During the All-Star break, many baseball observers wondered if the Washington Nationals were pretenders or contenders.
And we learned in their series at Sacramento against the A’s that they are both and neither.
Friday’s 23-4 victory had the feel of Washington’s 25-4 win over the Mets in 2018, while Saturday’s 15-1 loss brought the club back to reality.
Sunday, Foster Griffin scattered eight hits over seven innings to post his 11th win of the season as the Nats got back to .500 with a 5-2 win over the Athletics.
The trade deadline is two weeks away, and while six of their next nine games are against clubs with losing records, the Nationals end July and start August with an eight-game road trip in Atlanta and Philadelphia.
Digesting the Division: Atlanta (57-41) saw Chris Sale post his tenth win of the season Friday, becoming the 27th pitcher in MLB history to reach the 2,700-career strikeout threshold while doing so. Philadelphia (55-45) lost two of three to the New York Mets and got some bad news from the bullpen when reliever Brad Keller had UCL surgery over the All-Star break, putting additional pressure on a bullpen that ranks 21st in ERA. Miami (52-48) got swept by Milwaukee, extending their losing streak to six. Washington (50-50) remains on the fringe of playoff contention while the New York Mets (42-58) remain in last place. Outside of taking two of three from Philly, the Mets’ highlight of the week was Juan Soto notching one of three NL hits in the All-Star Game loss. Now he goes back to being the best player (21 homers with 52 RBI) on a bad team. Sound familiar?
Break up the Birds: The Orioles (49-51) are catching a little midseason fire, sweeping Houston to move past the Astros in the Wild Card standings. They trail Boston by two games and visit the Red Sox this week. The O’s also locked down some stability for their rotation by agreeing to a five-year contract extension worth $90 million with Kyle Bradish.
Diamond King: I did not have “Andrés Chaparro drives in eight” on my bingo card at any point in time this season. The light-hitting (.210 this year) first baseman went 4 for 5 with two home runs and eight RBI Friday night in Sacramento to give his numbers for the year a major boost.
Last Week’s Heroes: Curtis Mead hit .455 while driving in four and prime catching prospect Harry Ford hit .375 with a homer and four RBI. Cade Cavalli struck out nine over six innings to begin the road trip on the right foot while Riley Cornelio tossed two scoreless innings of relief. Griffin struck out two while tossing a 1-2-3 inning at the All-Star Game before posting seven strong innings in Sunday’s win at Sacramento.
Last Week’s Humbled: Zack Littell allowed eight runs over six innings while Max Kranick surrendered five runs over 0.2 frames. Luis Garcia Jr. went 0 of 5 at the plate while James Wood batted .071 with 10 strikeouts in 15 plate appearances.
Game to Watch: Wednesday, the Nats wrap up their road trip in Colorado with Cavalli looking to build off his recent outing and looking to win consecutive starts for the first time all season.
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