Game #21 Voth takes the mound in a pivotal game; Bullpen has been worked hard!

Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats

The Nats suffered arguably their toughest loss to swallow last night. They were cruising to victory when veteran reliever in the 9th inning blew a 3-run lead and the Nats lost the game to the rival Braves. Tonight, they are back at it in Atlanta with a chance to pull even in this 3-game series. The question with Austin Voth on the mound who has lacked endurance in games is who will pitch the innings after Voth departs? Voth has not pitch in any of his starts this year past the 5th inning, and that is a fact for his three starts this season.  Continue reading

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Blown-save loss with a 3-run lead. Huddy just didn’t have it.

Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats

All of the positives of this game disappeared in a cloud of smoke as the Washington Nationals wasted a well-played game in a blown-save-loss at the hands of Daniel Hudson who was spotted a 3-run lead. The Nationals attacked the Braves pitching all game, and also had zeros from their bullpen thanks to Dakota Bacus, Tanner Rainey, and Will Harris who came in after Anibal Sanchez’s 5.0 inning 3-run performance.

The win was there for the taking, and the Nats blew it with the Braves enjoying the walk-off and the last laugh in this one after words were exchanged after Juan Soto admired his 445 foot bomb in the top of the 9th inning to make the score 6-3. The Nats lost 7-6.  Continue reading

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BBRef values Tanner Rainey & Erick Fedde in the team’s Top 4!

Tanner Rainey takes the ball from manager Dave Martinez; Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats

If you use BaseballReference.com (BBRef) you will certainly see their rankings have some interesting names as the most valuable on the Nats. Not surprisingly, Max Scherzer and Juan Soto were their № 1 and № 2 on their list. What may surprise you is Tanner Rainey after his performance in Hi Lev yesterday bumped him up to № 3 and it pushed Erick Fedde to № 4. The full list is still based on small sample sizes with today marking the team is at the 1/3 mark of the season; however, one-third of a truncated season is just 20-games. Continue reading

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Nats win a series on an errant throw on a routine grounder!

Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats

This game seemed to be heading towards a blow-out as the Nats had a 5-1 lead and were putting on runners most of the game … then the 6th inning happened where Max Scherzer unraveled and gave up a 3-run bomb to ex-Nats catcher Pedro Severino. The score ratcheted to 5-4, and Scherzer returned for the 7th inning at a 96-pitch count after he struggled in the 6th. Sure enough Max blew his own lead, and it looked dire until the Orioles with 2 outs in the 8th inning threw away a routine grounder to score Juan Soto for the final run of the game to make it a 6-5 win and a series win. Continue reading

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Game #19 determines who wins this series in Baltimore!

The Bromo Seltzer Arts Tower in the background; Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats

The Washington Nationals and Baltimore Orioles wrap up their 6-game season series in Camden Yards today. The games have been tough to watch for Nats fans, even beyond the injuries to Starlin Castro and Stephen Strasburg, as the defending World Champs have only managed one win so far against a team that has been the laughingstock of baseball with 223 combined losses in the last two seasons.  Continue reading

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A family tradition in baseball dating back to the 1800’s has ended at the hands of COVID

I’m with Wilmer Difo after his MLB debut 5-19-2015

In the middle of a season, an MLB debut is usually a spur of the moment callup caused by an injury or a demotion. Some debuts are a factor of making the Opening Day roster like Jake Noll, and others come the way of a September callup like Ryan Zimmerman back in 2005. In the last two days of baseball, the Nats have debuted Seth Romero, Dakota Bacus, and Luis Garcia, and none of those players in that trio had family, agents, friends, or a significant-other to watch their debut in-person.

Even before the Minor Leagues were formed in 1901, there were independent leagues where Major League teams pulled players from. Now, COVID-19 has single-handedly robbed players of the century-old tradition of making a big deal about debuts. Who could forget the elation from Carter Kieboom‘s family shown on MASN while they celebrated Carter’s debut last year. Continue reading

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Game #18 the Nats have to build on their success of last night with the youth movement! Soto moves up to 3rd in the order!

Yes, that is the Nats and Orioles playing down there! You can expand the size of the photo to see the players on the field; Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats

With Howie Kendrick getting a day-off from starting, this Nats lineup is even younger than yesterday’s average by almost 1/3 of a year with the average age of each player at almost exactly 27 years of age. Continue reading

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Stras exits at 2/3 of an inning and Erick Fedde saves the bullpen with 5 1/3 IP shutout!

Who is that masked man? Photo by Hal Jak for TalkNats

The Nats went from a four-inning partial game to complete their suspended game from last Sunday to a lengthy rain delay while learning that starting second baseman Starlin Castro fractured his right wrist to a Stephen Strasburg early exit in the first inning to an amazing performance for 5 1/3 innings of shutout baseball by Erick Fedde to lead his team in a win by a final score of 15-3 over the Orioles. Continue reading

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Game #17 gets played after Game #12 in the bizarre 2020 season! #Nats

Yes, that is the Nats and Orioles playing down there! You can expand the size of the photo to see the players on the field; Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats

Baseball is a chess game for the best managers out there. You must control the game with a vision into future moves that have not even happened as you ponder the myriad of possibilities. The Nationals are back in the region from Queens, New York, but as visitors now after the suspended game in which the Nats were the home team. They needed that game completed in this long day and night in Orioles Park at Camden Yards for a three-game series plus the final four innings minus one out for that suspended game. Yes, it is confusing to some, but Boris Spassky had every move covered in his cerebrum for all of the if—then scenarios that he catalogued away.  Continue reading

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Game #12 Nats (home) suspended game continues today at 5:05 pm EDT with game in OPACY

Photo from the Nationals team store

This game was suspended on August 9th in Nationals Park due to the infamous tarp calamity as the rain soaked the infield and made the field unplayable. The game will be finished in Camden Yards with the Nats as the home team because that is how things are done in 2020.

This is now a “Back to the Future” look to what happened last Saturday into Sunday as officially this is the 12th game of the season. The Nats suffered a tough loss in Game 11. Sometimes sports brings out the ugliness in people. The Nats lost a winnable game on Saturday night and were mired in a 3-game losing streak to match the 3-game winning streak that preceded that. It was so ugly on social media for Sean Doolittle that he deactivated his Twitter account. Doolittle stood up to the microphone after the Nats lost the game. He didn’t sneak away. Doo faced the music. Now as we hinted at as one of the options with the roster, we thought Doolittle could be placed on the 10-day IL when Will Harris was activated. It actually happened and both Ryne Harper and Kyle Finnegan remain. Continue reading

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