Brady House and Daylen Lile will look to provide a spark for the Nats lineup as they take on the worst club in baseball
This weekend was one of the most embarrassing in recent Nationals history, as they were swept by the last-place Miami Marlins at home to bring their losing streak to 8 games, all while the manager, Davey Martinez pinned the blame on the players and not him and his staff. The offense came alive in game one of the series while the pitching faltered, and then the pitching came through in the next 2 games the offense reverted back to type. They now lead the Marlins by 1 in the NL East standings and are tied with them in the loss column.
Following the game, Robert Hassell III and Jose Tena were optioned to Triple-A, with Daylen Lile and Brady House getting the calls up. Lile, who raked in Rochester after his demotion, will look to perform better in his 2nd big league stint, while House finally gets his opportunity in the bigs after destroying the baseball in Rochester this year. Lucky for them, one of the worst pitching clubs in baseball is rolling into town for a 4 game set in the Colorado Rockies.
Historically Awful Start, Improvement Since
The Rockies are on pace to have one of the worst seasons in baseball history, with their 14-57 record being tied with the 1932 Boston Red Sox and 1904 Washington Senators for the worst winning percentage in baseball history through 71 games. Their run differential of -203 is 90 runs worse than the second-worst in baseball and has a very good chance of eclipsing the 2023 Oakland Athletics mark of -339 for the worst ever. They have been playing better baseball of late, however, with a 5-7 record over their last 12 games.
While not a good record by any means, it is better than the historically awful pace they were on, and those 5 wins account for more than 33% of their total wins on the year. There are a few semi-bright spots on the roster, such as catcher Hunter Goodman and outfielder Jordan Beck, but for the most part, it is a roster pretty barren of MLB-level talent.
Team Stats:
Team OPS: .658 (14th in NL, 28th in MLB)
Team OPS Leader: Hunter Goodman (.820)
Team HR Leader: Hunter Goodman (11)
Team ERA: 5.62 (15th in NL, 30th in MLB)
Team ERA Leader: Kyle Freeland (5.13)
Game One – Monday 6:45 EDT
COL: Carson Palmquist (0-4) – 22 IP, 7.77 ERA, 1.82 WHIP
Palmquist has yet to get past the 5th inning this season, as in 5 starts in 2025, he’s either been shelled or had his pitch count run too high to stay in when he’s doing fine. This was the case in his last start vs the Giants, where he averaged over 24 pitches an inning and left after 4 innings, giving up 2 runs.
WSH: Jake Irvin (5-3) – 83.1 IP, 4.21 ERA, 1.25 WHIP
It seemed like Irvin had finally turned a corner after his 8 shutout inning performance against the Giants on May 24th, but in his 3 starts since, he’s only gotten through 5 innings, giving up a combined 13 earned runs in the process. Command was his enemy in his last start against the Mets, as he walked 3 batters, hit one, and took 100 pitches to get through 5 innings of 4 4-run ball. Irvin threw 6 1⁄3 innings of 2-run ball in his start against the Rockies at Coors in April, so hopefully he can channel some of what he had going that day into this start.
Game Two – Tuesday 6:45 EDT
COL: Antonio Senzatela (1-10) – 66 IP, 7.23 ERA, 2.03 WHIP
When your WHIP shows that you average a rally an inning over roughly 1⁄3 of a season’s worth of innings, that’s usually not a very good sign. If you think that just has to do with him pitching half his games at Coors Field, I can inform you that it’s actually worse on the road, with a road WHIP of 2.24 and an opponent’s average of .408! It was more of the same in his last start as well, giving up 7 runs over 4 innings of work versus the Giants. If the Nats’ bats can’t get it going versus him, then there isn’t much hope left for them.
WSH: Michael Soroka (3-4) – 42 IP, 5.14 ERA, 1.12 WHIP
Like Irvin, Soroka got tagged for 4 runs over 5 innings of work versus the Mets in his last start. Despite this, I’m still confident in Soroka to bounce back as his stuff has looked sharp as of late, especially in his 6 shutout innings vs the Rangers 2 starts ago. The Rockies’ lineup is coming off a 19-strikeout performance against the Braves on Sunday, so Soroka should be able to run up the strikeout numbers against them on Tuesday.
Game Three – Wednesday 6:45 EDT
COL: German Marquez (2-8) – 68 IP, 6.62 ERA, 1.66 WHIP
Despite the bad overall numbers on the year, Marquez has pitcher better as of late, with a 4.03 ERA in his last 7 starts, including 5 innings of 1 run ball against the Braves in his last start. While still not great numbers, there are a vast improvement to his beginning of the year numbers.
WSH: Mitchell Parker (4-7) – 74.1 IP, 4.84 ERA, 1.35 WHIP
The opposite of what can be said about Marquez can be said about Parker, as after a very solid start to the season, it’s been a mighty struggle since, posting a 6.55 ERA in his last 7 starts. He had his worst start of the year of Friday, going 3 1⁄3 innings and giving up 6 runs versus the Marlins before the rain delay put an end to his night. I don’t know what it’ll take for him to find what he had in his first 6 starts of the year where 6+ and under 2 runs was the norm for him, but he needs to find it fast.
Game Four – Thursday 1:05 EDT
COL: Chase Dollander (2-7) – 50.2 IP, 6.57 ERA, 1.54 WHIP
Former Tennessee Vol and top 10 draft pick Chase Dollander carved through the minor leagues and forced the Rockies to bring him up, but it’s been a struggle since, as he has an ERA north of 6 in his first 11 big league starts. He’s shown flashes here and there, such as in his last start where he went a solid 6 innings giving up 3 runs, but the overall body of work has been shaky.
WSH: Trevor Williams (3-8) – 69.1 IP, 5.71 ERA, 1.43 WHIP
Williams did just about all you can ask of him in his last start, going 5 1⁄3 innings and giving up 2 runs. Williams just isn’t going to dominate lineups very often, so all you can ask is that he keep the team in ballgames, something he has had mixed results doing. He only has a few more starts to prove he is worthy of staying in the Nats’ rotation before Cade Cavalli is called up and likely bumps someone out.
Just How Bad Can It Get?
Getting swept at home by the last place Marlins sure felt like rock bottom, but it could get so much worse if they let the 14-57 Rockies come to town and give them the works. If they can’t even take care of business versus a historically bad team versus the Rockies, things are gonna get ugly on their road trip after this which includes series against the Dodgers, Padres, and Tigers. Time to find out what this team is made of.