by Andrew Lang
by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears
by Andrew Lang
by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears
by Stan4Nats
by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears
Bryce Harper set the table with a booming lead-off home run and finished a triple shy of hitting for the cycle in the Nats fourth win in a row to clinch this series against the previously first place Pittsburgh Pirates. Matt Adams added his own home run with a single and two walks in support of starter Stephen Strasburg. Continue reading
Photo Credit: Marlene Koenig for TalkNats
A happy Bryce Harper is better than that sad Bryce Harper we saw on Sunday. Things can change quickly in baseball. This new week has set these two teams in different directions. The Pirates have now dropped two-in-a-row and the Nationals finally got a winning streak going and are feeling it. Continue reading
From Bryce Harper’s Instagram, a Paul Kim photo of Harper hugging Dave Martinez after his home run.
Behind Max Scherzer‘s good night on the mound, the Nats turned 10 hits into 12 runs. That is hard to do but add 4 walks and 2 Pittsburgh errors and some Nationals clutch hits and you got an efficient scoring assault tonight. The Nationals have now won 3-games in a row, and Lou Brown from the Major League II movie would tell you that is a winning streak. Continue reading
For so many starts this year, Max Scherzer must have felt like he was carrying the weight of the world — or at the very least, the weight of his team. Scherzer has had to put an end to a 4-game and 5-game losing streak this season making him the “stopper extraordinaire” for the Nationals. In this start, the reigning NL Cy Young just needs to continue winning to add to the Washington Nationals mini winning streak. Continue reading
“The Firm” by Marlene Koenig for TalkNats
The Nationals move to 2-and-8 in one-run games behind a very nice effort from Tanner Roark who went 7-innings of 2-run baseball with a strong hold from Ryan Madson and Brandon Kintzler earned his first save for the Washington Nationals. Sean Doolittle had pitched 3-games in a row and was not available making this effort by tonight’s pitchers a big bonus. Continue reading
Photo by Marlene Koenig for TalkNats
With Tanner Roark on the mound tonight for the Washington Nationals, he will not look the same as his previous start because Roark shaved off the big bristly beard. Roark has been pitching well overall (3.77 ERA) but his last start was not good hence the reason for shaving the beard. He has had 3-gems this season along with 2 games that have not been good. Roark was beat on two poor hanging curveballs to Brandon Belt and Mac Williamson that were both deposited into San Francisco’s outfield seats, and Williamson’s blast was a tape measure shot of 476 feet. Roark knows the problem, and now he has to correct it to pitch another gem in today’s game. Continue reading
Welcome to our monthly look at who’s hot, who’s not, and who’s (or what’s) surprising in the Nationals minors.
For those not familiar with this feature at NationalsProspects.com… This is something stolen from named after comedian Demetri Martin’s segment of the same name from his too-brief TV show from 2009 or so (i.e., around the time the site started). Continue reading
Finally, the Nationals lock down a win and take advantage of the Diamondbacks bullpen after Robbie Ray was pulled in the 2nd inning with an oblique injury. Gio Gonzalez went 7.0 full innings of 1-run baseball on 114 pitches. Gio was shaky in the 7th inning giving up a lead-off single then a walk but got to face some lefties and only gave up 1-run on a sacrifice fly. Continue reading
A different type of walk off; Photo by Marlene Koenig for TalkNats
When you have games where you are only putting 3 to 4 true starters in the line-up, you need those starters to step-up. Bryce Harper has been in a long funk, and it has been blasphemous to call him out. His last extra-base-hit (XBH) was on April 16th. Harper only has one double all season. Speaking of April 16th, going into that game Harper had more home runs than singles. Luckily for the Washington Nationals, managers still feel the need to walk him which has been the saving grace for his on-base-percentage because Harper is only batting .250. Worse than that, is Harper’s .160s batting average in RISP spots. Continue reading
Sometimes you cannot believe the new ways this team finds to lose a game. Today it was some botched strategy, poor execution, and a rookie managerial mistake on a 10th inning pitching change. Worst than that, every bullpen arm was used today. Even worse than that, the team dropped to a season-low 5-games below .500. When a manager makes a mistake, you hope the players execute to cover up for the error(s). That did not happen as there was no comeback to grab the win. The Nationals are now 1-and-8 in 1-run games this season. Is that possible? It sure is. Continue reading
