The Home for Washington Nationals Game Talk

Photo by Lynn G. for TalkNats

The Nationals put up four runs quickly on a pitcher making his second career start, but then the Nats bats went quiet which put the pressure on the Nats pitching to hold the lead which they did. Nats starter Anibal Sanchez only gave up one earned run but because of his throwing error he departed with 6.0 innings in the books with a 5-2 lead. The Nats bullpen gave up one run and holds by Hunter Strickland and Fernando Rodney and the save by Sean Doolittle as the Nats won their 60th game of the season. Continue reading →

Photo by Marlene Koenig for TalkNats

The Nationals needed Erick Fedde to lead them to a victory over one of the hottest pitchers in baseball as Jeff Samardzija had been nearly unbeatable for a month with a 2.09 ERA in July, but the Nats ran up Samardzija’s pitch count to 98 pitches and knocked him out after 4.0 innings en route to a 4-0 shutout. Fedde went 6.0 scoreless innings and did not issue a walk or give up a run, and the Nats new-look bullpen took care of the final 3.0 innings to preserve the shutout. The Nationals offense did it via a lot of walks and very little situational hitting. Continue reading →

Nobody would say Patrick Corbin was good today as he gave up 5 earned runs over 5 1/3 innings — but he deserved better. Corbin’s defense did not make some plays, and at an inopportune time the home plate umpire, Chris Conroy, had an inconsistent strike zone (graphic below) on the inside edge and throughout the outing. One crucial miss by the umpire turned into two runs. Extra pitches were tacked on when outs were not made plus the Nats defensive alignments all series by not protecting the corner infield on the pull side was suspect. In a tie game, Wander Suero took the loss after he gave up two runs via a HBP on an 0-2 pitch, a single on an 0-2 pitch, and then the two-run single with two outs which was the ultimate difference in this 7-5 loss. Continue reading →

The Arizona Diamondbacks annihilated the Washington Nationals tonight in a game that was so one-sided that it saw not one, but two Nationals position players pitching in the bottom of the eighth inning. Continue reading →

Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats

The Nationals pitchers threw a combined one-hit shutout led by starter Joe Ross and the offense was led by Matt Adams. The bullpen threw 3 2/3 perfect innings, but Roenis Elias in his Nats debut exited with an apparent hamstring injury that in the postgame was described as a cramp, and it happened when he was asked to bat. In other news, Howie Kendrick was scratched in the pre-game due to a leg cramp. More will be known tomorrow on the condition of both players. The Nats won 3-0, with the offense provided by Matt Adams who hit a 2-run double with 2 outs, and Juan Soto hit an add-on home run. Adams 2-runs broke up the 0-0 tie in the 6th inning and is all the Nats needed to notch the W. The Nats defense was excellent in this pitcher’s duel in a game that the Nats hung the first loss of the season on rookie Alex Young of the Diamondbacks who was also pitching well until Adams got him in a lefty-lefty matchup. The D’Backs intentionally walked Brian Dozier in front of Adams just to try to victimize Adams who was a late entry into the lineup to replace Kendrick! Continue reading →