The Home for Washington Nationals Game Talk

Photo by Andrew Lang for TalkNats

Camp David or Camp Davey or whatever you want to call it got serious yesterday and benched Trea Turner from starting for not hustling the night before. It took 100 games into the season to finally drop the hammer on a player. Camp is finally over, or is it? The “feel good” style that has allowed other players to not hustle without punishment set a tone. Now the camp counselor wants to get tough? In April, Gio Gonzalez was rightfully pulled from a game in the 5th inning, but Gio angrily thought he should have stayed in longer “100 percent” and also said in a mocking tone, “Apparently, I just got to someway somehow convince [Dave Martinez] I can go past five innings.” Other words were spoken that were not complimentary to his manager, and afterwards Martinez and Gio spoke privately, and all of a sudden Gio was allowed to stay in games as if he was Mickey Lolich. Four straight starts from May 9th on, Gonzalez threw at least 110 pitches per game. A couple starts later, he hasn’t been the same since and the team lost 6 of the last 7 games started by Gio. Continue reading →

Photo by John Caulfield for TalkNats

Every game played is another game you can X off the schedule as the Nationals have to show more urgency with only 63 games remaining in the regular season. In order to win 90 games, the Nationals will have to go 41-22 to finish the regular season.  Great teams can achieve that pace, and unfortunately the Washington Nationals have not been a great team this year. They played great on Sunday,  and games like that have been the exception in a season filled with poor play. Continue reading →

It is a touchy subject when Ryan Zimmerman is brought up these days. The TalkNats twitter feed already has comments to this tweet which includes a few angry responses. We will all be rooting for Zim with the hopes that he helps to win this game for the Nationals. He is a great guy, but with every game feeling like a must win, don’t you go with the players who give you the best chance to win? With all the recent time off, nobody should need rest so that is not at issue here.  In games when Matt Adams starts, the Nationals are 31-18 while the team is 14-14 when Zimmerman starts.  Continue reading →

Photo by Warning Track Power for TalkNats

Once again, Mother Nature decided the outcome of a game with another postponement. Instead of Dave Martinez sticking with his Saturday starter, Gio Gonzalez, the Nationals manager has decided to bump Gio and go with Max Scherzer who was previously scheduled for the Sunday start. The Braves followed the Nationals move and will do the same and bump Saturday’s starter Sean Newcomb and pitch righty Mike Foltynewicz today.
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The NL East standings on the morning of June 8th

“Once upon a time,” the children’s storybook begins. The difference 6-weeks makes. The Nationals were in 1st place leading into the weekend of the Dream Gala and had momentum until Stephen Strasburg was injured. Strasburg had a very good month of May as he was 4-and-1 with a 2.51 ERA. When Strasburg went down, the Nationals seemed to go down with him. The team was a comfortable 10-games over .500 and now are sitting at 1-game under .500 this morning. The team is 13-and-24 since that point in time at the beginning of June. The Nationals have gone from pre-season NL East favorites to 3rd place under-achievers. Strasburg has to rejoin the ranks of the over-achievers for this team to have any chance. Yes, things look bleak, but there have been teams that have made up larger margins on July 21st in a season. Continue reading →