The Nationals Series, 8/13-8/14

[Just Regular]

Washington comes to town with a few very hot bats - James Wood is the golden child, but it was new to me today Juan Yepez and Alex Call are going bananas.     Call is at 419/507/565 on the season.

CJ Abrams missed the weekend with back spasms, but there hasn't been an IL move and fair chance he is back after the off day.     Abrams and WSN Luis Garcia might be one of the best young middle infield pairings in the entire game aside from Gunnar/Holliday or Bobby Witt/anybody.

Jose Tena was one of their gets in the Lane Thomas sell off to Cleveland and it looks like they are giving him some 3B run.

Starters, we get a look at Jake Irvin, who has probably taken over as the "best Irvin" and DJ Herz, a $500K high school arm who actually does not have a 7.00 ERA in his first 10 career starts, and boasts an outstanding 29% K rate right out of the gate.

Active Roster K-bb standing as SP (40 innings minimum, a group of 118 as of tonight)

(111) T-Rowe v. (48) Irvin

(80) Kremer v. (15) Herz

Bullpen, Hunter Harvey is gone, but they held on to their closer Kyle Finnegan.

The Nationals have generally had a good season, as the fan base waits and sees if Juan Soto does the LeBron thing to make them whole again.    I certainly hope they are in the "anyone but NYY" mix there.

[OriolesMagic83]

51 minutes ago, Just Regular said:

Washington comes to town with a few very hot bats - James Wood is the golden child, but it was new to me today Juan Yepez and Alex Call are going bananas.     Call is at 419/507/565 on the season.

CJ Abrams missed the weekend with back spasms, but there hasn't been an IL move and fair chance he is back after the off day.     Abrams and WSN Luis Garcia might be one of the best young middle infield pairings in the entire game aside from Gunnar/Holliday or Bobby Witt/anybody.

Jose Tena was one of their gets in the Lane Thomas sell off to Cleveland and it looks like they are giving him some 3B run.

Starters, we get a look at Jake Irvin, who has probably taken over as the "best Irvin" and DJ Herz, a $500K high school arm who actually does not have a 7.00 ERA in his first 10 career starts, and boasts an outstanding 29% K rate right out of the gate.

Active Roster K-bb standing as SP (40 innings minimum, a group of 118 as of tonight)

(111) T-Rowe v. (48) Irvin

(80) Kremer v. (15) Herz

Bullpen, Hunter Harvey is gone, but they held on to their closer Kyle Finnegan.

The Nationals have generally had a good season, as the fan base waits and sees if Juan Soto does the LeBron thing to make them whole again.    I certainly hope they are in the "anyone but NYY" mix there.

I'm 100% sure, that Soto is not dreaming of holding a championship trophy aloft and screaming, "Washington, this is for you!"

[RavensNOsGuy]

This is one of those series where anything less than a 2 game sweep isn’t going to be good enough. We will see though. If Rogers and Kremer can’t do decent at home against a mediocre team, probably going to be a really bad sign. 

[OriolesMagic83]

41 minutes ago, RavensNOsGuy said:

This is one of those series where anything less than a 2 game sweep isn’t going to be good enough. We will see though. If Rogers and Kremer can’t do decent at home against a mediocre team, probably going to be a really bad sign. 

Counting on Rogers and Kremer to be at least mediocre and get thru 5 or 6 innings.  I'd be happy w/ a split.  i'm hoping the brain trust makes some changes to Rogers in the offseason, because he's looking like a guy you don't want in the rotation of a good team.

[oh-wee-ohs]

Nats have sneaky bats. Decent SP but a bad bullpen, same as us. Need our bats to bring it. Hoping for a split too. 

Edited August 13 by oh-wee-ohs

[Say O!]

Both Irvin and Herz rate below average in Stuff+ and let up high rate of HR/9.  Let’s see if O’s can go full send with some long-ball this series.

[maybenxtyr]

43 games left...I'm not going to say it's a must win, but it's time to make their move.  

[Frobby]

I feel like every time someone says we “must” sweep a bad/mediocre team, we don’t.  Just win tonight, then worry about tomorrow.  

[Sports Guy]

Gotta sweep. Brutal 14 game stretch after this.

[Roy Firestone]

20 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I feel like every time someone says we “must” sweep a bad/mediocre team, we don’t.  Just win tonight, then worry about tomorrow.  

I still believe we perform more poorly against mediocre pitching and mediocre teams.I watch this team every game of the season and it always appears we seem to struggle with opponents who , on paper, aren't nearly as talented as we are. 

[SteveA]

12 minutes ago, Roy Firestone said:

I still believe we perform more poorly against mediocre pitching and mediocre teams.I watch this team every game of the season and it always appears we seem to struggle with opponents who , on paper, aren't nearly as talented as we are. 

Well that's truly fantastic news if it's true.   Because if we have the best record in the majors, and we don't do well against mediocre pitching and mediocre teams, then obviously we must be DESTROYING good pitching and good teams to get our record where it is right now.

And guess what we will see almost exclusively in the playoffs?   Good pitching and good teams!

If what you say is true, then we are absolutely going to smash our way through the postseason!

Edited August 13 by SteveA

[Rbiggs2525]

I think this series could be an indicator of whether we are turning the corner. Would be a good series for some of our power hitters like Mullins, Ohearn, Mounty, Rutchman to start going again.

[Frobby]

Trevor Rogers (4.71 ERA) has seen a lot of the Nats in his career, including two starts this season in which he allowed 3 runs in 5 IP and then 2 runs in 7 IP, for a 3.75 ERA on the season.  In his career, he’s made 10 starts against the Nats, to a 3.35 ERA.  Jake Irvin, who’s had a nice season for the Nats (3.76 ERA), has never faced the Orioles.   He’s been inconsistent lately, with 4 poor starts in his last 6, including his last 2.   

Dean Kremer (4.70 ERA) has faced the Nats twice in his career, beating them both times, including 6.2 innings of shutout ball against them last year.  Rookie DJ Herz (4.41 ERA) debuted this June and has never faced the Orioles.  He’s pitched well of late, 3.06 ERA over his last 4 starts.   

The Nats come into this series 18th in MLB in runs/game (4.27) and OPS+ (96).  The O’s are 3rd in runs/game (5.07) and tops in OPS+ (120).   The Nats have stepped things up since the all star break, scoring 4.82 runs per game and OPSing .726, about 50 points higher than in the first half.  Not to be outdone, the O’s are averaging 5.61 runs a game and an .804 OPS in the second half.  

On the year, the Nats bullpen has a 4.17 ERA (20th), while the O’s are at 4.08 (16th).   In the second half, the Nats are at 4.70, the Orioles at 5.21.   So, leads won’t be safe in this series.   
 

[OriolesMagic83]

1 hour ago, Frobby said:

Trevor Rogers (4.71 ERA) has seen a lot of the Nats in his career, including two starts this season in which he allowed 3 runs in 5 IP and then 2 runs in 7 IP, for a 3.75 ERA on the season.  In his career, he’s made 10 starts against the Nats, to a 3.35 ERA.  Jake Irvin, who’s had a nice season for the Nats (3.76 ERA), has never faced the Orioles.   He’s been inconsistent lately, with 4 poor starts in his last 6, including his last 2.   

Dean Kremer (4.70 ERA) has faced the Nats twice in his career, beating them both times, including 6.2 innings of shutout ball against them last year.  Rookie DJ Herz (4.41 ERA) debuted this June and has never faced the Orioles.  He’s pitched well of late, 3.06 ERA over his last 4 starts.   

The Nats come into this series 18th in MLB in runs/game (4.27) and OPS+ (96).  The O’s are 3rd in runs/game (5.07) and tops in OPS+ (120).   The Nats have stepped things up since the all star break, scoring 4.82 runs per game and OPSing .726, about 50 points higher than in the first half.  Not to be outdone, the O’s are averaging 5.61 runs a game and an .804 OPS in the second half.  

On the year, the Nats bullpen has a 4.17 ERA (20th), while the O’s are at 4.08 (16th).   In the second half, the Nats are at 4.70, the Orioles at 5.21.   So, leads won’t be safe in this series.   
 

Surprisingly,  the most  common threads on OH are about the massive slump the offense is in.

[Just Regular]

35 minutes ago, OriolesMagic83 said:

Surprisingly,  the most  common threads on OH are about the massive slump the offense is in.

Gunnar Henderson only has 0.9 fWAR last 30 days, and this 6-win pace is completely terrible for who he is.

I think Gunnar playing at a 12-win pace for a remarkably long time is kind of the same as 2021 Corbin Burnes.     He could be near the best in the game while giving lots of fodder how he's "declining".