Probably not. Starting 2-6 and having Gray go down to injury was a low point. But since then, 40 days ago, the Nats have been playing good ball against bad teams. They did lose a series to Oakland, but beat the Giants, Houston, swept Miami, and beat Toronto. All this setting up the Nats as firmly a middle of the pack team.
But now they lose a series to the White Sox, scoring 0 runs in their last 19 innings of baseball (and 10 in their last 5 games). Philly, Minnesota, Seattle, Atlanta, Cleveland. There are no breaks here. These are all teams better than the Nats. 5-10 is the simple goal. Lose ground, watch .500 drift away, but don't spiral out of control.
Why is the offense so bad recently? It actually hasn't been good all season and had been getting runs above expectation. Now it's scoring to it's level.
After his fast start Jesse Winker has put up a .136 / .245 / .235 line in the past month. Keibert Ruiz has regressed to the point where you wonder if another team would have better luck. CJ Abrams has cooled down alot .208 /.235 / .250 in the past 2 weeks. As has YOUR boy (because he's not mine) Nick Senzel .156 / .325 / .188. Jacob Young and Alex Call (fools!) started to look like decent replacements in hand for the hurt (and bad this year) Lane Thomas and Joey Gallo. Both are now OPSing around .500 (that's very bad). Only the maligned Eddie Rosario is hitting right now though Luis Garcia is doing ok and if the next week holds like the last few will be the best regular offensive player on the team.
Without Abrams looking like a star and the weirdly great offense of Winker and Senzel the team just doesn't have the bats to score runs. The pitching will have to carry the team. They have looked like they might be able to but only the Mariners lack a potent line-up. The Phillies (2nd), Twins (10th), Braves (6th) and Guardians (8th) all are well above average. If the pitching staff gets through this still looking good, that's really something. They did hold back the Orioles (though they have had a much quieter May).
Ok let's go! Don't get swept. Maybe steal a series and go 6-9
7 comments:
Yesterday's lineup seemed like waving the white flag from the start. Abrams, Garcia, Winker, and Rosario were out (until they pinch-hit late in the game). It was a Corbin start, so maybe there is some logic to giving up on that game before it even started and resting players after a doubleheader, but the pitching was lucky — though not good, they only struck out one and got three double plays — so even mediocre offense could have been competitive.
Disagree. Don't white flag a game against a team you should beat. Also with a full travel day (as opposed to a Thursday get-away game) rest wasn't as necessary. They should be rested. They didn't play the 6th, 9th, and 13th and won't play today.
Agreed. Looked like a rest game when there was no reason for a rest game. Just don't get it. Maybe there's a bug still running through the clubhouse or something, I dunno
Agree as well. Gotta win games like this.
My take is that DM wanted to give the 2nd stringers a chance to shine. Obviously they were not able to step up.
The game was closer than the score. Guys got beat badly at the plate every time they had scoring opportunities. The only time it seemed like they had a chance in the last inning when DM finally let his heavy hitters bat. Sad.
Good lord, you caution small sample size constantly and after 24 games you are ready to trade Ruiz? He’s had 2.5 years of history where he has been SIGNIFICANTLY better. Chill.
My guess is Davey promised a rest game after what would have been a 6 game stretch with no breaks but didn't adjust after the rain out.
T-GOOCH : I'm not trading Ruiz! Just noting his time in DC has seen little progression from when he came in and he was highly rated enough to think he should have.
I'd really like to see James Wood get a shot. We need the hitting. If he doesn't get off to a good start, send him back down when Lane Thomas returns. And haven't we seen enough of Robles. Send him to AAA.
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