Photo by Sol Tucker/Nats.Talk

The Washington Nationals suffered their 27ᵗʰ blown save last night. This was their second blown save in a row — and this one was another of the dreaded blown saves coupled with a loss. Manager Blake Butera did everything right in this game and entrusted his two best relievers who both failed. This loss pushed the Nats back to .500. They need to win today to go into the All-Star break above .500.

For the finale in this series, the Nats will start Cade Cavalli who finished up his five game suspension. Miles Mikolas will start his five game suspension beginning today from his involvement in the fracas in Boston last week. There is no telling how Butera will set up his bullpen after Cavalli is done.

After this game, Foster Griffin, James Wood, and CJ Abrams will all head to Philadelphia to join the other All-Stars. Three Nationals who are very deserving. They have all performed at superstar levels. The other Nats who deserved to go was Luis Garcia Jr., and unless there is a last minute opening, Garcia won’t be at the midsummer classic.

❝We believe in our process, and it feels like we keep getting burned.❞

— manager Blake Butera said

On offense, the Nats have the 1st in MLB for the most runs scored this season at 513 runs, and that is an impressive 5.34 runs per game. With the Nats pitching giving up 4.75 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.

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.

New York Yankees vs. Washington Nationals

Stadium: Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.
1st Pitch: 1:35 PM EDT
TV: Nationals.TV
Radio: 106.7 The Fan radio and via the MLB app. On Sirius/XM, tune to Channel 177 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.