The goal was to finish the 16-game marathon without a day-off in a spot that the team was in a good spot to finish the month near a .500 record. After a 4-2 road trip to get to today, the Washington Nationals are 29-28 and one game above .500.
While fans are dreaming of actually being relevant at the trade deadline, others are talking about the No. 1 offense in baseball in the most important stat: Runs Scored. Another great stat is a road trip in which the bulk pitchers only gave up 2-earnies in those six games. Both losses on the road trip were 1-run losses and were extremely winnable games.
There is a saying in baseball that you won’t win them all. That is true. With this turn in the starting rotation looking more competent, fans are no longer dreading games with Miles Mikolas and Zack Littell as pitchers.
While you want to look at how good Foster Griffin has pitched this season, what about Cade Cavalli who has given up 2-earnies or fewer in 9-of-12 starts this season. The other three games were two games of three runs, and one with four runs. The Nats just have to play better in his starts. The other starter, Jake Irvin, is now on the 15-day IL. Andrew Alvarez, as expected, will be the bulk starter in his place.
The roster could use some improving. We’ve seen the struggles of Andres Chaparro, Jorbit Vivas, and Jose Tena. And the Vivas struggles in RISP spots was worsened in the 9th inning last night. He is now 0-23 in RISP spots. Tena is a -0.2 WAR, and Chaparro is -0.1. Is it time to move on with two of those three players?
With so many red hot hitters in Triple-A Rochester, even Brady House hit two homers yesterday. Abimelec Ortiz is en fuego with seven homers in six games, and Yohandy Morales has been the hottest hitter for Rochester all season. Then you have infielder Seaver King who just got promoted to Triple-A last week and he is crushing it. Will we see any of them called up on Friday?
Right now, the boy genius, Blake Butera, is looking like a real contender of Manager of the Year. Again, if the season ended today, sure, he has earned it.
The Nats have a big weekend against the San Diego Padres. Ironically, they are the team the Nats can thank for James Wood and CJ Abrams who were both acquired in the Juan Soto trade in 2022. We covered this in the Soto Tree article.
Time to see what the Nats can do as they close out the month of May and move into June. There are a lot of storylines coming together that include the minor leaguers as well as the draft that is just 44 days away. The future certainly looks bright.
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