Nats win this late nighter; Bryce Harper leaves with a leg injury

Posted on August 13, 2017 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

 

The Nationals were in a rain delay for 3 hours and 1 minute, and on a wet track Bryce Harper’s foot slipped off of the 1st base bag as he legged out a possible infield hit and his leg buckled. Harper was helped off the field. Edwin Jackson gave up a run in the 1st inning and then threw 5 shutout innings after that as he worked in and out of trouble without any panic. With a 3-1 score in favor of the Nationals, it was time that Dusty Baker called on “The Firm” to close out the game which the combination of Brandon Kintzler, Ryan Madson and Sean Doolittle did.

“The Firm” improved to a combined 1.385 ERA, .885 WHIP 9 K/9, and with 8 Saves for Sean Doolittle. Both Kintzler and Madson were credited with “holds”.

The Nationals moved to a season’s best 24-games over .500 with a 69-45 record, and Dusty Baker with this win tied Bruce Bochy on the all-time managerial wins list. Continue reading →

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Game #114 Hoping for good weather & a Curly W

Posted on August 12, 2017 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

One thing for sure is that the new “Skittles” tarp is getting plenty of use. Another rainout yesterday will create another doubleheader tomorrow for the Washington Nationals. They are getting used to these by now, but the fans clearly are frustrated by the team’s inability to weigh all the weather factors while being thoughtful of the fans.

Both teams  the Nationals will start the proposed Friday night starting pitcher and the Nationals will go with the same exact lineup. The Giants are now starting Jeff Samardzija instead of Stratton.
Continue reading →

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Game #114 Hunter Strickland/Bryce Harper and Dusty Baker/Bruce Bochy

Posted on August 11, 2017 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images

As bad as the San Francisco Giants have been playing this season, the only significant trade they made was Eduardo Nunez to the Boston Red Sox, and that was far from a blockbuster. There were rumors that basically all players not named Posey, Bumgarner, and Crawford were available. The issue was so many of the Giants were either playing poorly or were injured. Hunter Strickland was never traded so here we are set-up for the possibility that Strickland could face Bryce Harper in this series, and the last time they had contact — it was fist-to-face.

The Giants are missing some key pieces themselves today on the DL with Brandon Belt who could come off this weekend along with Mark Melancon. Johnny Cueto could come off of the DL but he wouldn’t pitch in this weekend series. Michael Morse is still on the DL after suffering a concussion in the Strickland/Harper brawl after he collided with his teammate Jeff Samardzija. Continue reading →

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“The Firm”, “The Nasty Boys”, and “OKV”

Posted on August 11, 2017 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Embed from Getty Images

The concept of the shutdown 7th, 8th, and 9th inning relievers isn’t a new concept. The 2014 Kansas Royals stealth bullpen (Herrera, Wade Davis, Greg Holland) was built out of necessity because their starting rotation couldn’t go deep into games, and ownership was not going to pay the tens of millions for elite starting pitching. Combining a great back of a bullpen with great starting pitching is the ultimate goal. In 1990, “The Nasty Boys” were made up of the trio of Norm Charlton, Rob Dibble and Randy Myers who were an intimidating force that won a World Series for Lou Pinella that year.

Twenty years later, the Braves rolled out their version of “The Nasty Boys” and tweaked it the following year with Craig Kimbrel taking Billy Wagner’s spot for a trio of O’Flaherty, Venters, and Kimbrel in 2011 and you knew that if the Braves had a lead after the 6th inning, the game was over. That trio combined for 51 saves in 2011.

Doolittle K’s Tyler Moore to end the game. Photo by Andrew Lang for TalkNats

Now the Nationals have created their own three-headed bullpen monster aka “The Firm” of Kintzler, Madson and Doolittle. Two of the three partners were part of a fledgling Oakland A’s team which allowed Mike Rizzo to acquire two relievers at once when he snatched up Ryan Madson and Sean Doolittle on July 16th more than 2 weeks before the non-waiver trade deadline was to end. By making a preemptive strike, Rizzo struck before other GMs were ready to move. Then Rizzo yearned for a third reliever and found the price was too high for Brad Hand, Zack Britton, and Raisel Iglesias and locked up a deal minutes before the non-waiver trade deadline expired at 4:00 pm on July 31st and struck gold again for All-Star closer Brandon Kintzler.   Continue reading →

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Roark bends but doesn’t break; BGoody HR; “The Law Firm” does their thing with an Andrew Stevenson game saving catch!

Posted on August 10, 2017 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Photo by Patrick McDermott of USA Today Sports

Where do you begin on a game like this? The Nationals were shutout for 5 full innings then the bats came alive in the bottom of the 6th which began with an Adrian Sanchez double, a Brian Goodwin RBI single and a Bryce Harper RBI double that tied the score at 2-2. Harper’s RBI double hit high off of the out-of-town scoreboard in the right-center gap and missed being a home run by approximately 2 feet.

Dusty Baker turned to Brandon Kintzler for the 7th inning, Ryan Madson for the 8th inning, and Sean Doolittle entered in the 9th inning for his 7th save. The trio affectionately known as “The Law Firm” have now combined for a 1.56 ERA, 0.913 WHIP, and a 9.39 K/9.

The Nats go-ahead run was all set-up thanks to Brian Goodwin who had a solo home run in the bottom of the 8th inning to make the score in favor of the Nationals at 3-2. That was Goodwin’s 13th home run in his limited season where he has now homered in every 17.85 at-bats this season.

The play of the game with a runner on 3rd base in the 9th inning was turned in by Andrew Stevenson who replaced Adam Lind in the 7th inning as a pinch-runner. Stevenson dove towards the line to rob Dee Gordon to end the game on a low liner that would have tied the game and Gordon would have legged that into at least a triple and possibly a go-ahead  inside-the -park-home-run if the ball got past Stevenson.

“Keep it in front of him because Dee Gordon would have circled the bases on that one,” Dusty Baker said after the game about the final play by Andrew Stevenson.

The game started off looking like a dud as Tanner Roark struggled with his control early on, but he held the game at 0-0 through the second inning. When Dee Gordon singled to start the 3rd inning, Roark seemed pre-occupied with Gordon and threw a meatball to Giancarlo Stanton who didn’t miss the pitch and homered off of Roark to make the score 2-0. Somehow, Roark seemed to settle down and went a full 6-innings where he held the score at 2-0 until he exited the game after the bottom of the 6th inning when he was sent out to bunt Adrian Sanchez to 3rd base. Continue reading →

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Game #113 Series 4-game finale with Tanner Roark and his new stuff

Posted on August 10, 2017 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Photo by Andrew Lang for TalkNats

The season is flying by it seems. In the bottom of the 3rd inning in tonight’s game after the 1st out is recorded, the regular season will be 70% complete. Don’t fret though, the Miami Marlins are back in Nats Park in just 18 days for another series which is part of the Nationals playing 21 games in 20 days without a day-off. The Nationals have a scheduled day-off coming up on Monday and the following Monday, but they don’t have another scheduled off-day after August 21st until September 11th.

Last night was spectacular for Gio Gonzalez and Ryan Zimmerman. Last year this pair were two of the most criticized Nats starters as they were under-performers in most of 2016 and turned things around in 2017 to the point that Zimmerman became an All-Star and Gio was a worthy candidate for this year’s All-Star game but became a snub due the number’s game. Zimmerman is now a potential Top-10 MVP candidate if he can get on another hot streak, and Gio is Top 5 in MLB ERA which will certainly get him Cy Young votes.

The ball tonight goes to Tanner Roark who must find some more consistency in his season. Roark was great last Friday against the Cubs even if the final stat line didn’t look “great”. In many opinions, Roark should have departed with a shutout as he was on fumes and at 97 pitches at the end of the 6th inning. He was brought out for the 7th inning and it took only 3 batters before his shutout turned into a near disaster as Javier Baez launched a 2-run home run off of him to turn a 3-0 shutout into a 3-2 game. Luckily, the new Nationals bullpen put out the fire as “The Law Firm” closed out the final 2 2/3 innings to save the win.

The Nationals are currently only 11-11 in Roark starts this year and his 4.82 ERA is more indicative to his struggles that really centered around late-May and the month of June when Roark had an 8.31 ERA and just did not look right. Roark now has a new-look arsenal where he has dialed back the velo and has returned to finessing the opponents with a true sinker, 4-seamer averaging 92 ½ mph and a reach-back touching 95 mph, and then the assortment of slider, curveball, and changeup. His mix is almost 50/50 between the fastballs and the off-speed while his repertoire can look like 7 different pitches as he will use the reach-back 4-seamer at times and now will take his 2-seam sinker and turn it into a 2-seam swingback against the lefties where he will throw it off the outside edge instead of in on the batter. It seems Roark abandoned his Colon-esque swingback on the inside edge because it wasn’t working for him. Roark got 11 swing & miss strikes in his last outing. On July 22nd, Roark had 22 swing & miss strikes and probably his best “stuff” of the season against the Diamondbacks.  Continue reading →

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What to Eat at #Nats Park this Week

Posted on August 10, 2017 by Alex Uplinger

Your Washington Nationals are in the midst of a fairly lengthy homestand. They will play seven home games in the next eight days including their current series against division foes the Marlins, the woeful Giants, and the surprising Angels. We will get round two of Bryce Harper vs Mike Trout, which the league foolishly to this point has under-marketed. How are you going to have the two most exciting players in the game face-off at 1:00 pm EST on a Wednesday? They could have easily marketed this as a Wednesday Day-game Baseball clash between the two youngest and most promising players in all of sports, but I digress.

I know I won’t be the only one making my way to the park several times this coming week. One of the best aspects of going to a game (aside from watching the most explosive baseball team in D.C. sports history) is the eclectic food and drink found throughout the stadium. There is literally something for everyone with the expansive vendor options, which include numerous unique treats. Enjoy this helpful guide of some of my personal favorites throughout the park, which I highly recommend trying.

Chesapeake Bay Tots from See. You. Tater

One of the latest additions this year is also one of my personal favorites. See. You. Tater serves a variety of different tater tots covered in numerous delicious toppings. The new stand takes its name from Bob Carpenter‘s home run call “See, you, later!” which has become a staple on MASN’s broadcasts. The Chesapeake Bay tots are a fan favorite and are doused in crab queso, fresh corn salsa, and garnished with even more cheese (queso fresco). A close second is the deliciously fried spuds adorned with barbecue pulled pork and macaroni and cheese. Continue reading →

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Gio Gonzalez throws another gem; Ryan Zimmerman powers the offense!

Posted on August 9, 2017 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Ryan Zimmerman has a message for anyone questioning his statistics and .208 batting average from June 14th to August 8th that you should never count him out! Tonight, Zimmerman had 2 home runs, a double, a single and a walk and was a triple shy of the cycle.

“I was just glad to get some hits,” Ryan Zimmerman said. “It’s been a tough 2-week stretch for me. But that’s part of the game and you grind through it. I go through some cold times, but hopefully today will get me going and kind of take me the rest of the 2-months.”

Ryan Zimmerman also set the all-time franchise mark for career RBIs as he blew by the old mark of 905 RBIs. On top of that, Zimmerman’s 5 RBIs tonight moved him 19 away from 100 for the season. Continue reading →

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Game #112 Battle of the lefties tonight at #Nats Park

Posted on August 9, 2017 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Gio Gonzalez returned on Monday from the paternity list after his wife Lea gave birth to their second son, Gabriel Gonzalez, and Gio threw a side-session on Monday and will be starting tonight against the very familiar Miami Marlins.

The Marlins will be starting a left-hander of their own, Adam Conley, who has also faced the Washington Nationals before. Anthony Rendon has a career mark of .444 on Conley and Daniel Murphy is at .667 against him although Murphy will not start tonight.

Washington Nationals manager Dusty Baker has to take inventory of who is healthy as he has many banged up players with Howie Kendrick has a sore back, Daniel Murphy a sore hip, and many players have been going at it without any extra rest days. The plan tonight is for Kendrick to start and Murphy to get another night off.

Continue reading →

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Is it blasphemous to say Ryan Zimmerman is in a deep funk? The stats sure say he is….

Posted on August 9, 2017 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Derik Hamilton/Associated Press

Speaking subjectively using the “eye test” on Ryan Zimmerman doesn’t make you any friends in the media so you better come with the real stats if the angle is negative. The Washington Post touched on the touchy subject on July 16th when Zimmerman’s batting average just dipped under .330, but let’s face it, his batting average has been declining steadily since May 7th when it was .435, and nobody in today’s game could sustain that anyway, but Zimmerman is now on the make/break line of dropping under .300.

The Post titled their article “Ryan Zimmerman is struggling, but he’s sure a surge is right around the corner” and Ryan was confident he would get hot again and the day after that article was written he had a 3-hit game with a homer and along with a game on July 30th — those have been Zim’s highlights since June 13th when his slide really started and now he is batting just .208 since June 13th and flirting with Mendoza for almost the last 2 months.

When Zim was going well to start his season, he made fun of the whole launch-angle discussion but the facts don’t lie and the ball was jumping off of Zim’s bat. Continue reading →

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