“At some point it will turn around, and we will cash-in” — Dave Martinez on April 27

Posted on May 31, 2018 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears


You never take winning for granted. Sometimes it looks too easy, but it never is. The Nationals started the season 4-and-0 then the 5th spot in the rotation came up, and the Nationals fell into a funk. By that next day in early April, the Nationals were out of 1st place and could not find their winning ways as the Mets were reeling off an 11-and-1 start to their season. Until last night, the Nationals were only in first place from March 29th to April 3rd and through manager Dave Martinez‘s positivity — the Washington Nationals departed Baltimore last night in 1st place again in the NL East. Continue reading →

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Nats sweep in Baltimore; Scherzer shutout gem; Harper HR! Nats take over 1st place!

Posted on May 30, 2018 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Photo from Nationals official Instagram

For the Nationals, they had Cy Max on the mound tonight in a game where the Nationals did not put together a lot of offense. Max Scherzer went 8.0 full innings of shutout baseball to win this game and take back the team lead in ERA at 1.92. The Nationals swept this series and have now won 6-games in a row and increased their road win streak to 10-games in a row. The Nationals also moved 10-games over .500 at 32-and-22. Continue reading →

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Game #55 Nats take on a rookie pitcher; Soto in lead-off tonight!

Posted on May 30, 2018 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Mark Reynolds #14 and Juan Soto #22 lead the Nationals offense

Are there two hotter hitters on one team than Mark Reynolds and Juan Soto? That is open for debate as Mark Reynolds leads the Majors in At-Bats per Home Run at 6.0. Juan Soto is close to the top of the rookie class with his hot start to his MLB career, and he will bat lead-off against the righty rookie David Hess tonight for the series finale in Baltimore. Continue reading →

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Nats win their 9th straight road game & for now share 1st place!

Posted on May 29, 2018 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Photo by Marlene Koenig for TalkNats

The Nationals bullpen threw a 4-inning shutout to hold a 1-run lead and secure the 3-to-2 win in this Jeremy Hellickson start. This extends the Nationals winning streak to 5-games and their road winning streak to 9 in a row. With this win, the Nationals are in a tie for the moment for 1st place in the NL East and will either take sole possession of 1st place or move back to a  1/2 game behind the Braves depending what the outcome is in the Braves game tonight. With the officially announced sparse attendance of only 13,935 in Baltimore, the Nats fans were heard like a home game in Nationals Park in support of their team. Continue reading →

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Game #54 Nationals wake-up to find themselves 1/2 game from 1st place!

Posted on May 29, 2018 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

With the Atlanta Braves losing last night in a rain delayed game that went past midnight in the east, the Nationals woke up today to find themselves just a ½ game from 1st place. Today also marks the 1/3 point in the season for the Washington Nationals at the completion of tonight’s game. The actual record will show 53 games completed until the tie game with the Yankees is resolved in mid-June.

Some would say the Nationals are sitting pretty because the team is getting healthy, and they are rocking and rolling having won 19 of their last 25 games and have reached the 30 win mark already which projects them above the coveted 90 win line of demarcation. If that tie game with the Yankees goes the Nationals way along with a win tonight over the Orioles they will be they will do their part for what they can control for these first 54 games. Based on the current .577 winning percentage the Nationals are on a 93.46 win pace. Continue reading →

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Life is good again!

Posted on May 29, 2018 by Jacob Diament

 

Graphic from MLB Network Radio

It’s May 28th and life is good again for Washington Nationals fans. Just 9 days after the disaster of a doubleheader loss to the Dodgers which also claimed Howie Kendrick for the season, the Nats are right on the heels of the front-running Braves separated by only a ½ game in the standings. What’s more is the sweet fact that hitting machine Daniel Murphy and super sub Brian Goodwin are a mere days away from joining the race and Ryan Madson and Matt Grace are right there behind them. Continue reading →

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Nats have now won 11 of their previous 12 road games!

Posted on May 28, 2018 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears


A nice start to the second leg of this road trip as the Washington Nationals ratchets the winning streak to 4-games on the arm of Gio Gonzalez who threw a 7 2/3 inning shutout and received all of the offense needed on an Anthony Rendon 3-run home run. With this win, the Nationals reached the 30-win plateau before the 1/3 season mark which is a key in a marathon season. Continue reading →

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Game #53 Nats have their first of three games in Baltimore

Posted on May 28, 2018 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Photo By Andrew Lang for TalkNats

The Nationals flight back to the DC area was delayed last night by a few hours due to poor weather. The turnaround time will be quick as today’s game is an early afternoon start time at 1:05 pm EDT on this Memorial Day game. As the Nationals’ manager, this will be Dave Martinez‘s first foray into Orioles Park at Camden Yards where the disdain runs deep among many factions of the opposing fanbases. Since Buck Showalter arrived as the Orioles manager, he has seemed to always play the head-to-head games against the Nationals as if they were playoff games. Expect Dave Martinez to treat this game like business as usual.  Continue reading →

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Nats reach 7 games over .500 for the first time in 2018!

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

Photo by Marlene Koenig for TalkNats

The Nationals swept this 3-game series from the Marlins and reached the 7-games over .500 mark for the first time this season. Stephen Strasburg had a good start but labored with his pitch count in each inning and was pulled at the finish of his 5th inning and a pitch count of 103. The bullpen took over and bent a little bit but did not break. The game finished at a final score of 5-to-3 with Brandon Kintzler earning his second save of the season. Stephen Strasburg also helped himself with the bat as he knocked in the second run of the game to help his cause. Continue reading →

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Game #52 Nats want to start a winning streak!

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

Michael Taylor by Marlene Koenig for TalkNats

The Nationals for years have seemed to not be good on “get away” games. In the final games of series this season, the Nationals are a poor 6 wins against 9 losses, and 4 wins and 6 losses on “get away” games which is the day you leave for another city. That Padres game on Wednesday where they couldn’t push across runs like yesterday could be a mindset that has to change. If the Nationals had a reverse of series finale games, they would be firmly in first place. How can manager Dave Martinez change that focus to close-out series with more urgency? Easier said than done.  Continue reading →

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