Photo by Sol Tucker/Nats.Talk

The Washington Nationals were one pitch from taking the first three games in the series then a 2-out home run with two strikes turned into another gut-punch Nats loss. This was like a replay of Tuesday. Baseball can be cruel. Even President of Baseball Operations, Paul Toboni, publicly said that he was “freaking pissed off” after Tuesday’s loss. Wonder how he felt after last night?

This is technically a getaway game. In the past 10 getaway games, the Nats are 1-9. Before that they were 6-3 in the first nine. The Nats need a win tonight. Can they find some way to get the Curly W? They have to face one of the best pitchers in baseball in Cristopher Sanchez. Can Cade Cavalli pitch a complete game perfect game? Seriously though, Cavalli has to throw zeros up there and do his job.

As we expected, LHP Carson Palmquist was sent back to Triple-A after going 3 1/3 innings last night. He wouldn’t be available for five days and it made sense to get a fresh arm up here. It turns out that Justin Lawrence who was claimed off of waivers yesterday will replace Palmquist on the roster. The Nats designated RHP Jhancarlos Lara for assignment.

❝I was driving home last night so freaking pissed off [after the loss]. It kind of hit me, that it’s a good thing. We have higher expectations than people had coming into the year. … This team will bounceback.

We’re not shying away from the fact that we could have a lot more wins right now if our bullpen was throwing a little bit better.❞

— Paul Toboni said on 106.7 The Fan’s Sports Junkies show on Wednesday morning

On offense, the Nats are at the top of MLB for the most runs scored this season at 433 runs and that is an impressive 5.32 runs per game. With the Nats pitching giving up 4.69 earned runs per game, the difference is really those pesky unearned runs due to the errors. Overall, the Nats have a +9 run differential on the season. Since April 19th, the Nats are the 19th best in ERA in MLB in that span at 4.27.

Here is manager Blake Butera‘s bullpen chart:

The FanGraphs WAR chart is now large in its sample size. You can certainly start to extrapolate the numbers for the full-season. The OAA defense stat is now giving us a picture of what the Nats have — and don’t have.

Philadelphia Phillies 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 179 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.