Botched strategy and a managerial rookie error leads to a tough loss

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

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 →

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Game #27 “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing” — Vince Lombardi

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

Winning isn’t supposed to be “at all costs” this early in the season but there has to be an urgency at this point in time. It was all smiles then when Dave Martinez was introduced as the new manager of the Washington Nationals in November. Now you have a record to your name Davey. Did you think we would go easy on you? We don’t go easy on anyone because we call ’em as we see ’em, and it usually goes against the popular opinion as fans have their favorites.

Just like yesterday we gave our pre-game opinion that seemed prescient. Why was there a need to play Ryan Zimmerman yesterday based on the current trends and the match-up data? Sure, sample sizes were small, but better to base a decision on analytics than go with the status quo. By doing that, they pushed Matt Adams into left field and had Andrew Stevenson shaded that direction most of the night. That is called compounding the problem. Whether or not Rafael Bautista could have caught every ball in left field instead of Matt Adams is immaterial. What was material is the question as to whether Stephen Strasburg changed up his game plan to limit the amount of offense that could go to left field. Strasburg was “off” yesterday. Maybe it was the overuse from his previous start or maybe it was strategy that backfired. Strasburg took full responsibility for his poor outing. One thing you can appreciate about Strasburg is that he cares. Continue reading →

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Strasburg not sharp in 5-4 loss

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

You just cannot keep writing that the missed opportunities cost the Nationals another game but it happened again along with a poor start by Stephen Strasburg who was handed two leads and could not hold them. Strasburg gave up 6-runs in 6 1/3 innings. Strasburg’s fastball averaged 95.7mph tonight and that was 2.5mph lower than his last start. Continue reading →

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Game #26 Decisions on the line-up and infield alignments for Strasburg

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

Photo from Nationals official Instagram

When we saw Stephen Strasburg last, he was pitching in Los Angeles and gave up a single up the middle while his shortstop Trea Turner was shaded towards the hole. After the inning, Strasburg and manager Dave Martinez had a discussion on the flawed shift. It seems imperative to have the best defense behind Strasburg who is pitching more to contact this season. Continue reading →

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Shaking the Tires for the Nats

Posted on April 26, 2018 by Ray Wyvill

ID 90677121 © Raytags | Dreamstime.com Editorial License

If you’ve ever watched more than a half-hour of NHRA Top-Fuel drag racing you have probably seen a microcosm of the Nationals’ early 2018 season.  A “Top-Fuel” Dragster is a piston-powered land rocket with somewhere near 9000 horsepower just waiting to be unleashed. When the driver mashes the pedal to the floor, three things can happen.  As the late football coach from Texas, Darrell Royal, used to say about a forward pass, “…and two of them are bad.”  The 36” tires could grab and propel the car down the track — or they could be given too much power for the traction provided by the track in which case they just spin basically going nowhere.  Finally, the tires could receive insufficient power.  When that happens all hell breaks loose as the car goes into a convoluted, uncoordinated spasm.  Drivers call it, “Shaking the tires.” Continue reading →

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The Tommy Show #Nats fandom was meant to be!

Posted on April 26, 2018 by Erika C.

Tommy McFly makes up one third of the dynamic 94.7 FM morning show and is the namesake of The Tommy Show. His co-hosts, Kelly Collis and Jen Richer, along with Tommy help wake up the DMV on weekdays. They talk about almost anything that comes to mind and the music they spin matches their personalities. Listeners get to hear a morning show that is one-of-a-kind as they start their mornings listening on the radio or new techie apps on Radio.com from anywhere in the world. Many parts of  The Tommy Show is truly unique — but what really sets them apart from their contemporaries is their coverage of the Washington Nationals, and they do it on a pop music radio station.

Set between stories of Taylor Swift or Meghan Markle you could get an Anthony Rendon reference or a tidbit about Bryce Harper‘s new hair product line with Blind Barber. It comes across as genuine and not an infomercial like their competitors.  Continue reading →

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Nats win in a landslide 15-2 behind Andrew Stevenson, Trea Turner, Matt Adams and Max!

Posted on April 25, 2018 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Goodbye San Francisco and goodbye to that 4-game losing streak. The Nats won today by a final score of 15-2.  Max Scherzer wins another as the Nationals stopper extraordinaire, and the Nats bats came alive starting with Andrew Stevenson, Trea Turner, and Matt Adams. That trio combined for 12-for-16 with 12 RBIs. The Nationals did all of this with only 3 regular starters in the line-up, and 14 of the 15 runs scored with 2 outs. Continue reading →

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Game #25 Max Scherzer has the role of stopper; Afternoon baseball!

Posted on April 25, 2018 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Photo by LouAnn Solis Greene for TalkNats

Baseball has a way of spreading the luck, but skill will always set the great ones apart from the others. Over a large enough sample size the luck is supposed to even out, and in the first two dozen games this season, the luck has not seemed to bounce the Nationals way. There are reasons why the great hitters carry higher BABIP than the mediocre hitters over long careers, and the main factor is the line drive percentage. Hitting coach Kevin Long will tell you that groundballs have a .220 batting average versus hard-contact line drives at .647. When you top a groundball up the middle, your batting average is even lower and probably because the pitcher, shortstop and 2nd baseman are all in a position to field it. While exit velo is a wonderful indicator of balls hit in the air, the key is the BABIP factor and defensive positioning can always thwart hard hit balls. Continue reading →

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MAT put the team on his back but it’s not enough; Losing streak goes to 4

Posted on April 25, 2018 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Photo by LouAnn Solis Greene for TalkNats

How many times have we written the Washington Nationals had opportunities to blow a game open and failed? It happened again as both Bryce Harper and Ryan Zimmerman stepped up to the plate at different points of the game with 2-men on-base and failed. Tanner Roark gave up all 4-runs, and he just was not sharp during this outing. Roark pitched the 6th inning in a tie game only to give up the winning run via a long home run on a hanging curveball. The game was only close because of Michael Taylor who crushed an opposite field 3-run home run that tied the game in the 4th inning. Did we mention that Howie Kendrick was on-base 3 times last night via 2 hits and a walk? Kendrick was batting in the 2-hole and did not score a run at no fault of Howie’s. Continue reading →

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Game #24 Nats must stop this skid; Martinez has a new bench!

Posted on April 24, 2018 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears
Martinez bench

Cuatro amigos: Pedro Severino, Rafael Bautista, Wilmer Difo, Victor Robles. 3 of the 4 are now on the roster plus Adrian Sanchez

The Nationals have made four roster moves today and will be expanding the Tres Amigos to Cinco Amigos adding Rafael Bautista and Adrian Sanchez to join Wilmer Difo, Pedro Severino and Moises Sierra. The corresponding moves were placing Shawn Kelley on the DL and optioning Matt Reynolds back to Triple-A Syracuse. These moves put the bench back at five players, and the bullpen which was at eight players yesterday is back to seven players giving manager Dave Martinez a balanced roster. Continue reading →

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