Washington Nationals: Josiah Gray might want to bat to boost run support

Washington Nationals pitcher Josiah Gray has to be getting just a little frustrated. He hasn’t shown it or vocalized it, but it could be bubbling under the surface. His irritation wouldn’t be with how he is performing as much as with the lack of run support that the 25-year-old righty has received this year.

Josiah Gray has received only one run of support during his first four starts of the season for the Washington Nationals

In Gray’s four starts this season, the Nationals have scored a grand total of one run. One run! That is hard to imagine, especially with one of those four games being played in the light air of Colorado. With Gray being a two-way player his first two years of college ball, he may want to lobby Dave Martinez to allow him to bat for himself.

Okay, so obviously Gray doesn’t need to try and be a lesser version of Shohei Ohtani, but goodness, inserting himself in the batting order couldn’t have led to less run support. The fact that the Nationals currently have the fourth worst winning percentage in MLB entering Wednesday at .294, ahead of only Colorado at .278, Kansas City at .222, and Oakland at .167 is not a surprise. An organization that won the World Series in 2019 and has torn the roster completely down, Washington is in full blown rebuild mode.

But with that said, to only score one run in the four starts for Gray is perplexing. Over the 13 games that he has not started on the bump for the Nationals, the offense has scored 61 total runs for an average of 4.69 runs per game. It is always a strange phenomenon when certain pitchers just can’t get any run support. The law of averages would assume that this will correct itself for Gray and the Nationals over the remainder of the season, but through four starts it has stayed the same.

The opponents that Gray has faced this year have been tough. His first outing was his only bad start where he allowed five runs in five innings of work to the world-class Atlanta Braves. That outing is the only one of his starts where the Nationals actually plated a run. Gray’s next three starts were at Colorado where he allowed one run in six innings, at the Angels where he gave up two runs in 5.2 innings, and at home against Baltimore where he was tagged with one run in five innings.

Gray, along with catcher Keibert Ruiz, were the central pieces of the trade with the Dodgers two summers ago that sent Max Scherzer and Trea Turner out west. While Gray is still young and having to finish developing while on the big stage of the major leagues, the Nationals have to be pleased with where his stuff is at the moment.

Now all that is remaining is for the offense to score some runs during Gray’s outings. If Gray starts sneaking into the batting cage between starts, getting in some tee work, or taking batting practice on the field, it might be a sure sign that he is ready to take matters into his own hands.