The Washington Nationals finished up a 3-game sweep of the Cincinnati Reds over the weekend and will try for their third 4-game winning streak, a feat they last accomplished on June 16ᵗʰ. Really the only way for the Nats to get back into the Wild Card race would be to put together one of those long winning streaks. The Nats enter today at 2-games under .500. The Cubs are currently holding the first Wild Card spot.

The Nats will need a great pitching performance from starter Jake Irvin today against a Cubs offense that the Nats took the series on in the Opening Day set to start the season in Chicago.

For the Cubs, they counter with lefty Shota Imanaga. Nats’ manager Blake Butera penciled up a very right-handed lineup with only CJ Abrams and Daylen Lile batting from the left-side to start the game.

❝The theme I saw [on Sunday] was strikes – nine strikeouts – no walks. We’re going to have a chance to win a lot of games when that’s the line. … These guys did an outstanding job of working through this lineup.❞

— manager Blake Butera said earlier

On offense, the Nats have the 1st in MLB for the most runs scored this season at 643 runs, and that is an impressive 5.36 runs per game. With the Nats pitching giving up 4.71 earned runs per game, the difference is really those pesky unearned runs due to the errors. Overall, the Nats have a +24 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.

Chicago Cubs vs. Washington Nationals

Stadium: Nationals Park, Washington, DC
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 177 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.

Photo by Sol Tucker/Nats.Talk