by Andrew Lang
by Andrew Lang
Erick Fedde with Derek Lilliquist looking on; Photo by Luis Albisu for TalkNats
The rain will be around the east coast for several more days as Hurricane Florence moves up the coast. The Nationals will be on the east coast for the rest of the week between Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Atlanta before heading indoors in Miami. There is always a possibility of a change of venue to the west coast to play these games. Continue reading
Soto, Harper, Robles Photo by Marlene Koenig for TalkNats
It’s really hard to believe what the season could have looked like on August 12th when the Nationals were a pitch away from a 3-0 shutout and a 61-57 record. Reliever Ryan Madson got himself in trouble closing out that ESPN Sunday Night game against the Cubs. The Nationals shutdown closer, Sean Doolittle, was on the disabled list. In the first half of the season, the Nationals bullpen only lost 10-games in the bullpen. Since then, the team has lost 12-games in the bullpen. Some think the Nationals fate changed on August 7th when Kelvin Herrera lost a game against the Braves. It would have pulled the Nationals to within 5.0 games of 1st place. In less than a week from August 7th to August 13th, the Nats lost 4-games in the bullpen. It included that Herrera loss, a Sammy Solis loss against the Cubs, the Madson loss against the Cubs on ESPN, and the next night in St. Louis a walk-off loss with Koda Glover on the mound. If the Nats won those 4-games, and that’s a big “if” they would have been 3-games out of 1st place on August 13th. Continue reading
The Cubs “L” for loss fan is hoisted —- Photo by Michael Daalder for TalkNats
Back at Wrigley Field, the “L” flag is flying at the Cubs’ home stadium. Here in Washington, D.C. at Nationals Park, the rain is flying. Major League Baseball and the commissioner’s office have jurisdiction over whether or not this game will be played due to the rainy weather, and here we are in another rain delay. So far, the Nationals have won 2-of-the-3 games so far in this 4-game series which has tied the season series at 3-t0-3. Continue reading
When Friday’s Joe Ross 2018 debut was rained-out after 1 2/3 innings, the Washington Nationals and Chicago Cubs were scheduled to play one of those rare one-admission doubleheaders scheduled to start at 3:05pm with a Jayson Werth “Ring of Honor” celebration tucked in between the games. Well, so much for all of the re-planning on all of this as Mother Nature would wreak havoc again on Nationals Park with several inches of rain. Heavy rain delayed the start of the first game for 2 hours and 10 minutes which the Nationals rolled to a 10-3 win secured by a complete game by Max Scherzer. After the shortened Werth celebration finished up, first pitch by Jefry Rodriguez happened at 9:00pm with another rain delay in the 8th inning lasting 1 hour 29 minutes added to a 3 hour 15 minute game. The last out was at 1:44 am for anyone who waited up for the bottom of the 8th inning to finish and the top of the 9th inning save. Continue reading
Jefry Rodriguez Photo by Marlene Koenig for TalkNats
After a complete game win in Game 1 of this doubleheader behind a Max Scherzer 3-run performance, the Nationals going into the nightcap with rookie Jefry Rodriguez. The Cubs will pitch another lefty, Cole Hamels, in the second game which gives manager Dave Martinez to go more right-handed. Continue reading
The Nationals’ original plan on paper had Joe Ross pitching his 2018 debut last night, and then Mother Nature struck hard and did not let up from the second inning on which turned a lengthy rain delay into a frustrating wash-out that was finally postponed minutes before midnight. Joe Ross was amazing, but his stats from last night will never appear because the game was not official. Joe “Cool” touched 97.0 mph on the radar gun and stayed above 95-96 mph on his heater for the entire 1 2/3 innings of his start. Keep in mind, in Ross’ career he averaged only 93+ mph on his fastball. Where did this extra velo come from? A combination of a fresh arm and that adrenaline pumping is a great twosome to bring the heat. Continue reading
The last time Joe Ross pitched in a game at Nationals Park was July 9th of 2017. Ross was pulled in the 4th inning after his ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) in his right elbow tore. Shortly afterwards, Ross joined a distinguished lineage of Nationals pitchers who have undergone the dreaded “Tommy John” surgery to repair the ligament. It was just two weeks ago that one of the Nationals top pitching prospects, Seth Romero, had TJ surgery. It’s becoming more commonplace especially among the flamethrowers, and the pitchers who rely on sliders. Continue reading
For the first time in Topps history, the iconic company has handed over the reins to someone outside the company, and in this new concept, they chose Washington Nationals star Bryce Harper to create his own baseball card set with his vision. Harper can now add “baseball card designer” to his resumé, and this adds to Harper’s foray into designing baseball caps, cleats, and bats as well as Rawlings baseball gloves.
The end result in this collaboration with Topps is an absolutely unique baseball card set featuring top players in the league, his all-time favorites — and yes — even guys with the best hair featuring Bryce’s original baseball mentor and hair aficionado Jayson Werth! Continue reading
Our final look at the leaders, trailers, and outliers in the Washington Nationals minor leagues. Repeats from 2017 are in italics Continue reading
"Opening Day should be a National holiday"
We recently upgraded our comment system to improve reliability, performance, and long-term control, and we’re currently running both systems during the transition. This shift moves us away from an external service to a system we run and control directly—meaning we own the content and can continue improving it over time. We’ve also reduced the comment refresh delay from about 30 seconds to 10 seconds, making it much closer to real-time.
We understand there have been frustrations and increased feedback, and we’re actively working to improve things. What we ask is simple: use the system and give it a fair shot. If you run into issues, please submit them through the support form so we can track and fix them properly. Repeated complaints without details don’t help us solve problems—we appreciate your patience as we continue refining the experience.
If you’d like a full side-by-side comparison of the platforms and the reasons behind this decision, please refer to the chart below. This change is being made with the long-term benefit of the entire community in mind.