Photo by Sol Tucker/Nats.Talk

The Washington Nationals open today at 3.5 games from a Wild Card slot and trailing the Philadelphia Phillies for that final Wild Card spot. The Nats pin their hopes on Cade Cavalli to deliver a win for the Nats and stop this 4-game losing streak. The Nats have fallen to 2-games under .500.

Timing for a losing streak comes at the worst time as the Nats were hoping to be buyers at the trade deadline set for Monday, August 3ʳᵈ, at 6 pm, and we are now exactly one day and several hours away. Following today’s game, the Nationals will travel to Philadelphia where they will begin a four-game series against the Phillies on Monday night.

Manager Blake Butera has to get his offense going. The top offense in baseball has been mostly limited to home runs for their offense, and got two RISP hits last night in garbage time. Before that, the Nats were 0-20 in RISP in this series.

In last night’s game, James Wood scored his 100ᵗʰ run of the season. That is quite the feat. The next closest player is Matt Olson of the Braves at 77.

❝A really tough time, and a tough week. … Not an ideal time to go through a funk. I thought we played really well until this past week. … Every team goes through it, a stretch of time they haven’t played their best. … Guys are frustrated with losing.❞

— manager Blake Butera said

On offense, the Nats have the 1st in MLB for the most runs scored this season at 605 runs, and that is an impressive 5.40 runs per game. With the Nats pitching giving up 4.78 earned runs per game, the difference is really those pesky unearned runs due to the errors. Overall, the Nats have a +18 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.

Washington Nationals vs. Atlanta Braves

Stadium: Truist Stadium, Atlanta, Georgia
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 89 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.