ARCHIVE April 8, 2026
April 8, 2026 · NL East

St. Louis Cardinals vs Washington Nationals

April 8, 2026Nationals ParkSunny 52°F · 6 mph, Out To LF
AWAY
St. Louis Cardinals
7-5
6
vs

Starting pitchers

AWAY · STL
Michael McGreevy
Michael McGreevy
IP 6
HOME · WSH
Miles Mikolas
Miles Mikolas
IP 3

Lineups

AWAY · STL
  1. 1 JJ Wetherholt 2B
  2. 2 Iván Herrera C
  3. 3 Alec Burleson 1B
  4. 4 Jordan Walker RF
  5. 5 Nolan Gorman DH
  6. 6 Masyn Winn SS
  7. 7 Ramón Urías 3B
  8. 8 Thomas Saggese LF
  9. 9 Nathan Church CF
HOME · WSH
  1. 1 James Wood RF
  2. 2 Luis García Jr. 1B
  3. 3 Brady House 3B
  4. 4 Daylen Lile LF
  5. 5 CJ Abrams SS
  6. 6 Nasim Nuñez 2B
  7. 7 José Tena DH
  8. 8 Drew Millas C
  9. 9 Jacob Young CF

Box score

  123456789 R
STL 020010102 6
WSH 001000000 1

Manager comparison

Both managers grade B- / C entering this matchup.

AWAY · STL
Oliver Marmol
B- Lineup 1.2 R Bunts 0.7 R IBBs 0.3 R
HOME · WSH
Blake Butera
C Lineup 1.6 R Bunts 1.5 R IBBs 1.4 R

Recent form

AWAY · STL
7-2 W1 +13 run diff
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HOME · WSH
6-4 W3 +6 run diff
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Season series: 1-0 with STL listed first across 1 prior meeting.

Tactical analysis

RunsLeft separates manager decisions from player execution from game variance. Each card below is the same three-number framework that drives the share cards on the SPA replay page.

AWAY · St. Louis Cardinals
  • Manager lineup cost +0.03 R/G Optimal arrangement projects 4.85 vs actual lineup 4.81
  • Player execution +1.19 R/G Players exceeded the lineup's 4.81 projection by 1.19 (scored 6)
  • Game variance +1.15 R/G Total game outcome vs optimal expectation

Wetherholt 0-for-4 batting 1st

HOME · Washington Nationals
  • Manager lineup cost +0.00 R/G Optimal arrangement projects 3.18 vs actual lineup 3.18
  • Player execution −2.18 R/G Players fell 2.18 short of the lineup's 3.18 projection (scored 1)
  • Game variance −2.18 R/G Total game outcome vs optimal expectation

Lile 0-for-3 batting 4th

COUNTERFACTUAL

Optimal lineups projected 4.8 – 3.2 — actual was 6 – 1.

Keep reading

How RunsLeft analyzes games

Standard content on this page comes from the MLB Stats API. Tactical analysis comes from a per-game Monte Carlo: 10,000 simulated games against the opposing starter's ERA, both for the actual lineup the manager wrote and for the optimal arrangement of those nine players. The three numbers — manager cost, player execution, game variance — separate which part of the result was the lineup, the players, or the dice.

Read the full methodology.