Photo by Sol Tucker/Nats.Talk

The Washington Nationals have got to shove here in Sacramento as the team has a golden opportunity with the weakest part of their schedule this season in the next six days. The Nats enter at a game under .500 and have to win to avoid another sell-off at the trade deadline that is just 16-games away.

For the start to the ceremonial second-half of the season, the Nats will start Cade Cavalli who started Sunday’s game and pitches today on regular rest. Miles Mikolas is finishing up his 5-game suspension and will pitch on Tuesday. Zack Littell pitches tomorrow, All-Star Foster Griffin on Sunday, and Andrew Alvarez on Monday in Colorado.

The Nats All-Stars, Griffin, James Wood, and CJ Abrams all appeared in the Mid-Summer Classic. The other Nats player who deserved to go was Luis Garcia Jr. There will always be snubs. Garcia has soared up the Nats’ WAR rankings behind Wood and Abrams for the position players. It’s the next few names that might also surprise you behind Garcia with Keibert Ruiz, Curtis Mead, Jacob Young, and Nasim Nunez.

The Nats also made a series of roster moves since the completion of Sunday’s game. Per the news we broke, catcher Harry Ford was added to the roster along with reliever Max Kranick. They take the place of Abimelec Ortiz and Drew Millas. In Millas’ situation, he was put on the 10-day IL — but if his fractured finger requires a revision surgery, he might not return this season.

❝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 516 runs, and that is an impressive 5.33 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 +7 run differential on the season.

Here is manager Blake Butera‘s bullpen chart:

N/A

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.

Washington Nationals vs. Sacramento Athletics

Stadium: Sutter Health Park, West Sacramento, California
1st Pitch: 9:40 PM EDT
TV: Nationals.TV
Radio: 106.7 The Fan radio and via the MLB app. On Sirius/XM, tune to Channel 185 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.