The Nats have better defense this year. And they are getting plenty of three-run homers. Fundamentals are improving. But overall, the pitching stinks. The team is the second to last in ERA at 6.12.

Too often, pitching coach Simon Mathews is on the mound talking to one of his pitchers. To date, the starting pitchers have a higher ERA (6.24) than the relievers (6.01). It was the reverse prior to yesterday’s game. Littell gave up 8-earnies last night over 4.0 innings, and the bullpen held the Giants to just two runs over 5.0 innings. Littell just had limited movement on his pitches that hung too close to the middle of the zone and looked like he was tossing BP.

There is no easy solution today as to how you fix this rotation externally or internally. You could try to bring back LHP Andrew Alvarez or even right-hander Riley Cornelio for Mikolas. Here is a quick link to the Rochester Triple-A roster. That might be the only immediate solution. Mitchell Parker is now in the bullpen as a long-man. But mostly, this really has to be fixed from within and coaching up these players.

Counting on scoring eight runs from your offense, like the team did on Thursday, to win 8-7 in Pittsburgh shouldn’t be a strategy of how you win games. You have to get back to basics and count on better pitching along with the improved offense to win games.

The MLB middle as we just wrote about is a 4.01 ERA. That is where you set the line of demarcation. Who is above, near, and well below that level? The list of players better than a 4.01 ERA is short: Parker (0.00), Griffin (3.05), PJ Poulin (3.86), and Clayton Beeter (3.86) are the only pitchers better than that mark. Hovering just above it are Gus Varland (4.05) and Paxton Schultz (4.50) and that is it. The other seven pitchers are above 4.50 and that is not good enough even though some would argue that the sample sizes are still small.

The team is also a horrendous 1-6 at home as compared to 8-5 on the road. That is an oddity on the surface, yet a very sample size gets skewed when you consider three of the games were against the World Series champion Dodgers, and the team went 1-2 against the Cardinals.

As they say, today is a new day, and the hope is today’s starter, Cade Cavalli, finds his “good” form because this team really needs it. He threw an absolute dud in Pittsburgh and was pulled after 1⅓ innings after giving up four runs. You hope for a Cavalli gem today to turn the page and get this team back to positive vibes.