Diving into the Washington Nationals securing its first series win in two weeks, staying hot on the road vs. Chicago White Sox
In a tightly contested 3-game series, the Nationals pulled off a series victory against the White Sox with a 2-1 Sunday rubber match.
Before Friday’s game, Roundtable Nationals outlined three critical questions going into the series. Now that the three-game slate is wrapped up, let’s take a look back at those keys to the series and see how they played out.
1) How will the team pitch without a start from Cade Cavalli?
With Cavalli pitching the last game of the previous series against the Braves, the Nationals were without his services against Chicago. Despite concerns, though, the pitching staff held their own against the White Sox.
Friday’s game was the team’s worst performance, giving up five runs in a 5-4 loss. Miles Mikolas struggled, but even he only gave up two runs in 3.2 innings pitched. For a team that has struggled mightily when it comes to run prevention, a five-run outing is far from the worst-possible outcome.
In the other two games of the series, the Nats gave up four runs combined, winning 6-3 Saturday and 2-1 Sunday. Jake Irvin had a stellar outing in game two with no earned runs and nine strikeouts in five innings, and Foster Griffin was similarly excellent with eight strikeouts in seven scoreless innings Sunday.
All things considered, it was an impressive weekend of pitching for an often maligned Washington pitching staff.
2) Can James Wood keep his hot streak going?
The numbers for James Wood against Chicago weren’t nearly as gaudy as his homer-happy series against the Braves, but it was still a productive three games.
While he went only 1-9 in the series and struck out five times, Wood managed to draw five walks, including three in the first game of the series. That’s good for an on-base percentage over .400 — any team will take that.
Wood will have to avoid slipping into bad habits when it comes to high strikeout numbers, but if he continues to draw walks and get on base even in his “bad” games, his floor will remain high as an offensive force.
3) Can the Nats keep up their winning ways on the road?
In a word, yes.
Like anything in early-season baseball, home versus road splits are highly variable after just 29 games. But after the series in Chicago, the Nationals are 10-6 away from DC compared to just 3-10 in their home ballpark.
Again, a lot of this has to do with the quality of opponents faced and plan, flat-out small sample size-based luck. But if the trend continues, Washington fans might wish their team was away from home more often.