Nationals @ Guardians, Game 3

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Washington Nationals vs Cleveland Guardians
Progressive Field
1:10 PM EDT

Nationals
OP: PJ Poulin (LHP) 3-0, 3.42 ERA
PP: Miles Mikolas (RHP) 46.2 IP, 1-3, 6.17 ERA / 5.71 FIP, 20.4% HR/FB, 15.3 K%, 6.9 BB%

Guardians
Gavin Williams (RHP) 69.1 IP, 7-3, 3.25 ERA / 3.34 FIP, 15.0% HR/FB, 30.3 K%, 7.9 BB%

Nationals
1. James Wood L RF
2. Luis García Jr. L 1B
3. Curtis Mead R 3B
4. CJ Abrams L SS
5. Daylen Lile L LF
6. Jose Tena L DH
7. Jorbit Vivas L 2B
8. Drew Millas S C
9. Jacob Young R CF

Guardians
1. Travis Bazzana L 2B
2. José Ramírez S DH
3. Chase DeLauter L RF
4. Kyle Manzardo L 1B
5. Angel Martínez S LF
6. Daniel Schneemann L 3B
7. Steven Kwan L CF
8. Austin Hedges R C
9. Brayan Rocchio S SS

[imref]

Good day to be a lefty.

[welch]

I don't know how Nats' pitching has made Braves and Guardians hitters turn into pumpkins, but I'm all for it. (Of course, this might be a day the Nats lose by ten runs...)

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Williams looks like the best 2026 performer of the 3 Guardians starters the Nats have seen. Only weakness looks like being a bit homer prone. FIP and ERA are close, so no indication of something not within the pitcher's control influencing the results to date. 30+ K% is impressive.

Cleveland giving another excellent defensive catcher, Hedges, a chance to start. Otherwise, it's the lefty and switch hitters they ran out last night.

Something to flag in the Nats lineup is Mead at 3rd and Vivas at 2B in place of Nunez. I think we may start to see Vivas getting more starts at 2B against righties with Nunez getting a higher % of his starts against LHP. Nunez has enormous splits this year, hitting lefties at a passable rate (.277 / .393 / .319, 114 wRC+) while being completely ineffective against RHP (.154 / .242 / .171, 23 wRC+ ). Mead is hitting RHP well, so the more obvious offensive platoon is with Nunez vs LHP and Vivas  vs RHP. You can ignore Vivas's nominally reverse splits because he's only had 13 PAs vs LHP and go with his 100+ PAs vs RHP this year (.241 / .320 / .345, 91 wRC+). Another thing to note about the Nats lineup is Crews is getting the day off with Tena DH'ng rather than one of Lile or Wood.  You can suppose that dodging the quality righty makes some sense for Crews, and Tena needs to  play a bit.

Mikolas has horrible numbers for the season, but he's come around in May - 19.1 IP, 3.26  ERA / 4.32 FIP, 15.8 K%, 3.9 BB%, 0.93 WHIP, 3 HR, .237 OBP against. Some BABIP luck (.207) but  the low walk and HR rates are responsible for the vastly better performance vs April. In fact, his HR/FB in May matches Cleveland's starter (15.0% HR/FB). Not good, but better than the 23.5% he ran previously. Fewer runners (OBP), fewer HRs, fewer runs on dingers.

[welch]

Might it be time for Nunez to go to Rochester to work on hitting RHP? Something like the decision to demote House? Maybe do that in a week or two, calling up Seaver King? Of course, King has only been there for six games, even though he is hitting .390 and his OPS is over 1000, so the Nats will probably wait some. Then, however, it will be time to choose the 40-man slot from Ortiz, Chappy, and Garcia. Ortiz, by the way, hit a walkoff homer yesterday, and King had a homer.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Might it be time for Nunez to go to Rochester to work on hitting RHP? Something like the decision to demote House? Maybe do that in a week or two, calling up Seaver King? Of course, King has only been there for six games, even though he is hitting .390 and his OPS is over 1000, so the Nats will probably wait some. Then, however, it will be time to choose the 40-man slot from Ortiz, Chappy, and Garcia. Ortiz, by the way, hit a walkoff homer yesterday, and King had a homer.

I think they'll run it this  way for a while. Nunez will still get starts against RHP and won't be pulled any time a righty reliever comes in. He's so good defensively that he can be a D sub, too, with leads, and he's the back up SS. House had slipped on D. Whether it was letting the hitting problems impact his D or just something off, he was more or less not useful except to mash lefties. Nunez is a great runner and defender so useful off the bench, and as long as the team scores runs vs righties, they can afford to give him half the start against righty starters.

[Slateman]

Might it be time for Nunez to go to Rochester to work on hitting RHP? Something like the decision to demote House? Maybe do that in a week or two, calling up Seaver King? Of course, King has only been there for six games, even though he is hitting .390 and his OPS is over 1000, so the Nats will probably wait some. Then, however, it will be time to choose the 40-man slot from Ortiz, Chappy, and Garcia. Ortiz, by the way, hit a walkoff homer yesterday, and King had a homer.

This is my plan.

Send Nunez down, bring up King.

Nunez and House work on their approach until the trade deadline. We trade Abrams, Garcia, Mikolas, Griffin, and Littell. Call up House, Nunez, Ford (send Millas down), Cornelio, and Gray. Then we play Nunez at SS the rest of the season. With House at 3B, Nunez at SS, King at 2B, and Mead at 1B, our defense will be significantly better. We can rotate Crews, Wood, and Lile through the DH spot, as needed. Adding a revamped House, Ford, and King will largely minimize the loss of Abrams' bat. We squeak into the WC on the last day of the season.

[welch]

I think they'll run it this  way for a while. Nunez will still get starts against RHP and won't be pulled any time a righty reliever comes in. He's so good defensively that he can be a D sub, too, with leads, and he's the back up SS. House had slipped on D. Whether it was letting the hitting problems impact his D or just something off, he was more or less not useful except to mash lefties. Nunez is a great runner and defender so useful off the bench, and as long as the team scores runs vs righties, they can afford to give him half the start against righty starters.

Makes sense, but I would like to see Nunez hit .230 or so, and Seaver King just looks so good. Also, it is hard to see the Nats carrying Ortiz, Chappy, and Garcia, with YoYo improving at 1B.

[imref]

This is my plan.

Send Nunez down, bring up King.

Nunez and House work on their approach until the trade deadline. We trade Abrams, Garcia, Mikolas, Griffin, and Littell. Call up House, Nunez, Ford (send Millas down), Cornelio, and Gray. Then we play Nunez at SS the rest of the season. With House at 3B, Nunez at SS, King at 2B, and Mead at 1B, our defense will be significantly better. We can rotate Crews, Wood, and Lile through the DH spot, as needed. Adding a revamped House, Ford, and King will largely minimize the loss of Abrams' bat. We squeak into the WC on the last day of the season.

Cornellio has been pretty awful as of late (getting rocked today too).

[SkinsNatFan21RIP]

Lile not having the best series ever in Cleveland.

[SkinsNatFan21RIP]

This is my plan.

Send Nunez down, bring up King.

Nunez and House work on their approach until the trade deadline. We trade Abrams, Garcia, Mikolas, Griffin, and Littell. Call up House, Nunez, Ford (send Millas down), Cornelio, and Gray. Then we play Nunez at SS the rest of the season. With House at 3B, Nunez at SS, King at 2B, and Mead at 1B, our defense will be significantly better. We can rotate Crews, Wood, and Lile through the DH spot, as needed. Adding a revamped House, Ford, and King will largely minimize the loss of Abrams' bat. We squeak into the WC on the last day of the season.

Are you expecting the team to be out of contention? Because if not it would be pretty brutal for the fanbase if you deal away Abrams and Griffin (I would trade Griffin). Trading Abrams only makes sense if you're out of contention and have no intentions of signing him. If the Lerners have no intentions of re-signing non-Boras clients then we're effectively screwed and it signals that to the fanbase as well. Maybe they don't care but if you do this after everything else they've done any goodwill left within this dwindling fanbase will be gone.

[IdahoNat]

Has an MLB league leader in stolen bases ever been sent down after the first two months of a season? That would have to be a first

[SkinsNatFan21RIP]

If these guys can't hit Poulin then they're in some big trouble overall lol

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Nats not in the score early mode today.

[imref]

Nats not in the score early mode today.

lineup ain't the same without Crews

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Wood double to the corner in right.

Too bad. He was just 3 steps from 3rd.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Abrams saying "you sure you don't want to walk me?"

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Abrams and Wood and all is good.

[SkinsNatFan21RIP]

Yeah, Lile is lost right now.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Yeah, Lile is lost right now.

that's a real good pitcher the Nats are facing.

[NatNasty]

Lile sucks ass

[SkinsNatFan21RIP]

that's a real good pitcher the Nats are facing.

True but I think he's been struggling this series in general. Not worried because he's been decent outside of this but this just hasn't been his series.

[SkinsNatFan21RIP]

I'm just never going to understand this Vivas thing...

[aspenbubba]

I'm just never going to understand this Vivas thing...

Not hard to understand. He sucks

[JCA-CrystalCity]

So Mead is 1 for 2 defensively this inning.