Game #139 Stephen Strasburg on the mound in the first of four in Atlanta

Photo by Lynn G. for TalkNats

When manager Dave Martinez reset his rotation last weekend, he said that he had set his rotation for the remainder of the season with the possibility of inserting a sixth starter to take some innings off of Stephen Strasburg and Patrick Corbin. Both pitchers are in the Top-5 in innings pitched and pitches thrown in the NL. Once Strasburg throws three innings tonight, he will once again lead the NL in innings pitched, and at 72 pitches he will once again lead the NL in that category.  Many remember when the 25-year-old version of Strasburg threw 215-innings under the tutelage of his manager Matt Williams and what happened the following season. Stras is at 179-innings now, and unless he is skipped in a future start, he has tonight’s start plus four more ahead of him to complete the regular season. For tonight, Strasburg has to pitch like an ace and lead his team to a win as the Washington Nationals begin the first of four games against the Braves. Continue reading

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The Nats are done with the Mets this season and finish with a dozen in the wrong column

Photo by Lynn G for TalkNats

The Nationals nineteen game season series against the rival Mets came to a conclusion today with a loss to make it a dozen on the season against the Mets with only seven wins. The Nats made the Mets starter Zack Wheeler work hard, and he was very inefficient early but only surrendered one run. He gave up seven hits and two walks on 101 pitches in five innings, but Anibal Sanchez gave up seven earned runs in five innings where he just was not locating pitches and the movement was not fooling Mets batters as they torched him for three home runs. This looked like the April version of Sanchez and in his last start he struggled also in five innings of work. Three starts ago Sanchez pitched to a season high of 112 pitches into the 9th inning in a 9-0 game. Continue reading

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Game #138 The last game of the season against the Mets

Photo by Lynn G. for TalkNats

These baseball seasons are long, and division rivals face each other 19 times a year which is nearly 12% of all games. MLB has set it up where a team faces their four division rival teams for nearly 50% of the entire schedule. While the Mets have clinched the season series over the Nats, the team from Washington might have the last laugh if the season ends like it looks today. The Nationals are now 7-11 against the Mets after the shocking come-from-behind stunner to walk-off the Mets last night from 6-runs down. The win likelihood for the Mets with one out in the 9th inning was over 99.9% last night. You could go years without seeing a win like that, but this is why we watch the games because “you never know” or as Kurt Suzuki said, “Game’s never over until it’s over.” Continue reading

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The wild ride known as the “Rollercoaster of Ineptitude” turned to the “Game’s never over until it’s over” in an 11-10 Nats walk-off win!

Kurt Suzuki being thanked by Trea Turner

Amidst all of the mistakes made by the Nationals, they still found a way to comeback from a 10-4 deficit to walk-off with a 7-run ninth inning and shock the Mets and baseball fans everywhere. You could watch an entire season of all 30-teams and never see a 9th inning comeback from six runs down. At least Juan Soto and Victor Robles were consistent players for the first 8.5 innings as their teammates seemed to all be guilty of different infractions then the bottom of the 9th inning happened as the Nationals were losing 10-4 and to start the bottom of the 9th inning, Robles started it off with a single against reliever Paul Sewald who entered for some mop-up work saving Seth Lugo from a potential 6-out save as he threw a scoreless 8th inning. The Robles single seemed like an innocent single it seemed at the time, and that was  followed by a Howie Kendrick lineout which was the only out of the Nats half of the inning. With Robles on first base, Trea Turner laced an RBI double into the gap which he would have legged into a triple if it was a closer game, and he just did his part in that moment and kept the line moving and it did not stop after that as Asdrubal Cabrera singled up the middle, then an Anthony Rendon RBI single made the score 10-6 which brought in the lefty reliever (Luis Avilan) to face Juan Soto who singled on a groundball to load the bases. On another day, maybe that Soto groundball is a game-ending doubleplay ball but at this moment it found a hole.

With the tying run stepping up to the plate, the Mets manager, Mickey Callaway, brought in his ex-closer, Edwin Diaz, to face Ryan Zimmerman who pinch-hit for Matt Adams.  Nothing has been automatic or easy this season for Diaz who had 5 blown saves already this season and six losses. Two pitches into his appearance, Diaz missed his spot and Zim punished the fastball and hit a gapper double to make the score 10-8 which brought up Kurt Suzuki who represented the winning run, and he smashed a 99.9 mph fastball for a 3-run walk-off homer that he pulled into Section 105 in leftfield. For the 20,000+ fans who stayed, they saw the greatest 9th inning comeback in Nationals history. The Nats had 7 hits and 7 runs in the 9th inning with only one out to win it by a final score of 11-10. Continue reading

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Game #137 Cy Young matchup deGrom and Scherzer again!

Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats

On Opening Day, Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer were matched up at the beginning when there was no way of knowing the middle or the ending. We still do not know the ending, but we know the middle and everything through game number 136. Who would have thought that Scherzer’s season would be at a point where we have to wonder if he can go at 100 percent. Normally a deGrom/Scherzer matchup would be a battle of aces, and now we have to wonder which Scherzer shows up tonight.  Continue reading

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Game #136 Joe Ross has a labor of love

Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats

Baseball is a labor of love for Joe Ross. In his first season after returning from Tommy John surgery, Ross has persevered to regain his spot in the Washington Nationals rotation. When everything started to come together for Ross, he took a 110 mph comebacker off of his shin two weeks ago. Even though there was no broken bone, Ross was in pain, and it affected him in his last start. Manager Dave Martinez pushed Ross back two more games from Saturday to today, and on this Labor Day, Ross will face the rival Mets.  Continue reading

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Nats sweep the Marlins to take care of business!

Juan Soto in “The Circle Of Life”

The Nats got four perfect innings from Patrick Corbin before he sputtered in the 5th inning, but he found his groove and went 6.0 innings to notch the win. The Nats runs came mostly from hustle and home runs which also saw Anthony Rendon set a new team record of 111 RBIs in a season. Rendon clearly is not done yet. Neither is the 20-year-old Juan Soto who is now at 95 RBIs.

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Game #135 It’s September 1st; Rosters expand with the UVA guys!

Photo by Andrew Lang for TalkNats

The sprint to the finish is on! There are only 28 games remaining on the regular season schedule, and with today being September 1st, MLB rosters can expand beyond the standard 25-player roster. The Nats will activate their two University of Virginia stars from the extended 10-Day IL list as Ryan Zimmerman and Sean Doolittle will be added. Who else will be added today and in the future? That is always a fun exercise to project and guess. In manager Dave Martinez‘s pre-game media session, he indicated the team would only add Zim and Doo and 3-4 more players so this will not be one of those Septembers where we see 35+ players, and next season MLB has put a cap at 28 players in September. Certainly you would expect general manager Mike Rizzo will add a third catcher (Spencer Kieboom or Raudy Read) and a speedy outfielder (Andrew Stevenson or Michael Taylor) who can pinch-run, and a middle infielder like Adrian Sanchez or Carter Kieboom or Wilmer Difo. You would expect reliever Greg Holland to make the roster. That is four players right there with some obvious snubs. Holland would need a 40-man spot which was made available after the Matt Grace DFA.  Continue reading

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Strasburg cashed in on a gem; Rendon crashed two homers!

The Washington Nationals reached new heights tonight going to 18-games over .500 putting them at the 90-win mark if they just play .500 baseball the remainder of the way — but this team has more loftier goals. Tonight, it was Stephen Strasburg who pitched an eight inning shutout in this 7-0 victory yielding only two hits which both came in the first inning and then Stras went in cruise control with 14Ks on the night. He did throw 107 pitches over 8.0 innings which were mostly low stress and that vaulted Stras into the top spot for the most pitches thrown in the NL at 2,865 while pushing his ERA down to 3.47. The offense was mostly provided by Rendon’s two home runs, Soto’s home run, Suzuki’s home run, and Strasburg’s RBI single.  Continue reading

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Game #134 Anthony Rendon’s MVP candidacy is legit!

Tony “Two Bags”; Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats

Modesty and selflessness defines much of who Anthony Rendon is as a person. He tries to deflect all praise as he did last night after he delivered a two-run RBI single to walk-off on the Marlins as cheers were raining on him and chants of MVP-MVP-MVP-MVP echoed from all parts of Nationals Park. Why not Rendon for MVP? The +6.1 WAR All-Star from the Nats is third in WAR for the NL only trailing the Dodgers Cody Bellinger (+7.0) and the Brewers Christian Yelich (+6.7) who happens to be the reigning NL MVP. In Rendon’s last 19 games, his slash line is .420/.467/.716/1.183 with seven doubles, one triple, five home runs, 20 RBIs, eight walks and 17 runs scored, and a walk-off!  MVP candidates need a full season of success, and Rendon is tops of the league with a batting average of .333 and near the tops with 107 RBIs this season and just 3 shy of Ryan Zimmerman‘s Nationals’ record set in 2006 for most RBIs in a season — and there is nearly 20% of the season remaining. Continue reading

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