by Andrew Lang
by Andrew Lang
What makes Max Scherzer #31 so special as a player? It is that inner fire that burns with the desire to get better every single game. Be it as a pinch-hitter, a baserunner, a fielder, a batter, and a pitcher, Max Scherzer is having an MVP season as there has never been a pitcher on the precipice of this type of greatness. Max Scherzer leads all NL players in Fangraphs WAR at +6.7 which includes +0.8 his offense and defense and baserunning. Continue reading
Photo by Marlene Koenig for TalkNats
Happy handshakes tonight for the Nationals in this 8-2 win behind Max Scherzer who did it all tonight throwing 6.0 innings of shutout baseball while he scored two runs with some impressive hustle, and he smashed a double off the outfield wall raising his batting average to .296. Bryce Harper had another 3-hit night raising his batting average to .248 and collecting his 500th RBI in his career. Continue reading
Photo by Marlene Koenig for TalkNats
There was no day-game yesterday to accommodate a Washington Nationals getaway day so the Nats chartered Delta jet took off just after midnight (EDT) and arrived in Dulles at 2:04AM. “Get on that plane…and have a nice happy flight. Come back tomorrow — be at home and get ready for tomorrow,” manager Dave Martinez said after last night’s game. Yep, that win must have made the flight feel short. Tonight’s starter, Max Scherzer, flew back to D.C. earlier so he could get a normal night’s sleep. Continue reading
This game was all the Nationals until Tanner Roark hit the wall and gave up 3-runs (2 earned) in the 6th inning to make the 5-1 lead a 5-4 tight ballgame. The bullpen shut the door between Justin Miller (2 innings for the hold) and Koda Glover (save) to preserve this win. Guess what? This was also a rare one-run win for the Nats! Continue reading
Photo by Marlene Koenig for TalkNats
After this game, the Nationals will only have 40-games remaining in the season. They are now a game under .500 at 60-61 on the season. Tanner Roark will start for the Nats tonight in this salvage game in this 4-game series which has all gone the Cardinals way.
Speaking of the Cardinals, Matt Adams who started his career with the Cardinals has not had a hit since August 4th. When Ryan Zimmerman came off the DL, Adams was slashing .287/ .359/ .574/ .934 for the entire season and was in a hot streak. Since being put back on the bench and playing sporadically, Adams has gone ice cold and his season has spiraled down. Zimmerman has put up superior numbers to Adams in the short-term, but you never want to see a key player like Adams fall into a slump as he is needed off the bench.
For now, Jeremy Hellickson will remain on the roster even after he jammed his wrist last night and was removed from the game following a tumble on a play at the plate.
For Fangraphs WAR value, Bryce Harper has skyrocketed in value the last 4 weeks by more than doubling his value to +2.9 WAR.
The Cardinals will start a right-hander tonight, Luke Weaver, who has a 4.66 ERA for them this season. The Nationals will put Adam Eaton back into the lineup and stick with Ryan Zimmerman at 1st base against the righty. Matt Wieters will catch Roark tonight.
Washington Nationals vs. St. Louis Cardinals
Stadium: Busch Stadium, St. Louis, Missouri
1st Pitch: 7:15 pm EDT
TV: MASN; MLB.TV app out-of-network
Nats Radio: 106.7 The Fan and via the MLB app
Line-ups subject to change without notice:
Mmm, African peanut stew! Trust me, it’s good!
The Washington Nationals lost again. It was their fourth loss in a row. The score was 4-2. The St. Louis Cardinals were the team that beat them this time. Jeremy Hellickson had to leave the game after falling down and now he might be hurt. The Nats are now nine games back in the National League East.
Also, here is one of my favorite recipes! It is easy to make, the ingredients are inexpensive and you probably have a lot of them sitting around the house anyway, and it tastes really good.
Juan Soto Batting Practice; Photo by Don Henderson for TalkNats
The Nationals are back to mediocrity in the standings at a flat .500 and 3rd place in the NL East. On June 9th, the Nationals were in 1st place and cruising at 11-games over .500. That was their high point in the season as we look back. Trying to find the answers in a team sport when things go wrong are often complicated. In baseball, wins and losses are often judged in numbers and statistics. Manager Dave Martinez’s strength was supposed to be analytics and statistics. Continue reading
Times have changed for the Men in Black
Baseball churns along here in mid-August to its old and familiar rhythm. The Division chases warm up for some and chill for others. The number of days left on the schedule begins dwindling. And even the most office-bound of fans notice the earlier onset of twilight. However, on rare days baseball begs for a peek under the hood. Some umpire will elicit howls for perceived incompetence, impertinence, or just plain belligerence. Thus it has ever been so. However, the nature of the game has changed in a simple, yet significant way from days gone by. Since the beginning of the game umpires were given a simple mandate: Make the call quickly, decisively, and permanently. Whether it was correct or not was irrelevant. That changed forever in 2014 when replay was introduced. Continue reading
The Nationals had a Spring Training that is now the brunt of jokes about camel humps, and dromedary poop. Many cultures used camels for the transport of people and carrying goods like straw that was harvested. From that became the idiom about the straw that broke the camel’s back which alluded to the proverb “it is the last straw that breaks the camel’s back” and that is the irony as each loss piled up on that camel until it broke. Every season, there are 20 teams that are eliminated from making the post-season and the last straw is when they are officially eliminated, but along the way the weight of those straws are not all equal. This gives rise to the phrase “the last straw” or “the final straw” which many times is used when someone is fired from their job, a divorce, a separation, and other unpleasant finalities. Continue reading
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