ARLINGTON, Texas — The Texas Rangers wrap up their homestand after a day off with another interleague matchup. The Washington Nationals are coming into town with a lot of momentum on their side, having just swept a series from the Miami Marlins.
While Washington did get swept by the Dodgers at home in the series before sweeping Miami, they also took two of three from Houston and two of three from the Dodgers in Los Angeles. The Nats have only a slightly worse winning percentage than the Rangers, but the NL East is a powerhouse division, with the Braves and Phillies boasting the best records in baseball at the moment.
Washington Nationals (14-14, T-3rd Place NL East) @ Texas Rangers (15-14, 2nd Place AL West)
Previously, for Washington…
Washington won’t have gotten into Texas until late Monday night/early Tuesday morning. Their wraparound series with the Marlins didn’t conclude until around 9:30 Texas time. But the Nats have showcased a very powerful offense in the two weekend games, outscoring Miami in those two games by a combined score of 23-13.
The outburst included an historic come-from-behind win on Sunday, as Washington overcame a 2nd-inning 7-0 deficit to come back and beat Miami 12-9. The rally was a welcome sight for an offense that was sitting right around the middle of the pack in the Majors in the season’s first month.
The other thing that has characterized the 2024 Washington Nationals has been their persistence. The Nats already have nine wins classified as comeback victories. They’ve also scored nearly a third of their total runs in the seventh inning or later; their slash line in late and close situations (seventh inning tied or with a one-run difference) is .282/.373/.452. And while their bullpen is right around league average, the “winning pieces” of Dylan Floro, Jordan Weems, Hunter Harvey, Derek Law, and Kyle Finnegan all have sub-3.50 ERAs and WHIPs sitting around 1.50 or below.
With the very convincing sweep of the hapless Marlins, the Nationals have brought their record back to .500. That puts them in a tie with the New York Mets for 3rd place, but that is still six games back of division-leading Atlanta.
What to watch for
The Cincinnati Reds brought their much-hyped shortstop Elly De La Cruz to Arlington over the weekend, and for the most part, Texas was able to hold the 22-year old in check, rendering him to just a 1-for-11 series with a couple of walks, three stolen bases, and a couple of runs scored.
But the work isn’t done for the Rangers as the Nationals bring their own budding superstar shortstop to Texas with CJ Abrams looking to continue his breakout season. Abrams had a much more productive four-game series against the Marlins, going 4-for-15, with five runs scored, five RBI, four walks, a double, a triple, and a homer. But that’s all in a day’s work for the centerpiece of the trade that sent Juan Soto to the Padres a year and a half ago.
Abrams is currently second in the big leagues in slugging and has been a terror on the basepaths. Keeping him as quiet as they did De La Cruz is going to be a key for the Rangers to claim this series.
Speaking of the basepaths, the Nationals are also tied with the recently-departed Reds for the most stolen bases in the game with 52. In the just-completed sweep of the Marlins, the Nats swiped 12 bases in the four-game set. Between Jonah Heim and Andrew Knizner, the Rangers have only caught 14% of would-be base stealers, well below the 23% league average. Keeping runners like Jacob Young (12 SB) off the bases will help the Rangers’ cause immensely. However, Lane Thomas, who has 11 stolen bags, will miss the series with a MCL strain.
- Game 30, 7:05 PM CT - LHP Mackenzie Gore (2-2, 3.12 ERA) vs RHP Jon Gray (0-1, 2.92 ERA)
- Game 31, 7:05 PM CT - RHP Trevor Williams (2-0, 2.70 ERA) vs LHP Andrew Heaney (0-3, 6.26 ERA)
- Game 32, 1:35 PM CT - LHP Mitchell Parker (2-0, 1.69 ERA) vs RHP Nathan Eovaldi (1-2, 3.00 ERA)
The Nationals will send Mackenzie Gore, Trevor Williams, and Mitchell Parker to the hill this week to take on the Rangers. Gore – another of the spoils of the Soto trade – was the last starter to go before Washington swept Miami, a game the Nats lost 2-1. In that contest, Gore was a hard-luck loser, going six strong innings of one-run ball against a very dangerous Dodgers’ offense. The former top prospect scattered seven hits and walked two, but the Nats’ offense hadn’t yet awakened.
Williams, the former Pittsburgh Pirate, has pitched very well in his second year in Washington. He’s put up a 2.70 ERA in five starts, with 19 strikeouts and WHIP just above 1.00. He took a no-decision in his last start, but gave up just one run for the second start in a row as the Nats would beat Miami.
Mitchell Parker, the lefty rookie, was last seen grinding through four innings, throwing 82 pitches and walking just two, but struggling to put hitters away. Still, he allowed just one run to the Marlins as Washington’s offense scored plenty of runs in the game and in the series.
The Rangers sent the “on paper” big names to the mound against Cincinnati, but Jon Gray and Andrew Heaney, who will pitch the first two games in this series for Texas, haven’t been doing too bad of late either.
Gray, who had an unfortunate few games last year where he was a hard-luck loser, gutted out 4 ⅔ innings against the Mariners last time out, giving up just one run, but he did allow seven hits. Gray also had a scoreless relief appearance against the Braves and before that, six innings of one-run ball against the Tigers. However, as of yet, Gray doesn’t have a win on his ledger in 2024.
The lefty Heaney has given the Rangers everything they could ask of him in the last two starts. After extremely inefficient pitching early in the season, Heaney has recently pitched longer into games and has limited the damage to give Texas a chance. In his last outing, he went a season-high six innings in a loss to Seattle.
Staff ace Nathan Eovaldi closes out the series, having opened the set against the Reds last week. In that effort, he went six innings and gave up just one run, taking the no-decision in a game the Rangers would eventually win 2-1. That was a nice rebound start for Eovaldi, who had struggled with efficiency himself and being hit around the prior two starts.
Last week, the Nationals appeared to be a slightly easier part of the schedule for the Rangers, but with the surge in offense from Washington, along with their constant threat of taking extra bases with their speed, expect another dogfight for Texas as they close out April.
Do you think the Rangers will finish their homestand strong with a series win over Washington? Share your predictions with Matt on Twitter @FisherWritesMLB.
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