by Andrew Lang
by Andrew Lang
In the Wild Card era, there have only been seven teams now who have swept an LCS (league championship series). The Atlanta Braves were the first to do it 1995, and you know what they did that year in the World Series. The Nats did it today with a 7-4 win to sweep the Cardinals.
Photo by Andrew Lang for TalkNats
After the NLDS, Nationals manager Dave Martinez was able to do some reseeding of his rotation for the NLCS after game one with Anibal Sanchez. They made a decision to push Corbin back to game four on extra rest and have him available early in the series for a LOOGY spot, and Corbin shined in his appearance to get lefty Kolten Wong out. Now Corbin takes the mound in arguably one of the most important games of his career. Can this lefty match his fellow starters who all notched zero earned runs in this NLCS? Can he match Sanchez and Scherzer and put up a no-hitter for at least six innings? All Martinez wants is to go 1-0 today. That is a tall order, but certainly doable. Continue reading
This advertised pitcher’s duel became one-sided as the Nats smashed Jack Flaherty and knocked him out at the 4.0 inning mark with 4 earned runs, and Stephen Strasburg went 7.0 innings on 117 pitches of baseball with no earned runs, no walks, and 12 strikeouts. Stras lowered his postseason career ERA to 1.10. The Nats starters have now thrown 25 2/3 consecutive innings of no earned run baseball which is the second longest streak since 1905. More importantly, the Washington Nationals won 8-1 to take a 3-0 lead in this best-of-seven series, and the Nats are now one win from advancing to the final round in baseball’s season. Each game going forward is an elimination game for the Cardinals. Continue reading
Photo courtesy of Andrew Ross for TalkNats
Since the NLDS games were decided on Wednesday, we have known that this game would matchup two of the hottest NL pitchers in Stephen Strasburg and the righty Jack Flaherty. Tonight of course is the first home game in the Nats history for an NLCS game. Back in the lineup for the Washington Nationals is centerfielder Victor Robles. Moves like adding Robles back when Michael Taylor had done well offensively is the type of move that could work great or backfire. We will see how Nats manager Dave Martinez does on that move while also playing Ryan Zimmerman against a tough righty. On the other side, Cardinals manager Mike Shildt just downgraded his overall defense to add Jose Martinez to his lineup, but he kept the struggling part of the top of his lineup the same and much to the dismay of Cardinals fans. Nats fans can commiserate with their lineup experiences from the 2017 NLDS. Continue reading
“Anything you can do I can do better,” seemed to be the song Max Scherzer was humming as he tried to one-up Anibal Sanchez who was four outs from a no-hitter yesterday, and Scherzer got close taking a no-hitter into the 7th inning and it ended on a misplay by Juan Soto in leftfield. In the end, all that mattered was the Nationals won this key game to take a 2-0 lead in the NLCS as the team will fly back to Washington, D.C. tomorrow for game three. Continue reading
From @Nationals Instagram
The minimal goal for the road team in the first two games of a postseason series is to win at least one game in a split. For the Nationals, they accomplished that minimal goal with a win last night. Using manager Dave Martinez‘s mantra of go 1-0 today, the Nationals now could head back home with home field advantage at either 2-0 or 1-1 worse case. To pitch your number four pitcher last night in Anibal Sanchez and get a win sets up the Nats today to go with Max Scherzer on regular rest. Continue reading
The Nationals shocked the Cardinals to take game one of this NLCS behind a near-no-hitter from Anibal Sanchez that ended with two outs in the 8th inning. Sanchez cruised in this game, and made big pitches when he had to. Manager Dave Martinez pulled him after the hit was surrendered at 103 pitches. In the entire game per Statcast, Sanchez only gave up one hard-hit ball which is measured at contact in play at over 95 mph. In his career, Sanchez has thrown a no-hitter before so he thought he had another when he got a clutch Web Gem from Ryan Zimmerman in that 8th inning on a diving catch that few first basemen could make. Being close still put Sanchie in the history books for the furthest any pitcher has gone in a postseason LS/LCS except for Roy Halladay who finished the only non-World Series no-no. Continue reading
That man must lead this squad of 25 in the Nats first NLCS in team history!
Baseball is at it’s Final Four. It is prestigious when you get to this LCS as the winners of both series in the AL and NL will face off at the World Series. The NLCS rosters have been carefully analyzed and assembled as Washington Nationals manager Dave Martinez has chosen with general manager Mike Rizzo and the analytics group the 25 players that will form their NLCS roster. While this is the first time for most here, Martinez has been in the dugout before for championship series. Same with players like Max Rizzo who went with Detroit. A seven game series takes a slightly different set of strategies, and especially because there is no scheduled rest day between game four and game five if the best-of-seven series goes longer than four games which most do. Continue reading
The NLCS is new for everyone! This is so special for us Nats fans who have heard the team we follow as “chokers” for never winning a series (prior to yesterday), and told even in September that the Nats cannot beat the good teams. Guess what, these 2019 Nats proved all of them wrong including those in the local media who bet against them and were calling the game as over in the 4th inning. The NLCS is new territory for many of us. This will be the first best-of-seven series the Nationals have played in. The strategies are different, and fortunately manager Dave Martinez has been there before as a bench coach. Continue reading
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