Padres! Nats! For all the marbles!
We just looked at the Padres so no need to re-hash it. The good news for the Nats is the Padres are scuffling a bit. They are 4-6 in their last 10 with series losses to the Phillies and Rockies (in San Diego) and a series tie with the Nats. They are lucky to be that given that 9-8 crazy game. They managed to win the Cincy series before this but really played on their level. So they haven't played up to their very good record for almost three weeks now.
The Nats need to have two special series here. They need to do two of three - beat the Padres, sweep the Marlins, sweep the Orioles. That gets them to 7-2, back to .500 and ready for the division gauntlet. There's nothing on injuries yet but Strasburg coming back would likely always slot in furthest out so Tuesday, so don't read into that yet.
Probables
Paddack vs Fedde - the Nats CRUSHED Paddack last time out in the 15-5 win. He pitched a couple of mediocre innings against the Rockies after that short outing. He's been bad since the tack-ban. So the Nats need to jump on this game. Problem is Fedde also has not been good since the ban, although you'll say it's injury. Still he's not AS bad.
Snell vs Corbin - Corbin's been a mid 4.00 ERA pitcher since his "OMG I'M WATCHING A SNUFF FILM" start. That's not good enough for the Nats, who need him to be a solid 2 now and a great 3 when Stras is in the rotation, but it is good enough to possibly win every other time out or so. Like last time when he beat the Padres. Snell was on the IL for the last series. He's hurt and basically works short outings that are pretty good until he gets too hurt and he walks like 6 guys or give up 9 hits in 3. He hits a limit, gives up a big hit, and goes to the dugout if he's pitched 3+. Another winnable game
Musgrove vs Scherzer - Musgrove did not pitch well against the Nats. It may not be tack related - he put up a couple clunkers in early May - but it could be. The Padres would love to see him throw a post-tack-ban gem to alleviate those fears. Max was garbage last time, unable to hang on to a huge lead handed to him and giving up a grand slam to a relief pitcher. You'll know he'll be mad and he's still usually very good, so let's hope it was a random bad outing (like the Toronto one earlier in the year) and not some injury issue.
9 comments:
Highly unlikely they go 7-2. I would say 5-4 is more likely. But would be happy to be wrong!
Going to the game tonight. First one since the Wild Card win over the Brewers! Hope they win
Go Nats! Looks like they'll have to do it without Castro (administrative leave for DV investigation, ugh), though, which means Harrison back to the infield and Stevenson/Parra playing the outfield. It mildly irks me that losing the fourth-best hitter in the current lineup doesn't actually look like that much of a dropoff.
(Y'know, we can talk about soft versus hard sells and the like, but am I a bad person for hoping that Rizzo decides to zag where everyone expects him to zig and go hard buy?)
Hard buy would be a huge mistake. It would mean giving up Cavalli, Rutledge, Trea, or Soto. What is even the point of that? The time to do a hard buy is during Free Agency when you don't have to give up anything but money.
It's cute that we even think that hard buy could be an option. What exactly do we have with which to buy anything hard? I suppose we could take on the salary obligation of overpaid people with expiring deals and, taken to an extreme, pay luxury tax, but what team would sell their assets for no prospects at all? Do we really think we have anything, including Cavalli and Rutledge, that anyone wants?
Half a season of Bryant probably doesn’t cost one of their top two prospects. Garcia or Kieboom plus another top 10er or two might get there.
Uh….time to deal Scherzer or what?
After last night's game and the Castro scandal, I take back any optimism offered. Rizzo doesn't need to blow the team up. It's happening of its own accord.
Heh. Remember that time when we thought the Nats might catch the Mets?
Padres only scoring 24 runs this series.... right?
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