Washington Nationals: Good, bad, and ugly from Marlins series
Don’t look now, but your Washington Nationals are back to .500 and in a share for the division lead. After a 1-5 start to the season, and battling Covid protocols, injuries, slumping bats, and inconsistent starting pitching performances, the Nationals have found a groove and are riding a season best four game winning streak.
As the Miami Marlins made their way to town, they did so with the only positive run differential in the National League East. The injury bug has recently bit the Marlins, however, and they sent a mishmash of players to the plate much of the series. Coming off a split against the Toronto Blue Jays, the Nationals needed a series win against The Fish, if not a sweep. The latter was greatly appreciated. To be taken seriously the Nationals need to beat teams while they are down, and they did just that to the team from Miami.
The good, bad, and ugly from the Washington Nationals three game series with the visiting Miami Marlins.
The Good
We will begin with the starting pitchers. Wow! Jon Lester began the series with a great debut in a Nationals uniform. Five shutout innings was exactly what the Nationals needed as Lester handed the ball off to a well rested bullpen. Patrick Corbin had his best start of the season, allowing just two runs over seven innings before departing and Max Scherzer was vintage Mad Max. He took a shutout into the ninth inning before allowing a homer, though pitched the Nationals first complete game of the year to secure the 3-1 win.
Max Scherzer throws a 106-pitch complete game, Nats beat the Marlins 3-1 for a series sweep, a four-game win streak and a .500 record for the first time in 2021.
— Mark Zuckerman (@MarkZuckerman) May 2, 2021
Yadiel Hernandez. He continues to hit and continues to get on base. Now, we know he can also steal bases. After his three hit performance in the series opener, he singled and walked in game two, and took a free pass in game three. He swiped two bases in the series as well.
Josh Bell has not yet found his hitting rhythm this year. He did have a timely hit in game two though, with a bases clearing double. His two hits and four runs batted in were a welcome sight for a guy who is currently hitting .140 on the year. The bright side, he is hitting .500 in the month of May.
The bullpen allowed just one, unearned, run in the series, and that came because of the extra inning rule placing a runner at second base to start the inning. In the three games, the bullpen pitched just seven innings, and did so brilliantly.
The return of the long ball. Kyle Schwarber won game one with his walk-off blast. Yan Gomes extended the Nationals lead in game two with his jack, and Ryan Zimmerman‘s three run donna was the difference in game three. This team has power hitters, let’s hope they can tap into it a little more.
The Bad
We’ve talked about the base running before, and it continues to be the achilles heel of the team. Remember when we were kids and we’d have runners on first and third. We’d run the guy on first to get him in a pickle to score the guy from third. Yeah, we get an out but we scored a run. It was a terrible strategy then, and it appears the Nationals are employing the same type of mindset now.
Victor Robles was caught stealing twice. Josh Harrison was thrown out trying for an extra base on a single. Thankfully the mistakes did not cost the Nationals in the win column, though they did run themselves out of an inning or two.
Starlin Castro was 2-12 over the weekend. He is a veteran presence and a stablaizer on the infield, though his ineptitude of late with the bat has become concerning.
Starlin Castro tonight: 0 for 5, 5 LOB, 62 GIDP
— Charlie F (@nationalsreview) May 1, 2021
Several times this weekend the Nationals put a runner on third base with less than two outs. Several times they stranded that runner. I’m still looking for this statistic, though I’d have to imagine Castro leads the league in this category. Again, this didn’t hurt the Nationals over the weekend, however, against better teams the Nats have to take advantage of all scoring opportunities.
The Ugly
When a team struggles to hit home runs (the Nationals have hit more homers than just two teams in the Majors) they better make sure they can play small ball. We have already touched on the base running woes of the team, now we shine a spotlight on the bunting issues. Twice, pitchers had the opportunity to bunt a runner over. Twice, they failed.
Now 2-for-9 on sac bunt attempts this season after Scherzer couldn't get the job done. https://t.co/Svw0NRPEJa
— Mark Zuckerman (@MarkZuckerman) May 2, 2021
We know pitchers practicing bunting before they hit in the cage each day. For this reason, Scherzer himself pitched with a black eye and broken nose a year ago. Until the designated hitter becomes an official entity in the National League, pitchers have to be able to bunt runners over.
In game one, the Nationals grounded into four double plays. No better way to kill a potential rally then a twin-killing. In a scoreless game, the Nats put runners at the corners in the sixth inning. Starlin Castro bounced into a double play (the second time in the game he failed to score a runner from third base with less than two outs). The following inning it was Alex Avila’s turn and in the eighth inning a leadoff runner was erased when Andrew Stevenson did the honors. Had Kyle Schwarber not come through with an extra inning bomb, we’d be looking at any of these opportunities where the Nats let a win slip away.
Nationals have found a good fit. dark. Next
Brad Hand allowed a run. Not an earned run, but a run nonetheless. He inherited a guy at second base as per the extra inning rule. After a sacrifice bunt gave Hand the first out of the inning, he induced a ground ball out which froze the runner at third. He was close to stranding the runner before giving up a base hit. The run doesn’t count against his ERA, though the rule itself, definitely ugly.