Stephen Strasburg will start Thursday night's series opener against the Atlanta Braves. (Matt Slocum/Associated Press)
BALTIMORE — The Washington Nationals left Oriole Park at Camden Yards later than they’d hoped on Wednesday night and with an unexpected result. After a 92-minute rain delay and a solid start from Erick Fedde, the Nationals’ bullpen fell apart in a 9-2 loss to the Baltimore Orioles.
Afterward, the Nationals scrambled to the airport, from which they flew to Atlanta for a four-game series against the Braves, who lead the National League East by 6½ games.
“Big series coming up, we got to wash [this loss],” outfielder Adam Eaton said on Wednesday night. “[These] four games that are really important to us. We have to put a good foot forward. This isn't going to make or break our season by any stretch of the imagination, but it's going to be a good test.”
[Nationals’ bullpen returns to early-season form, gets torched by Orioles]
On Thursday, the Nationals will start Stephen Strasburg against Julio Teheran, the Braves’ No. 3 starter. On Friday, left-hander Patrick Corbin will face 21-year-old right-hander Mike Soroka, an NL Cy Young Award contender. On June 23, in Soroka’s last outing against the Nationals, he left after two innings because Austin Voth hit him on the throwing arm with a pitch.
Neither team has released its starters for Saturday or Sunday, but Nationals ace Max Scherzer (back strain) is eligible to return from the 10-day injured list on Saturday. On Wednesday, he threw from 90 feet and, Manager Dave Martinez said, “he felt a lot better than yesterday.”
For now, the plan is to let Scherzer throw from 90 feet again Thursday and, if he feels good enough, throw a light bullpen. That said, Martinez seemed to rule his ace out for Saturday. He said, if Scherzer throws the bullpen Thursday, that “could possibly put him in line for Sunday.”
“But we’re not going to make that decision until we see how feels tomorrow,” Martinez said Wednesday.
The Nationals have been chasing the Braves for months. On May 24, when the Nationals sank to their season’s rock-bottom at 19-31, they trailed the Braves by 7½ games. In the past two months, the Nationals have best team in baseball but the Braves haven’t been far behind. Now, the Nationals trail the Braves by 6½ games. If the Nationals win three of these four games, they could make up more ground in one weekend than they have in the past two months.
The Braves seem as vulnerable as they have in a while. Earlier in the week they lost consecutive games to the same opponent for the first time since early June. It was bittersweet for Nationals fans, though, because the victor in those games was the Milwaukee Brewers, who inched one game closer to the Nationals’ top spot in the National League wild card. The Nationals’ advantage is now 1½ games.
None of the Nationals is looking at those standings, though, Eaton said, but he still noticed the Braves had a day game in Milwaukee on Wednesday, letting them fly home earlier than the Nationals could get to Atlanta, especially considering the delay. But Eaton dismissed the impact, pointing out that the Nationals have had travel issues all season, such as when they sat on the tarmac almost all night for a flight from Philadelphia to Milwaukee in early May.
“It’s been kind of hectic,” Eaton said. “But we’re professionals, and we put our shoes on just like them.”
Because of the schedule, the Braves were likely back in Atlanta around the same time or shortly after the Nationals took the field in Baltimore after the delay. The Nats game ended just after 11 p.m. and the team departed about an hour later. Still, the schedule didn’t bother Martinez. either.
“We gotta get on that plane, get some rest and turn around and go play the Braves,” he said. “I’ve got all the faith in the world these guys will be up for it.”
Then, in classic Martinez fashion, he added: “Lets just kind of focus on the game tomorrow. The Braves are ahead of us: I get it, we all get it. Let’s just worry about tomorrow, focus on tomorrow. I’ve said this before, we go 1-0 tomorrow and then we’ll go from there.”
Read more:
Austin Voth gets the job done for the Nationals in a series-opening win in Baltimore
The Nationals and Orioles have never agreed to a trade. Now is a good time to change that.
Nationals to use Erick Fedde in a spot start Wednesday against the Orioles
We need to chill on hyping Juan Soto’s ceiling, but he’s making that very difficult
Lucas Giolito is an all-star and the Nationals need a pitcher, but trading him wasn’t a mistake
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2019/07/18/nationals-hope-make-up-ground-four-game-series-against-braves/
2019-07-18 10:50:09Z
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