Going Deep with The Nats

Photo from Nationals Instagram

The Marlins held a 1-0 lead into the 8th inning as Wei-Yin Chen was cruising with a shutout but his record says as his pitch count grows he can get in trouble. Sure enough Wilmer Difo pulled a pitch just over the fence next to the foul pole for the game tying run. The Marlins mounted an 8th inning comeback which was thwarted by Mark Reynolds on defense cutting down the speedy Cameron Maybin at the plate. New call-up Justin Miller then got the 3rd out to preserve the tie. In the top of the 9th inning, Mark Reynolds hit a righty/righty blast off of Marlins closer Brad Ziegler for the game winning run and the Nats managed to add on two more for a 3-run lead. Continue reading →

The Nationals blew two leads of two runs each then the Nats held on for a 9-to-5 win that just never seemed firm until “The Firm” entered the game.It’s been quite the week for Michael Taylor who had a walk-off double two days ago and got the scoring started with a 2-run home run in his hometown South Florida. As we wrote in the pre-game, Taylor grew up close to Miami and loves playing in Miami and Tampa where his family and friends and can travel to watch him.  Max Scherzer unfortunately gave up 4-runs in this game after Matt Adams gave him another 2-run lead with a centerfield homer for his 12th of the year in part-time play, and Scherzer exited in a 4-to-4 tie. The Nationals then exploded for 3-runs off of the Marlins bullpen, and in the bottom of the 7th inning manager Dave Martinez went through 4 relief pitchers to get 3-outs. Continue reading →

There was no 9th inning walk-off magic this time for Michael Taylor who stepped up to the plate runners on the corners and no outs against Padres closer Brad Hand and he struck out Taylor on 3 pitches and the game ended quickly after that on a doubleplay. The Nats lost 3-to-1 and when you look at how the Padres scored their 3-runs you wonder about strategy in those situations. Erick Fedde pitched well but a flyball that should have been caught on the warning track clanked off of Bryce Harper’s glove and cost Fedde and the Nats 2-runs. Continue reading →

The Washington Nationals racked up another one-run win in a game where Michael Taylor threw-out a runner at home to keep the game tied at 1-to-1 then in the bottom of the 9th inning cranked a long double off the centerfield wall to send Juan Soto home to walk-off this win by a final score of 2-to-1. Video here. Continue reading →