The Washington Nationals took four of six games in the homestand, including another series win this time against the Kansas City Royals
Should the Nationals buy or sell at the deadline?
Washington, now 39-36 in the season, relied on their stellar offense and some surprisingly solid pitching in the series. With that being said, let’s take a look at the main takeaways from the mid-week showdown.
Foster Griffin remains excellent
It hasn’t been all pretty for Foster Griffin this season, but the rookie out of Japan’s NPB has had a shockingly great campaign for Washington and continued that success against Kansas City.
In Tuesday’s 6-4 victory, Griffin went six innings and struck out six, giving up just a lone earned run. His ERA now sits at an impressive 3.32 on the season — but even that number is inflated by two bad starts in a row in May (14 earned runs in 9.1 innings).
Griffin may not be a future ace, but he’s surely a welcome addition to Washington’s pitching staff.
Pitching struggles early in the finale
In the one game the Nationals dropped in the series, Zack Littell’s start was likely the main reason for the loss.
Littell, who has labored to a 5.45 ERA on the season, gave up four earned runs in 5 innings of work, putting Washington in a hole they couldn’t recover from.
Pitching issues have been the main obstacle between the Nationals and wins this season. They have an excellent, top-shelf offense, but are often put in the type of hole they were Wednesday by bad pitching.
Which leads to the final takeaway (or more of a question)…
Do the Nats buy or sell at the trade deadline?
With the MLB trade deadline slowly approaching (Aug. 3 at 6 p.m.), the Nationals need to figure out who they are as a team — and they need to do it quickly.
Washington’s brass needs to ask itself whether they’re a contender right now, or if the early-season success is a bit of a mirage.
Is this team ready to win? Or does it still need to build before a run is likely, or even possible?
Realistically, this team is not in a place to contend for hardware in October. The pitching staff is inconsistent, the bats are young and despite a stellar offensive showing early in the year, the team is still just three games above .500.
Time will tell if the Nats buy or sell, but the answer to that question could determine the fate of the team for the next several seasons.
Nationals Roundtable also offers a fan community. We’d love to have you join us to talk all things Nationals. Create an account, click the “Join” button at the top of the page to join our free community and follow for all of our coverage, analysis and more!
