The Home for Washington Nationals Game Talk

The Washington Nationals are spiraling down with a 9-20 record in the past 29-games, and it all started last month at the hands of the Marlins, and continued through their second beatdown this past weekend as the Fish just took advantage of any Nats mistake and capitalized. All together, the Nats have been swept in both series by Miami to an 0-6 record. Some of it is luck — or in this case some back luck, and some of it is that the Nats are not playing well enough.

Tonight, the teams celebrate the holiday, Juneteenth, and will have some pregame on-the-field celebrations for the holiday. There is also a special ticket that can be purchased for the game that includes a themed t-shirt and a $5 of every ticket sold will be donated to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.

First off, happy Father’s Day to all who celebrate. The teams will have baby blue themed caps for the day, and some other tributes on cleats, gloves, and arm sleeves. For the ceremonial first pitch, the Nats will have their children throwing out pitches to their dads.

The Washington Nationals lost their 16th game of the season out of their bullpen. They also have 16 blown saves. The bullpen recently had two DFAs with Erasmo Ramirez and Andres Machado, but it was Chad Kuhl and Thaddeus Ward who turned a tie game into a 5-2 loss, and the fifth straight loss this season against the Marlins.

The Washington Nationals made three comebacks in last night’s game to tie the score to only lose it on a bizarre play to put the 15th loss on the Nats bullpen. The offense scored five runs to back starter Trevor Williams, but in the end, he couldn’t do his job to control the runs and gave up five against a Marlins offense that isn’t good past their superstar Luis Arraez who is batting .390 on the season but just came off of an 0-15 slide to post a 5-5 game with three key RBIs include a 2-run bomb against Williams.

In all, the Nats have three one-run losses in four games this season with the Marlins, and the other game ended in a two-run loss against the Fish. The time is now how to figure out how to beat the team from Miami.

The Washington Nationals were on a 13-10 run and were 2.0 games from the Wild Card when they rolled into Miami and had the win sewn up in the first game of that series — until a blown save unraveled the fabric of the team. Since that point, the Nats went on a 9-17 skid. Last night, the Nats showed they can beat one of the best teams in baseball. Now they have to show they can win a game started by the reigning NL Cy Young winner, Sandy Alcantara.

The Washington Nationals lost a heartbreaker last night when runner’s obstruction was not called. So instead of possibly a rubber game tonight against the Houston Astros, the Nats are seeking a much needed win to salvage a game in this series and avoid the dreaded sweep. The team has now dropped 8-of-9 games in this stretch, and a season-low of 14-games below .500. To cap it all off, the Astros did not schedule a day-game for a getaway game which means the Nats won’t arrive back to their residences in the D.C. area until 3-to-4 am in the wee hours of Friday morning.

The Washington Nationals lost last night and have now dropped 7-of-8 games in this stretch. From that great 20-game run the team was on, they have sunk to 13-games below .500. On any given night some main part of their game is off. Last night it was an offense that just scored 1-run, and the team had it’s chances and did not capitalize. They also hit their longballs to the long part of the park. Two went to the fence and were caught — they were the longest shots of the game — yet no runs, and the Astros clubbed four homers to the pull-side in each case in much shorter distances. It proves once again that it’s not about how far — just whether it is far enough.