Nats take two of three in Arizona to begin road trip
After ending their recent home stand with three losses to the Marlins, the Washington Nationals quickly buried that ugly memory Friday night in Arizona. Luis Garcia belted a pair of homers – one a grand slam – and drove in six runs to lead Washington to a 14-1 thrashing of the Diamondbacks. Washington followed that up with a 6-1 victory Saturday before dropping Sunday’s game, 5-1.
Foster Griffin and Zack Littell each went five innings and allowed just two hits and a single run to earn the wins in the Friday and Saturday games. The bullpen delivered four shutout innings in each game. Paxton Schultz and Cole Henry went two innings each on Friday; Orlando Ribalta (one inning), Mitchell Parker (one inning) and Brad Lord (two innings) no-hit the Diamondbacks to finish the game.
Sunday was a different story. Former Nat Michael Siroka dominated his ex-teammates, giving up just three hits and one run in seven innings. Cade Cavalli actually pitched decently, but was victimized by a series of bloop hits that eluded Washington’s defense.
The series win gives the Nats some decent momentum as they begin a three-game series in San Francisco tonight.
Who’s hot, and who’s not
James Wood and CJ Abrams continue their all-star caliber play. Wood leads the team with 17 homers and 57 runs scored (also tops in the majors). Abrams’ 68 hits, 49 RBI and .286 batting average are Washington’s best, and the Nationals continue to be baseball’s most productive team, with 352 runs scored.
Aside from the scalding Woods/Abrams duo, these players have been solid contributors recently:
Luis Garcia Jr. has 14 RBI in the past 15 days to top the team. Keibert Ruiz has been raking at a .375 clip during that span, and has greatly improved his defense this season. Daylen Lile’s 28 hits are second on the team in the past 30 days.
At the other end of the spectrum, Drew Millas, Dylan Crews and Andres Chaparro are all batting below .200, though each has had the occasional big hit. Among the starters, Miles Mikolas has shown flashes of effectiveness, but his 6.93 ERA tells the story. Jake Irvin and Zack Littell both struggled early, but have improved recently – Littell especially. The bullpen continues to be a committee situation, with varying degrees of success. Eight pitchers have at least one save.
On to San Francisco
The Nats hold third place in the NL East, carrying a 32-32 record into the Giants series (raise your hand if you predicted in March that Washington would be playing .500 ball in June). San Francisco is 27-39 this season. One might reasonably expect Washington to conclude this six-game road trip with no fewer than four wins … but Mikolas starts tonight. He’ll need to improve his sorry ERA to give the Nats a good chance to start this series with a victory.
