The Washington Nationals have a WINNING STREAK!

Posted on July 27, 2018 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

This game was mostly about Max Scherzer‘s birthday dominance until the teenager Juan Soto bashed his 13th home run along with a triple and a single elevating his OPS back over 1.000 as his sample size went over the 200 at-bat mark. Soto was a double shy of a cycle. These two players were just spectacular. Scherzer gave up no earned runs and pushed his ERA down to 2.30 while notching his 200th strikeout in his 7th consecutive season which matched Walter Johnson and Roger Clemens while only Tom Seaver is ahead of that mark with 9 consecutive seasons of at least 200 strikeouts. Continue reading →

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Game #103 Pre-game pessimism yesterday turns to weekend optimism!

Posted on July 27, 2018 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

The emotional rollercoaster that the Washington Nationals and their fans have been on this season has had more twists and turns than a soap opera. Yesterday’s doom and gloom regarding Stephen Strasburg has turned to optimism as manager Dave Martinez reported that the doctor’s visit in Los Angeles went well and Strasburg received an injection in his neck. If Strasburg is pain-free on Sunday, he is cleared to resume throwing immediately. Martinez called it “good news.” He did not have the details on the medication that Strasburg received in the injection which could have been cortisone. Stasburg is expected to be with he team in Miami tomorrow when we should receive more details. Continue reading →

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After a rough 1st inning, Nats score 10 unanswered runs to win 10-3

Posted on July 26, 2018 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Spot-starter Tommy Milone bent but didn’t break after he gave up 3-runs in the 1st inning, and his defense and offense backed him up to win this 10-3 behind a Trea Turner powered offense. The Nationals scored 10 unanswered runs to win this in a laugher. The Nationals pitching shutout the Marlins from inning 2-to-9 while the Nationals offense had 13-hits, 9 walks and a hit-by-pitch. Continue reading →

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Game #102 Nats put out a line-up that looks like a February concoction!

Posted on July 26, 2018 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

The last time we saw Stephen Strasburg, he was not a happy man. Maybe the pain in his neck wasn’t his teammate Max Scherzer and literally was a pain in his neck as Stras is seeing a specialist in Los Angeles for an opinion on his neck pain, and Stras will be thousands of miles from his teammates in Miami who are opening up this 4-game series. Strasburg’s shoulder MRI was clean and the nerve issue is called a cervical nerve impingement. This is not the first time that Strasburg has been on the DL for neck pain. Since Strasburg was supposed to pitch today, he was scratched and put on the 10-Day DL and replaced by Tommy Milone who was called up from Triple-A Syracuse. In addition to the Strasburg DL stint, Anthony Rendon‘s is on a paternity leave of absence for the birth of his first child.  Continue reading →

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A Nationals crossroads; Strasburg to the DL; Is it time to sell?

Posted on July 26, 2018 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

The talk for weeks has been whether the Washington Nationals should be sellers leading up to the July 31st non-waiver trade deadline. The Nationals find themselves in 3rd place and 7.0 games behind the Phillies in the competitive NL East. While the Nationals have enough time to make up that margin, is it realistic? In essence, general manager Mike Rizzo has a chance to strategically trade pending free agents to rebuild for next year. While the Bryce Harper window is close to closing, the Nationals opportunity to rebuild looks to be a chance to come back stronger in 2019 if Rizzo makes the right moves.

What are the right moves? Right now it looks like the main needs are positioning the team for 2019 to fill their needs for a #3 pitcher, a starting catcher, 2nd baseman, and a left-handed first baseman. The good news is that Mike Rizzo has that left-handed first baseman in his dugout right now and his name is Matt Adams. As we wrote last week, here is another piece on the Nats future. Easier said than done in extending Matt Adams, but the fit looks good for both sides. The other players could be available in the off-season free agent market or trades. If Rizzo trades his pending free agents now, he could restock his farm system with prospects to develop and also use as future trade chips. Continue reading →

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A Roark gem on the diamond with 7-runs of support on 4-hits!

Posted on July 25, 2018 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Photo by Marlene Koenig for TalkNats

The Nationals needed a Tanner Roark gem today, and they got it in the form of an 8-inning shutout. He finished at 106 pitches with 11 strikeouts and only 4-baserunners allowed by him. This was Roark’s first start since Friday July 13th which gave him 11-days of rest and he looked fresh! The movement on his pitches today was excellent and when he made a rare location mistake it didn’t matter. It also kept his pitch count low as he averaged a little over just 13 pitches per inning.  Continue reading →

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Game #101 Nationals try to salvage the series and avoid a sweep with Roark on the mound!

Posted on July 25, 2018 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Photo by Andrew Lang for TalkNats

Camp David or Camp Davey or whatever you want to call it got serious yesterday and benched Trea Turner from starting for not hustling the night before. It took 100 games into the season to finally drop the hammer on a player. Camp is finally over, or is it? The “feel good” style that has allowed other players to not hustle without punishment set a tone. Now the camp counselor wants to get tough? In April, Gio Gonzalez was rightfully pulled from a game in the 5th inning, but Gio angrily thought he should have stayed in longer “100 percent” and also said in a mocking tone, “Apparently, I just got to someway somehow convince [Dave Martinez] I can go past five innings.” Other words were spoken that were not complimentary to his manager, and afterwards Martinez and Gio spoke privately, and all of a sudden Gio was allowed to stay in games as if he was Mickey Lolich. Four straight starts from May 9th on, Gonzalez threw at least 110 pitches per game. A couple starts later, he hasn’t been the same since and the team lost 6 of the last 7 games started by Gio. Continue reading →

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Game #100 With schedule winding down, #Nats need to win now!

Posted on July 24, 2018 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Photo by John Caulfield for TalkNats

Every game played is another game you can X off the schedule as the Nationals have to show more urgency with only 63 games remaining in the regular season. In order to win 90 games, the Nationals will have to go 41-22 to finish the regular season.  Great teams can achieve that pace, and unfortunately the Washington Nationals have not been a great team this year. They played great on Sunday,  and games like that have been the exception in a season filled with poor play. Continue reading →

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Another loss that has you wondering who this team is!

Posted on July 23, 2018 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Unfortunately this was a sum of all fears game that started with a changed line-up from the one that worked so well yesterday. The team was hoping they would have a well-rested and aggressive Gio Gonzalez on the mound, but he ended up struggling with long innings and walking 5 batters on his way to giving up 5-runs. Yes, Gio could have been out of the game at 5 2/3 innings with a 2-run deficit but he put on two men with two outs and his manager yanked him then the wheels seemingly came off the bus as Yelich grounded a ball that got under Ryan Zimmerman‘s glove that emptied the bases and ruled a triple instead of an error making the score 6-1.

Yesterday, the Nationals defense was excellent and they did the little things, and tonight the mistakes added up. Gio walked 5-batters of which 4 scored in the game. In the 4th inning, Gio walked the first two batters and they both scored. Every time the Nationals seemed to get something going, they couldn’t take advantage. The Brewers made two early errors which the Nationals couldn’t capitalize on. But this game was mostly about the tone set by Gio Gonzalez. Continue reading →

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Game #99 Gio starts with Zimmerman at 1st base

Posted on July 23, 2018 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

It is a touchy subject when Ryan Zimmerman is brought up these days. The TalkNats twitter feed already has comments to this tweet which includes a few angry responses. We will all be rooting for Zim with the hopes that he helps to win this game for the Nationals. He is a great guy, but with every game feeling like a must win, don’t you go with the players who give you the best chance to win? With all the recent time off, nobody should need rest so that is not at issue here.  In games when Matt Adams starts, the Nationals are 31-18 while the team is 14-14 when Zimmerman starts.  Continue reading →

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