The Home for Washington Nationals Game Talk

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 →

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 →

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 Craig Nedrow for TalkNats

Does it feel like the Nats are still in Spring Training mode? It feels like a lack of urgency. Using the struggling Sean Doolittle in a key spot on Saturday was a flashback to Doolittle on August 9th to August 17th last year when Doo gave up 10-runs in 4.0 innings. The Nats shut him down the next day and placed the closer on the 10-day IL with right knee tendonitis listed as the cause. He returned in September with a fresh arm and was one of the stars the rest of the way and through the World Series. Yes, the Nats and Doolittle have little time to figure out what is wrong with the 2020 version.

There is also that tug-of-war with the starters. Hooking pitchers like Austin Voth and Erick Fedde too quick and allowing Anibal Sanchez and Stephen Strasburg to self-destruct on the mound has been emblematic of the issues to date. To a lesser extent, late inning matchups are not being taken advantage of in a sabremetrics sense with pinch-hitters where key at-bats have gone to fails in situational hitting. All of this has led to a 4-7 record with a 3-run deficit in a suspended game against the Orioles that could make the team 4-8. Continue reading →

Voth on the mound; Photo by Marlene Koenig for TalkNats

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Last night was an awful night for baseball in Washington, D.C. It was not a competitive game, and manager Dave Martinez waved the white flag when the score ballooned over 8-0. These two teams are at it again tonight. Continue reading →