Game #129 is the second game of this doubleheader

Posted on August 27, 2017 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

As discussed earlier, this is the third doubleheader in the last month for the Nationals and the pattern was that the Nationals lost the first game of the doubleheader and won the second game of the doubleheader.

The Mets started their “A” team in the first game and also pitched their presumptive closer AJ Ramos for 2 innings. The Nationals bullpen is in good shape for tonight’s game. It almost becomes a battle of attrition with these doubleheaders.

Anthony Rendon will have to play both ends of the doubleheader as Adrian Sanchez will be rested after he took the fastball to the chest on Saturday night. Continue reading →

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#Nats come back from a 5-0 deficit to tie the game; Lose it 6-5.

Posted on August 27, 2017 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

If you wanted an exciting game, you got it. If you wanted a Washington Nationals win, you left disappointed. The Nationals clawed back into this game and tied it in the 7th inning 5-to-5  and even after giving up a run in the 8th inning — the Nationals loaded the bases in the 8th inning and did not score and in the 9th inning Edwin Jackson was thrown out at the plate.

The Nationals had 19 baserunners in this game of which 14 came via hits and 4 from walks. The team just didn’t capitalize in key spots with some missed opportunities. The Nationals were 5-for-16 in RISP batting, but also left 13 runners-on-base.

Howie Kendrick was left on the on-deck circle when Edwin Jackson was thrown out at home in the 9th inning. Kendrick had 3 hits in the game and along with Alejandro De Aza, they were the offensive stars of the game. Anthony Rendon was the hard luck 0-for-5 batting in the 3-hole and he struck out twice stranding 5 runners on-base. Continue reading →

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Game #128 In an exact 2-week pattern of July 30th, August 13th, and today makes 3 Sunday doubleheaders in less than a month!

Posted on August 27, 2017 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

The Nationals aren’t making a habit of doubleheaders, but Mother Nature has forced their hands. This is the Nationals 3rd doubleheader in less than a month’s time since the July 30th Sunday twin bill against the Colorado Rockies. The Nationals then played an exciting duo of games on Sunday August 13th that ended in that  walk-off winning grand slam by Howie Kendrick! It has been every two weeks since July 30th now that the Nats have played two games on a Sunday in Nats Park.

Today is just another Sunday in Nats Park that seems to be the norm with 2-games on the schedule and somewhere Ernie Banks is smiling with his signature “Let’s Play Two”. Erick Fedde was officially called up as the 26th player, and he will be the starter in game one with ex-Nat lefty Tommy Milone starting for the New York Mets. There was another roster move today, Rafael Bautista will take his place on the 25-man roster with AJ Cole optioned back to Triple-A Syracuse. Continue reading →

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Nats offense backs Gio today for a nice win!

Posted on August 26, 2017 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Gio Gonzalez cruised through 6 2/3 innings of 2-run baseball helped by a bullet throw by Michael Taylor in the first inning to nail Asdrubal Cabrera at homeplate. The Nationals won 9-4 but it got a little rocky in the 8th inning as Brandon Kintzler gave up 2-runs and the lead was down to 2 runs.

The Nationals scored 3-runs in the bottom of the 8th inning to push the game really out of reach.

The Nationals only had 2 of their “regulars” in the game with Anthony Rendon and Matt Wieters and it didn’t matter as every player contributed to this win. Continue reading →

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Game #127 Another day — another injury; Zim is hurting but don’t count him out!

Posted on August 26, 2017 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Photo Credit Marlene Koenig‏ @royalmusing for TalkNats

We always find out tidbits from the manager’s pressers before and after the games, and it came as quite the shock when managers from both sides of Nationals Park were giving injury news. Terry Collins had to discuss a serious injury to Michael Conforto and then after the game another hamstring injury for Yoenis Cespedes, and Dusty Baker informed the media that Ryan Zimmerman had hurt himself in Houston on Thursday night which explained why “Mr. Walk-off” did not pinch-hit on Friday night.

“I think he hurt his arm or shoulder — really couldn’t swing [in Friday’s game],” Dusty Baker said. “[It happened] on his headfirst slide yesterday into the plate. I don’t anticipate he’ll be much better tomorrow, but hopefully on Sunday.”

The Nationals could option AJ Cole back to Triple-A Syracuse and add a position player from a small group of eligible players, but nothing seems obvious as the Nationals need a starter for Wednesday. One choice could be to add Jayson Werth back to the active roster — but that would require a corresponding move like a DFA or 60-Day DL move of Ryan Raburn for instance as they have to also clear a 40-man spot since Jayson Werth is not on the 40-man roster after he was transitioned to the 60-day DL. Werth has been on the DL since June 3rd and has been eligible to come off of the DL for over 3 weeks now, but he needed the extra time to get back to 100% from that injury in his foot. Other players available are Jose Marmalejos and Rafael Bautista who just returned from the MiLB DL this past week. It’s also possible to promote a non-40-man player or sign a free agent or even make a trade at this point as the players they are promoting as you see with De Aza aren’t making a positive contribution. The Nationals roster has been decimated. Last night’s line-up featured just one player from the Opening Day starting line-up and that was a very fatigued Daniel Murphy.

Stay tuned for roster moves by both teams. The Mets are expected to activate Jose Reyes.

Today’s starters are Gio Gonzalez for the Nationals and Robert Gsellman for the Mets. Both teams have faced these starters but these particular lineups really haven’t. The Nationals players might be more familiar with Gsellman from the Minor Leagues. Continue reading →

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Observations of Jayson Werth and Trea Turner from their rehab assignment

Posted on August 26, 2017 by Andrew Lang

Jayson Werth #44 is in the cage; Trea Turner #27 awaits his turn; Mark Scialabba; Director, Minor League Operations observes.

When players head to rehab assignments, they are not always familiar with the stadiums, their new teammates, and the way things are done. Jayson Werth had been to the Pfitzner Stadium before to rehab with the Potomac Nationals. They love him there. He pulled up to the side door in his white Porsche Panamera. I asked my former neighbor if that was the same Porsche he was driving back in 2011 when it was new and he hit a deer on his way home from a game. “Yep”, JDub told me with a smile. Jayson signed autographs for the 6 autograph seekers who were hanging out hours before the 5 pm first pitch. Soon a clubhouse attendant emerged to move Werth’s Porsche from harm’s way of incoming foul balls to the safer reaches out in the player’s lot far beyond the rightfield wall.

Trea Turner arrived by walking up from the parking lot and didn’t sign any autographs. I spoke to one person holding an art print of Nationals Park with dozens of signatures on it. He said Trea Turner snubbed him telling him “I’m in a hurry”. I ensured him that Trea is a good guy. Sure enough during “stretch” Trea signed his art print, and Trea signed for about the 40 fans who were clamoring for his autograph.


Continue reading →

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A game of inches and feet; AJ Cole kept it close; bullpen falters; Nats had bases loaded in the 9th!

Posted on August 25, 2017 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

The starting pitchers for tonight were Mets’ ace Jacob deGrom and Nationals’ call-up AJ Cole. deGrom gave up one run in the game and so did AJ Cole. Unfortunately after AJ Cole departed, Matt Grace gave up 2-runs to make the score 3-1 in favor of the Mets and they added on another run off of Joe Blanton to make the score 4-to-1.

In the bottom of the 9th inning, Adam Lind led-off with a booming 412 foot home run to straight-away centerfield to cut the score to 4-to-2. Wilmer Difo then doubled to put the tying run in the batter’s box. Michael Taylor popped up for the first out. Dusty Baker sent up Anthony Rendon to pinch-hit and he missed a HR that was foul by inches to a few feet. Rendon did draw a walk followed by a walk by Matt Wieters to load the bases. Dusty Baker then sent Howie Kendrick in as a pinch-hitter. Kendrick shot a low liner into the opposite field and Nimmo was playing shallow for some odd reason and was able to catch it for the second out of the inning. Rookie call-up Andrew Stevenson who had a key double early in the game to score the first run came up to bat. AJ Ramos schooled the young lad and struck him out for the final out of the game.

We also learned from Dusty Baker that Ryan Zimmerman was unavailable for today and will be unavailable tomorrow as he hurt his arm/shoulder on a head-first slide yesterday.

Mets’ manager Terry Collins announced that Yoenis Cespedes will be placed on the DL after he hurt his hamstring in the first inning today running the bases.

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Game #126 AJ Cole is back! 4-game weekend series with the Mets!

Posted on August 25, 2017 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Parts of the Nationals and Mets current line-ups are almost unrecognizable these days as both teams have been decimated by injuries. The Mets just suffered another season-ending injury yesterday. This time they lost Michael Conforto who has a very violent swing, and this time he popped out his shoulder on a swing and miss. It’s a shame since Conforto was having a breakout season and was a legitimate Top 12 MVP candidate in the NL before the injury.

Tonight’s 7:05pm line-up from the respective managers, Terry Collins and Dusty Baker, will look like a Port St. Lucie or The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches split-squad game from both teams. The difference is the Mets have their best pitcher on the mound in Jacob deGrom, and Max Scherzer who was penciled in for this game is not ready which meant a spot start call-up for AJ Cole from Triple-A Syracuse.

The Nationals have been playing on fumes and wisely Dusty Baker penciled in his best “A” line-up last night for the game in Houston as that series could determine home-field advantage if the Nationals end up playing the Astros in the World Series. Mission accomplished, but there is a toll taken every time you lean on your regulars. Ryan Zimmerman and Daniel Murphy looked exhausted, and Anthony Rendon was playing on extra adrenaline while Matt Wieters had some extra pep in his step from his Wheaties and days off on consecutive days on Sunday and Monday. Continue reading →

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#Nats win a thrilla near the villa! Strasburg with a shutout; Solis saves!

Posted on August 25, 2017 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Photo by Marideth Sandler for TalkNats

Stephen Strasburg was pulled after the 6th inning with a leg cramp and the Nats took a 3-0 lead into the bottom of the 7th inning. Dusty Baker went to Ollie Perez for the 7th inning, and Sean Doolittle got the 8th inning. Doolittle gave up a run and the Nats took a 3-1 lead to the 9th inning and Brandon Kintzler gave up 2 runs for the blown save which was the first for the Nationals since the first week of July.

The game went to extra innings and the 11th inning began with a Wilmer Difo bunt single and 2 batters later with Difo on 2nd base, Ryan Zimmerman was awarded 1st base with a HBP. The play was reviewed and Zim was sent back to bat again in an 0-2 count and Tyler Clippard uncorked the wild pitch in the dirt that got by Brian McCann on a swinging strike 3 and Zim sprinted safely to 1st base and Difo advanced to 3rd base. Anthony Rendon hit a sacrifice fly to make the score 4-3 and Matt Wieters then hit a single in the gap to score Zimmerman to make the score 5-3.

Sammy Solis pitched for the save and gave up a leadoff home run to make the score 5-4 but then retired the next 3 batters for the save and a nice 5-4 win. This was Sammy’s first save of his career. Continue reading →

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Game #125 The Heavyweight Bout is in Houston tonight; Planning ahead for tomorrow.

Posted on August 24, 2017 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Photo from The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches

As we wrote yesterday and hoped tonight would not be the rubber match of the season series between the Washington Nationals and the Houston Astros — it is! Because the Nationals won the first game of the series and lost last night, tonight’s winner will decide the series. There are slight post-season implications on this game, the pride factor, and the TBOTPB crown is at stake. Two of the biggest names in baseball will face-off in this game: Stephen Strasburg and Dallas Keuchel.

As we wrote in the pre-game article yesterday, these two pitchers both emerged from that historic 2009 draft that had Strasburg as the #1 overall pick and Mike Trout was #25 in that first round, and 2nd rounders like Nolan Arenado, Jason Kipnis and D.J. LeMahieu. Dallas Keuchel was picked 220 players after Strasburg.  Continue reading →

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