Going Deep with The Nats

Photo by Andrew Lang for TalkNats

As general manager Mike Rizzo said, “We have a very good Big Four” as a sincere compliment to his starting pitchers of Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg, Patrick Corbin, and Anibal Sanchez. Many people have referred to them as the “Big Three” which excluded Sanchez and was an old term for the American auto makers, and Rizzo made it a point to let everyone know this starting rotation from 1-to-4 is excellent. With Patrick Corbin’s 7.0 inning shutout gem today, the Nationals have shown they are one of the best in the Majors. Corbin’s “win” evaporated after a blown save by Sean Doolittle, but then the Nats bats were awoken and Doolittle vultured the 5-2 win on this final game before the All-Star break. Continue reading →

On Expos Day, it was a good day as Max Scherzer got the Washington Nationals back in the winner’s circle with a gem of a game. He struggled in the first inning, but then settled down to throw a 7.0 inning shutout with only 4 hits and 11 strikeouts. Scherzer is now 3rd in the Majors in ERA at 2.30 trailing only Hyu-Jin Ryu at 1.73 and Luis Castillo at 2.29. Scherzer only trails Castillo by the smallest of margins by .01. Of course Scherzer leads all pitchers with 181 strikeouts. More importantly,  Scherzer has now win seven consecutive starts for his team. By going 7.0 innings of “no drama” baseball, the Nationals got him 6-runs of support, and Scherzer did the rest in this 6-0 win whole resting most of the bullpen. Continue reading →

Photo by Marlene Koenig for TalkNats

The game started off with some shaky starting pitching by Austin Voth as he lasted just 4 1/3 innings giving up 4-runs. The Nationals trailed by a 4-1 score until they tied it in the 9th inning setting up a dramatic ending that the home team was clearly hoping for another walk-off. For the game, Ryan Zimmerman hit three doubles and drove in two runs to surpass 1,000 RBI for his career, but it was Zimmerman in the 10th inning with a runner on 3rd base and one out with the golden opportunity to walk-off the game — and he popped up on the infield on a hanging slider from a left-handed pitcher. A pitch that was begging to be crushed. Baseball is an unforgiving game in “what have you done for me lately.”  Zimmerman was handed the script and his character was set as the hero. He had already recorded two clutch hits in the game to help his team claw back into a tie. Royals’ manager Ned Yost intentionally walked Juan Soto to pitch to Zimmerman with runners on the corners. Conventionally, you might walk the bases loaded to have the force at home. Maybe this move was a little reminiscent of Joe Maddon in 2016 when he was walking the batter in front of Zimmerman .  In this game, Royals’ pitchers walked Juan Soto three times in front of Zimmerman. Whether Yost’s decision was right or wrong pitching to Zimmerman in the 10th inning, it paid-off when Zim made weak contact to popup the ball on the infield. Yost was clearly hoping that Zimmerman would hit into an inning ending doubleplay, but sometimes it is better to be luckier than good as the player nicknamed Mr. Walk-off actually walked back to his dugout after he popped-up on a slider over the center of the plate for the second out of the inning. Continue reading →

The Nationals extended their winning streak to four games in a row with a sweep of the Marlins by a final score of 5-2. This game started off with Anibal Sanchez on the ropes, but he only gave up one run after a laborious first three innings of work as Sanchez threw 56 pitches through those frames. Fortunately Sanchez settled down and only was charged with one earned run and exited with a 3-2 lead thanks to home runs by Kurt Suzuki and Anthony Rendon. Sanchez finished his six innings and handed it over to the bullpen that had a 3-run lead thanks to a 2-RBI double by Gerardo Parra. Continue reading →