Pitching Matchup
Washington: Anibal Sanchez (RHP) 0-5, 6.43 ERA
Seattle: George Kirby (RHP) 5-3, 3.47 ERA
The Washington Nationals have been brutal this season as they are attempting to get their young players some valuable experience. They will be sending aging right-hander Anibal Sanchez to pitch and is coming off a no-decision against the San Diego Padres as he went five innings and gave up a run on one hit with two walks and four strikeouts.
The Seattle Mariners have been playing well and trying to capture the top AL Wild Card spot. They are having roo kie righty George Kirby pitch in this game and is coming off a victory over the Los Angeles Angels where he threw 5.2 innings and allowed three runs on six hits with a hit by pitch, a walk, and seven strikeouts.
The Washington Nationals have been struggling offensively as they are sitting at 22nd in the majors with a .687 team OPS while averaging 3.75 runs per game thus far. Center fielder Victor Robles has been struggling at the plate but using his speed as he has a .591 team OPS with four home runs and 28 RBI while stealing 13 bases on 14 attempts. Looking at his last 15 games he has not been doing well as he has a .190/.244/.238 slashline with three RBI, four runs scored, and a 2:11 walk-to-strikeout ratio over those games.
Anibal Sánchez has not pitched enough to factor into the Baseball Savant percentile rankings, so we will dive into his Statcast numbers thus far. He has an 8.2 barrel percentage, 89.7 MPH average exit velocity, 17 strikeout percentage, and a 10.5 walk percentage. He also has a six-pitch arsenal (changeup, cutter, sinker, fastball, curveball, slider) and his sinker getting hit as it has a .296 batting average and a .630 slugging percentage so far. Sanchez has not pitched against Seattle since the 2017 season so this will be a completely different lineup he is facing off against.