The Washington Nationals have a Memorial Day weekend of baseball in Washington, D.C. as they face the team from Seattle, Washington. The Nationals really need to get back to their winning ways more consistently, and the Mariners are trying to stay above .500 and keep their top spot in the NL West with a 27-24 record. Every other team is below .500 in the NL West.

Looking at the Vegas lines, the Nats look to be the underdog in each of these games. It is George Kirby for the Mariners. He was taken in the same draft as Jackson Rutledge. Yes, but Kirby wasn’t picked until three spots after Rutledge.

It also looks like the Nationals won’t rush Lane Thomas back officially onto the roster. There has to be a nervous Victor Robles right now. But you never know what the Nats front office will do.

The Nationals took their time to list their starters for the weekend series with a change in the ordering as they will use yesterday’s day-off to redo the rotation. After Patrick Corbin‘s latest start, his spot in the rotation should certainly be in jeopardy. For now, they moved him to pitch on Sunday. We will see what is up with that, but certainly they did not want him pitching in Atlanta. Mitchell Parker will start on Monday in Atlanta on two days of extra rest. He might make it until Cade Cavalli or Josiah Gray are ready to return. Here’s what we think the schedule could look like going forward:

1. Friday: MacKenzie Gore vs. Mariners
2. Saturday: Trevor Williams vs. Mariners
3. Sunday: Patrick Corbin vs. Mariners
4. Monday: Mitchell Parker vs. Atlanta
5. Tuesday: Jake Irvin vs. Atlanta
6. Wednesday: Gore vs. Atlanta
7. Thursday: Williams vs. Atlanta
8. Friday: Corbin vs. Cleveland
9. Saturday June 1: Parker vs. Cleveland
10. Sunday: Irvin vs. Cleveland
11. Monday: Gore vs. Mets
12. Tuesday: Williams vs. Mets
13. Wednesday: Corbin vs. Mets
14. Thursday: Parker vs. Braves
15. Friday: Irvin vs. Braves
16. Saturday: Gore vs. Braves
17. Sunday: Williams vs. Braves
18. Monday: Day-off June 10

Your top Washington Nationals on the FanGraphs’ WAR leaderboard has Trevor Williams at +1.3 WAR followed by MacKenzie Gore, Jake Irvin, and CJ Abrams at +1.0 and Jacob Young at +0.9. In total, 20 Nats’ players are in positive WAR and another four at a neutral 0.0 WAR. Eddie Rosario moved back to negative WAR. The issue at the moment is about the four players at the extreme bottom in negative numbers that includes Lane Thomas.

The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 4.22 and 17th in MLB. The Nats are now 30 points from 15th best in baseball.

Here is how they rank:

No. 5 Starter: Patrick Corbin 6.29
No. 4 Starter: Jake Irvin 3.79
No. 3 Starter: Mitchell Parker 3.32
No. 2 Starter: MacKenzie Gore 3.30
No. 1 Starter: Trevor Williams 2.35

Washington Nationals vs. Seattle Mariners

Stadium: Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.
1st Pitch: 6:45 pm EDT
TV: MASN
Radio: 106.7 The Fan radio and via the MLB app; In Spanish on DC 87.7 FM and La Pantera 100.7 FM/1220 AM. On Sirius/XM, the Nats will be on Channel 177 and the opposing team online.

Line-up subject to change (without notice):

TalkNats is Celebrating the 5 and 100 year anniversaries of World Series Wins by providing Game-by-Game Summaries.

Game 49:
The Nationals lost on 05/22 on the road against the Mets resulting in a record of 19-30. This was a classic game of a pitcher’s duel between Max Scherzer and Jacob deGrom. The Nats had a slim 1-0 lead going into the late innings, and gave the ball to the bullpen and they blew it. The Nats could only get three hits in the game, and Adam Eaton homered in the first inning. His run couldn’t hold up. Box Score / Standings
The Senators lost on 06/15 on the road against the Chicago White Sox resulting in a record of 24-25.  Box Score / Standings

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