by Andrew Lang
by Andrew Lang
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
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
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
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
A Nats first round pick on the Hagerstown Suns mound; Photo by Andrew Lang for TalkNats
The game was close when Austin Voth was pulled after the fourth inning. Manager Dave Martinez went straight to lefty Seth Romero in a 3-1 game. If this was the 16th game of a normal season in April, you would think that made sense. But Romero had never pitched above Low-A ball and after his 2018 surgery to repair the ulnar-collateral ligament in his left pitching elbow, he had not pitched in a recorded game since August 16, 2018. On that day, Romero was pitching for the Hagerstown Suns against the Lexington Legends in a Single-A game. Romero injured himself in the 2nd inning of that game and had his UCL surgery shortly afterwards and missed the entire 2019 season. Continue reading
Joe Ross opted-out and Jeremy Hellickson retired. What is left from the World Series season is some legitimate age-regression and injury concerns; MLB Network graphic
There were already going to be roster moves today as Will Harris pitched on Tuesday in a sim practice, and was re-evaluated yesterday. If he felt ready to go, Harris would be activated from the 10-day IL to the roster — and it is now official. With Harris back, the Nationals had to make a roster another move to make room on the roster, and it was not the move that was anticipated in discussions yesterday. Last night, lefty reliever Sam Freeman suffered an arm injury, and Harris took his spot as Freeman was moved to the 10-day IL for now. The Nats no longer have a “Hi Lev” left-handed bullpen arm because of the ineffectiveness of Sean Doolittle. The Nats already lost lefty Roenis Elias to an injury a couple of weeks ago, and now are down to four unproven lefties who are not on the 40-man roster. Seth Romero is with the team on the taxi squad, and is is part of that quartet of lefties that includes Ben Braymer, Nick Wells, and Matt Cronin who are all down on the farm in Fredericksburg, Virginia at the Alternate Training Site. Continue reading
Photo by Lynn G. for TalkNats
It is time for Anibal Sanchez to click into place for the Washington Nationals. He has been the weak link in the starting rotation so far with an 0-2 record and a 7.84 ERA. Small sample sizes tend to distort, but the eye test is clear that his stuff just is not being located like we have seen in the past, and the movement on his pitches at times have been too flat. Since Sanchez is no longer a power pitcher, a finesse repertoire like his demands dotting his spots and putting the twists and turns on the pitches to create enough spin rate that he stays off of the barrels of bats. Continue reading
Every player on this Nats team contributed tonight to a 2-1 win against the Mets to support a nice 6 inning one run game from Max Scherzer who tweaked his hamstring six days ago. Nobody knew except Max that he would make this start tonight. Six days ago there were plenty of doubters on when Scherzer would make his next start. Trea Turner led off the game with his career 10th lead-off home run which set a Nats team record surpassing Alfonso Soriano who hit nine in just the 2006 season. The Nats other run came from a bloop single by Victor Robles and that was all the offense the team would need. The Nats bullpen saw a great save by Daniel Hudson and a 1 2/3 innings from Tanner Rainey on 13-pitches went the fireman route to snuff out two inherited runners in the 7th to go with his clean 8th inning for a well-earned “hold” for the team. Continue reading
Photo by Andrew Lang for TalkNats
When you score 16 runs in a game, you want to show that your offense can score a lot of runs again. Before last night, the Nats had been on a 2.9 runs per game pace. Obviously that 16-run outburst will skew the numbers. Pitchers throwing the Rawlings in low lev sure is easier than clinging to small leads like we saw on Saturday. After Max Scherzer bowed out of his last start after 1.0 inning of work due to a tight hamstring, he is right back at it six days later. The ace will need to show that he is healthy. Continue reading
Photo by Katie Moran for TalkNats
The Nats desperately needed a laugher this season, and they got it on the arm of Patrick Corbin and the bats of Asdrubal Cabrera, Juan Soto, and Trea Turner in a 16-4 blowout in CitiField. The Nats are technically 3-0 on the road this season. If you count the 2019 postseason, that road winning streak is 11-games dating back to October 4, 2019 in Game 2 of the NLDS in Los Angeles. Continue reading
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