The Home for Washington Nationals Game Talk

The Washington Nationals arrived in Seattle, Washington at a decent hour last night. They did not want to be sleepless in Seattle like they were the week before when the team arrived after 5 am at their homes in the Washington, D.C. area after a late night flight from Houston. It certainly took its toll on the team as they looked like they were sleepwalking at times against Miami in a sweep. The Nats touched down in Seattle at 8:49 PM local time last night after winning a series in San Diego. No easy task tonight for the Nats as they will have to face Seattle’s ace Luis Castillo.

The Washington Nationals bounced back last night and shutout the mighty San Diego lineup with a superb pitching performance from Josiah Gray, Mason Thompson, Kyle Finnegan, and Hunter Harvey for the much-needed win. Arguably, the teams two best position players, Lane Thomas and Jeimer Candelario provided enough thump with homers to provide the runs, and Thomas had three hits in the game.

The Washington Nationals got crushed last night. CJ Abrams showed up against the team that traded him almost a year ago. Juan Soto showed up even bigger for the team that acquired him in that Abrams trade. The only Nats pitcher who showed up was Joe LaSorsa who made his Nats’ debut last night. In the end, the Nats were crushed 13-3.

The Washington Nationals arrived in San Diego last night with manager Dave Martinez plastered all over the news due to his animated ejection from yesterday’s game. It is pent-up frustration of hundreds of bad calls this season that has cost his team in lopsided umpiring favoring the opposing team. Yesterday, there were two 3-2 counts with called strike threes, and a low mid-calf pitch for a strike three that got Davey going. He was clearly right. Just awful calls. Per Ump Scorecard, it was a 1.64 runs advantage to the other team, and the fifth largest run disadvantage in all of MLB this year. But the Nats did themselves no favors with some poor fielding plays that cost them five runs (four unearned).

The Washington Nationals played one of their most complete games in all phases of baseball yesterday with the starting pitching and bullpen completing the team’s second combined shutout of the season yesterday. The defense and positioning was excellent. The offense was good and probably a tad unlucky.

You would have to give Trevor Williams and CJ Abrams the top stars in that game. Both came through in a game where the conditions were rough. It rained for most of the game, and they came through for a big win. Williams went 6.0 scoreless and Abrams was 3-3 with a oppo homer and excellent defense at shortstop.

We are officially in summer. It is also the longest amount of daylight of the year. The Boys of Summer are set to take the field. The Washington Nationals had two roster moves today, and both Victor Robles (back pain) and Carl Edwards Jr. (shoulder inflammation) go to the IL, with CF Derek Hill and LHP Joe La Sorsa taking their spots on the roster.

The Washington Nationals are digging a deeper hole for themselves with a 9-21 record in the past 30-games. Now the team is exactly on a 62-100 pace, and that is not acceptable. Losing another winnable game yesterday is becoming more of the rule and not the exception.

Walking batters that score is becoming all too commonplace as we saw with a bullpen pitcher again yesterday. Those two runs turned out to be the deficit in the loss. The defense is not making big plays, and that also was a reason for the loss. But the bats plated six runs yesterday. Starter Josiah Gray has been struggling for the last month, partially by his own mistakes but also by his defense.