Shockingly, the Washington Nationals are a combined 4-8 this season in games started by Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg.
Wasting a sterling effort by its starting pitcher to lose in the late inning is one of the most disheartening events to happen to a Major League Baseball team. The Washington Nationals have doubled their disappointment over the first two games of their weekend series against the San Diego Padres.
Among all Major League teams, there have only been ten games in 2019 where a team lost despite its starting pitcher throwing seven-plus innings, permitting two or fewer runs and striking out at least nine batters. Washington has four such games this year, including Friday’s outing by Max Scherzer and Saturday’s effort by Stephen Strasburg, while no other Major League team has more than one.
There are several reasons behind the Nats’ inability to capitalize on superb efforts by its talented starting pitching staff.
First is the most obvious one: the poor performance by Washington’s bullpen.
After allowing six runs to San Diego in the top of the tenth inning on Saturday, the Nats’ relievers’ ERA stands at a Major League-worst 7.34 after 25 games. Conventional wisdom says that a relief corps’ effectiveness is in direct proportion to its usage, but that has not been the case with Washington’s relievers this year.
The Nats’ bullpen crew has struggled mightily despite throwing the fewest innings (68.2) in the Majors and is on pace to shatter the 93-loss 2009 Washington team’s 5.09 mark for the worst ERA by a bullpen in Nationals’ history.
The bullpen struggles have been part of Washington’s inability to play winning baseball in extra-innings over the past two seasons. Since the beginning of the 2018 campaign, Washington is an abysmal 5-12 in extra-inning games, including a disappointing 2-9 record at home.
Washington has also struggled tremendously over the past two seasons against left-handed pitchers.
After losing on Friday and Saturday against southpaws, the Nats are 19-33 since 2018 in such games. Part of the 2019 Nats’ woes against left-handed starters can be traced to an ice-cold start by Ryan Zimmerman, a player who historically is among baseball’s best against southpaws. In 22 at-bats against lefties this season, Zimmerman has a Mendoza-line like .610 OPS. Zimmerman is not the only hitter scuffling against left-handers so far, as starting outfielders Victor Robles (.290 OPS) and Adam Eaton (.568 OPS) have performed below average against them as well.
The good news for the Nationals is that they are still only three games out of first place in the National League East. The ace starting pitching trio is as strong as any trio in baseball. The offense will likely kick it into a higher gear when Anthony Rendon and Trea Turner are back from injury and Zimmerman starts producing at the level he generally does.
Whether those expected strengths will be enough to overcome bullpen pitching woes and a seeming inability to get the job done late in games is yet to be seen.