Double the City Connect! Is that good? MLB says, who cares?
The Orioles bring the best record in the American League into a little two-game set with the Nationals starting here tonight. Along with that best record, the O’s are also arriving with a scoreless innings streak from their starting pitchers that stretches back to right after the Yankees scored a third inning run off of Kyle Bradish on Thursday.
That run shouldn’t have even scored! The one run the Yankees got off of Bradish resulted from Colton Cowser’s inability to make a good throw to the plate. The guys who pitched against the Reds over the weekend did a great job, even considering that the Reds offense is bad.
A bit tougher of a group of hitters awaits in Washington tonight. The Nationals are a below-average offense in terms of the BA/OBP/SLG results up to this point, but they’re still plenty capable of putting up bunches of runs. That includes a home series this past weekend against the Blue Jays where they scored nine runs while beating Toronto on Friday and 11 runs in a Sunday Nats victory.
Can Corbin Burnes keep the Orioles rotation scoreless streak going for a fourth consecutive game? That would be fun. I won’t get my hopes up, because that’s just too much to ask for. Burnes has been pretty darn good so far this season, with a 2.61 ERA and sub-1 WHIP, yet even he’s yet to have a scoreless start in seven tries. I’d like to see Burnes get back to getting more strikeouts; he hasn’t struck out more than six in a game since his Opening Day start. The Nationals might not be the best team for this hope, as they’re one of the least strikeout-prone teams so far this season.
Orioles lineup
- Gunnar Henderson – SS
- Adley Rutschman – C
- Ryan O’Hearn – DH
- Ryan Mountcastle – 1B
- Anthony Santander – RF
- Colton Cowser – LF
- Jordan Westburg – 2B
- Cedric Mullins – CF
- Ramón Urías – 3B
This is a fun lineup, isn’t it? About all that could be done to make it look like our imagined fun lineups from before the season is if Jackson Holliday was here instead of Urías, probably playing second with Westburg at third. We know why that didn’t last for long, but hopefully things can play out so he will be back in a while.
True, there are guys who are slumping a lot in here. Mullins has fallen below league-average hitting, the only regular player to do so. Santander was cold before his grand slam in the last game. Cowser’s been cold other than hard hit balls in the last game as well. If their fortunes turn around, that’s going to be a big plus for the Orioles trying to maintain their position atop the division and league.
Nationals lineup
- Jacob Young – CF
- CJ Abrams – SS
- Luis García Jr. – 2B
- Nick Senzel – DH
- Jesse Winker – LF
- Joey Meneses – 1B
- Keibert Ruiz – C
- Eddie Rosario – RF
- Trey Lipscomb – 3B
The starting pitcher for the Nationals for this game is Trevor Williams, a 32-year-old righty who’s doing great so far this year with a 2.27 ERA in six games started, after posting a 5.55 ERA for the Nats in the rotation a year ago.
This is really not a bad lineup in the 1-5 spots. Abrams and García Jr. are surely one of the best-hitting double play combos in the league so far (better even than Henderson and Westburg, as García is a bit above Westburg’s OPS), and Young is an interesting guy too. These three are in their age 24 seasons or younger.
The 6-9 spots of the lineup are, well, pretty bad. So hopefully the Orioles don’t get beaten by these guys.
One thing to keep in mind is that the Nationals steal a lot of bases. Burnes has not been good at holding runners. So, if guys start getting on base, there could be something of a track meet.