After the sweep of the Brewers, the Nationals suffered some ups and downs in Pittsburgh but came away 2-2 from the 4-game series. I’ll take it. In the final game, James Wood did James Wood things and drove in the go-ahead run in the top of the 10th; Ribalta secured the save as the Nats ceded no runs in the bottom of the 10th. Pittsburgh still sits atop the NL Central and the Nats are now tied for second place in the NL East. Movin’ on up to the East Side!
Some really good things are happening and some other things still need work. James Wood tore the cover off the ball last week and not surprisingly earned the honor of NL player of the week. Abrams has become masterful at the plate recently, either hitting or walking; his batting average is .371 and OPS is 1.191. Jorbit Vivas (pronounced Yor-bit Bi-bas) has been a surprisingly good addition to the team. He’s fast and served the Nats well as the automatic extra-inning runner in the recent win over the Pirates. He’s a utility infielder. And, he can hit; he’s currently batting .324.
What needs work?
Fielding errors. The Nationals have the second most errors per game in the league.
On base pickoffs. We have to figure out a way to reduce the number of runners getting picked off base. It’s atrocious.
ABS challenges. The Nationals are in last place for successful ABS challenges, only correctly challenging the umpire’s call roughly 30% of the time (27% for batters and 33% for catchers). The MLB overall season statistics show that batters win challenges about 46% of the time, catchers about 62% of the time and pitchers about 48% of the time. Each team gets two challenges to start the game. If you challenge and the umpire called the pitch correctly, you lose a challenge. Thus, a team that rarely succeeds in their challenges will run out of them and may not have one for an egregious bad call late in the game. Maybe Butera will have to look at individual stats and put limits on who can challenge.
We are seeing this team become a brotherhood. The have smiles on their faces and pep in their step. Who didn’t love the glee on Joey Wiemer’s face as he pitched the bottom in the eighth when the Pirates were blowing us out during the first game of the series? He threw between 30-something and 60-something MPH. I saw better pitching at fantasy camp.
The whole team seemed to enjoy celebrating Jackie Robinson day this week. Somedays, you have to just shake it off and have fun; the Nats are getting there and continued looseness will help yield success. The team will be back in DC Friday night to start a series with the San Francisco Giants, a very beatable team. Go Nats!
I’ve been cruising around Indonesia this week and listening to the night games in the early morning here. We enjoyed a fabulous visit hiking on Komodo Island and, luckily, managed to avoid being eaten by one of the dragons.
Let’s be the envy of sports!
#thenatslady #theswarm
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