The Home for Washington Nationals Game Talk

July 26, 2021; PHILADELPHIA, PA, Citizens Bank Ballpark | Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats

Dugouts are small spaces. Trea Turner was put on the COVID list yesterday officially by the Washington Nationals. Good luck with contact tracing. Tonight’s game has been postponed against the Phillies. Worse than that is the contact tracing to see how far this contagious virus spread. According to reports, many others have contracted COVID.

All of this is happening on top of the numerous injuries that has claimed several starters like Stephen Strasburg who is out of the season, and short-term injuries to Kyle Schwarber, Yan Gomes, and last night Victor Robles injured his oblique.

The team was already set to take the field with just two projected starters from the start of the season with only Juan Soto and Josh Bell available.

Manager Dave Martinez told reporters last night in his postgame that there were no other players identified to be in close contact with Turner. Today three more players (unidentified) have test positive for COVID as well as 8 staff members. Martinez believes that only one of the 12 infected individuals is unvaccinated.  The Nationals will now conduct additional testing and contact tracing.

“I am very concerned,” Martinez said this afternoon. “We all took rapid tests today. We’ll follow-up, we’ll get additional results [Thursday]. Hopefully, no one else will test positive.”

“But yes, there is some concern here right now. As soon as the game got canceled, I got everybody out of here and on a bus and back to the hotel. I want to do the same thing myself.”

Of course everyone remembers that the Nationals season opened under COVID protocols as 9 players were put on the COVID IL and the entire Opening Day and series was postponed.

Friday marks the end of the trade deadline and several Nats players could be on the move.

Continue reading →

Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats

After another gut-punch loss last night, the Washington Nationals are now 8.5 games out of first place and in the shadows of a team being in full fire-sale mode. Do I agree that there should be a fire-sale? No, I believe you make smart choices on who you trade. This team could bounceback next year if they make some smart moves this week.

The team will start re-tooling with an eye on the future.  For the rest of the games against contenders, they will play the role of “spoiler” as they have the ability to do in this 4-game series against their division rival Philadelphia Phillies who are in second place and hoping to make the playoffs. Continue reading →

Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats

With almost all hope of the postseason gone, the Washington Nationals are 8.0 games out of first place. The team will start re-tooling with an eye on the future. That came early this year. A bust. For the rest of the games, they will play the role of “spoiler” as they have this series against their division rival Philadelphia Phillies who are in second place and hoping to make the playoffs. Continue reading →

Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats

The Washington Nationals had a must-win series set to dominate the last place Orioles this weekend, and the reverse happened. The Nats are done with Baltimore this season after this game goes final. The Nats swept the O’s in D.C. and this series in Baltimore has the Nats in an 0-2 hole with the salvage game today. Continue reading →

Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats

About an hour before first pitch, we learned that starting Max Scherzer was scratched due to a sore tricep in an injury he sustained he claimed during batting practice. Who knows what to think about this just six days before the trade deadline. In his place on regular rest is lefty Jon Lester. Continue reading →

The Bromo Seltzer Arts Tower and the Inner Harbor are in the background; Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats

This series was once known as the “Battle of the Beltways” when the Orioles were good, and that has not been often in the last 16 years. When the team from Washington, D.C. came into existence, the Washington Nationals fans were met with tough words from the O’s owner who said, “there were no real baseball fans in D.C.”. There were 28 owners who supported a team relocating in the Nation’s Capital and 1 vehemently against, Peter Angelos, from Baltimore.

From the time the Nats came into being, the Orioles owner enriched himself based on circumstance, and he pounced and took advantage like a profiteer. What has not changed in nearly ten years is that the MASN split of money still has not been resolved. It has made a tough relationship, even tougher.  Continue reading →