Washington Nationals: The offense must continue to feast in Miami
By Blake Finney
Despite being put in a hole early on, the Washington Nationals offense busted out with 10 unanswered runs to start off their key series with the Marlins.
The feast or famine offense of the Washington Nationals came up with a feast on Thursday. They piled 10 runs on the Miami Marlins in this one, and now they need to keep that pace up the rest of the series.
The bats are certainly starting to get more consistent of late at least, scoring at least four runs in seven of their last eight games. If they are to keep that up, they will need more performances like Trea Turner‘s.
The shortstop had a miserable series against the Milwaukee Brewers, going 0 for 8, with the infamous non-hustle on a failed bunt. But that’s all but forgotten about now
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Turner went 3 for 6, with 3 RBI, and fell just a double short of the cycle. Interestingly, after a few days lower down the order, he was hitting second in this game.
It’s the position he’s hit in most when Adam Eaton is also in the lineup, so perhaps it’s a comfortable place for him to hit. If Eaton continues to play, we should expect to see him hit there more often, and hopefully, with similar results.
Wieters has an adventurous day
Early on, it looked like it wasn’t going to be a good day at the plate for Matt Wieters. In his first four ABs, he left a whopping seven runners on base, including the bases loaded twice.
But, in the eighth inning, once again with the bases loaded he finally managed to deliver. The catcher smoked one into the right-center gap to drive in two runs, and barely missed on a third, but Mark Reynolds was gunned down at the plate.
The Nats catcher spot has been a black hole on offense all year, so we’ll see if Wieters can turn things around and rectify that.
Milone pedestrian in second Nats debut
Tommy Milone has had an impressive season so far with the Triple-A Syracuse Chiefs. However, he stumbled a bit in his second debut with the Nationals.
Milone gave up three runs in the first inning before putting in four straight scoreless innings to give his team a chance. The Marlins notched eight hits off of the right-hander, who was regularly giving up hard contact.
Whether Milone sticks in the rotation past the trade deadline is another matter as the Nats may look to add another starter. He did just about earn himself another look if required after bouncing back in the later innings.
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It’s Scherz-day on Friday, as Max Scherzer will get the ball with the team looking to make it three wins in a row. He’ll face Pablo Lopez, the starter who began the game when the Washington Nationals reeled off their franchise-record comeback.