Swept by Miami

Walters is back for another season as the official bar of the Nats Chat podcast. Walters is the best spot to go before and after home games located at the southeast corner of Capital and N Streets right across the street from the ballpark. One to the count. Here it comes. So we have a blast right center field toward the gap. No one's going to get it and this one is off the wall. Carams by Yum. Torch straight away center picked up by Cruz heading home as Lopez trying for third as Stowers Tainel hold out of the throw and it's a triple an RBI for Stowers and a 4-1 Miami Lee. Be another two to Dailon Lyle. Here it is. Swing a fly ball shallow left center out goes the shortstop Lopez now back to the infield dirt with a win knocking it down. He makes the catch and the Marlins complete the sweep in the nationals by final of 4-1. The nationals fall back under the 500 mark. The Marlins have now won five consecutive meetings against the nationals over two series. And welcome to Nats Chat. I'm El Galdi, host of the El Galdi podcast. I'm joined by Washington Nationals insider Mark Zuckerman of Nats Journal.com. He's at Nationals Park where the Nats now are just 12 and 20 in MLB's 2026 regular season in which they also now are just one and five against the Miami Marlins and 30 and 27 against everyone else. A 4-1 loss to the Marlins at Nationals Park on Wednesday afternoon completing a three-game sweep. This often adds losing two out of three games at the Marlins may 8th through the 10th. The Nats now are a game below 531 and 32. And yeah, as mentioned, 12 and 20 at home versus 19 and 12 on the road. And you look at the Marlins, not a good team 29 and 34, but five and one against the Nats 24 and 33 against everyone else. We have a website that we invite you to check out. Natschatpodcast.com at which you can purchase a Nats Chat podcast t-shirt. And we have a new batch of shirts coming in. We appreciate the support very much. It is great to have you with us. Also with this 4-1 loss to the Marlins at Nationals Park on Wednesday afternoon. Nats pitchers combining for a staggering 206 pitches. We know that this Nats pitching staff has been rather pitch inefficient, but this game was something 206 pitches. The game took three hours and 13 minutes more on the Nats pitching coming up. But what about the Nats offense in this series? And you know, on the one hand, you don't want to be too harsh on this offense, which of course has been so good. But the Nats in this series really got shut down by Marlins pitching, which overall has been nothing special. But the Nats over these three games, a mere seven runs, a mere one home run, just two for 19 with runners in scoring position. And mark that in so many ways was the story of this series that the Nats offense just never really got going. Right. I know we can look at the pitching staff and the 206 pitches, every one of which I watched in person today. And especially, you know, late in games, the way that they were taking games that were right there, still close and turning them into not routes, but like out of immediate reach in the eighth and ninth innings. I think you can look at all that. But ultimately, I think the series is all about the lack of offense from what as we have discussed has been the most productive lineup in baseball. And all of a sudden, it was just shut down by a team that you don't necessarily expect that from. And I think as you point out, there's two factors at play there. Number one, where's the power? You know, one home run and that came from Jacob Young in the opener on Monday. Where was everybody else from the power department? And it's not like they were hitting balls to the warning track that were caught or that died. I mean, they really did not make loud contact hardly at all in this series. So it starts with that. And then just a total lack of clutch hitting that's been a little bit more of a common theme when they haven't done well. They've very often not been delivering in those clutch spots, but it was really noticeable in this series. And especially on Wednesday, they went over eight runners in scoring position. They had their chances and just could not do anything with them. And it felt like a lot of those cases, it's guy stepping to the plate and just trying to make too much happen instead of trusting their own ability and trusting the fact that it's the pitcher who's in trouble here, not the hitter. There in the jam, you have the opportunity to, you know, knock them down when you've got them on the ropes like that. And it just felt like too often they were overly aggressive, trying to make something big happen with one swing instead of just letting it come to them. I actually thought the nets were going to be great offensively in this game. For a few reasons, we had seen the offense be so quiet over the first two games. You felt like the offense was quote unquote due to be really good in a game. Also, if you look through the net season, they actually have had a lot of their better offensive performances on Wednesdays. I don't know why that is, but that has been the case. And then the other thing is that the nets in this game were facing a good starting pitcher. And we have seen the nets actually do well against good pitching this season. So I kind of felt like, okay, you know what, I wouldn't be surprised if the nets have one of their games in which the team puts up, you know, 9, 10, 11 runs, something like that. That did not happen in this game. Just one run, just three hits, all of which were singles, three walks, 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position. As Mark said, nine strikeouts. The Marlin starting pitcher, Max Meyer, he allowed one run in seven innings, seven strikeouts. He is a good pitcher came into the game with the R.A. of 2.97 over 12 games. All starts. In fact, Max Meyer in this game completed his 13th start to begin the regular season without being charged with a loss tying former Marlin starting pitcher and former Nat starting pitcher, Levant Hernandez for a franchise record. But over the course of these three days, did anyone say anything in terms of why the offense went so cold? I mean, is this just part of the rhythms of the season or was there something specific that Marlin's pitchers were doing to Natsbatters? Well, the common theme was, hey, this is just a blip. We're not going to be overly concerned. We've been so good all year long. We're not going to let three games put us into a panic. That's fine. That's okay to take that approach. But I really do hope that they're taking a hard look at this and trying to make sure that there wasn't anything that the Marlins were doing in particular or that the Nats hitters were doing that made for more of a common theme among them. It felt like the Marlins had a plan of attack. Max Meyer is a big guy who throws hard. He had them reaching a lot. If there's a theme to these games, it felt like a lot of ground balls, a lot of weak contact, a lot of not doing anything against breaking balls and changeups and off-speed pitches. That's kind of a 2024- 2025 nationals thing from an offensive standpoint. We know the Marlins have had success against this team beyond just this series. I would imagine they have a pretty good scouting report because they've seen these guys so much and you wonder if somebody said to Max Meyer, "Hey, keep it down. Keep it off the plate. Keep it moving. Keep them guessing." They were absolutely reaching for almost everything. There was so little hard contact in this game. I think the two hardest hit balls they had were both by Dylan Cruz and they were both on the ground. That tells you how little they really did put the bat to the ball in this game. It was basically a common theme throughout the entire series. Yeah, so I didn't want to talk about Dylan Cruz. The Nats' loan run in this game came on an RBI Fylder's Choice Grounder by Cruz. He was in that starting right fielder and number two batter, O for three, hit by pitch. In RBI Fylder's Choice Grounder, Cruz in the Nats, one run third, a one out basis loaded RBI Fylder's Choice Grounder hit a grounder on which the Marlins shortstop Ata Lopez committed a fielding year near the middle of the infield. Here's the set. Cruz swings and it's a ground ball. It's off the global shortstop by Edwards. One run is scored. Garcia rounded third. Now hoping to get back and he will. The grounder had an exit velocity of a hundred one point five miles per hour per stat cast. Also Cruz in the bottom of the six had a went out ground out to Marlins third baseman. Javier Sandoah on a grounder that had an exit velocity of a hundred one point seven miles per hour per stat cast. Tell me if this sounds familiar. Dylan Cruz is hitting balls hard, but he's not elevating balls. And so the production still is not there. This was exactly the case prior to this season. This was what he was working on during his time at Triple A Rochester this season seemed to be making progress that has been talked about and written about a good bit, but his OPS since being promoted back to the majors and being recalled from Rochester on May 19th is just five forty seven. We have said we're not going to treat every game or even every series is like a referendum on Dylan Cruz. We're not doing that right now, but you know, this is a podcast for which there is a new episode for the morning after every night's regular season game day. Like we're going to talk about things as they are happening and so far we're seeing the same Dylan Cruz who we saw prior to this most recent stand for Rochester. He's hitting balls hard. That's good, but like this game. It just felt like a perfect snapshot for what he has been as a major league batter hitting balls hard, but on the ground and ultimately not doing much. Yeah, that part of it is discouraging and it is as you said things that we have seen from him before. I feel like and I haven't looked at the exact numbers, but I feel like the one difference is that he is making more contact this time around and not striking out as much and not finding himself, you know, down O2 and having these quick at bats and quick strikeouts maybe to the extent that we had seen in the past. So maybe a little bit of a sign there of progress in that he is making contact. And when he's hitting the ball hard that would usually suggest to you that it's a minor tweak that needs to be made. It might be positioning in the batter's box. It might be something with his swing mechanics. I think the swing decisions have been pretty good for the most part. It seems like he's swinging a pitches over the plate and not chasing as much. He just needs to see the results. And I think the number one thing is hit the ball in the air and you will start to see those results happen. So discouraging, but I'm going to say that there's maybe a few more encouraging signs or a few less discouraging signs so far this time to what we had seen from him last year in the spring where he really was striking out a lot, really was chasing a lot. I think, and again, it's just anecdotally from me watching him, but I feel like the swing decisions have been better and he is making better contact and hard contact. He's just not elevating ball. Hard contact in theory is the hard part. He seems to have that down pretty well, but the results just are not coming for him in any of these stents at the major league level so far. Keybert Ruiz was the Nats catcher for the entirety of this game. Do we know was Drew Millis available off the lip contusion or was he not available? Well, Blake Beter has said afterwards that he's fine and that he was available. Two ahead of you, a couple stitches, but he was using the law of the match. Now there was a spot late in the game. Keybert Ruiz draws a walk to lead off the eighth in what is a three-one game at the time and you would think, well, that's the spot to pinch your unforen. Whether it's Millis or somebody else, but then Millis would have to come in and catch the rest of the game. The fact that he didn't said to me that they really didn't want him to play in this game. Now maybe a one run game, it's a different story, down two and he's not the tying runner himself or maybe if he gets into scoring position, although he did get into the, he got the third base later on and they kept him in. I kind of interpreted that as if he wasn't available, they at least wanted to stay away from him as much as possible and give him another day off Thursday and then maybe see how he is Friday. But just the events of that inning said to me that they were trying to avoid using him. Algoldy here to tell you about windowedations by 4 Get 4 Free Sale that's going on this summer during the heat. But before that, the windowedation look into the future. 1 Fastball hit in the air out to right field and deep. Losario back to the warning track to the fence sits on the air. Big fly Sam Peterson is third home of the series. Window Nation has a great offer for Listers of the Natchat podcast. The buy 4 Get 4 Free Sale during which you could replace all of your home's windows and get half of them for free. Plus you can get your windows with no money down and no payments or interest for two years. The sale end soon so call 8669DNation or visit windownation.com now to book a consultation. 8669.99 WindowNation or windownation.com to book a consultation and tell window nation that you want the deal that you heard about from Algoldy on the Natchat podcast. Following this game in terms of Natch position players, a great defensive play by Nassim Nunez. He was a Natchat starting second baseman and number 9 batter 0 for 2. But he in the top of the fifth made a tremendous play for a force out at second base. Nunez with a runner on first one out in the game tied at one fielded a full count ground ball by Joe Mack while crossing the top of the infield dirt into shallow right field approaching the right field line spun around and while falling backward fired a leaping no hop throw to short stop CJA brums at second base for the force out. I have said what I'm about to say many times to you and likely will say this many more times to you what a play by Nassim Nunez. That was so impressive that play that he pulled off. And it came right on the hills of another one in which he made a throw from second base to third base to cut down a lead runner a dangerous play to be sure but he got him and I feel like I don't know if others have the same reaction but watching it I like cringe for half a second like oh god what are you trying to do here and then I remind myself no if there's anyone who can pull these kind of plays off it is Nassim Nunez. I would not recommend most major leagueers attempt to make those kind of plays but I think he is shown now that he has the ability and so you grant him that risk taking mantra that he has that he's going to go for it and more often than not he pulls it off and there's an alternate universe here where the offense does a little more and the bullpen does a job later in the game and we're talking about those as game saving plays from Nassim Nunez. It didn't go that way in the end but that wasn't his fault. If you're not going to be scored a lot of runs offensively and you're going to try to win close type games you need that from somebody and the fact that he keeps pulling these kind of plays off and almost making them look routine it shows you how valuable he is even when yes the offensive numbers are at the bottom of the league the defensive performance is so good and makes such a difference that you can live with the lack of offense. It's a funny deal because the advanced defensive stats for Nassim Nunez are good but not great like you go by like defensive wins above replacement per baseball reference or defensive runs say per sports info solutions out of that average per stat cast he rates well in those things but not like exceptionally well not to where you're like wow this guy's one of the best defenders in the majors but just watching him he is capable of some of the most spectacular defensive plays that we as Nats fans and Nats observers have seen like when you talk about degree of difficulty on defensive plays I mean who else has been able to do the things that this guy has been able to do only a few he really is a treat to watch defensively what he is able to pull off. I think and I'm no expert on how defensive analytics work and and how they calculate those things I'm just going to guess here that part of the reason he doesn't rate higher is that he's getting to so many more plays and attempting so many more plays than a lot of guys do and so anyone that he doesn't pull off maybe goes down as a negative in some way whereas the ones he is he is converting are positive and I think also and you can maybe you know or if not somebody out there can help us out here. One of those just extraordinary plays like do you just get credit the same way that somebody else would for making a good play like is there are there levels of how difficult a play is and when you pull it off you get extra credit for that or is it just okay it's a tough play he made it that's you know one defensive run saved there and so it counts the same because as you said like if they were if this is diving Olympic diving and there's a degree of difficulty on it I feel like he is maybe scoring more points because his plays are a lot harder than most guys are making. And he covers a ton of ground to I mean like I said that play on the Joe Mac founder I mean Nunez winds up not just in shallow right field but he's going toward the right field line like you know he's basically playing shallow right field near the line and he's able to make that throw to second base. So the Nats offense in this for one loss to the Marlins at Nassau Park on Wednesday afternoon was bad also bad was the Nats relief pitching which lately is not look so great here five Nats relievers combined to allow three runs in four into third innings we had some fun on the last installment of the podcast talking about Richard love lady having one of the worst instances of two scoreless and hitless innings at 11 C well Brad Lord in this game had one of the worst instances of one and a third scoreless and hitless innings that jelever see he had to swing and strikeouts that was good. But he issued three walks and he committed a really bad air a missed catch air and covering first base on a routine grounder to first base and Louise Garcia junior to begin the top of the six Lord into the wine is pitch one on grounded right side Garcia goes for the ball has it on the back handle flip to Lord coming over but Lord dropped the ball. That about this Lord one and a third scoreless and hitless innings despite throwing 13 strikes versus 16 balls over 29 pitches through more balls than Lord did strikes now listen Lord overall has been terrific his overall numbers are really good 18 games 38 and the third innings ERA 258 whip 1.04 but I got a kick out of that off what we talked about on the last installment of the podcast so we had what Lord did Orlando rebalto two thirds of a scoreless inning top of the seven face four batters got just two outs Clayton beat her allowed two runs in one and a third innings came into the game top of the seventh runners at the corners two outs game tied at one got a big out a swinging strike out of the marlins number three batter Kyle Stowers but beater in the top of the eighth a letter run on three singles into walk including a two out first pitch two runs single by Joe Mac to write center for a three one marlins lead the beater to his credit did record three swinging strike outs and then we had the top of the ninth Gus marland one run in two thirds of an innings face five batters got just two outs in the top of the ninth a letter run gave up an RBI triple by Kyle Stowers off the outfield wall in right center on a one two pitch to put the marlins up for one packed in sholts third of a scoreless inning top of the ninth face two batters got one out but a warland and sholts combined for a forty six pitch top of the ninth the perfect exclamation mark to nads pitchers in this game combining for two hundred six pitches. Well, that's how you get a three hour and 13 minute nine in a game, which the final score was four to one. This was not some kind of slugfest. I lost track. How many times on this homestand did a natural lever throw 30 or more pitches in and hitting it? It felt like it happened way too often. And this did feel like a reversion back to what they had been earlier this season. And you hope that that doesn't continue because they had made some real strides lately. But falling behind hitters all over the place, getting themselves into jams, a ton of walks, you know, to their credit, they kept pitching their way out of these jams. They had to pitch out of jams in the fifth, the sixth and the seventh. This is all while the game is still tied one to one. And then beater gets into the jam and the eighth. And you know, can they do this again? He's got basic load. Nobody out. Strike out. Ground up the middle that Nunez makes a play and throws the plate two outs. Is he going to pull this off? No, next pitch to the number nine hitter Joe Mac to run single. And it just felt like, okay, it was inevitable eventually. Like you can't walk that tightrope forever and keep emerging from it unscathed. They just kept putting themselves into these jams. And it's too much to ask, I think, to come out of that without giving up some runs discouraging. And a lot of ways. And as we said, all three of these games that were close late, they gave up runs in the eighth and the ninth innings, not just to give them runs the lead, but to extend the lead. And that was kind of demoralizing. Now they had pretty much everyone they wanted available in this game. They wanted to go Alvarez to start. They wanted to go Lord after that. And then they had their late inning guys. And he used them all and he deployed them all the way he wanted to. And none of them was efficient. Some of them were effective, but none of them was efficient. None of them could get through a quick clean inning to get the ball going and get it back to the offense again. This was a step back series for the ballpen no doubt. Yeah. And we continue to see this thing of when that's relievers come into these games and don't have it, these guys really don't have it. Like the degree of not having it is quite extreme. And you see guys who cannot find the strike zone and are throwing a bunch of pitches. And it is rough and ended up being rough for a good chunk of this series. Two down and a three one count. Here's the pitch. So in a long drive down the left field line. It's hooking toward the corner. If it's fair, it's gone and it hits the foul pole screen. It's a home run for Estee Erie Ruiz. Not known for his power. It's his third home of the year. And it's one nothing Miami. The Marlins continue just to swing for the fences. They have eight home runs in the series. So let us end our conversation about this game with the biggest bright spot for the Nets. In this game, the Nets starting pitcher in this game Andrew Alvarez one run four and two thirds innings five strikeouts one walk. Another good outing for this guy. Yes, a lack of length as Andrew Alvarez through a lot of pitches 82 pitches 47 strikes 35 balls. But he gave up just four hits, which were a home run and three singles did issue a wild pitch. But I mentioned the five strikeouts versus one walk. The home run came in the top of the second to two out solo shot by Estee Erie Ruiz off the left field foul pole for a one nothing Marlins lead. But otherwise Andrew Alvarez continues to do well. Remember his last outing a start with J.Gurven on the 15 day interlisted not go so well this outing what a lot better save just for throwing a bunch of pitches and lasting for just four and two thirds innings. But you know, we've talked about what Alvarez has done at the major league level here over these last two regular seasons. The updated numbers now 11 games, including six starts, you are a 2.89 whip 1.17 strikeouts per nine innings 8.66. This is a guy who the Nats took in the 12th round of the 2021 and will be first year player draft took him out of California Polytechnic State University. Now he did do good things in the minors. He was an ats 2,023 minor league pitcher of the year. But as we have discussed, he for the most part has been good whenever called upon at the major league level and he overall was good in this game. He has at this point earned the right to keep pitching up here at this level until proven otherwise that he can't do it. I think that's just the best way to put it. I understand the reasons why you may not feel as confident about him in the long run as some other more highly touted prospects. But he's got over 40 innings now in the big leagues. I think it's 43 and 2/3 innings over two seasons and the numbers as you outlined have been good. He is effective. He gets the job done and why wouldn't you want to keep putting him out there and finding out if he can sustain this for any length of time. As we've discussed, he's going to be in the rotation, I think for at least a little while while Jake Irvin is out. But even when Irvin does come back and we'll see how Alvarez does, whether that's taken over a rotation spot for someone else or whether that's staying in that bulk reliever role where he's maybe paired up with a veteran right hander and pitching 3/4 innings behind him. I don't think you do anything with this guy until he actually struggles out there. And aside from one appearance, he's been really good. Yeah, he threw a lot of pitches in this game and he felt down on himself because he felt like he needed to provide more length in this one. I get that, but he got through the lineup twice giving up one run. They had fresh arms behind him and starting with Brad Lord. I think he did exactly what they hoped he would do for them in this game. And that's what he just continues to do. It's such a breath of fresh air for someone who didn't come into any of this with nearly the hype as some others in the organization, but just continues to get the job done whenever they asked him to go out there and do it. If you look at the top pitching prospects in the Nats organization. So Travis, Sakura, Harlein, Susana, Luis, Paralus, Alex Clemmie, you think about when white we see some of these guys at the major league level. Alvarez is benefiting from the fact that at least right now at this point in time none of the premier pitching prospects for this team are ready to be at the major league level either due to development reasons or injury reasons. So it will be interesting to see as these guys get healthy and develop and you know or brought up to the majors. Maybe we see some of these guys this season, although I don't know how likely that is probably more 2027ish. You know what happens with a guy like Andrew Alvarez, but look we know the deal. If you pitch well, the team will find a spot for you. And if Alvarez continues to produce like this, there's no reason he can't continue to be a part of the Nats at the major league level. And maybe even a part of the rotation, I mean, keep in mind right the Nats rotation has three veterans all on one year contracts and foster Griffin miles Michaelis and Zach let's tell it's very possible if not probable that all three of those guys are not on the team next season. So they're very much could be an opening here for Andrew Alvarez. We'll see. Yeah, agreed. It reminds me on the pitching side of like what Jacob Young has benefited from on the offensive side a few years ago he got called up and we knew they had all these top outfield prospects waiting in the wings. He happened to just be ahead of them on the development schedule year older than them and just ready sooner. And so he made to the big leagues and for the last several years, we kept asking well when is young going to get squeezed out by wood and crews and hassle and others. And what happened is that Jacob Young played well enough in the opportunities that he got that he said no, he's actually a part of this and deserves to be a part of it. And we're going to have to figure things out with the other guys instead. Maybe that's where Andrew Alvarez fits into this because of the injuries to Sakura and Susana and just the slower development of others. He's had this opportunity now and gotten it at a time when they've needed somebody like that. So the longer he keeps it going the more that you say, yeah, he could actually figure into this and there's a little bit of a similarity to Brad Lord. Lord was maybe thought of a little bit higher, but he just kept pitching well and said they let's try him out in the big leagues as a starter as a reliever, whatever it is, he gets out. And so he's going to be a part of this thing and now he looks like an important part of this thing moving forward. Alvarez isn't there yet, but he's certainly on the right track, try to join him. Luis Paralus is pitching for Triple A Rochester. He's so far this season 10 games, including nine starts, ERA 3.05, WIP 1.17. Do you think we'll see Paralus at the major league level this season? He's the one I think we probably would see, although remember, he's coming back from Tommy John surgery. So they are going to be really mindful of his workload. So maybe we see him at some point, but they may also not be preparing for him to pitch all the way through September because going to hit, you know, like a workload limit at some point. I know people have been asking about Susana in particular because it's a core we know is going to miss the year after his Tommy John Susana who had the the torn lat muscle. I think a lot of people thought we might see him by now that hasn't happened yet, but from what I understand the rehab has gone fine. He is throwing. He just has not been anything like a game situation yet. Keep an eye on that. If he does start facing live hitters down in Florida and anything that might resemble like a rehab appearance, then that could be the sign, but with him, even when he's healthy, you know, I think he had only barely gotten a double A before he got hurt last year. Also will be on a workload limit. So I don't think they would force that issue. Yeah, he'll probably pitching in the minors before the season's over, but he's really a 2027 arm to look at. And not somebody who's probably going to be here for all of 2027 either because of the lack of experience and the fact that they're going to have to bring him along slowly as a young power arm who missed a lot of time because of injury. Yeah. I get the interest in him, but he hasn't even pitched at the AAA level yet. And seeing how deliberate Paul Toboney has been with other Nats players, I've just assumed no, we're not seeing him at the major league level this season, right? I mean, Susanna, that just, that would go against the way this team has been handling prospects. That would go against just, you know, normal pitching prospect development to take a guy off a serious injury and have him, you know, virtually skip AAA, you know, to pitch in the majors. Yeah, I think we all got excited last year because he was pitching so well. He had reached AA and you thought, well, boy, if he continues on this path, we may see him here in the next year. And yeah, if he had stayed healthy, it's a different story. But the fact that he didn't in the fact that it, you know, it is still a significant injury. I know it's not Tommy John, but a torn lap muscle is not insignificant, you know, and he had surgery for it. So that's not a short term rehab. It's a long term thing. And number one, it's about getting him healthy, but then number two, it's about getting him back into a rhythm of pitching every five days in a controlled environment. And that's going to be probably a AA whenever that happens. And maybe he makes it a triple at the end of the year, but I wouldn't get my hopes up too much on him in the short term. Long term, still a lot of reasons to be looking forward to him. So next up for the Nats is a six game trip out west beginning with a three game series at the Arizona Diamondbacks. So the Nats have the off day on Thursday and then or out west for a six game trip. The Nats have listed the following starting pictures as probable for the series at the Diamondbacks game one Friday night at nine forty foster Griffin game two Saturday afternoon at four 10 Zach Latel game three Sunday afternoon at three 15 Kade Cavali. So in theory, this could be a good pitching series for the Nats with Griffin Latel, who has been on a role here lately and Cavali as an at starting pictures in the series. But the Diamondbacks are a good team and we have yet to see the Nats at west. Now we know the Nats have done really well on the road. So hopefully that continues here, but this will be a good match up here. The Diamondbacks as we record this thirty two and twenty eight with a run differential of plus ten first time the Nats have gone west of Chicago. I think so far this season. So that's going to be different for them. I'm really looking at how does the offense do Arizona is a great hitters ballpark. Yes, it's good team you're facing. They were last year. They went out there and they scored ten runs in the first inning. That's when the offense really took off and we thought they were about to do something and then they came home and they got swept by the Marlins and we know how things went after that. Well flipping the script this time, they've already got swept by the Marlins. Can they maybe use the dry desert air to get the offense going again? I'm very interested to see how they do from that standpoint. You got probably the three best pictures you have right now. Although Alvarez is probably in that discussion as well. You can see how they handle it but I'm more interested in offense. If they're going to win that series against that team, I feel like it's going to be high scoring games as their best chance of that. Yeah. And if this Nats team is going to continue to be a surprisingly good team, the offense has to lead the way because the pitching maybe is getting better and that's good. But the offense was dynamic and if this team is going to do something remarkable this season and that is toy with 80 wins, 85 wins, whatever like the offense in theory needs to be leading the way. And if you're going to have a chance to win that game, you can find out what you're going to do. And if you're going to have a chance to win that game, you can find out what you're going to do.