by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears
by Stan4Nats
by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears
by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears
by Andrew Lang
by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears
by Stan4Nats
Photo by Kevin Nibley for TalkNats
With the Nationals in Miami, the team finally gets to face a team without playoff aspirations, but like the Nationals, the Marlins have played spoiler recently. The Marlins have been playing a lot of call-ups plus a few familiar faces and playing a brand of aggressive baseball. Continue reading
Photo by Marlene Koenig for Talknats
Narratives are always ongoing in sports, and in time an opinion can become gospel. Take for example the tale that general manager Mike Rizzo is really bad at constructing bullpens. That’s pretty much as solid as the US Constitution – I’ve fallen for that one myself. The truth is as usual it is somewhere in the middle. Let’s examine this a little. Everyone agrees that Rizzo never converts failed starters to the pen, hello Craig Stammen. Rizzo doesn’t find gems on other teams, well then I guess Sean Burnett, Blake Treinen and Felipe Rivero never happened — oh, there’s also one Mr. Tyler Clippard. Rizzo also drafted Drew Storen who for all his faults was a capable closer for several years. Continue reading
The Nationals won this series as Tanner Roark held on to get this game into the bullpen with a lead. Harper, Rendon and Soto led the Nats offense today as the Nats won 6-4. In the Rookie of the Year race, Juan Soto had two hits with an RBI while Ronald Acuna Jr. was 0-5 in the game. Meanwhile, Sean Doolittle made quick work in the 9th inning for the save as the Nats now fly to Miami for a quick 2-game series before a 4-game series against the Mets.
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With the season coming to an end for the Nationals, they still have a chance to finish the season on a high note and a winning record. One of the biggest stories in baseball is the future stars of the game which includes Juan Soto and Ronald Acuña Jr. who are competing for the NL Rookie of the Year award. Today is another day where the competing dynamic duo show the baseball world what they have. On Friday, Soto showed his great oppo power, and yesterday Soto put on show with his speed. He stole 3 bases in the game and set another record besting the great speedster Rickey Henderson as the youngest to that feat. Continue reading
Jefry Rodriguez Photo by Marlene Koenig for TalkNats
The Nationals dominated in this game and won 7-1 while giving up no earned runs behind Jeremy Hellickson‘s start except Helly was pulled with pain in his wrist after 3-innings. He was relieved by Jefry Rodriguez who went 4 2/3 innings of shutout no-hit baseball, and the game was finished up by Matt Grace who also did not allow a run or any hits. The Nats pitching was so good that they held the Braves to just 2-hits in the game, and JRod showed his bosses that he deserves a chance next year in Spring Training.
The game inside the game is always an intriguing subplot as Juan Soto and Ronald Acuña Jr. are competing for the NL Rookie of the Year award. Before yesterday’s game they embraced during workouts. The Washington Nationals teenage phenom is setting records and joining new clubs it seems weekly. Last night, Soto jacked his 20th home run of the season and became the 3rd teenager in the 20 home run club. Soto joins teammate Bryce Harper who hit 22 home runs as a teenager in 2012 and Tony Conigliaro who holds the teenage record with 24 home runs in 1964. With last night’s home run, Soto added to his record of 15 road home runs as a teenager. Ronald Acuña isn’t setting records as a 20 year old, however he is still a rookie doing amazing things and he was a home run shy of hitting for a cycle last night. Continue reading
This is one game that Nats fans should not watch again. It was bad in most facets of the game, and Max Scherzer melted down on the mound in a pool of sweat in the Atlanta humidity. He was pulled after the 4th inning giving up 6 earned runs. Six days ago, Scherzer threw a complete game that he labored through on 111-pitches and whether or not there was residual effect — only Scherzer would know. This loss against the Braves sent the Nats back to the .500 mark on the season, and the Braves piled on some runs at the end to make the final score 10-5. Continue reading
It’s Scherzday, so you know what that means as Max Scherzer takes the mound tonight to keep the success of the past week moving forward. This is the last series of the season in Atlanta, and the Braves seem to be headed towards their first NL East crown since 2013 when they had a brief stay at the top. Before that, you would have to go back to the Bobby Cox years and 2005 and prior when they dominated the NL East. What Braves fans don’t want to tell you is that they only advanced one time past the NLDS in their last 9-trips to the post-season. Sure, they razz Nats fans all the time about the Nats lack of success in the post-season, but the Braves track record is worse. Since the Braves arrived in Atlanta 52-years ago, they have only one World Series title to show for it and a whole lot of failure. Continue reading
Photo by Jim Osborn for TalkNats
People tend to form an opinion and then they try to interpret facts to match their opinions. In fact, there is very little objective analysis when it comes to opinions on players who play on team we root for. When it comes to the Adam Eaton trade words like ‘overpaid’, ‘fleeced’ etc are commonly used so I decided to look at a straight comparison. In 2017 and 2018, Eaton has generated 1.8 WAR, while two of the players he was traded for, Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo Lopez, combined have amounted to 2.0 WAR together over these 2 years. It could be that in 10 years when the trade is looked at by objective analysts that it’ll look worse from a Nats perspective, but I think the best that can be said about this trade now is that the jury hasn’t even started deliberating. Continue reading
Photo by Marlene Koenig for TalkNats
The Nationals 5-game winning streak came to a screeching halt with this extra innings loss against the Cubs. The Nationals came back and tied this game twice behind some clutch RBIs by Victor Robles and Trea Turner to go with the earlier home run by Spencer Kieboom and a nifty hit-and-run pinch-hit by Andrew Stevenson, but unfortunately in the top of the 10th inning, the Nationals defense did not make a play in the field allowing a single to turn into a double, then a Wilmer Difo error happened, and all of that was followed by a squeeze bunt in the air that Ryan Zimmerman could not reach which all led to the winning run scoring and a tough one-run loss. Continue reading
