The Home for Washington Nationals Game Talk

Photo by Navy Yard Nats for TalkNats

The Nationals are quite possibly the hottest team in baseball over the last 18 days. The team is 12-4 in that span, and the Nationals have not had a starting pitcher lose a game since May 19th — except for Patrick Corbin who is 1-3 in that span.  Corbin has publicly said that his issues are mechanical, but you also have to consider his usage in which he set a career high in pitch count at 118 pitches on May 4th in a 6-inning no-decision to go with a 116 pitch performance on a complete game performance when his team had a 5-0 lead. Was that necessary to pitch that 9th inning with a 5-0 lead? This week the Cubs had the same decision with Cole Hamels with a 3-0 lead and a pitch count of 99 after the 8th inning, and Joe Maddon pulled him. Complete game shutouts are cool, but team goals over individual goals are cooler. Sure, maybe pitch count has nothing to do with Corbin’s issues. It is just interesting how Maddon handled his pitcher versus Martinez who was Maddon’s former bench coach. Continue reading →

Photo by Lynn G. for TalkNats

It was May 4th when the Nationals had just scored 4-runs in the 8th inning to turn a loss into a win against the Phillies, and the team moved to 4 games under .500. The Nationals are in a similar spot tonight where they could be back to 4-under with a win. It seems almost inconceivable for this team that was 12-games under water just 15-games ago on May 23rd.  Since that date, the Nationals are 11-4 with three of those four losses in that one-run loss variety. You know, the type of loss like Saturday that just tears your heart out. Losses are going to happen, and it always depends what you do the next game. In this case the Nationals won back-to-back Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg games which they also did a week ago, and while you would think that should be the norm — and it should be — those are the only times that dynamic duo has done it all season. Continue reading →

Stephen Strasburg (top left) and Mike Leake (top, fourth from left) led the San Diego Sting into the 11-under nationals in 1999. Thomas Neal (top, second from left) and Brett Bochy (bottom left) are also professional ballplayers.
(Photo by Vicky Polk)

Today is the first day of Stephen Strasburg’s 10th MLB season, and he starts today’s where it all began for him in his hometown of San Diego. Yesterday marked his 9th anniversary of his much anticipated MLB debut on 6/8/2010 which lived up to the hype. Time flies and Strasburg has proved to be one of the best pitchers in the last 10 years. While he has not lived up to the loftiest of expectations during to injuries,  Stras is still a star pitcher. Continue reading →

What better place to spend your 9th anniversary of your eminent MLB debut than in your hometown? Stephen Strasburg threw 14 strikeouts in one of the most anticipated MLB debuts in baseball history nine years ago in front of 40,315 fans, and one of the most raucous crowds ever to grace a game in Nationals Park. Every time Strasburg got to a 2-strike count the fans stood and cheered at the top of their lungs. Some thought that game was the precursor of what it would be like to play a post-season game at Nationals Park. and they were correct. That of course happened two years later. Today’s starter for the Nationals is Max Scherzer who almost certainly will have his spot in Cooperstown one day. He will get the start today for the Nationals in Stasburg’s hometown of San Diego. Scherzer also has the job of being the stopper today for his team that has lost two in a row. Continue reading →

This is where Brian Dozier hit his home run last night (Photo by Steve Mears)

Tonight’s game begins the countdown from a 100 games to the end of the season. While the Nationals have made some moves in the last week in the standings, they need to be playing better than .600 baseball  which is 6-4 baseball every ten games. It is the right-handed Erick Fedde who gets the start tonight against another of the Padres’ lefty pitchers. San Diego sends Nick Margevicius to the mound tonight. He made his debut this season and has started 10 games for the Padres with a 5.40 ERA. The 22-year-old got smoked in his last start which was against the Marlins, and he was pulled after 3.0 innings giving up 5 runs. In modern baseball, Margevicius is considered a soft-tosser with a fastball averaging 89.7 mph. He throws a changeup, curveball, and slider also in his repertoire. The key is to sit fastball or wait for a hanging breaking pitch. The fun stat on him is lefties are crushing him in some big reverse splits with a .348 batting average and a 1.102 OPS. Continue reading →