Wood's Inside-the-Park Grand Slam Sparks Comeback

Walters is open late and a great spot to watch the final rounds of the NBA and Stanley Cup playoffs. Walters Sports Bar and Restaurant is located just across the street from Nationals Park. Griffin toes the rubber first base side. The Lanky lefty, his tates with the kick and fires and a line drive deep left field. This is trouble while going back looking up and both with Shem has covered again. Two at bats, two two run homers for the shed and a five nothing New York lead. It's wood. The base is loaded, singled his first time up. Set from a claim. Here's the pitch. So we have a fly ball deep left center field. Chase the back tailor to the morning track. He will leave more be to leave for the softest club. They don't know where it is. This might be an inside the park. Home run three runs and scored. What is so clear to bases the pro home is not in time. One of the first slide has an inside the park. Grand slam hold run. They're going crazy here in Nationals Park. It's now five to four New York and James Woods circles the bases for his first career Grand Slam and it's the national second ever inside the park Grand Slam. My all my. Here's the pitch. We're going to go all the short runner break into the plate. But just for home run. Here comes Tate of the plate. As the catcher to raise that a chase the ball of the backstop. Oh my. Abrams ends up at second base to run score on the play. It's the Nationals nine and the next five. And welcome to that chat. I'm Al Goldie. Host of the Al Goldie podcast. I'm joined by Washington Nationals inside remarks. Sockerman of national dot com. He's at Nationals Park with a nats on Tuesday evening for the second time in seven days over came a five nothing second inning deficit in a win last Wednesday evening May 13th and eight seven ten inning win at the Cincinnati Reds in a game at which the nats over came a five nothing second inning deficit and Tuesday evening May 19th a nine six win over the New York Mets at Nationals Park in game two of a four game series. This was a game for which the start was delayed for 46 minutes due to rain. This was a game in which the nats over came a five nothing second inning deficit. The nats in M.O.B. 2026 regular season now back to being a game under 524 and 25 are number one in M.O.B. and runs 271 and are dead last in M.O.B. and runs allowed 290. But the nats elite offense again came through in this win over the mets on Tuesday evening this installment of nats chat brought to us by shirt good owned and operated by a diehord nats fan shirt good makes funny and local shirt such as the iconic howie Kendrick foul pole shirt checkout shirt good at shirt good HQ dot com or shirt good HQ on Instagram and use the promo code nats chat for 10% off your order. So James would on Tuesday evening hit an inside the park grand slam Dylan Cruz on Tuesday evening was back as the nats on Tuesday afternoon announced three more roster moves off the big announcement late night on Monday night of them having option third baseman Brady House to triple a Rochester that's president of baseball operations pulled to bunny spoke to reporters on Tuesday afternoon. So we have a lot to get to but the beauty of this nats offense isn't just that it is good. It is that the offense punches right back the mets on Tuesday evening three runs top of the first two runs top of the second the nats that are up did for nine runs over the second through four thinnings and yes the mets were co conspirators and bed met the offense but mark this nats offense is so likable and has made this team so resilient and so overcoming a five nothing second inning deficit you don't expect it but you're not exactly shocked by it at this point. Absolutely not and I tell you the guys in the dugout absolutely were not shocked by it either they're down five nothing and they weren't just like wallowing in the misery of that and say no well we just lost in 12 innings and I before looks like we're going to lose again it was all right let's keep it going we can do this and let's be clear yet yeah the mets defense wasn't great but they also really knocked out known McLean one of the best young pictures in baseball who had never had to start anything like this since reaching the big leagues last year so they did this against a pretty quality opponent and yes the defense of course played a role in that but they did still hit the ball really well against McLean and it's not like they just chipped away at it they got it back right away just like last week and Cincinnati they're down five nothing in the first they made up that deficit by the third inning and once again in this game you're down five nothing in the second they made up the entire deficit and took the lead by the third inning so this isn't like a slow drip drip this is coming out with force right against you the grand slam of course the big blow but they kept it going after that and I mean really took it to McLean and took advantage of some very ugly mets defense the best offences in the NFL are good at what are called explosive plays ideally you want an offense in football that doesn't require like 12 play drives to score touchdowns you want on an offense that is explosive those are the best offences in football the nats have an explosive offense an offense that hits homers and offense that scores runs and bunches and again an offense that strikes right back when the pitching inevitably gives up a bunch of runs and so you look at the nats offense in this game nine runs nine hits which were two home runs a double and six singles two walks three for seven with runners in scoring position mark mentioned the met starting picture Nolan McLean Nolan McLean came into this game with an ERA of 2.51 over 17 career M will be regular season games all starts the nats had their way with Nolan McLean he allowed nine runs six earned in five and two thirds innings by the way that of course is another sign of a great offense and offense that gets to good pitching but the inside the park grand slam clearly the highlight of the night James would was the nats starting right fielder and number one batter three for five inside the park grand slam and two singles would in the nats four run second a two out first pitch opposite field inside the park grand slam off the outfield wall and left center field to cut the nats deficit to five four now what happened on the grand slam was odd the met's left fielder Nick Morabito who himself is a storyline he's from the Washington DC area went to Gonzaga college high school in Washington DC was making his m will be regular season debut in this game Morabito crashed into the wall and then the met center field or tyrone Taylor looked at Morabito as the ball rolled away rolled down the warning track and onto the outfield grass I don't really understand what was happening there but whatever and James would came flying around the base pass and the head for a slide into home plate what a great visual that was what a moment that was it wasn't quite niger Morgan bad in center field on the atom Jones inside the parker when Morgan slammed his glove to the ground having no idea the ball was about 20 feet away from him but it was on the list of embarrassing moments I don't know what Taylor was looking at but he certainly wasn't looking at the ball there's also a replay where they're following wood all the way through the at bat and you can see when he realizes where the ball just caram his eyes light up I think he's right around when he gets the first base and I think in that moment he's realizing like oh my god I got a run because I might have a chance to go all the way here he made it around the bases in 15.15 seconds and that was well he wasn't lolligagging it to first base but he was you know not full speed because he's not thinking any idea that this is going to be inside the park or this is either going to be a home run or it's going to be caught perhaps and so he turned on the jets after that to make it all the way around it was really something to see and it's a reminder that he does have more skills than just the simple ability to hit a baseball very far he does have the ability to run fast with those long strides that he has that was truly an exciting moment and to be able to go from down five nothing to now down five four on one swing of the bat like that I mean what a difference that makes it felt like an entirely new ball game immediately and you can see how the rest of the team fed off that moment and just ran with it. James Wood now has an OPS of 9.33 this has become a nice battle between him and CJ Abrams for the team lead and OPS Abrams is at nine oh nine what is slugging five thirty four to Abrams five twenty three but just a tremendous moment we got an email by the way why are inside the park grand slams called little league grand slams simply put that's how grand slams are hit in little league baseball that they're not balls that clear fences they are balls that are going all over the place in the outfield and so you end up going four bases and getting a grand slam and that's what James would got in this game the one caveat when I hear the term little league home runner little league grand slam that to me connotates an error or bad defense that screwed it up as if to say you didn't actually get credit with a home run but you got like a triple in an error or a single and a bunch of errors to me what he did is not a little league home run it's an inside the park grand slam and yes it happened as a result of the of a weird thing happening in the outfield but He earned it to me. That wasn't like the defense throw in the ball away. So to me, when I hear literally home run, literally grand slam, I think of like the other team throwing the ball all over the field and the hitter not even getting credit with a home run or a grand slam. But yes, that's essentially where the term comes from because there are very few traditional home runs or grand slam in the little league baseball. It was a play that in so many ways is emblematic of the 2026 New York meds. And I think we only got a laugh out of that. Also, homering for the Nats in this game, Jose Tena. He was in that starting DH and number three batter. One for four with a solo home or 10 in the Nats, three run, third lead off first pitch opposite field home run to left field to tie the game at five. Tena continues to quietly produce when called upon his OPS now at 748, his slugging percentage at 441. And yes, Dylan Cruz is back, Cruz served as an at starting center fielder in this game. Jacob Young appears to be OK, ended up coming into the game. Later in the game, but it's not like Young was placed on the 10 day inter list. But the Dylan Cruz in this game, that starting center fielder, number six batter. One for four had an infield single, Cruz in the bottom of the fourth, the two out infield single to the left side of the infield. Out of one to pitch. And we did get a bunch more roster moves announced by the Nats on Tuesday afternoon, although none having to do with pitching. All of these were position player moves. So the Nats late night on Monday night announced having option, third baseman Brady House to Triple A Rochester. And then the three moves that were announced on Tuesday afternoon. And that's announced having recalled outfielder, Dylan Cruz from Rochester, announced having recalled first baseman, Andres Chaparo from Rochester, announced having optioned outfielder Joey Weemer to Rochester, Paul Taboni spoke to you guys on Tuesday afternoon. We on the last installment of the podcast, talked about how, OK, is there going to be a lengthy leash with Dylan Cruz at the Major League level in this go round at the Major League level? What would seem to be a very significant go round? You know, like to me, it's go time here for Dylan Cruz. Like it is time for him to be the player who he was drafted to be. To Bony spoke, Cruz spoke. What's your sense now? Did you get that sense that there is a lengthy leash for Cruz at the Major League level? Yeah. What I really got the sense is that the team is going out of its way to tell Dylan Cruz, hey, no pressure. Just go play. For him and others, like, I think there's oftentimes feeling when you're recalled or called up, like, you've got to be the savior, like he doesn't. Like, he can just be Dylan Cruz and it's a really good player. Dylan's a obviously a really good player, but just be yourself. And I think Cruz himself is really trying to take that approach. The main thing was approach really. You know, I'm getting the swing off in the heart of the zone, you know, standing a little bit taller, not trying to get into the legs as much. And you saw on Spring Training, we talked about it at the time, how it felt like he was pressing. He was trying to make it all happen. And you could see the wear and tear that was causing on him. Just in his body language when he had an awful spring. And so he admitted it took a little while to get over that when he went to AAA. And then he just really focused on the process more than the results and trying to maintain a very steady and consistent approach every single day and believing that that would ultimately lead to better results. And over the last two to three weeks, it did. He started hitting the ball really well, playing really well. And I think he's trying to just carry that now back into the big leagues and not think to himself, well, I got to go make a point right off the bat. You don't need to do much or do any little, just going to go out there and be me and just add to this great lineup we got. You know, it was a very non-descript game from him, one for four with an infield single. And I think that's fine. I think they don't want, they would love for him to do well, but they don't want him to come in and think he has to make an immediate impact. And if anything, what he saw in this game is, as we've all seen through the first almost two months of the season, this lineup can score a bunch of runs and he doesn't necessarily have to be the savior, a big part of it. They did it without any production really from him. So I think they're just trying to tell him, hey, just relax. Go out there, play baseball the way you've always known. You've been able to continue what you were doing over the last few weeks in Rochester. And when it's all said and done, the results will look good and you're going to be a good baseball player for this team. But I really feel like they're trying to take that any idea of pressure off him, which says to me that there is a very long leash and that this is not a two-week try out. And if he's batting 150, you know, come June 5th, then he's in any danger of being sent back down. No, I think the question would be, what if two months from now things are still not good? Or three months from now, things are still not good? You know, that would be the question. And hopefully he's surging. And, you know, I still believe that he will be a good player. But obviously you have to have doubts. I don't know how you couldn't have doubts of what has happened so far. So, you know, there is pressure on him to perform, but hopefully he doesn't feel that pressure. And hopefully he performs like the guy who he was drafted to be. Dale and Lyle, James Wood, Dylan Cruz, and Jacob Young, who does appear to be relatively fine off getting hit by the pitch. What is the outfield mix for now in terms of playing time? This is going to look like we saw last year with the four-man rotation. And there's a good chance that one of them will DH on any given day. Now, maybe somebody will get a day off here and there as well. Obviously, if Jacob Young is playing, he's going to be the center-fielder. That's what he does best. If he's not, then Cruz is your center-fielder, as was the case in this game. I think work gets interesting. And we did sort of see it there in the ninth inning. When Bittera played for the better defensive lineman and brought Young into the game as a center-fielder, Cruz moved to right and then Wood actually went to the bench, I'd be curious if they ever have an outfield of Young, Wood, and Cruz, who gets which corner spot. Cruz has considered the better corner outfielder. And last year, that would have meant Cruz in right and Wood in left. But clearly, they've been using James Wood as a right-fielder. He's done pretty well. He's looked better over there. I would think they don't want to be moving him around a lot. So I could see Cruz actually in left field on those days. Let's say, Lyles, the DH on those days. And that there's more willingness to move Dylan Cruz around the field to different positions than there is with James Wood. That's my hunch. We'll see when it actually happens. But for the most part, you're going to see all four get playing time, rotating in and out. Somebody will probably DH. And there may be a day that, say, Lyles gets to sit against a tough lefty, something like that. This episode is brought to you by Sure Good. Owned and operated by a diehard, Nats fan and Maryland native. Sure Good makes funny and local shirts, hats, and more. For Nats fans, they have a great embroidered hat with the half-street Southeast Street sign. I will always have 2019 T-shirt with that iconic Howie Kendrick World Series Falpole and a lot more. There's also a hat and a shirt making fun of that this copyrighted telecast, baseball disclaimer, you always hear. Plus a lot more for baseball fans, DC area locals, and folks with a good sense of humor. Check them out at Sure Good HQ.com or Sure Good HQ on Instagram. That's SHIRTGOD and use code NatsChat for 10% off your order. When I think about Brady, it's a little bit of a blessing and a curse in that he's so talented. It's like the curses that a lot of the things that maybe most players are forced to really learn and master throughout their time. Brady's been so talented that the talent has just exceeded our need for him to master those things. So kind of taking a step back and really honing in and approach specifically gets right-handed pitching, I think will be really important to him. In terms of the other transactions here over the last day or so, so, you know, Chaparral being brought back, we've seen that before. You know, we'll see how much he actually plays. Weemer being option, not a stunner. He off the Torrid start really did not do much. I think there still is a lot of conversation about Brady House and why he got demoted and where we are with him. Taboni, I thought, had some interesting comments about House. For those who don't know, Brady House has some extreme platoon splits here. This season, an OPS versus left-handed pitching of 989, which of course is outstanding, but an OPS versus right-handed pitching of just 550, which is quite bad in about 75% of major league pitching is right-handed. So, you know, it's great that you're good against left-handed pitching, but if you're bad against right-handed pitching, that's a problem. And then there is the defense of regression, which we have talked about a good bit. Ultimately, what do you think the organization is thinking right now with Brady House? So, I think the way that they're viewing this is, and I thought Taboni said this very well in a very long and detailed answer about it because of the way that he's killing left-handed pitching. There is, of course, an argument to keep him up here as a guy who can help you win right now. The problem is, is he'd end up in a platoon. Because of the struggles against right-handers, they felt like he was going to have to play less and only play part-time, focusing on facing left-handers. He could really help his team, but we don't think it's in Brady's long-term interest, at least right now, to having be playing just on the short side of a platoon just to get his lefties. And they don't think that does him any good and does it through the organization, any good, and they don't just want to throw him out there against major league right-hs and hope that he figures it out. He needs some to do some work against them and better to do that in the lower pressure environment of AAA than to try to at the I think as Tabona described it, fighting for his life in the big leagues. So I think there's that, and then the defensive side of it as well, acknowledging that he needs to be actually less defensive when he's playing defense, which is to say, don't be afraid to make a mistake out there. Be aggressive. - I think when Brady's at his best, it's like this cocky, I'm gonna go make all these plays, look great doing it in tight mentality. - It felt like there were times that he was trying not to make an error. And of course, would make an error or struggle in some way. They want him to trust his athletic ability in his instincts and go make plays and just learn maybe some particular game situations that he just hasn't dealt with at the big league level that much. Let's remember he was rushed to the big leagues. He's still really young. In a perfect world, he probably was gonna get another, at least most of last season in the minors. And I think if there's a larger story line here, it's this, between what they've now done with Brady House and what they did with Dylan Cruz at the end of spring training. This is the national's organization saying, these are really talented young players who were probably brought to the big leagues too soon. We need to show some patience with them. And even if that means sending them down and giving them that minor league experience that they never got before, that it will pay off in the long run, I think they're kind of inherently saying, if it was up to us, they wouldn't have been here in the first place probably. And we're gonna try to correct that now. - So it's one thing with Brady House. He was drafted at of high school. Number 11 overall pick in the 2021 MLB first year player draft out of a high school in Georgia. But as we have talked about with Dylan Cruz, he was a number two overall pick. He was taken out of LSU. He was the Golden Spikes Award winner. Everyone talked about how he was this major league ready player. Was he really rushed to the majors? I remember the conversations we were having when he was in the minors. We talked about, hey, when are they gonna call up Dylan Cruz? And there was a clamoring for the team to call up Dylan Cruz. And when he got called up, I don't remember anyone saying that he had been rushed to the majors. And I do feel like a guy with his background, his profile, his resume, I don't think it's unreasonable for him to have debuted at the major league level when he did. I don't know, I have a hard time accepting that that Dylan Cruz was rushed to the majors. Well, here's how I would say to that. Yes, I think everybody would have looked at him in that situation coming out of LSU and said, he's a prime candidate to be fast tracked to the big leagues. And certainly others we have seen in the last 20 years have done it. Ryan Zimmerman was in the big leagues months after he was drafted. Never looked back and always looked ready for it. And I think in Cruz case, I don't think he was overwhelmed by the big leagues, certainly not from a defensive standpoint or ready for the speed of the game, anything like that. I think it was really just more an offensive issue with him that he was not adjusting to big league pitching in terms of laying off the breaking balls and being able to make good solid contact on that. And so he had to try to figure some things out on the fly. And they finally got to a point this spring that said, you need some time to go work on this. I don't think they believe he's immature in a baseball standpoint, like maybe Brady House would be. I think that was more he just needs to work on some things offensively to become a good big league hitter. And when I say that he was rushed, I don't think it's because of a maturity issue. I think it's because we've talked about this. He didn't really dominate the minor leagues. They called him up because it sort of felt like, well, this is what you're supposed to do. He's Dylan Cruz. He was the Golden Spikes winner. He came out of LSU. Paul Schienz is already in the big leagues. James Wood, we just called up and he's off to a great start. Let's bring Cruz up as well. And there is a scenario out there where it would have worked. And everything would have been fine. And that first year he was OK. He wasn't bad that first year. But it maybe was a little bit premature from an offensive standpoint. And I don't know how Paltibony would have handled it back then. I'm just saying everything we've seen from them so far since they took over has been much more on the cautious side and taking their time with young players that they believe are going to be really good. And they would rather put a team that's less exciting and maybe even less successful on the field at the big league level than put a young guy up here that they don't think is truly 100% ready for it. Yeah. I mean, the actions certainly speak to that. I guess just with Cruz, I would say, if he is the guy who you hope that he is, he should be able to overcome being brought up to the majors a little sooner than maybe he should have been. Well, that would kind of be my thing with that too. If he was rushed, and again, I think that's very debatable. But if he was, you still would like to think, OK, he's talented enough, gifted enough, mature enough to where he could kind of figure it out at the major league level and it wasn't happening. And clearly, the organization felt that way. And so he got option to AAA before opening day. Yeah. And it would be great to have Mike Rizzo speak honestly about this of how he felt about it at the time and then how he felt after the fact of his readiness. We may never know exactly how that all went down. But again, not that he was bad, but James Wood forced the issue where you said, you have to call this guy up. And then of course, he took off from there. Cruz was just fine. He wasn't like, hey, I am ready for the big leagues. It was almost like this preordained. OK, his turn next, we're calling him up. And it just didn't go quite as well as they would have hoped. He's still young. There's still a lot of time for him. I really do get the sense from everybody that they do believe he is going to still be a very good player. But it is, it's on him now to go and do that. And maybe it's more mental than anything else. And maybe he was wearing that pressure of having to be one of the saviors of the team that's going to lead them back into contention and the pressure of being the number two overall pick and seeing what his old LSU teammate, Schienz, didn't, how am I going to live up to that? We can't know what's inside his head, but I wonder if there was some of that long as all be curious to see how he handles this now. Like I said, he is very much approaching this as I just need to be the best version of myself as possible and not try to be something that I'm not. Well, this is going to be maybe the single biggest storyline for the Nats the rest of this season. How does Dylan Cruz do? Does he become the player who he was drafted to be? Here's Boba Schett. And Bashaet drives one to the cap and right center field. Cruz on the go way back there to the wall. This one over his head and gone. It's just clear. So the out of town scoreboard and two batters in the Mets lead it to nothing. The Nats starting pitcher in this 9/6 win over the Mets at Nationals Park on Tuesday evening was foster Griffin. He off having been so good over his first eight starts was bad for a second consecutive start. Did settle down to give the Nats some length. But the final line five runs in five innings. He gave up eight hits which were two home runs, a double and five singles. He issued a hit by pitch. He did have five strikeouts versus no walks. He did throw a lot of strikes, 97 pitches. 67 strikes just 30 balls. And he tossed three scoreless innings after allowing five runs over the first two innings. But those first two innings were rough, especially the top of the first Griffin in the top of the first allowed three runs on a Homer, a double, two singles and a sack fly. The Homer was the first pitch opposite field to run Homer by Boba Shet to right center for a two nothing Mets lead. Griffin in that Mets three run first, 26 pitches. Although 21 of the pitches were strikes Griffin in the top of the second two runs gave up a two out four count, two run Homer by Boba Shet to left field for a five nothing Mets lead. But it was good to see Griffin then toss scoreless third, fourth and fifth innings. So there was that. And like I said, he threw a lot of strikes and he had the five strikeouts versus no walks. But we've seen him get rocked over his last two outings in a way that we did not see over the first day. I mean, he has allowed 25 earned runs. 14 of them have come over his last two outings. What do you think of what we saw from Foster Griffin? - So I actually think this was a really important start for him and in the end it was a positive. I didn't start that way for sure. And it was ugly those first couple innings and but Shet just absolutely crushed those two Homer's off him. But I thought Foster Griffin showed a lot in this one in that how many other guys we have seen could not finish that out or would have been knocked out early. And the fact that he was able to flip the switch and grind out three scoreless innings after those first two. Keep the pitch count under 100 and just get through five innings and give his teammates time now and the opportunity to come back and take the lead. I think that was actually an impressive job by him on a night when he maybe wasn't at his best that he found a way. He did not walk anybody. He overcame obviously. I mean he's a 70 pitches through three innings and he got through five on 97. No that's not the best version of him at all. But that to me is the kind of start and we've talked about this with other guys. When you don't have your best can you just find a way and I know the final line isn't gonna blow you away but I think he did really do a good job of finding a way to give them five innings when they absolutely needed it given the state of the bullpen and kept it to the five runs and gave his teammates a chance to come back. - What do you think though is different to where he's gotten hit well these last two outings versus having been superb over those first eight. Like do you think teams are picking up on things that he's doing? Do you think just the locations a little bit off because like it does stand out. He had like very few blemishes over those first eight starts. These last two have been a much different story. Yeah, there could be some scouting, better scouting going on. He may be, and I'm knowing him a little bit, I feel like he's always thinking about his pitch sequencing and trying not to be too predictable. And maybe there's a little bit of that. The teams are starting to figure out, okay, he likes to throw this in this situation, that in that situation. The second Bichette Homer came on a cutter. Griffin actually thought it wasn't that bad of a pitch, but I think it was on the inside corner if I remember right. But that might be a case where you only hit that out if you have some kind of sense or a reason to believe that it's coming. And that's how he's able to turn his hands on it and drive it that way. So maybe he is a little too predictable in that sense. It felt like, and he didn't go into that details, but it felt like once he got through that second inning, he did try to make some adjustments and change some things up in terms of what he was throwing when, in terms of his actual delivery to the plate. It seemed like he was going with this hesitation move to slow down his delivery and throw off the timing somewhat. I think he was trying to throw the kitchen sink at them and trying to find anything that would work and he did. So there is work to be done. Yes, you cannot allow this to turn into any kind of long slide. So I know that he's going to be working on making sure that that doesn't happen because he has not been the same the last couple of times out. But just the simple fact that he was able to flip that switch in game said to me that that was a big step for him, not just letting that start fall apart altogether. Griffin now 10 games all starts ERA 4.02 whip 1.18 and an answer relief pitching in this game was good. Two Nats Reliebers combined to allow one run in four innings Brad Lord one run three innings, three strikeouts did give up a solo homer by one sodo this coming in the top of the seventh to two out solo shot by sodo to center to cut the that's lead to nine six of the home are going to project it 434 feet per stack gas, but had you not like the job that Lord is doing has a long man for the Nats 15 games 32 innings ERA 3.09 whip 1.09 and Richard love lady a perfect top of the ninth for the save. I love this about Richard love lady. His whip is nearly higher than his ERA. His ERA is 2.03, which is great. His whip is 1.65, which is really bad. And that to me in so many ways is the 2026 Nats right this excellent offense bad pitching love lady excellent ERA bad whip. That is something I don't know that I've ever seen that a relief pitcher any pitcher with a whip approaching being higher than the ERA. It's a lot of walks. That's what's leading to that whip. And as we've discussed his splits are completely reversed and he's not getting left he's out. At all, but he's finding a way to be effective and against the team that signed and released him like four times in the last year. I think that had to feel pretty good for him. I want to say this outside of foster Griffin, I think the most valuable pictures on the national staff this year are the long relievers. Brad Lorde Mitchell Parker and her Alvarez has done it a couple times. I think we're going to see him again on Wednesday, paired up with Zach Latel. I think those guys have become so valuable in bridging the gap between the starter and whoever's going to pitch at the end of the game and very often going three innings and giving up a minimal amount of runs. It's an unsung kind of job. It's a thankless thing. You don't think that much about. They haven't had anything like that here in a long time. And I love the way that Blake Paterer is using them. And certainly love the way that they're performing. Brad Lorde and her Alvarez Mitchell Parker, I think to me are the most valuable pictures on the staff, not named foster Griffin. Brad Lorde is on pace to get about a hundred innings of work. I don't have the exact math in front of me here, but we're approaching about a third of the way through the 162. Lorde is at 32 innings. So that would be something, right? A reliever in modern day MLB getting to 100 innings and he could end up being actually well above 100 innings. So Andrew Alvarez, we never talked about this on the last installment of the podcast because of everything else that was going on. He is to learn the major league active roster. Do you think he is here to stay on the major league active roster? Well, I think we're going to see him pitch on Wednesday along with letel. And as as of now letel is the starter. Maybe they'll use the opener. Maybe not, but I'm pretty sure we'll see Alvarez following him. If that goes well for him, I think there's going to be a case to try to continue with this. Now can you afford to carry three long relievers in Lorde Alvarez and Parker? That may be too much to ask and Parker's done well. So I don't think you want to send him down. So maybe that boils down to if letel really struggles or if Miles Michaelis really struggles next time out. Maybe that opens the path for Andrew Alvarez. I do think we're going to be talking about in the next few days. Clayton, Peter coming off the I.L. Cole, Henry, maybe back sometime soon as well, but I think certainly Peter here in the next few days. So perhaps Alvarez pitches in relief on Wednesday and then come Thursday. He and Peter swap spots. So maybe that's it. But if letel were to really struggle again, if Michaelis were to really struggle again, you start having to have that conversation or Jake Irving's really struggles again about Alvarez and could he be a better fit starter? I think they're taking day by day right now, but as long as he keeps pitching well, there's going to be a case to include him on this team in some role. Will you surprise that none of the moves on Tuesday afternoon were pitching moves? We kind of thought at least some would be. It was all position player moves though. Yeah, a little bit. But then when you look at who was available at AAA, they don't really have any good options there. Julian Fernandez is on the 40-man roster. I believe he's hurt now on the minor league. I.L. Andre Grenillo, I don't think has been down long enough to be brought back. Same for Zach Kent, who was up here for a few days. Otherwise you're calling up a starter like a Riley Cornelio. So unless you wanted to go off the 40-man roster to do something, I'm not sure there was a move to be made there. And as I said, I think they know that beaters very close. So it was just kind of like, let's hang on for a few more days until he's ready and that may allow us to do some things. And I goes back to what I said earlier about Griffin being able to give you five innings that was critical. They could not afford a three-inning start tonight. And what Brad Lord and the other long men have done has helped allow them to weather this storm over the last week or so. Game three for the Nats against the Mets at Nationals Park. Wednesday evening at 6.45. As we discussed, the Nats have LaZac Latel as there are probable starting pitcher for the game. This installment of Nats Chat brought to us by Shirt Good owned and operated by a diehard Nats fan. Shirt Good makes funny and local shirts, such as the iconic howie Kendrick Fowl pole shirt, check out Shirt Good at ShirtGoodHQ.com or Shirt Good HQ on Instagram. Use the promo code Nats Chat for 10% off your order. We always enjoy hearing from you. You can hit us up on X at Nats_Chat. You can find us on Blue Sky at Nats Chat Podcast. You can email us Nats Chat Podcast at gmail.com. We have a website at which you can purchase a Nats Chat Podcast. Be sure to that website, natschatpodcast.com, while Nats at All's Radio highlights on Nats Chat, a courtesy of 1067 The Fan. For Mark Cervin, I'm Al Goldie. We thank you for listening and we'll talk to you next time on the Nats Chat Podcast. Representing the New York Mets with the 75th pick of the 2022 MLB DRAG. The New York Mets select Nick Mervido, an outfielder from Gizaga College High School, Washington, District of Columbia. The Atlanta Braves have the next pick.