Going Deep with The Nats

When Rich Hill got scratched for tonight’s game, the Dodgers penciled in Clayton Kershaw to face Max Scherzer making this the match-up of the Cy Young winners of 2013 and the aces of all aces. Scherzer has won the last two Cy Young awards and in 2013 Scherzer was the AL winner while Kershaw took the honor in the NL that year. Each pitcher has earned 3 Cy Young’s a piece and will compete again this year for the honor. In the early race for ERA leaders, Scherzer is ranked 3rd and Kershaw is ranked 7th. This is a rare match-up indeed as it is only the 10th time in Major League history that two 3-time Cy Young winners have faced-off. Continue reading →

Cuatro amigos: Pedro Severino, Rafael Bautista, Wilmer Difo, Victor Robles

With all of the Nationals health problems, they limped into this series with replacement players who were not projected as starters — and some who were not even part of the plans for this season. These three Dominican players dubbed the Tres Amigos have come up big in this series. We are talking about Pedro Severino and Moises Sierra along with bench utility man Wilmer Difo. This is what you need to win games when you are missing star players like Daniel Murphy, Adam Eaton and Anthony Rendon. In this series, the tres amigos combined for 8 hits in 19 at-bats (.421) with 5 RBIs and were keys to both wins. Continue reading →

Photo by Paul Kim of Kevin Long

With the bats coming alive last night, Kevin Long has to feel better today. Long came over from the New York Mets and for 7 innings last night watched his ex-students dominate until the stats turned and BABIP turned positive for the Nationals. Continue reading →

Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats

With Anthony Rendon limping on that bruised toe, he is like his team right now who are hobbled. The Nationals are in New York now for a pivotal series with the rival Mets who are winning games by small margins with four of their twelve wins by one run and another four wins by two runs. One thing that could shock you is that the Nationals and the first place Mets are tied at batting .239 with runners on base. How is that possible? Yes, it is hard to believe that the Mets have also been run deprived and they are winning games on pitching from their bullpen and timely hitting late in games. The Nats have scored 67 runs this season and the Mets have only scored 65 — but full disclosure, the Mets have played two fewer games — but still!

Of note, in the 3rd inning today the season is officially 10% over for the Nationals with 90% of the season remaining to play and that is good news for the Nats to turn their season around. Continue reading →