Latest / District Territory / Historic meltdown leaves Nationals at an inflection point

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Historic meltdown leaves Nationals at an inflection point · District Territory

0:00
Speaker 1: In today's episode of District Territory, we are going to
0:02
Speaker 1: be taking a look at the nats overall very successful
0:05
Speaker 1: road trip and the monumental loss that they suffered on
0:09
Speaker 1: Wednesday night. We've also got a giveaway for you today.
0:11
Speaker 1: It's Friday, but let's jump right into it. Friday, June twelfth,
0:20
Speaker 1: the National's return home for a six game homestand later
0:23
Speaker 1: today I'm Eric Shellhouse from bat Boys Baseball. Joining me
0:26
Speaker 1: today Spencer does Baumba, the Athletic Spencer. How is your
0:29
Speaker 1: flight back from San Francisco? What were the vibes after
0:33
Speaker 1: Wednesday Night's loss?
0:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, always a fun red eye back from San Francisco.
0:39
Speaker 2: It was funny. Kyle Williams and I who works at
0:41
Speaker 2: the Banner, We're on the same flight and we're, you know,
0:47
Speaker 2: just so many things happen where we're watching the Nick
0:49
Speaker 2: Spurs games and it's like, oh my god, the Spurs
0:51
Speaker 2: just melted down in a similar fashion way, and our
0:55
Speaker 2: flight gets, i know, the layover gets, you know, and
1:00
Speaker 2: so we miss our connecting flight and it's like we
1:02
Speaker 2: had a rough twelve hours, but you know, we didn't
1:06
Speaker 2: have to go through the Nationals just did so all
1:08
Speaker 2: in all, you know, things are all right by me,
1:11
Speaker 2: but yeah, definitely some coming out of you know, the
1:15
Speaker 2: final game in that series, as as I'm sure we're
1:17
Speaker 2: about to stop up.
1:19
Speaker 1: Yeah on. You know, I think the one silver lining
1:22
Speaker 1: of Wednesday night's loss, as you just mentioned, was it
1:24
Speaker 1: probably wasn't the worst in the sports world that night.
1:27
Speaker 1: At least you didn't blow a thirty point lead in
1:28
Speaker 1: the NBA Finals. But for those of you that are
1:31
Speaker 1: unaware of the Nationals lost eleven to ten on Wednesday.
1:35
Speaker 1: They got the party Cohen early with their second, sorry,
1:38
Speaker 1: their third to run homer in five last five games.
1:40
Speaker 1: Not sure last time that happened in that's history of
1:44
Speaker 1: baseball history in general. But we're going to start our
1:46
Speaker 1: recap here. In the bottom of the eighth, it was
1:48
Speaker 1: nine to two Nationals and with no one out Matt Chapman.
1:51
Speaker 1: I don't even think this was no one out Matt Chapman.
1:53
Speaker 1: This is solo home run nine to two, No big deal.
1:55
Speaker 1: We weren't worried. And then Raphael Dever's next batter up
1:59
Speaker 1: nine to three. We were not too worried. The Giants
2:02
Speaker 1: scored five in this inning, cut the lead from nine
2:04
Speaker 1: to one to nine to six, and in the top
2:06
Speaker 1: of the ninth inning, Curtis Meat delivered some insurance. He
2:09
Speaker 1: has been crushing the ball all season and really quickly
2:12
Speaker 1: before we get into the bottom half, Spencer, I just
2:14
Speaker 1: want to ask you about Curtis Meat and what you've
2:16
Speaker 1: seen from him this season because his power stroke, he's
2:19
Speaker 1: found third on the team at home runs. Now, it's
2:21
Speaker 1: really remarkable.
2:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, and he's someone again who came up as a
2:25
Speaker 2: top prospect and the Nationals believed in when they acquired him,
2:28
Speaker 2: But there wasn't necessarily the track record in the big leagues,
2:31
Speaker 2: right that you'd expect from a player who is now
2:34
Speaker 2: your everyday corner infielder against righty's against lefties like he
2:39
Speaker 2: was supposed to be, you know, short side of the
2:40
Speaker 2: platoon and figure it out from there. Instead, he's looked
2:45
Speaker 2: like the player he's supposed to be in So much
2:47
Speaker 2: of that again just comes back to the familiarity with Blake,
2:51
Speaker 2: the confidence he's had to go out there every day,
2:54
Speaker 2: and you know he's stopped tweaking his swing every other day.
2:57
Speaker 2: Sim clearly that's a that's paid off for him. Well,
3:01
Speaker 2: probably dive in like a little deeper into his path
3:05
Speaker 2: and trajectory and future episodes. But yeah, if you're looking
3:07
Speaker 2: for like a short rundown right now, he is exactly
3:10
Speaker 2: what the Nationals need him to be shot, which, as
3:14
Speaker 2: we'll get into, they need a little bit more than
3:16
Speaker 2: that in the in.
3:18
Speaker 1: The ninth Yeah, I mean we need to think of
3:21
Speaker 1: a creative nickname for the sky posted to get to
3:23
Speaker 1: know on bat Boys the other day for Curtis Meat
3:25
Speaker 1: and I saw some creative ones Australian hammer, Australian slugger
3:29
Speaker 1: in the comments, but I just I need something little
3:31
Speaker 1: juicier than that. But seeking a juicy the bottom of
3:34
Speaker 1: the ninth inning, Giants lead off with back to back doubles.
3:37
Speaker 1: After that a walk in a single. All of a sudden,
3:40
Speaker 1: his bases loaded, nobody out and Bryce Eldridge, the hometown kid,
3:44
Speaker 1: came up to the plate and delivered the walk off
3:46
Speaker 1: grand slam flips his bat into the air. Although Game
3:50
Speaker 1: Day three D doesn't really do it justice there, you know,
3:53
Speaker 1: shout out to him. I got a lot of interesting
3:55
Speaker 1: text after this game, varying from what the hell happened
3:59
Speaker 1: dog to a text from William's dad that was like, hey,
4:02
Speaker 1: at least the hometown kid, did it? You know what
4:06
Speaker 1: was your reaction in that moment, Spencer?
4:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, again, it's it's funny because the action is more
4:15
Speaker 2: than anything. Oh my god, I have a story to write,
4:19
Speaker 2: but it really is. I can't believe that just happened.
4:22
Speaker 2: And that's something that again when I talk about Kyle
4:25
Speaker 2: and I being on the same travel plans for sixteen
4:28
Speaker 2: hours or whatever, twenty four hours whatever it ended up being,
4:31
Speaker 2: I can't tell you how many times during that trip
4:33
Speaker 2: I said, I can't believe that happened. As history will
4:38
Speaker 2: show you, this is not something that has happened in
4:41
Speaker 2: terms of an eight run lead. This late blown since
4:44
Speaker 2: I believe it was two thousand and nine. And so again,
4:48
Speaker 2: as a writer like you go into those final two
4:50
Speaker 2: innings saying, hey, games settled, like you know, what are
4:53
Speaker 2: the narratives, what are the angles we're looking at, and
4:57
Speaker 2: it just it just kept going on. It really was astounding.
5:01
Speaker 2: But it did feel in that ninth inning, especially once
5:03
Speaker 2: Mitchell Parker came in, that it felt more likely, not
5:07
Speaker 2: that the natural were gonna blow it, but still in
5:09
Speaker 2: that spot like all the odds are in their favor.
5:12
Speaker 2: So yeah, it's one of those games that makes you
5:16
Speaker 2: look a little bit closer at the bullpen. I saw
5:19
Speaker 2: a lot of people on social media too, talking about
5:21
Speaker 2: some of the managerial decisions. I frankly thought it was
5:25
Speaker 2: more in personal and maybe maybe we can get into
5:27
Speaker 2: that a little bit. But you know, there's just there's
5:32
Speaker 2: a lot of different ways you can look at it,
5:33
Speaker 2: and I guess I'm curious for you, do you look
5:35
Speaker 2: at it more as the managerial decisions or do you
5:37
Speaker 2: look at it as, hey, these guys just have to
5:40
Speaker 2: execute in those spots.
5:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, I did see it more as managerial decisions. Quite frankly,
5:46
Speaker 1: the reaction from social media that I saw from a
5:50
Speaker 1: lot of people was also, hey, I would love to
5:52
Speaker 1: see Varlin staying in that situation. That's kind of where
5:55
Speaker 1: I was at. You give him the rock and he's
5:58
Speaker 1: kind of been the guy in that situation. Knowing what
6:01
Speaker 1: Mitchell Parker has been in this last few outings, I
6:03
Speaker 1: don't know if the righty lefty matchup really mattered quite
6:07
Speaker 1: as much there, But as you just mentioned, as soon
6:10
Speaker 1: as they made that move, I started to get the
6:12
Speaker 1: sense too. Just following on my phone. I had left
6:16
Speaker 1: watching the game after the eighth inning to go attend
6:18
Speaker 1: another ballgame.
6:20
Speaker 3: VI.
6:21
Speaker 1: You know, I was just watching along on my phone
6:22
Speaker 1: when I saw that pitching change. This gut feeling sank
6:25
Speaker 1: in my stomach. I was like, this could be it.
6:27
Speaker 1: Give our online viewers a look at the pitching box
6:30
Speaker 1: score from Wednesday nights loss Orlando or Balta came in
6:33
Speaker 1: and did something that he's done many times before, thrown
6:36
Speaker 1: into a position with runners on base. All things consider
6:40
Speaker 1: in the box score there he got a zero. Some
6:42
Speaker 1: runs across the plate while he was on the board.
6:44
Speaker 1: But as curious Spencer, what you thought about his outing
6:47
Speaker 1: on Wednesday?
6:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, well again, and that ties into the manager old decisions, right,
6:51
Speaker 2: Like I am someone who thinks it really was a
6:54
Speaker 2: matter of execution, especially when you blow a lead that large.
6:58
Speaker 2: It's like you can only pull so many levers before
7:02
Speaker 2: like something changes. But if there was any lever I
7:04
Speaker 2: would have pulled differently. It would have been leaving Orbalta
7:06
Speaker 2: in there now. Blake has said multiple times although he
7:12
Speaker 2: hasn't fully stuck to this in his decisions, because there's
7:15
Speaker 2: one time where he left him in for multiple innings.
7:17
Speaker 2: But then he doesn't love using Rebolt as a multi
7:20
Speaker 2: ending guy because you see the command and the velocity
7:22
Speaker 2: dip once he comes back into the dugout. That being said,
7:27
Speaker 2: he's spend so solid for the Nationals recently, and you
7:30
Speaker 2: have the off day coming up where you don't worry, Hey,
7:32
Speaker 2: are we gonna have to use this guy tomorrow? Where
7:35
Speaker 2: I think you do maybe lean in there and either
7:39
Speaker 2: bring him in a touch earlier, or what I thought
7:43
Speaker 2: was leave him out there longer, just because of how
7:46
Speaker 2: reliable he's spent and how close the game got once
7:49
Speaker 2: Schultz gun in there. But again, I really think it
7:53
Speaker 2: is a matter of, hey, this is a sort of
7:55
Speaker 2: lead that hasn't been blown in years and years and years.
7:58
Speaker 2: I think I'm okay leaving Schultz in there to try
8:00
Speaker 2: to figure it out for as many batters as you did.
8:03
Speaker 2: The Parker decision is tough, but like and like, sure,
8:07
Speaker 2: I disagree with it because the results went poorly, But
8:10
Speaker 2: in the moment, well in the moment, I'm thinking, hey, like,
8:15
Speaker 2: you know, Parker has struggled in these spots, but Varlin's
8:19
Speaker 2: you know, allowed two really hard pieces of contact and
8:24
Speaker 2: walked Raffie Devers. So yeah, I really think he was
8:28
Speaker 2: stuck more than anything. But I also get the like,
8:31
Speaker 2: it's fair to debate both sides. I just think at
8:33
Speaker 2: the end of the day, those guys have to execute
8:35
Speaker 2: and throw strikes from those spots, and ultimately they couldn't
8:38
Speaker 2: do it.
8:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I understand but Terra's options were limited at
8:43
Speaker 1: that point too. You take one more look at the
8:45
Speaker 1: pitching box score. He'd exhausted a few options and quite
8:49
Speaker 1: a few guys were not available because of pitching him
8:52
Speaker 1: Monday and Tuesday nights victories. So I understand that his
8:55
Speaker 1: hands were almost in a sense tied having to bring
8:58
Speaker 1: in Mitchell Parker there. It's not like there's literally no
9:01
Speaker 1: one else down there in the bullpen, but most of
9:03
Speaker 1: the guys were not rested or equipped to pitch on
9:05
Speaker 1: that day. It was pretty much the last bullet that
9:08
Speaker 1: but Ta had to fire in that moment, and for me,
9:11
Speaker 1: it felt like, well, crap, you know, if they get
9:14
Speaker 1: three runs here, we get to the tenth. That's where
9:16
Speaker 1: my gut started going. Truly was like, if we're gonna
9:19
Speaker 1: if the Giants are going to rally here and they
9:21
Speaker 1: get even three here, I don't know if there's a
9:23
Speaker 1: universe where we're gonna win this. In extras, having given
9:26
Speaker 1: up a nine or a ten run lead.
9:29
Speaker 2: Right, the only left was Riley Cornelio, who they do
9:32
Speaker 2: not want to throw high leveraged spots. And now again
9:34
Speaker 2: that begs the question of why is he on the
9:38
Speaker 2: roster if you're not comfortable throwing them in those spots.
9:40
Speaker 2: But again I think ultimately you want a long man.
9:43
Speaker 2: The other angle of it is like, hey, why are
9:47
Speaker 2: Mitchell Parker and Richard Lovela the only two lefties in
9:50
Speaker 2: the bullpen? And that's honestly where I maybe throw another
9:53
Speaker 2: critique in there too, is like PJ Pool and hasn't
9:56
Speaker 2: been great, but wouldn't you prefer to have him in
9:59
Speaker 2: that high leverage spot. Wouldn't you prefer to take a
10:01
Speaker 2: chance on someone on the waiver wires or someone from
10:05
Speaker 2: you know, another organization or anything like that. Yeah, they're
10:09
Speaker 2: in a tough spot in that spot.
10:11
Speaker 1: No doubt. We're going to take a quick break, but
10:14
Speaker 1: when we come back and talk about some transactions within
10:16
Speaker 1: the organization and take a look down on the farm
10:19
Speaker 1: at some of the guys in the miners.
10:21
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11:22
Speaker 1: All right and we are back by that break the
11:25
Speaker 1: Nationals not making a release or I don't know what
11:28
Speaker 1: you qualify this move as the other day, but happy
11:30
Speaker 1: trails too, and I always botch his pronunciation. Shinosuke Alga Sowara,
11:36
Speaker 1: who left the Nationals organization the other day to head
11:39
Speaker 1: back to NPB. The Yumuri Giants signed him in his return.
11:44
Speaker 1: He was with the Tchinichi Jiggans before, but just two
11:46
Speaker 1: starts at the big league level for this guy. I
11:49
Speaker 1: did have some outings in out of the bullpen, I
11:51
Speaker 1: believe last season, if I'm not mistaken, but never saw
11:54
Speaker 1: the big league level this season, And Spencer, I'm just
11:57
Speaker 1: wondering what your thoughts are on the move and what
12:00
Speaker 1: this means for a bullpen that has been a storyline
12:03
Speaker 1: for the Nats of this season.
12:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know if it means a ton this season,
12:07
Speaker 2: if only because Ogasawara, like spent most of his recent
12:13
Speaker 2: months in Double A, and so it really was a
12:17
Speaker 2: case of like, hey, the organization more or less is
12:20
Speaker 2: given up on trying to get him back up here.
12:23
Speaker 2: I think the move was interesting again at the time
12:25
Speaker 2: because the Nationals hadn't signed anyone from the other side
12:29
Speaker 2: of the world in a ever. I was about to
12:31
Speaker 2: say a long time, but really ever, and so that
12:34
Speaker 2: was like, hey, is the window opening when in reality,
12:37
Speaker 2: you know, Gustawar's agent is someone who the Nationals used
12:41
Speaker 2: to employ. And the fact of the matter was the
12:46
Speaker 2: the stuff. Again, I think the mental was all there.
12:51
Speaker 2: I think that again guys really enjoyed being his teammate,
12:54
Speaker 2: but the stuff wasn't enough to get guys out at
12:56
Speaker 2: the big league level. And so I think it's honestly
12:59
Speaker 2: good for Gus war to to get back to the NPB,
13:05
Speaker 2: and ultimately, again we can talk a lot about the bullpen.
13:08
Speaker 2: I don't know that he was part of the plans necessarily,
13:10
Speaker 2: but when we think about transaction at large, again, it's
13:13
Speaker 2: probably a good move for them to be adding and
13:16
Speaker 2: subtracting as they may to try to figure this thing out.
13:19
Speaker 2: Because I was someone who I thought there was going
13:23
Speaker 2: to be a lot more transactions in the bullpen than
13:26
Speaker 2: there have been so far.
13:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, especially the way that they were making transactions out
13:32
Speaker 1: of the gate come April. You know, there was a
13:34
Speaker 1: lot of interesting moves that Nationals fans maybe were scratching
13:38
Speaker 1: their head a little bit over and saying, Hey, the
13:40
Speaker 1: guy's numbers are like that bad, why are we sending him?
13:42
Speaker 1: Took us a second to get used to that new
13:45
Speaker 1: style of how the Nets were playing baseball, and yeah,
13:49
Speaker 1: I don't know, he was popping up on my minor
13:51
Speaker 1: league report when I looked over on the right at
13:53
Speaker 1: Nationals Park quite often in certain statistics, but as you mentioned,
13:56
Speaker 1: down to double A this season, which to me was
13:59
Speaker 1: definitely and when he was at the big league level,
14:02
Speaker 1: as you said, the stuff just wasn't quite there. The
14:05
Speaker 1: mental always seemed to be there, and the brief interactions
14:08
Speaker 1: I had with him on the field always a good time.
14:10
Speaker 1: Seems like a fun teammate to have around. Really quickly,
14:13
Speaker 1: I want to remind our listeners and viewers to subscribe
14:16
Speaker 1: because when we get to one thousand subscribers on YouTube,
14:19
Speaker 1: we're going to be giving away this Eli Willetts signed
14:21
Speaker 1: baseball card. We're also going to be given away a
14:23
Speaker 1: signed card later today. Stay tuned for that. But Eli
14:26
Speaker 1: Willetts with another bomb last night to this fan on
14:31
Speaker 1: Twitter's now top prospect in Baseball soon, Spencer. I'm curious,
14:35
Speaker 1: you know, where do you see this guy's roof being
14:38
Speaker 1: in terms of top one hundred prospects for this season?
14:42
Speaker 1: Obviously not in the big leagues, but his kid's starting
14:45
Speaker 1: to draw some noise.
14:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, now, will this This is such an interesting case,
14:50
Speaker 2: right because he comes out of the draft as the
14:53
Speaker 2: youngest player in the draft and you look at four
14:56
Speaker 2: of the five tools and you say, oh, my goodness, Like,
15:00
Speaker 2: the only thing left to do is add power.
15:02
Speaker 1: He's young.
15:04
Speaker 2: You figure that frame is going to add power, but
15:06
Speaker 2: you just never know. And it's something where I even
15:08
Speaker 2: came into the twenty twenty six season saying, yeah, you know,
15:11
Speaker 2: expect maybe some marginal gains on that front, but really
15:14
Speaker 2: all he needs to do is just hit the ball. Well,
15:16
Speaker 2: she always acclimated to the schedule, YadA, YadA. He's hit
15:19
Speaker 2: three homers in three games at HIA. Like I didn't
15:21
Speaker 2: expect him to be at High A at this point.
15:24
Speaker 2: I didn't expect him to be doing things like that.
15:26
Speaker 2: The Nationals have really helped him. We've said it again
15:28
Speaker 2: and again again. Pull the ball in the air and
15:30
Speaker 2: hit the ball in the air, and those are the
15:33
Speaker 2: things where you can do that consistently, it can make
15:35
Speaker 2: up for the lack of maybe strength. But that's the
15:39
Speaker 2: other thing, is he's added strength, like he's he's still
15:44
Speaker 2: like he's not where he's going to be in the
15:46
Speaker 2: big leagues, Like he's going to add more strength to this.
15:48
Speaker 2: Obviously he's eighteen years old, but it's a it's a
15:52
Speaker 2: profile that you really start to dream on. And he's
15:54
Speaker 2: someone too where you know, I think Keith law Over
15:58
Speaker 2: the Athletic had him around thirty first in his top
16:02
Speaker 2: one hundred. But if he finishes the year with what
16:05
Speaker 2: twenty jacks and shows he can hit high pitching and
16:08
Speaker 2: has all the metrics that he has and has this.
16:11
Speaker 2: When I've talked to people in the organization, they talk
16:13
Speaker 2: about like an obsession, like an obsession with baseball, and
16:15
Speaker 2: a lot of guys like you'll hear similar things, but
16:17
Speaker 2: it really does kind of feel different with him when
16:19
Speaker 2: you put all those things together. It really is a
16:23
Speaker 2: sort of like it's a profile you start to dream on,
16:26
Speaker 2: and it's it's representative of everything they've done in the organization.
16:29
Speaker 2: But Yeah, has a good head on his shoulders and
16:34
Speaker 2: is really trending in the right direction for him to
16:35
Speaker 2: do this already at high A. I don't think people
16:38
Speaker 2: fully understand the weight of that. So super impressive.
16:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, I remember when the Nationals drafted this kid. I'm
16:45
Speaker 1: not gonna lie. Maybe I hadn't done enough research prior
16:48
Speaker 1: to the draft, but I wasn't thrilled. I wasn't thrilled
16:51
Speaker 1: when that was the speculation going into the draft that
16:53
Speaker 1: this is going to be the guy the Nats were
16:55
Speaker 1: going to take. They did, And the more research I do,
16:58
Speaker 1: the more excited I get reading about it, because, as
17:00
Speaker 1: you said, a lot of guys you hear about this
17:02
Speaker 1: being enthralled with baseball, obsession with baseball. But like, is
17:07
Speaker 1: that what you're dreaming about in your subconscious Yes, for
17:09
Speaker 1: Eli Willits I think it is. But that's the question
17:13
Speaker 1: here and a lot to dream on. As you mentioned
17:15
Speaker 1: there future infielder when he arrives to the big leagues.
17:20
Speaker 1: I know that was a question we had from years
17:22
Speaker 1: in the last one. It's going to be a while.
17:23
Speaker 1: It gonna be some time, but keep an eye down
17:27
Speaker 1: on the farm Fredericksburg. I just I get my highs
17:32
Speaker 1: and my lowes all kinds of mixed up. But you know,
17:36
Speaker 1: I was not in Wilmington to see the Blue Rocks
17:39
Speaker 1: every weekend. I was in Wilmington, North Carolina, to visit
17:42
Speaker 1: the Sharks. So I want to give them a quick
17:44
Speaker 1: shout out because I got my Wilmington's mixed up. I
17:46
Speaker 1: was in Wilmington Beach, not Wilmington, Delaware, and publicly owned
17:50
Speaker 1: that mistake to my friend Connor. But Connor also mentions
17:54
Speaker 1: to me another funny thing as we look at the
17:55
Speaker 1: National League's standings really quickly, a quote from Thomas Boswell
18:00
Speaker 1: used to be a writer in the Washington Post. You know,
18:01
Speaker 1: you can't check the standings before July fourth, But here
18:04
Speaker 1: I am checking them out. And it may be greedy
18:07
Speaker 1: of me, but the Nationals are thirty five and thirty fourth.
18:09
Speaker 1: They're ten and a half back of National League Geese Spencer.
18:12
Speaker 1: I'm curious, is this something that is still fathomable here
18:18
Speaker 1: on June twelfth, that hey, we're in play for the
18:22
Speaker 1: division if we keep playing this kind of baseball.
18:28
Speaker 2: So I wrote about this a little bit at the
18:30
Speaker 2: Athletic this morning, and to make maybe a longer story
18:37
Speaker 2: a little bit shorter, I looked at teams historically that
18:41
Speaker 2: have hit like the Nationals have hit, pitched and played
18:45
Speaker 2: defense like the Nationals have pitched and played defense, had
18:48
Speaker 2: a you know, new manager, kind of put all these
18:51
Speaker 2: things together and kind of see what it says about
18:54
Speaker 2: what the Nationals could be. The fact of the matter is,
18:57
Speaker 2: I think the path to October is maybe a little
19:00
Speaker 2: more likely than I was giving it credit for, and
19:03
Speaker 2: maybe a little less likely than maybe the optimistic fan
19:07
Speaker 2: would give it credit for. You look at teams that
19:11
Speaker 2: have given up I think it was three age and
19:12
Speaker 2: seventy runs, sixty nine games into the season, and it's
19:15
Speaker 2: like a very small number out of one hundred and
19:19
Speaker 2: fifty five have done it. But then you look at
19:22
Speaker 2: teams that have again added a new manager and who
19:28
Speaker 2: are maybe in the positional position that the Nationals are in,
19:32
Speaker 2: and it's like, oh my god, they're They're ahead of
19:34
Speaker 2: the schedule that they planned out for, and so maybe
19:36
Speaker 2: that makes you more optimistic. Maybe the most fascinating piece
19:41
Speaker 2: that I stumbled upon had to do with their youth,
19:45
Speaker 2: in that they are going to probably be the second
19:49
Speaker 2: youngest hitting team of all time. And you look at
19:55
Speaker 2: the group of teams that have even come close to that,
19:57
Speaker 2: and a very very very very small amount have made
20:01
Speaker 2: the playoffs. Now that's not to say that again this
20:05
Speaker 2: Nationals team can't, but I think we do kind of
20:07
Speaker 2: have to temper expectations a little bit in the sense that, hey,
20:12
Speaker 2: like James Wood has had a great first half before,
20:15
Speaker 2: but he hasn't proven that he can do it for
20:18
Speaker 2: one hundred and sixty two games. Geeze Abrams, same way,
20:22
Speaker 2: the state of the roster, like there could very likely
20:26
Speaker 2: be a cell at the deadline. And so you put
20:30
Speaker 2: all these things together with a bunch of players who
20:31
Speaker 2: haven't either played a full one sixty two or haven't
20:36
Speaker 2: proven they can do it over a full one sixty two,
20:39
Speaker 2: and that's where you get a little cautious. But again,
20:42
Speaker 2: the windows maybe more open than I initially thought it was,
20:48
Speaker 2: at least when I looked at history. And I even
20:50
Speaker 2: talked to Paltimoney a little bit about this. There are
20:52
Speaker 2: a couple of quotes in there from him where he
20:54
Speaker 2: says like, hey, yeah, we are we are playing the
20:57
Speaker 2: sort of baseball we want to be playing. It is
21:00
Speaker 2: also early to mid June. There are seven important weeks ahead,
21:06
Speaker 2: and they will look up in late July and decide, hey,
21:10
Speaker 2: are we ready to sell or are we ready to buy?
21:12
Speaker 2: And I'm reading between the lines and paraphrasing a little bit.
21:15
Speaker 2: You can read it over at the story, but that's
21:17
Speaker 2: kind of the gist of the matter. And so yeah,
21:21
Speaker 2: well these are the most meaningful games the Nationals have
21:24
Speaker 2: played and will play in a long time. So yeah,
21:27
Speaker 2: very compelling stuff.
21:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, I strongly encourage everyone to check out Spencer's story.
21:32
Speaker 1: Terrific writer, and I think a lot of it. You know,
21:36
Speaker 1: where they might find themselves at the deadline will come
21:38
Speaker 1: down to the baseball they play in the next couple
21:40
Speaker 1: of weeks. You take a look at the Nationals upcoming
21:42
Speaker 1: upcoming schedule, back in town for a six game homestand
21:46
Speaker 1: taken on the Seattle Mariners in Kansas City. Royal Mariners
21:50
Speaker 1: on paper, a very very good baseball team this season.
21:53
Speaker 1: Right now, I want to give a shout out to
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Speaker 1: out to see Geek for sponsoring today's episode. Later on
23:11
Speaker 1: at the Ballpark, Spencer a look at Friday night's pitching preview.
23:14
Speaker 1: We have Bryce Miller on the mound for the Seattle Mariners.
23:17
Speaker 1: He has been nails this season two and zero with
23:19
Speaker 1: a one three three ERA. But Zach Lttel on the
23:22
Speaker 1: bump for the Nationals. He's very sharp last time out
23:24
Speaker 1: in Arizona, and he has really found a good groove
23:27
Speaker 1: here of Wight. Spencer give Nats fans a little preview
23:31
Speaker 1: of what they might be able to expect from zach
23:33
Speaker 1: Lttel later on today.
23:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a lot of pitches over the heart of
23:36
Speaker 2: the plate early in the count and then moving away
23:39
Speaker 2: from the plate later in the count, which is it's
23:43
Speaker 2: the same like mix you saw early in the season,
23:45
Speaker 2: but it's the exact opposite sequencing, which is what every
23:51
Speaker 2: big league pitcher who pitches well does well. You attack
23:54
Speaker 2: the zone early and then you leave it late. And
23:58
Speaker 2: that's something where he just wasn't doing that in April.
24:00
Speaker 2: For a variety of factors that I will be writing
24:03
Speaker 2: over soon at the Athletic But the fact of the
24:06
Speaker 2: matter is this is an excellent pitcher the Nationals are
24:10
Speaker 2: facing and someone on the mound for them who pitches
24:14
Speaker 2: with a very different style, but at least since the
24:17
Speaker 2: start of May not all at different results. And so
24:22
Speaker 2: if this is the Zach Lyttel of old, meaning the
24:25
Speaker 2: zach Letel from twenty twenty four, twenty twenty five and
24:29
Speaker 2: the past month or so, this could be a very
24:32
Speaker 2: much a pitcher's duel at least that's what I'm kind
24:35
Speaker 2: of expecting going into this one.
24:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm really excited because, as you mentioned, I think
24:41
Speaker 1: tonight might be your best matchup at the entire series
24:43
Speaker 1: with the way that Lttel has been throwing the ball lately.
24:46
Speaker 1: We get that that version of Zach Lytel on the
24:48
Speaker 1: mound later tonight Pitcher's Duel look out. But now I
24:52
Speaker 1: think it's a good time to go ahead and bring
24:54
Speaker 1: up today's giveaway. I still have not delivered this to Sarah,
24:58
Speaker 1: even though I saw Sarah and Joey for lunch a
25:00
Speaker 1: few weeks ago. But Sarah, this one is yours. We
25:02
Speaker 1: got two more bat Boys Baseball signed cards that we're
25:05
Speaker 1: going to be given away. To enter, just figure fill
25:08
Speaker 1: out the Google form link that we'll have down below
25:11
Speaker 1: in the subscription and make sure to subscribe because you
25:14
Speaker 1: definitely do not want to miss that thousand subscriber giveaway.
25:17
Speaker 1: A big shout out to Jack too, last week's winner.
25:20
Speaker 1: Congratulations getting that car that Tanner Roller card shipped out
25:24
Speaker 1: for you later today. I think that's about all I
25:28
Speaker 1: have other than I'm usually the good cop on this show,
25:30
Speaker 1: and I just want Nationals fans to know I really
25:34
Speaker 1: do believe that that Wednesday night was one of the
25:37
Speaker 1: most monumental losses in this franchise's history. And the reasoning
25:42
Speaker 1: behind that is not because like we're not going to
25:45
Speaker 1: the playoffs. Okay, calm back, It is not like we
25:48
Speaker 1: were supposed to go to the playoffs this year, but
25:50
Speaker 1: the reasoning behind it being for the first time in
25:53
Speaker 1: seven years, it felt like the game really started to
25:57
Speaker 1: matter again, right since twenty nineteen. It is like damn wow. Okay,
26:02
Speaker 1: I've been greedy to be asking for five of six
26:04
Speaker 1: on the road trip, but that would have felt good,
26:08
Speaker 1: and for that reason, I would qualify this is really
26:11
Speaker 1: one of the worst losses in franchise history. I think
26:14
Speaker 1: of it as like the David Bodie walk off Grand
26:16
Speaker 1: Slam in twenty eighteen. It's just a kind of dagger
26:19
Speaker 1: that has sat in our stomachs for frankly, the last
26:23
Speaker 1: two days. But they get an opportunity to wipe that
26:26
Speaker 1: taste out of our mouth later today. Spencer, any closing
26:30
Speaker 1: remarks from you.
26:32
Speaker 2: No, I mean, I think you nailed it right. It's
26:34
Speaker 2: probably the worst loss that they will have all year.
26:36
Speaker 2: It's probably their worst loss at least for me since
26:40
Speaker 2: twenty twenty one, when that game against the Padres where
26:44
Speaker 2: they also blew an eight run lead, I'll bee it
26:46
Speaker 2: earlier in the game was kind of the final blow
26:51
Speaker 2: to that chapter of Nationals baseball, and the rebuld started
26:55
Speaker 2: a few weeks later. So yeah, this is is a
26:58
Speaker 2: monumental point for the team where they have an off
27:01
Speaker 2: day to recoup. But this is kind of the deciding
27:06
Speaker 2: I don't want to say the deciding home stand of
27:08
Speaker 2: the season, but it certainly kind of feels like it,
27:11
Speaker 2: doesn't it.
27:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is a big one. This is a meaningful
27:14
Speaker 1: one and some good news as I returned my good
27:16
Speaker 1: cop mode for you Nats fans. Second most runs in baseball,
27:19
Speaker 1: second and stolen bases in sixth in home runs in
27:22
Speaker 1: Major League Baseball. That's not the National League. Sixth in
27:25
Speaker 1: home runs in Major League Baseball. Ridiculous, And according to
27:28
Speaker 1: Dan's calculations on the broadcast the other day, nineteen percent
27:31
Speaker 1: of the time they're scoring nine or more runs. That's
27:34
Speaker 1: like once a week, folks. That's ridiculous. That's a ridiculous
27:38
Speaker 1: offense and explosive offense. But we'll be back next week.
27:42
Speaker 1: Don't forget to ender the giveaway and until then, see
27:45
Speaker 1: you later.