Game #27 Patrick Corbin against the Cardinals tonight

This is the left side of your infield again tonight! Photo by Marlene Koenig for TalkNats

For Nationals fans, they are enjoying Patrick Corbin as a starter on this team. So far, he leads the Nationals in ERA, and he has the highest swing and miss rate among the pitchers. Last year, Corbin led all Major League pitchers in swing and miss percentages. He will face Michael Wacha of the Cardinals who is returning from the 10-day IL. The Cardinals are now second in the NL with a .630 winning percentage just behind LA’s .633 winning percentage. This is certainly a new-look Cardinals offense with Paul Goldschmidt anchoring their infield. Continue reading

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Nats power their way to a big walk-off win!

Photo by Marlene Koenig for TalkNats

The Nationals bullpen threw an 8-inning shutout and the offense scored 7 unanswered runs and won this game on a walk-off home run by Matt Adams who found redemption as he was 0-5 in the game with 7 runners stranded before he unleashed a bomb into the upper deck. The Nationals had home runs by each member of their 21-and-under club of Juan Soto, Victor Robles and Carter Kieboom and this had never been done before in MLB history by a trio. Continue reading

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Game #26 Nats must score lots of runs to salvage another series

Photo by Lynn G. for TalkNats

The Nationals have been getting good starting pitching from Patrick Corbin, Stephen Strasburg, Max Scherzer and Jeremy Hellickson. In the last two games, Scherzer and Strasburg matched each other with 2-run 7.0 inning beauties only to receive no-decisions as the bullpen had meltdowns and the Nats offense fell asleep with few exceptions. The team is now mired in a 3-game losing streak. Jeremy Hellickson needs to be good enough today to give his team a chance to win. The Nationals offense has to wake-up and score enough runs to take some pressure off of the pitching staff. Continue reading

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Sometimes you are as bad as you look #Nats

There is nothing to smile about as the Nationals fall to a season’s low mark of 3 games below .500 with this loss today. Another game the team could not push across one more run to win it when they had chances. Sometimes you are as bad as you look and have earned your record. Yes, the starting pitching has been great but this is the 11th game this team has scored 3-or-fewer runs this season.  Continue reading

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Game #25 Strasburg faces his boyhood team; Rendon out of the line-up

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)

For Stephen Strasburg, his boyhood team was the San Diego Padres, and today he gets to face them again. If it was not for the wind in Washington, D.C. today, it would feel like weather over La Jolla on a winter day. Strasburg shutout the Marlins six days ago in the team’s best pitching performance of the season. Even the offense woke-up in that game and scored 5 runs. This season, the Nats have scored 3-or-fewer runs in 10 of the team’s 24 games. Part of the problem is batters who are not hitting their weight. At some point, manager Dave Martinez has to stop wishing upon a star and deal with the reality of the situation. The middle of the lineup on this team went 1-for-15 last night and that only hit was a swinging bunt from Juan Soto. Continue reading

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The baseball world was buzzing about Vlad Jr.’s debut; Carter Kieboom’s was better!

The fans at Nationals Park showed up on this Friday night even with the heavy pre-game rain, strong winds, and tornado warnings to take in the debut of Nationals top prospect Carter Kieboom. The announced attendance was 27,193, and several fans who fell in love with the blue-eyed shortstop from the cities where he learned to be a Major Leaguer, traveled to see him play. They drove from their homes in Hagerstown, Harrisburg, and Henrico County in Virginia. Kieboom would not disappoint as he smashed a home run that cut through the strong wind over the centerfield wall making him the fifth youngest shortstop in MLB history to hit a home run in a debut game. That game tying home run deserved a curtain call, and he got it as his teammates urged him to jump out of the dugout. Continue reading

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A night of dreams ends in a gut-punch loss

The Nationals had to hold a 2-2 tie in the dreaded 8th inning but gave up a run which painfully scored on a passed ball. That gave  Carter Kieboom a spot to get on-base or do something spectacular to get the Nats back in this game. The kid in his MLB debut did something spectacular and smashed a slider from Craig Stammen over the centerfield wall to tie the game up. Kieboom got a curtain call in a great moment but the great moment was wasted as Sean Doolittle in the 9th gave up a home run to Hunter Renfroe to put the Padres up 3-2. In the bottom of the 9th inning, it got interesting as Padres closer Kirby Yates fell behind almost everyone to load the bases but got Carter Kieboom on the best splitter he threw tonight for a game ending strikeout. The Hollywood ending was not meant to be tonight. Continue reading

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Game #24 The new-look Padres face the new-look Nationals

Carter Kieboom; Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats

Baseball fans have a reason to watch the San Diego Padres again. They signed Manny Machado in the off-season for $300 million after signing Eric Hosmer in the prior year. This season the Padres promoted top prospect Fernando Tatis Jr. to create a new-look team. The Nationals will be new-look also today as they call-up their top prospect Carter Kieboom. We should know the near-term plans for the youngest of the Kieboom boys when the lineups are loaded, and manager Dave Martinez meets with the media.  Continue reading

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Location, location, location. Nationals players have turned to Jordan Stuart for real estate!

Jordan Stuart with Kyle Barraclough

If you ever wondered how athletes find their housing, they generally turn to a real estate expert who specializes in the needs of athletes, but keep in mind — it is not a one size fits all type of deal. Not everyone is Max Scherzer who bought a mansion overlooking the Potomac River on a tony street, and most players are just looking for simple furnished apartments in Arlington and the Navy Yard neighborhoods. For the past few years, several of the Washington Nationals‘ players have turned to Jordan Stuart of Keller Williams Real Estate and the national Next Move Network which Stuart serves as the CEO and brainchild of solving the athlete conundrum. Baseball players moreso than other sports have the most demanding needs for a real estate expert like Stuart. Continue reading

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Confirmed: Carter Kieboom to the Nats and Jake Noll back to Triple-A

Carter Kieboom; Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats

Maybe Mike Rizzo has grown tired of the mistakes made at shortstop or there is something else in play here because the Nationals top-prospect, Carter Kieboom, is being called-up for Friday’s game. The corresponding move is Jake Noll back to Triple-A, but there are plenty of other question marks with player’s health so stay tuned on that. It was a week ago from Friday when Anthony Rendon exited that game with an elbow contusion, and Ryan Zimmerman hurt his heal on Wednesday, and then there is Howie Kendrick and Juan Soto who also have painful contusions. Continue reading

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