Washington Nationals have mastered time travel

Thanks to the glory of postponements, it appears as though the Washington Nationals have mastered time travel.

According to the calendar, August 14, 2020, will be a day that Dakota Bacus remembers forever. It was on that the minor league veteran made his debut with the Washington Nationals, a culmination of his eight years of riding busses and dreaming for an opportunity that may never have come.

At least, the calendar will say that Bacus made his debut on August 14. Officially, his debut came on August 9, as did his first major league strikeout.

This is a similar situation to what happened with Juan Soto. He made his major league debut on May 20, 2018, but his first home run happened on May 15 due to a suspended game. Thanks to weather and the power of suspended games, it appears that the Nationals found Doc’s DeLorean.

For Bacus, Friday was a long time coming. He had risen quickly through the minors after being selected in the ninth round of the 2012 MLB Draft by the A’s. He had reached AAA in 2015, and was seemingly knocking on the door to the majors. However, he did not return to AAA until 2019, spending most of the subsequent years bouncing between High-A and AA.

He had been a solid, if unspectacular, minor league pitcher. Over those eight years in the minors, he had posted a 3.53 ERA and a 1.293 WHiP, striking out 505 batters with 209 walks over his 609.2 innings. Bacus pitched in a variety of roles, starting 60 games and notching 28 saves during his climb up the ladder.

That debut went about as well as it could have. He pitched two scoreless innings with a strikeout and did not allow a baserunner. Given that the Nationals’ rotation has not looked like the buzzsaw it was last season, his ability to pitch multiple innings could be an asset moving forward.

It already was for a game in the past. Even though Dakota Bacus made his debut on August 14, he contributed in the Washington Nationals suspended game with the Orioles.