Good Morning, Washington Nationals Fans,

Here are the latest headlines and analyses around the Washington Nationals and Major League Baseball for today, May 2.

Welcome to the Morning Briefing! Haden here. Let’s talk about yesterday’s W.

Leading this Morning’s Briefing: Nats take game two against Texas Rangers

The Nationals squeaked out a 1-0 victory over the Texas Rangers. Ildemaro Vargas doubled in the second inning and Alex Call hit a single to drive him in. Trevor Williams somehow managed to allow no runs despite allowing nine baserunners and loading the bases with no outs twice.

Hunter Harvey and Kyle Finnegan were dominant in the late innings to shut the door, combining for 2.1 innings and five strikeouts.

The story for the Nationals, even in today’s game, remains the same. The pitching locks down opposing lineups consistently. Nationals pitching has the fourth lowest Fielding Independent Pitching, or FIP, in the league. The team’s 4.6 pitching fWAR is third in the league.

But the offense struggles to put up runs. The team is tied at 19th in OPS with a .674 OPS. Obviously, the struggling veterans brings that total down, but the lack of power brings that OPS down. Eddie Rosario, Lane Thomas, and Joey Meneses all have slugging percentages below .253. If the Nationals do want to flirt with a wild card appearance, they need those players to get going, or find someone who can do better.

When he returns from the injured list, Lane Thomas will have a lot of run, but Joey Meneses and Eddie Rosario have to get it going today. James Wood and Juan Yepez have been above average offensively in Triple-A Rochester so far this season.

Until then, the Nationals will rely on LHP Mitchell Parker (2-0, 1.69 ERA) to shut down the Rangers offense. He will start against RHP Nathan Eovaldi (1-2, 3.00 ERA). First pitch is at 2:35 pm ET and televised on MASN2.

Down in the Minors

Oh, and James Wood is now considered the top prospect in the Nationals system according to Baseball America.

Featured Stories of the Day

Buehler returns for the LAD via MLB Trade Rumors
LHP pitcher Urías pleads no-contest to domestic battery charge via Orange County Register

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