It’s time for another round of interleague play, except this time the NL team is coming to the Bronx, so the Yankees don’t lose the DH. The Nationals will be in Yankee Stadium for two games this week to wrap up the season home-and-home series. The Yankees lost both games in Washington last month.
What Have The Nationals Done Lately?
The last time these two teams played, the Nationals were basically the hottest team in baseball and zooming their way to the top of the NL East standings. Now? Pretty much the exact opposite is true. They lost three of four to the Cubs over the weekend and have dropped eight of their last ten games overall, getting outscored 53-27 in the process. Washington is still 30-27 overall with a +2 run differential this season.
Offense & Defense
The Nationals are averaging 4.32 runs per game with a team 97 wRC+, so they’re close to league average in both measures. They’re currently missing three outfielders due to injury: OF Jayson Werth (wrist), OF Nate McLouth (shoulder), and OF Reed Johnson (foot). None are coming back anytime soon. Certainly not this series, at least. Also, OF Denard Span (116 wRC+) is day-to-day with back spasms.
Manager Matt Williams has the luxury of penciling baseball’s best young power hitter into his lineup every day. OF Bryce Harper leads MLB in homers (19), walks (48), SLG (.706), OPS (1.170), OPS+ (216), wRC+ (210), and total bases (132). He is also 22 years old. Fun fact: If Harper faces Jacob Lindgren this series, it will be the first time he faces a pitcher younger than him as a pro. Majors or minors. I’m not joking. That is a 100% true fact. Crazy.
Anyway, the rest of the lineup features just three other players who have been solidly above average this year: Span, IF Danny Espinosa (123 wRC+), and IF Yunel Escobar (119 wRC+). That’s all. IF Anthony Rendon (42 wRC+ in very limited time) just came off the DL a few days ago, and 1B Ryan Zimmerman (69 wRC+) has struggled all season. C Wilson Ramos (81 wRC+) and SS Ian Desmond (84 wRC+) are the other regulars.
OF Michael Taylor (76 wRC+) has played quite a bit this season thanks to all the injuries and we’ll see him this series at some point thanks to the DH, I’m sure. 1B/OF Tyler Moore (51 wRC+), 1B/OF Clint Robinson (71 wRC+), IF Dan Uggla (93 wRC+), and backup C Jose Lobaton (90 wRC+) fill out the bench. For what it’s worth, the Nationals used Robinson as the DH in their only other series in an AL park this season, way back in April. Who knows what they’ll do this week.
Washington generally has a good team defense with Harper, Span, Taylor, Espinosa, Escobar, Zimmerman, Ramos, and Rendon rating anywhere from good to great. Desmond had some major issues at shortstop earlier this season, and while he’s calmed down of late, he’s still nothing special there. Guys like Uggla, Moore, and Robinson are not on the team for their gloves. Let’s put it that way.
Pitching Matchups
Tuesday: RHP Masahiro Tanaka (No vs. WAS) vs. RHP Max Scherzer (Career vs. NYY)
Oh boy. Oh boy oh boy oh boy. Best pitching matchup of the season? I have a hard time thinking we’ll see a better one. Scherzer, 30, has been off-the-charts so far in 2015, pitching to a 1.85 ERA (2.18 FIP) in eleven starts and 77.2 innings. He’s got a career-high strikeout rate (29.3%), a career-low walk rate (3.9%), a career-low ground ball rate (34.3%), and a career-low home run rate (0.58 HR/9). What an extreme season. His platoon split is small too — lefties (.246 wOBA) have a tiny advantage over righties (.236 wOBA). Scherzer’s four-seam fastball velocity has actually ticked up this season, going from 92.8 mph last year to 93.4 mph this year. He also throws mid-80s sliders and changeups, and a handful of low-80s power curves per start. Nasty stuff. Scherzer is arguably the best right-hander in the business at the moment.
Wednesday: RHP Nathan Eovaldi (Career vs. WAS) vs. TBA
Washington’s starter for tomorrow’s game is still officially TBA, but they’re expected to start lefty Gio Gonzalez. It is Taylor Jordan’s turn, but Monday’s off-day allows them to skip the young righty and instead go with Gio. The somehow still only 29-year-old Gonzalez has pitched to a 4.57 ERA (3.07 FIP) this season, replacing some strikeouts (22.1%) with ground balls (56.1%). He’s still walking a few too many (8.9%) but is keeping the ball in the park (0.42 HR/9) as well as ever. Righties (.350 wOBA) have had more success against him than lefties (.313 wOBA), though his career split is tiny. Gonzalez is throwing more low-90s two-seamers than last year, resulting in more grounders, and his big upper-70s curveball remains his bread and butter. He’ll also throw some low-90s four-seamers and a low-80s changeup. The Yankees did face Gio when these teams met a few weeks ago, scoring six runs in five innings.
Bullpen Status
Like the Yankees, the Nationals had an off-day yesterday, so their bullpen is as fresh as can be in early-June. Ex-Yankees draft pick RHP Drew Storen (1.18 FIP) is the closer with RHP Aaron Barrett (1.98 FIP) and ex-Yankee LHP Matt Thornton (2.91 FIP) serving as his setup men. Thornton’s the high-leverage lefty specialist, not a full inning guy.
Williams also has RHP Casey Janssen (3.11 FIP), RHP Blake Treinen (3.56 FIP), LHP Felipe Rivero (1.61 FIP in very limited time), and RHP Taylor Hill (4.17 FIP in very limited time) in his bullpen. The middle relief can be a real problem for the Nationals. That’s where the Yankees can do some damage. Check out our Bullpen Workload page for the status of New York’s bullpen, then check out Federal Baseball for updates on the Nats.
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