Nats score 6 times in the 8th inning to win it!

Posted on September 20, 2017 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Besides Trea Turner and Michael Taylor, the Nats bats were silent for 7 innings, and pinch-hitter Wilmer Difo led-off the 8th inning in a 2-to-1 deficit with a swinging bunt single over the pitcher’s mound. Trea Turner followed with a double, and that is where things got bizarre. The Braves walked 4 straight walks before Adam Lind delivered the big 2-RBI single to blow the game open.

The game started off 1-t0-0 on a lead-off home run to begin the game on the first pitch by Trea Turner, but then the Nats bats went silent. The Braves had two solo home runs off of Gio Gonzalez. It was a strong  7 inning pitching line for Gio as he exited the game behind 2-to-1 but earned the win because of the 8th inning rally. Gio only gave up 3 hits and 1 walk in the game and lowered his ERA to 2.68 which is the 4th best mark in the NL and the 5th best in the Majors.

It was a much needed bounceback performance from Gio and those 3 extra days of rest seemed to do the trick as he was aggressive and didn’t fall behind many batters. Gio stayed just under 15 pitches per inning to finish his outing at 104 over the 7 innings. Gonzalez struck out 8 batters in the game.

The Nationals win coupled with a Dodgers loss separates the two teams by just 3 1/2 games for best record in the NL and with a Cubs loss the Nationals Magic # against them is 4 games which worse case would assure home-field-advantage against them in an NLDS series. Continue reading →

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Game #151 Gio looking to get back to being a Cy candidate

Posted on September 20, 2017 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

It flew under the radar it seems and never got any mention in the media that Gio Gonzalez’s scheduled start on Sunday against the Dodgers got pushed back when A.J Cole was inserted on Saturday for a “spot” start. With Monday’s team day-off, Gio should have then pitched yesterday, but Max Scherzer took the start yesterday on one extra day’s rest and Gio was moved to tonight on 3 day’s extra rest. Normally you would expect the beat media to ask about such a move which leaves us with no intel as to why it was done — the most obvious answer would be for extra rest.

Last week the Braves tagged Gio for 5 runs over 5 innings. Gonzalez has given up 12 earned runs in his last 4 games over 22 2/3 innings in his toughest stretch of the season that started after he went a season-high 121 pitches on August 20th. Gonzalez has now received some extra rest, and we hope it works.  Continue reading →

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Scherzer battles for the win; Trea steals; Doolittle saves; Zim 100th!

Posted on September 19, 2017 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

This time the Washington Nationals flipped the script on the Atlanta Braves and Luiz Gohara to earn the win for Max Scherzer. On this night, the Nationals held on to win 4-to-2 behind a trio of milestones.

https://twitter.com/SportsTalkDC/status/910331497504153600

It was a game of milestones in this Washington Nationals win. Max Scherzer became the 4th pitcher in MLB history to record 4 consecutive seasons striking out 250 batters. Ryan Zimmerman would drive in his 100th RBI of the season. Trea Turner stole two bases in the game to tie and surpass Alfonso Soriano‘s Washington Nationals’ single-season steal record which now stands at 42 for Turner who stole 3rd base uncontested then later in the game stole 2nd base uncontested. Soriano’s stolen-base record had stood for almost 12 seasons since 2006 when Soriano had his 40-40-40 season. Continue reading →

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Game #150 All eyes on Max Scherzer and Bryce Harper in Atlanta

Posted on September 19, 2017 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

If you missed our report a few days ago, tonight was supposed to be Gio Gonzalez’s start but he was pushed to tomorrow giving him 3 extra days of rest. Max Scherzer will start tonight coming after a very controversial finish to his start last week against the Braves when Scherzer remained in a meaningless game to pitch the 7th inning in a tie game and was tagged for 5 runs in the inning after he walked the bases loaded and still remained in the game as his pitch count soared. Scherzer exited the game at 116 pitches, and both Dusty Baker and Scherzer in post-game interviews tried to explain away the thinking of fatiguing Scherzer and stretching him out. The tweet (below) summed up initially by Thomas Boswell of the Washington Post as:

The key tonight is Max Scherzer needs to pitch like an ace. It will also help to give him some better outfield defense then he received last week. The Braves scored their first 2 runs on balls hit to Jayson Werth in rightfield and neither were played well.

All eyes will also be on Bryce Harper today as he is reportedly the star of a “sim” game being played for Bryce as the Nationals are bringing in some Minor Leaguers to pitch to him. The reports also say the game will be held in Atlanta. Continue reading →

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Looking ahead; how did the #Nats do against the probables in the post-season

Posted on September 19, 2017 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Now that the Nationals have finished up the regular season series with all of the elite teams we can compile how they did head-to-head in the small sample sizes that exist.

The Nationals outside of the NL East (which isn’t complete) had a tie or winning record with every team except the Texas Rangers, Milwaukee Brewers and the Pittsburgh Pirates who the Nationals finish the regular season in a 4-game series.

The teams the Nationals will most likely meet in the post-season if you go by the mid-August betting lines are the Cubs in the NLDS, the Dodgers in the NLCS, and either the Boston Red Sox or the Houston Astros in the World Series if you believe those odds. The Cleveland Indians and Astros look like the favorites now in the AL. The only AL team the Nationals have faced on that list is the Houston Astros.

The Nationals went 3-to-3 against the Dodgers in the season series, and 4-to-3 against the Cubs and 2-to-1 against the Houston Astros. We can debate what that all means and not much since none of these series seemed to have that post-season feel but some of the individual games did. Joe Maddon and Dave Roberts seemed to play each game as if it was a playoff game. The pitching match-ups over the weekend were not what you would expect in a playoff game such as Ryu – Strasburg or Hill – Cole or Wood – Jackson. Continue reading →

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8th 18-gamer: One goal achieved ahead of schedule, tougher challenges await

Posted on September 18, 2017 by Section222

For previous 18 gamers, click here.

At the end of the 7th 18-game set, the Nats were 26 games over .500 and stood atop the NL East by 12 1/2 games. The division title seemed assured: the question was not if, but when. But few thought the big moment would occur in the next 18 games. After all, the magic number at that point was 24, and the Marlins had won 7 of their last 10 games.  Was it possible that the next 18-gamer would include this?

Well, yes.  (Sorry to spoil the suspense if you’ve been living on Mars for the last week.)

Even with Bryce still nursing his wounded knee, the team again went 12-6.  The 12th win was the clincher, in Game #143, and at the end of the set, the team stood at 88-56, 32 games over .500 and 20 games up in the East.   The eight 18 game sets so far have played out like this: 13-5, 10-8, 11-7, 9-9, 11-7, 10-8, 12-6, and 12-6.  When you combine that kind of consistency with a very weak division, you get to punch a ticket to the postseason on September 10. Continue reading →

Posted in 18GameRecap, Analysis, Bullpen, Difo, Doolittle, Gio, Giolito, Harper, Jayson, Kelley, Lind, Murphy, OliverPerez, Prospects, Rendon, Roark, RyanZimmerman, Scherzer, Severino, Strasburg, Taylor, TMo, Turner, VictorRobles, Werth | Leave a comment

Strasburg, Zimmerman, Lind, and “The Firm” even up the season with the Dodgers!

Posted on September 17, 2017 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Photo by Marlene Koenig for TalkNats

The Washington Nationals won this game by a final score of 7-to-1 in a game that frustrated the Nationals for 5 1/2 innings as the Dodgers led 1-to-0. In the bottom of the 6th inning with men on 2nd and 1st — Ryan Zimmerman took a mistake pitch by reliever Ross Stripling over the wall for a 3-run home run. The Nationals added 4 more runs with 2 runs coming from an Adam Lind pinch-hit opposite field home run. Lind raised his RBI total to 50 which is incredible for a part-time player. Ryan Zimmerman’s 4 RBIs tonight raised his season’s total to 99.

The Nats starter, Stephen Strasburg, pitched great again tonight but was victimized by a ball that clanked off of the heal of Michael Taylor‘s glove and ruled a hit instead of an error which ended the 35 inning scoreless streak that Strasburg was accumulating. Strasburg lowered his ERA to 2.60 and he earned his 14th win on the season.

This win also evened the season series with the Dodgers at 3 games apiece. The entire season series was close on the final scoring except today and Friday’s game. The Nationals bullpen ran the table on the Dodgers this season going scoreless the entire season with a total of 20 2/3 innings of dominance. Continue reading →

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Game #149 Strasburg and #Nats trying to salvage this one

Posted on September 17, 2017 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Photo by Marlene Koenig for TalkNats

Both the Nationals and Dodgers could have set up their rotations differently with days-off. The Nationals even inserted A.J. Cole back in the rotation yesterday pushing back both Gio Gonzalez and Scherzer until after Monday’s day-off.

The Nationals are now listing Scherzer as the Tuesday starter and Gio Gonzalez on Wednesday giving him an extra 3 days. Gonzalez has not looked the same since he threw 121 pitches in an outing in August. The extra days off for Gio were hinted at earlier. Some pitchers are receiving extra rest and Max Scherzer wants to be “fatigued”? Go figure.

While the Nationals have dropped the first two games in this Dodgers series, it is not surprising given the pitching match-ups with the Dodgers pitching their #3 and #4 pitchers and the Nationals with their #7 and #8 pitchers if you consider Erick Fedde the #6 pitcher. So far, the Nationals bullpen in this season series against the Dodgers are now unscored upon in 17 2/3 innings. Continue reading →

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“[Bryce] Harper is on the way.”- Dusty Baker

Posted on September 17, 2017 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Watch Bryce. Watch Bryce run. Watch Bryce run fast.

That is video proof of a big milestone for Bryce Harper that he is running. Sure, he isn’t doing carioca ladder drills, but one step at a time. This is major progress from jogging without full body weight on the Alter-G treadmill machine. You have to walk before you can run.

Screengrab photo

Our sources also tell us that Bryce is taking indoor batting practice now with no restrictions. That is progress from tee work and soft toss swings from the past week. Continue reading →

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The #Nats made a game of it and fall 3-2

Posted on September 16, 2017 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

The Nationals fell to the Dodgers by a final score of 3-to-2, but it was a battle until the end. The Dodgers had their #3 pitcher on the mound, Rich Hill, against minor leaguer call-up A.J. Cole. The Nationals had a chance to win the game in the 8th inning with speed on the bases with pinch-runner Rafael Bautista on 2nd base and Trea Turner on 1st base and Daniel Murphy up at-bat. Murphy hit a low liner to right-field off of lefty reliever Tony Watson and rightfielder Yasiel Puig dove forward to make the play and record the last out of the inning.

The Nationals offense was delivered Anthony Rendon on a solo home run and a Trea Turner RISP single. Howie Kendrick went 0-for-4 in the game and left 3 runners on base. Honorable mention to Adam Lind who entered in the 8th inning as a pinch-hitter with Wilmer Difo on 1st base and shot a grounder past Corey Seager which was ruled an error by the hometown official scorer — it sure looked like a clean single getting under Seager’s backhand stab. The Nats were only credited with 4 hits and two were from Anthony Rendon and the other two were from Trea Turner and a pinch-hit single from Wilmer Difo. The Nats went down quickly in the 9th to closer Kenley Jansen 1-2-3 on groundouts by Ryan Zimmerman and Anthony Rendon and a Jayson Werth pop-up to end the game.

The Nationals bullpen had 4.0 innings of shutout baseball today, and what was impressive was how easy they made it look. Oliver Perez took over from starter A.J. Cole and inherited two runners with no outs and got 3 straight outs facing two right-handed pinch-hitters to start his outing. Perez has now allowed just 5 of 31 inherited runners to score this season. 16.1% is good for 7th in MLB and 3rd in the NL. He has been asked many times to fix some difficult situations and came through again.

Continue reading →

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