Washington Nationals Provide Opportunity For New York Yankees To Sweep

The Nationals provide an opportunity for the Yankees to sweep. The Nationals have some good young players, but the team is not very good. The Nationals are so bad that they got their manager fired. The Yankees, by losing three of four at home against the Red Sox, must now sweep the series at home against the Nationals.

The games are at Yankee Stadium, so the Yankees have a good chance. However, one of those good young players is the starting pitcher for the Nationals. Cam Schlittler is starting game one of this series. How many games do you think the Yankees will win against the Nationals?

Preview Of Pitching Matchups As Yanks Host Nationals

Schlittler is coming off the best start of his big league career. He threw 6.2 perfect innings against the Tampa Bay Rays. Expectations are high for the young Yankee in this start.  He is solidifying his spot in the Yankee starting rotation. He throws very hard, and if he locates his off-speed pitches, he can be very good. In seven starts, the young righty is just 1-2 with a very good 3.22 earned run average. He has 38 strikeouts in 36.1 innings.

Brad Lord was drafted by the Nationals in the 18th round of the 2022 MLB Draft and made his debut on March 30. Lord has been better as a reliever, with a 2.79 earned run average, than as a starter with a 3.90 earned run average. He throws a fastball that averages 95 miles per hour (so, a little slower than Schlittler) about half the time, followed by the slider, changeup, and sinker in roughly equal proportions.  In 41 appearances and 12 starts, Lord is 4-6 with a 3.46 earned run average, and he has 77 strikeouts in 96.1 innings.

In the second game, Luis Gil, who has looked better since his disappointing season debut, lasted at least five innings and allowed two or fewer runs in each of the subsequent three starts. He still walks too many batters, 13 walks in 19 innings. In four starts this injury-marred season, Gil is 1-1 with a 4.26 earned run average. He has 17 strikeouts in 19 innings. Gil draws a tough match-up with a young star, MacKenie Gore.

Gore has not been good since the All-Star break, with a 3.02 earned run average before and a 7.88 earned run average after it. This is not good for the Nationals. Maybe the Yankees are drawing Gore at the right time. His high velocity fastball has been getting crushed recently, so expect the Yankees hitters to look for fastballs. In 26 starts this season, Gore is 5-12 with a 4.11 earned run average and 170 strikeouts in 142.1 innings. His strikeout power could pose a problem for the Yankees.

In the series finale, Max Fried is pitching for the Yankees. He snapped out of an extended slump last time out against the Red Sox. He threw his six scoreless innings, but the Yankees scored no runs and failed to get a runner into scoring position. Fried started the season well, but struggled since July 1. Overall, in 26 starts on the season, Fried is 13-5 with a 3.14 earned run average. He has 148 strikeouts in 155 innings this season. He could reach 200 in both categories.

Fried starts against Cade Cavalli, who has a comeback story for the Nationals. Despite making his Major League debut in 2022, he is still a rookie after missing all of 2023 and 2024. 1,076 days passed between his first and second MLB appearances, which came on August 6 as the Nationals called him up. He is one of the hardest throwers in the Majors, his fastball averaging 97.5 mph. However, the knuckle curve is his most-used pitch. In four starts, Cavalli is 1-0 with a 2.82 earned run average. He has 18 strikeouts in 22.1 innings.

Hitting Preview As Yanks Host Nationals

For the Yankees, both Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Trent Grisham are coming off two home run games. The Yankees will always be driven by the performance of Aaron Judge. Giancarlo Stanton has been a beast for them. It will be interesting to see if the injured Judge will start in right field for the Yankees. If he does not, Stanton’s bat needs to be in the lineup. It is rumored that the struggling Anthony Volpe will be on the bench again for the Yankees. That would be good as he has hit horribly of late. So has Austin Wells, so Ben Rice will probably be at catcher for this series.

The Nationals are led by two young batters, who are beasts. James Wood is gigantic; he is six-foot-seven, and hits a baseball a long way. C.J. Abrams is a slick fielding shortstop with a great bat. Aside from that, the Nationals do not have much at-bat.

Conclusion

The Yankees have dug themselves quite a hole. They need to sweep the Nationals in these three games at home, and then go to Chicago and take at least three of four from the pitiful White Sox. This is a period of time that is a golden opportunity for the Yankees. The time for poor play and excuses has ended for the Yankees.