Photo by Sol Tucker/Nats.Talk

The Washington Nationals have a July 4^th game, and this one is extra special as it is America’s 250^th birthday! The Nats go for a series win today after a 9-5 win tonight to start the 3-game series.

The Nats will go with lefty Carson Palmquist as their opener, and righty Zack Littell will be the bulk pitcher after Palmquist.

With Luis Garcia Jr. and Daylen Lile smashing two homers each last night, the Nats offense allowed manager Blake Butera to go with Zak Kent to throw the final two innings to close out the game.

❝With Luis’ bat-to-ball skill, it’s hard to find a spot to get him out,” said manager Blake Butea. He’s got really good hand-eye coordination, he’s able to cover every pitch, especially when he’s seeing the ball as well as he is right now.❞

— manager Blake Butera said after the game yesterday

On offense, the Nats are at the 1st in MLB for the most runs scored this season at 479 runs and that is an impressive 5.38 runs per game. With the Nats pitching giving up 4.63 earned runs per game, the difference is really those pesky unearned runs due to the errors. Overall, the Nats have a +21 run differential on the season.

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.

Pittsburgh Pirates vs. Washington Nationals

Stadium: Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.
1st Pitch: 11:05 AM EDT
TV: Nationals.TV
Radio: 106.7 The Fan radio and via the MLB app. On Sirius/XM, tune to Channel 175 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.