Photo by EGV/Nats.Talk

The Washington Nationals have their final game against Cleveland — and a chance to get to a spot they haven’t seen since 2019 — and that is getting to three games over .500 if the Nats can win this afternoon. Nearly seven years of history, and a legitimate chance to head back to Washington, D.C. tonight with a day-off tomorrow.

The entire bullpen, except for Brad Lord and Mitchell Parker, should be at the ready with PJ Poulin as today’s opener before going to bulk pitcher, Miles Mikolas, to take over and try to continue this streak of gems for the Nationals.

With the Nats offense leading baseball in runs scored, the Nats Big-5, the L.A.W.Y.R.’s of Lile, Abrams, Wood, Young and Ruiz have a combined +7.7. And recently, Young passed Lile for the third most valuable Nats with Wood back at the top. Curtis Mead is just behind Ruiz.

Here is the usage chart for manager Blake Butera‘s bullpen:

The FanGraphs WAR chart is accumulating data. The numbers are getting very large as the season is headed towards the halfway point on June 24. The OAA defense stat is now giving us a picture of what the Nats have — and don’t have.

Washington Nationals vs. Cleveland Guardians

Stadium: Progressive Field, Cleveland, Ohio
1st Pitch: 1:10 PM EDT
TV: Nationals.TV
Radio: 106.7 The Fan radio and via the MLB app. On Sirius/XM, tune to Channel 176 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.