The Home for Washington Nationals Game Talk

Photo by Marlene Koenig for TalkNats

Last night, it took less than 10 minutes to elapse in the game before a massive blunder happened in right-field on a misread of a Marcell Ozuna liner. The errant baseball had typical slice off of a right-hander’s bat that moves left to right. On this night, Victor Robles was moved to rightfield and the Ozuna liner turned what should have been an easy out into a double, and before you knew it 3-runs scored in the first inning.

The Nationals never recovered for their starting pitcher, Max Scherzer, who should have had an easy night against his hometown team, but his offense could only muster up one run of support for their star pitcher who deserved better on this night. The Nats have only won one of Scherzer’s starts this season of the seven times he has pitched. Max had three stressful innings leading to a 110 pitch outing over 7 innings. After the 1st inning mishap, Scherzer did not allow another run to score. It was another game where the Nats offense had plenty of baserunners. The Cardinals had 11 hits in the game, but the Nats had 9 and lost 5-1. The bullpen’s scoreless streak ended at 16 innings in this game, but it did not seem to matter because you won’t win many games scoring just one run — except it is possible as the Reds beat the Mets last night 1-0.  Continue reading →

It’s May 1st. There should be some optimism if you believe the Nationals are following their same pattern as last year. The team was 13-16 last year leading into May and the Nats are 12-16 now. In May of 2018, the team went 20-7 for the month and moved into first place at the beginning of June. Much like last year, there was a lack of balance and baseball is a balancing act. One-run losses are usually a sign that a team was deficient in at least one aspect of their game. For most of the season, it has been the bullpen issues, but lately it has been the lack of offense generated from non-power numbers, and the starting pitching. Last night, the Nationals scored both of their runs on home runs, and that was it. The Nats stranded 9 runners and it was another game where they could not push across runs in a RISP situation (0-6). Waiting for the three-run home run would put a smile on Earl Weaver‘s face — but since the game when Anthony Rendon was injured on April 20th, the team has scored 3-or-fewer runs in 5 of those 10 games.

Last night in the second inning the Nationals had a golden opportunity with men on 2nd and 1st and no outs, and Carter Kieboom in the batter’s box. Me: BUNT.  Continue reading →

Photo by Lynn G. for TalkNats

While all the talk was on the first place Dodgers and Cody Bellinger, the Cardinals of St. Louis are quietly stacking up wins and hold the best record in the National League. Last night, they dismantled the Nats as we saw. The Cards made Patrick Corbin look like a back of the rotation starter with a 6 run 5th inning. Continue reading →

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 →

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 →

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 →