Photo by Sol Tucker/Nats.Talk

The Washington Nationals were looking good last night until they didn’t. The bulk pitchers had been so good and everything was working well until last night when Andrew Alvarez just didn’t have it and had to be pulled after only pitching 3.0 innings with three earned runs. That taxed the bullpen and will certainly have a cascading effect.

After two consecutive losses and falling back to .500, the Nats turn their hopes to LHP Foster Griffin. The Padres will start the right-hander Michael King. Nats’ manager Blake Butera has Curtis Mead on the bench as well as Jacob Young. Does the move with Mead have anything to do with him not hustling on what should have been a double after a ball was lost in the twilight sky by a Padres fielder?

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 +8.1. And recently, Young and Ruiz have both passed Lile in WAR with Wood at the top. Curtis Mead is just behind Ruiz at +0.8. While that might not sound like a lot, that’s a 2.2 WAR player who wasn’t a starter until recently.

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.

San Diego Padres vs. Washington Nationals

Stadium: Nationals Park, Washington D.C.
1st Pitch: 4:05 PM EDT
TV: Nationals.TV
Radio: 106.7 The Fan radio and via the MLB app. On Sirius/XM, tune to Channel 178 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.