Pitching Showdown Looms: Will Nationals or Astros Dominate in This High-Stakes Battle?

The Nationals a really struggling this season. They have been one of the worst teams in baseball, in a year they assumed they were going to be competitive. In a division with the Braves, Phillies, and Mets, I think they assumed a little too much. That isn’t to say they couldn’t have made it work – the Braves are having a bad year, for example. It just means whatever they thought was going to happen in terms of the development of their team is not going to happen. While there have been bright spots both with hitters and pitchers, there haven’t been enough. They also haven’t been fully sustainable for much of the season. Today they send out Michael Soroka to the hill. He is 3-8 with a 4.85 ERA, and a 1.13 WHIP. Overall, he has thrown just 78 innings for the year, and has issued 24 walks which is probably my bigger concern with him. His WHIP is actually surprisingly good and typically better than someone with that ERA would indicate. He has been worse on the road than he has been at home, but the Astros hitters don’t have a ton of luck or experience against him, getting just four hits in 17 at-bats. 

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