Minors Monday: Darren Baker red hot for Triple-A Rochester

Posted on April 18, 2023 by Quinn Riley

Another week, another Minors Monday. Nationals wrap up Week 2 of the minor leagues with several players on rehab assignments in the lower levels while Darren Baker is the MVP of this week.

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Nationals 7, Guardians 6: Nats storm back to win it, avoid sweep

Posted on April 16, 2023 by Quinn Riley
Nationals Park; Stone Garrett scores the tying run as Dominic Smith and Josh Bell look on
(Photo Sol Tucker/TalkNats)

The Nationals avoided the sweep Sunday and grabbed their fifth win of the season. This salvage win over the Guardians, had Jeimer Candelario leading the way offensively while Stone Garrett was back in the lineup and made a case to stay in it. This was a come-from-behind win with late inning drama.

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Game #16 and just like that the season will be 10% complete!

Posted on April 16, 2023 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears
Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats

Today is another of those early April games in a season at just the sixteenth game mark. However, in some ways, the rest of the season seems to be on a path of projectability based on what we have seen. The season will be at the 10 percent completed mark of the season when this one is done. You can play math games and use a 10x multiplier for stats and do some interpolating or extrapolating for an entire season. A loss today and the Washington Nationals are on a 40-120 pace. A win today and the Nats are on a 50-110 pace. The little things matter, and yet it feels like there is zero urgency to be proactive with in-game strategy and especially with the starting pitchers.

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Nationals notebook: Dave Martinez explains why Stone Garrett hasn’t been in lineup for past five games

Posted on April 15, 2023 by Quinn Riley
Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats

Stone Garrett has been glued to the bench for the past five games despite leading the team in most statistics through just three games and 14 plate appearances. He has not even been used in a pinch-hitting situation.

Why is this? Well, Dave Martinez was asked ahead of Saturday’s 6-4 loss to the Guardians why Garrett hasn’t been seen in the lineup. Martinez explained it was a mixture of both Alex Call and Lane Thomas‘ strong outings and matchups.

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Guardians 6, Nationals 4: Chad Kuhl struggles, Nats drop another close one

Posted on April 15, 2023 by Quinn Riley
Chad Kuhl’s struggles continue; Photo by Marlene Koenig for TalkNats

The Nationals have continued to drop tight and winnable games, and the same occurred Saturday, where the Nats built up a lead early but couldn’t hang on.

Washington did get on the board in a hurry though, as in the first inning they took a 3-0 lead. Alex Call led off the game by reaching base on a Jose Ramirez throwing error which was followed up by a Dominic Smith single, and the scoring opened from there: Joey Meneses, Jeimer Candelario (double), and Keibert Ruiz all came through with RBI hits.

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Game #15 Mistake free baseball is needed

Posted on April 15, 2023 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears
Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats

In the manufacturing world, they call it zero-defect output, and in baseball it is called mistake-free baseball. Most errors don’t show up in the boxscore, and only a video or photo will jog your memory of the mishap. Yesterday, there were too many mistakes by the Washington Nationals and in a few months the only one we will remember when we go to the boxscore is Carl Edwards Jr.‘s fielding E-1 and the unearned run because of it. That run became the winning run in another Nats’ loss by the smallest margin you can have of just one run. From a 3-0 Nats’ lead to a final four innings of mistakes on defense, bullpen pitching, baserunning, and poor situational hitting is becoming a theme. The calls to fire manager Dave Martinez get louder with each loss just like they did in 2022 and 2021 and even May of 2019. The team’s best played game of the season was managed by bench coach Tim Bogar while Martinez was sick. Trust me, I’m not calling for Martinez to be fired — but there certainly could be a day soon that we hear that his contract is not extended.

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75 years since Jackie Robinson’s debut and a real turn in D.C. baseball

Posted on April 15, 2023 by Marcus T
Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats
Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats
Photo by Abbie Headington for TalkNats

It has been 75 years since Jackie Robinson‘s debut and changing baseball forever, and all of baseball celebrates that today as we all wear No. 42. You can see the changes finally in baseball or at least you can in D.C. baseball, and the way the team has added people of color to their front office and coaching staffs. The Lerner family committed themselves to the best amateur youth baseball academy in baseball as well as youth fields built in Washington, D.C. by the team and the community. Just look at the current Washington Nationals team makeup and their stars on the rise who are African American.

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Guardians 4, Nationals 3: Bullpen can’t hold despite impressive Trevor Williams start

Posted on April 15, 2023 by Quinn Riley
WASHINGTON, DC – APRIL 14: Carl Edwards Jr. #58 of the Washington Nationals commits an error trying to field the ball hit by Andres Gimenez #0 (not pictured) of the Cleveland Guardians in the eighth inning at Nationals Park on April 14, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Greg Fiume/Getty Images)

The Nationals fell to 4-10 Friday night to open a three-game weekend series with the Guardians. Trevor Williams pitched five nearly flawless innings but was kept in for the sixth, and that’s where troubles began.

Luis Garcia got the Nats on the board in the fourth inning, as he swatted a solo homer into left-center field, and Washington kept the rally going after that. Keibert Ruiz and Lane Thomas singled before Alex Call drove in both with a two-run single that gave the Nats a 3-0 lead.

However, the Nationals had just two hits after that, as they couldn’t hang on to their 3-0 lead.

Williams had a very impressive start, scoreless through five innings but yielded a pair of hits to start the sixth and was pulled from there. He finished his day allowing just one run on four hits, two walks, and two strikeouts.

Hunter Harvey would easily get out of the sixth for Williams thanks to a double play though allowed a run, but he ran into his own troubles in the seventh. He served up a solo homer to former National Josh Bell — who got a standing ovation before his first plate appearance — to lead off the inning, and after a single he yielded two straight walks before being pulled by Carl Edwards Jr.

With the bases loaded, Edwards made it three straight walks as he let aboard the first batter he faced to make it a 3-3 game, though got out of the inning on a popup from Josh Naylor, stranding the loaded bases.

Edwards continued the troubles in the seventh, as he began the inning with a fielding error of his own and a double from Bell put two in scoring position. The Guardians were able to take a 4-3 lead then on a groundout despite the infield being home — as there was no play at home, which ended up being the winning run.

Hobie Harris hurled a 1-2-3 ninth that was then mooted by Washington’s two hits in the final five inings.

With that, here’s the schedule for the rest of the series.

Saturday @ 4:05 p.m. ET: RHP Chad Kuhl vs. RHP Zach Plesac

Sunday @ 1:05 p.m. ET: RHP Patrick Corbin vs. RHP Shane Bieber

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Game #14 for a rested and ready Nats team!

Posted on April 14, 2023 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears
Photo by Tom Sileo for TalkNats

The Washington Nationals got back home late on Wednesday from their west coast road trip, and they had all of yesterday to rest up and catch up on their sleep. Today, they have the Cleveland Guardians in town. The last time the Nats had them in D.C. was for their Wild Card clinch, and we all know how that went. Can the Nats repeat that success again? The 4-9 team from D.C. must start to win some series or this could get ugly quickly in the early parts of this 2023 season.

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Series preview: Nationals vs. Guardians

Posted on April 14, 2023 by Ben Belford-Peltzman

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