Game #74 Nats could match July 6, 2019 with a win!
Published by
Stephen “Ghost” Mears
on
Photo by Bailey Accorto/Nats.Talk
The Washington Nationals hit their high-mark of the season last night at 3-games over .500. On July 6, 2019, the Nats beat the Kansas City Royals to get to 4-games over .500, and that was the last time the team had seen that exact point above the .500 mark. Of course, that team would go on a roll after that in 2019 and clinch a Wild Card berth.
As Stever20 would recall, that July 6, 2019 game was the 50th year celebration of the Montreal Expos, and the team wore throwback blue Expos uniforms in that special game in which Max Scherzer would seal the win and had a steal of second base on their way to reach 4-games over .500.
As we wrote earlier, the last time the #Nats were exactly 4 games above .500 was on July 6, 2019 against the KANSAS CITY ROYALS. And a big h/t to @StatmasterSteve for sending us this great video of @emaysway and @treavturner
By the way, the Nats longest winning streak of the season was at 4-games back on May 26. With a win tonight, the Nats would match that mark and seal a series win.
On offense, the Nats are at the top of MLB for the most runs scored this season at 399 runs and that is an impressive 5.47 runs per game. With the Nats pitching giving up 4.64 earned runs per game, the difference is really those pesky unearned runs due to the errors. Overall, the Nats have a +17 run differential on the season. Since April 19th, the Nats are the 17th best in ERA in MLB in that span at 4.14.
“They understand that those small things … we have to do that really well if we want to be playing playoff baseball.”
Tonight’s game against the Kansas Royals has Foster Griffin for the Nats as the starting pitcher. It was the Royals that drafted Griffin in the first round of the 2014 draft. They eventually allowed him to become a free agent and then re-acquired him and traded Griffin away. This becomes a great revenge game for Griffin against his former team.
After Clayton Beeter has pitched two games in a row, and Brad Lord went deep in long-relief with Gus Varland closing the game out last night, the bullpen situation might look to other arms in tonight’s game. Mitchell Parker has warmed up but not used since the San Francisco series. Here is Butera’s bullpen chart:
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.
Kansas City Royals vs.Washington Nationals
Stadium: Nationals Park, Washington, D.C. 1st Pitch: 6:45 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.
Leave a Reply