Washington Nationals: 5 To watch in visit to Pittsburgh

The Washington Nationals begin a six game road trip tonight in Pittsburgh against the Pirates. Here are five players to watch in this series

There was a lot of drama in the Washington Nationals (24-13) weekend series against the Philadelphia Phillies. All three games were decided by one run with the Nats wins coming thanks to a walk-off home run by Bryce Harper on Friday and a late two-run home run by Michael Taylor Sunday night.

Of course, it’s hard to ignore more issues for the bullpen over the weekend. In the doubleheader on Sunday, the Nats bullpen gave up five of the nine runs that were scored by the Phillies. Plus, they had to Jacob Turner in Game 2 in the eighth, which puts Wednesday’s starter in doubt right now.

Tonight, the Nats are at PNC Park to begin a three game series against the Pittsburgh Pirates (16-22), who are in last place in the NL Central. PNC Park was the ballpark where the Washington Nationals clinched the NL East title last year and they were 4-2 against the Pirates in their six meetings.

It’s been a rough season for Clint Hurdle’s team so far. Outfielder Starling Marte is currently out because of a PED suspension and third baseman Jung Ho Kang is still not with the team due to his legal issues in South Korea.

On the injury side, pitcher Jameson Taillon is out as he underwent surgery for suspected testicular cancer and our thoughts and prayers are with Taillon in that fight.

When you look at Pittsburgh’s offense, they are one of the worst in the game. Their team is in the bottom five in the league in runs scored, batting average, and home runs. Right now, their home run leader is first baseman Josh Bell (7) with center fielder Andrew McCutchen not too far behind (6).

From a pitching perspective, the Pirates starters have a 4.24 ERA (fifth in the National League), but they only have nine wins to show for it. The main reason for that is their bullpen.

In D.C, the Nats bullpen is not very good, but Pittsburgh’s isn’t much better. They have a bullpen ERA of 4.06 (tenth in the NL) and an opponents batting average against of .267 (Nats are last – .280).

Despite their struggles, the Pirates do have a closer who can shut down games in Tony Watson (8-for-9 in save chances) and a good setup option in former Nats lefty Felipe Rivero (0.87 ERA, 22 strikeouts in 20 games).

Before we look at the players to watch in this series, here are this week’s pitching matchups:

Tonight: Stephen Strasburg (3-1, 3.28 ERA) vs. Chad Kuhl (1-3, 5.81) – 7:05 p.m ET, broadcast on MASN

Tomorrow: TBD vs. Gerrit Cole (1-4, 3.06) – 7:05 p.m, MASN

Thursday: Tanner Roark (3-1, 3.88) vs. Tyler Glasnow (1-3, 7.98) – 12:35 p.m, MASN/MLB Network

Now, here are my five players to watch in the series, starting with the Washington Nationals leadoff hitter:

Trea Turner

With the exception of that great week in Colorado, it has been a rough start to the season for Turner. He had the hamstring injury to begin the year and his statistical numbers are not as good as people expect.

Against the Phillies this past weekend, he was 2-for-13, but both of his hits were home runs. Plus, he drove in a run each of those games (five RBI’s total). Those five RBI’s are what he has the entire month as he is just 8-for-50 (.160) with 16 strikeouts.

When Turner was put back in the leadoff spot after the Adam Eaton injury, everyone thought he would be the player that sparked the offense last year and stole bases. Well, the offense is doing great now and Turner only has three stolen base attempts the whole month.

Turner is averaging 4.07 pitches per plate appearances this month, but you get the sense that he’s pressing a little bit at the plate, which is leading to more strikeouts. Despite his struggles at the plate, his defense has been still great to watch at shortstop.

Last year, Turner had his struggles against the Pirates. He was 6-for-25 at the plate (all singles) with 11 strikeouts (most on the Nats). The 11 strikeouts were the most that he had against any team in 2016.

It’s good to see Turner hitting home runs, but the Nats need him to find a way to get on base and steal runs on days where the ball isn’t flying out of the ballpark. We will see if his success at the plate starts this week against the Pirates.

Josh Harrison

Harrison was one of Daniel Murphy and Tanner Roark’s teammates on Team USA when they won the World Baseball Classic back in March. In the early stages of the season, he has carried the Pirates in several offensive categories.

The 29-year-old third baseman/second baseman leads the team in batting average (.288), hits (38), and on-base percentage (.354). His 14 hits in May are the most on the team with three of those hits being home runs.

When you watch the Pirates play this season, their offense has struggled at home. They have a team batting average of .244 with 52 total hits (second lowest in the NL). But, Harrison has been one of the main hitters at home with a .364 batting average.

Yes, Harrison is not going to be the one who hits the ball out of the ballpark on the team when you consider he has more home runs this season (five) than each of the last two seasons. But, he’s going to get on base and set up the rest of the lineup.

Now that David Freese is back at third base, Harrison gets to go back to playing second base, but he has always been valuable to the Pirates because of his defensive versatility.

Last season, the Washington Nationals pitchers kept Harrison in check as he went 2-for-12 with a double and three strikeouts. He did not play in the September series since all 12 at-bats came in the July series at Nats Park.

So, while Bell and McCutchen are the key power sources in the Pirates lineup, those home runs can be more than solo shots if Harrison can be a pest to the Nats pitching staff this week.

Tanner Roark

Roark will get the start on a getaway day for the Nats. So far this season, he has not been what Washington Nationals fans had expected. One of the reasons for that is the amount of walks, which is uncharacteristic for the right-hander.

In his first eight starts of the season, Roark has walked two or more batters in six of them. Against the Phillies on Saturday, he was cruising for the first three innings, but he needed 37 pitches to finish the fourth and didn’t make it out of the fifth.

While Roark may only be missing out on strikes by a little bit, he needs to do a better job of adjusting to the strike zone that night. Against Philadelphia, he went away from his fastball and that ended up backfiring because the Phillies knew the offspeed was coming.

This season, Roark is averaging over 105 pitches per game and 18 pitches per inning. If he wants to have more success, he can’t have those long innings, which end up shortening his outings drastically. He hasn’t pitched past the sixth inning since April 21 against the New York Mets.

He doesn’t have much experience pitching against the Pirates (two relief outings in 2015), but he does have a favorable pitching matchup as he goes up against one of Pittsburgh’s top young pitchers, Tyler Glasnow.

Glasnow is only 23 years old, but the right-hander is coming off an outing in which he threw out 2.1 innings and gave up seven runs against the Diamondbacks on May 12. Plus, he has 21 walks this season (sixth in the National League) and has given up four home runs in his last three starts.

While Roark hasn’t been horrible, he hasn’t shown the same consistency this season as fans saw last season. If you had to rank the Washington Nationals starters so far out of the main four, Roark is probably fourth.

Gerrit Cole

Despite the Pirates struggles this season, Cole has been the definition of consistency and has been the ace of their staff. Out of the eight outings he has had, he has given up three runs or fewer in seven of them and two runs or fewer in six straight outings.

In those eight starts, the 26-year-old right-hander has a 3.06 ERA and has thrown 50 innings (eighth most in the NL). He gave up two runs in seven innings against Arizon on May 11, but lost a pitcher’s duel to Zack Greinke.

The problem for Cole this season is that the Pirates haven’t given him much run support. The team has scored a combined seven runs in his last six starts and he hasn’t picked up a win since April 14 against the Cubs.

One pitch that Cole is having a lot of success with this season is his slider. According to Brooks Baseball, teams are hitting .211 against the slider with three extra-base hits (one home run) and 38 strikeouts. Of course, it helps when your average fastball velocity is over 96 miles per hour (according to Fangraphs).

With Cole under contract for a few more seasons (free agent in 2020), the Pirates could get a lot back in return if they decide to deal him at the deadline. The question is do they view him as the future ace for the franchise and can they afford to pay that price?

Against the Washington Nationals, Cole is 2-1 with a 2.92 ERA in four career starts. Two hitters to watch are Adam Lind and Daniel Murphy, who each have a pair of RBI’s against him. Lind could start at first base if Dusty Baker decides to give Zimmerman the day off.

Regardless of whomever the Washington Nationals decide to throw tomorrow, it will be a tough one to win if that starter gives up a couple runs early because Cole can shut down any lineup.