I predict that we will soon see a James Wood bobblehead of his arms-first slide into home plate when he hit his first ever grand slam, which happened to be an inside the park home run. There have been three since 2022 and the Nats’ own Michael A. Taylor has one of the other two. I am curious about how they will manage to replicate the spray of sand during the slide.
The Nationals are on the brink of a winning blitz. We’re still treading water at around .500 but working on defense and committing fewer errors. While we still have the most errors by far in the league (49 in 51 games), over the last three games, our errors per game is down compared to season average. Over the last week or so, the three losses included fielding errors, while the wins did not. And team management is working on the issue, having recently sent Brady House down to AAA Rochester to work on his game. He’ll be back and he’ll be good.
Joey Wiemer also went to AAA and Dylan Crews and Andres Chaparro came back to DC. Jacob Young may have heard Crews’ approaching footsteps. While his glove work has always been fantastic, his hitting has improved of late — especially for power. Before last night’s loss to the Mets, he had home runs in his last three full games.
Management has also been at work on the farm moving players to get them ready to contribute in DC. Last week, the team promoted Seaver King to AAA Rochester. He was drafted 10th overall in the 2024 draft and is 23 years old. At Harrisburg this year, he was slashing .336/.427/.562 with five home runs, five stolen bases and a 22:31 BB:K in 35 games. He plays the infield and perhaps we’ll see him in DC before the season is over.
Let’s talk about pitching. Clayton Beeter is off the IL and back in DC while PJ Poulin has been sent down to AAA.
The most curious thing to me is how Butera is mixing up the pitching duties. He has been using an opener (Poulin or Lovelady) for starts by Mikolas and Littell. The opener, often a reliever with high-leverage experience, is chosen specifically to counter the opposing team’s best hitters in the first inning. After getting through the first few batters, the opener is pulled. The bulk of the game (often 4-6 innings) is then pitched by the “follower,” who is usually a traditional starter or long reliever.
The strategy behind using an opener is that hitters statistically perform much better the third or fourth time they face the same pitcher in a single game. By using an opener, a manager delays the “follower” from seeing the top of the lineup for a third time, saving them from facing the best hitters in later innings. I’m not sure yet if this is working well for the Nationals, though perhaps it is since Mikolas and Littell are struggling a bit even with an opener.
What is working well is long-relief pitching. Brad Lord has been at it for a while and Andrew Alvarez has rejoined the ‘pen in DC. In Wednesday’s victory over the Mets, Littell threw five innings of 2-run ball, while Alvarez threw 4 innings of 2-run ball and earned his first career save.
Not only is Butera challenging standard thinking on pitching assignments, he also knows the rules. When the Mets romped in the top of the 12th inning last week, Coach Butera knew when position players are allowed to come in to pitch. And the umpires on the field did not! They had to call NY. In regular innings, position players can pitch if it is a blowout (8 runs or more difference in score) but in extra innings they may pitch at any time. Kudos to Coach Butera!
The Nationals have also purchased the contract of right-handed relief pitcher Billy Sullivan, who has been in the farm system of several MLB teams.
On Sunday, my beautiful great-niece attended her first Nationals game on her first birthday! Baseball fandom runs deep in this family.
I’ve been on safari in Kenya, but the lions weren’t impressed by my Nats gear. Having a fabulous time with 2 of 3 kids and 4 of 6 grandkids.
Let’s be the envy of sports!
#thenatslady #theswarm
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