Going Deep with The Nats

Anthony Rendon underneath Minute Maid Park, Houston, TX; Photo by Paul Kim

The Nationals enter their fourth elimination game of this postseason, and their first Game 6 in team history. The team will feature the same lineup as their first two wins in Houston with Asdrubal Cabrera at second base and Howie Kendrick at designated hitter as well as their Game 2 starter Stephen Strasburg who has four wins in this 2019 postseason. Stras has a 1.34 ERA in 47.0 innings in his postseason history, and for all the talk about Madison Bumgarner in 2014 and Gerrit Cole in 2019 — Strasburg should be in the same conversation as Sandy Koufax and receiving more accolades than Bumgarner and Cole as postseason starting pitchers — and maybe that will happen.  Continue reading →

This World Series is now tied at 2-2, and whoever wins tonight will push the other team to the brink of elimination of what is now a best-of-3 games to determine the World Series champ. The Washington Nationals and Houston Astros have now lined up their rotations from Game 1 and Game 2 for these next two games. Tonight’s weather forecast looks like it will cooperate with the heavy rain moving out of the area. It rained last night but not enough to cause any issues.  Continue reading →

Photo by Andrew Lang for TalkNats

Many might have missed this — that these Washington Nationals were on an 8-game postseason winning streak until that ended last night. As the Nats learned against the Dodgers, you just go 1-0 today and the Nats no longer need a winning streak — just two more wins to complete their magical season. The Nats were a disturbing 0-10 in RISP situations last night, and the lack of anything resembling clutch was missing other than Howie Kendrick‘s pinch-hit single and Victor Robles‘ triple that scored the Nats only runner from first base. BABIP. There was also a continuation of poor homeplate umpiring that bit the Nats last night. Time to turn the luck back to the Nats, and the team sends Patrick Corbin back to the mound in a start tonight. Continue reading →

Today is all about the birthday boy Juan Soto and his team!

As you have heard, Juan Soto is still the youngest player in this postseason and he is now twenty-one years of age today. Happy birthday Juan and we hope all of your wishes come to be! This is the first home World Series game in Washington, D.C. in over 86 years! Soak this all in and enjoy! Continue reading →

Those who gave the Nationals no chance of winning last night got a good look at what these Washington Nationals are made of and you have to be sure that many have a different outlook on this team today. The Nationals are on this grand stage because they are good, and they also looked energized last night. The break between the NLCS and last night’s game 1 of the World Series is the most time that Trea Turner, Anthony Rendon, and Juan Soto have had off the playing field since each was on the 10-day IL earlier in the season. Each player had little to no time off until the Nats clinched a Wild Card berth, and each got the feeling back in their legs with the week off between the NLCS and the World Series. Turner responded quickly in the first inning and stole second base which was his first steal of the postseason and also the Nats first steal of the entire postseason. Soto cranked one of his most majestic home runs of the season, and he had two other hits plus a stolen base. Continue reading →