Photo by Sol Tucker/TalkNats
The Washington Nationals problems this season were all on display yesterday. Bad defense, bad decisions, and struggles with a runner at third base. Even with four defensive errors, the Nats were in a position to walk-off as winners — and couldn’t even make contact for a productive out.
Multiple chances with a runner at third base, and a few times, all the Nats needed was a productive out, not even a hit. Speaking of hits, there is a huge divide on the team from top RISP hitters to those at the bottom. It’s so bad at the bottom that Jorbit Vivas has no hits this entire season. And Daylen Lile made his numbers much better in Cincinnati, but overall, he is well under Mendoza in RISP spots. In non-RISP spots, Lile is batting .293. Why the large divide? He’s batting in a middle-of-the-order spot.
Imagine how much better this offense could be. The Nats are the No. 1 scoring offense in all of baseball yet they are flawed. It’s the coaches’ jobs to improve the weaknesses and strengthen the strengths.
The Nats have Foster Griffin on the mound tonight, and in desperate need of righting his ship after he was bombed five days ago. The Mets have their best active pitcher, Nolan McLean on the mound.
As you know, Brady House was optioned after last night’s loss to Triple-A Rochester to work on his defense, and he can certainly work on his plate discipline. Dylan Crews and Jacob Young (rib contusion) avoids the IL. Joey Wiemer (hand contusion), is optioned to Triple-A and Andres Chaparro is recalled as the Nats are making changes. That goes perfectly with yesterday morning’s article that nailed it.
The FanGraphs WAR chart is accumulating data. The numbers are getting very large as the season is nearly one-third completed. The OAA defense stat is now giving us a picture of what the Nats have — and don’t have.
New York Mets vs. Washington Nationals
Stadium: Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.
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 179 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.
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