by Andrew Lang
by Andrew Lang
The news broke as expected that Mike Rizzo was extended through 2020 and this was likely a done deal that they had been sitting on. Home sweet home is what the Washington Nationals hope as they will work to get back to winning ways in Nationals Park. The Nationals will have play the home opener today against the New York Mets with a day-off tomorrow and will continue games on Saturday and Sunday. Continue reading
Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats
As the Washington Nationals leave Atlanta for Washington, D.C., they lost today’s rubber game to clinch a series with Max Scherzer on the mound. It happens. You won’t win many games where you score one run regardless of how well your starter pitches. In this case, the offense did not get it done, the defense had a an error that led to 3-unearned runs, and Max Scherzer was not his sharpest. The Nats lost 7-to-1, and perhaps worse than that — it gives the Atlanta Braves some hope. Continue reading
Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats
Yesterday’s tomorrow is now today which is the wonderful part of baseball to shake-off a bad game and get back at it in the next day’s game.
“Momentum is the next day’s starting pitcher” — Earl Weaver
The Washington Nationals send the reigning Cy Young pitcher, Max Scherzer, to the mound this afternoon in the rubber game of this series with Atlanta. Both teams leaned hard on their bullpens last night, and the Braves had to use 4 relievers for Monday’s game making their situation a bit tenuous going into today’s game. Continue reading
Photo by Lee Heiman for Talknats
Jeremy Hellickson pitched a tune-up game in extended spring training in Florida while A.J. Cole had a chance to prove Hellickson was not needed. Well, Cole gave up 10-runs in a 13-to-6 blow-out by the Braves to even this series. The Nationals 4-game winning streak was snapped and we all knew this team would not win every game. Continue reading
Photo by Laura Peebles for TalkNats.com
For the Nationals, it was a focus under Dusty Baker to win the first game of each series which in turn set the team up to win the series. On the road last year, the Nationals had the best mark in the Majors with a 50-and-31 won/loss record. That equates to a .617 winning percentage which was better than the Nationals achieved on their home turf. This is the opposite of home field advantage although winning 47 games on your home turf is good. The Nationals last year were 3rd in the Majors on home field OPS at .832, and not surprisingly, the Rockies and Diamondbacks placed 1st and 2nd in home OPS. The more significant difference was found in the pitching splits. The Nationals pitched better on the road, and at home they were ranked 12th at a 3.93 ERA compared to being 6th best on the road at a 3.82 ERA. Continue reading
Tanner Roark photo by Navy Yard Nats for TalkNats
The Nationals won with their Player of the Week, Adam Eaton, sitting on the bench tonight as the Nationals started the season 4-and-0 for the first time ever with this dominating 8-to-1 win behind a pitching gem by Tanner Roark. Not only did Roark go 7.0 innings, he fielded his position exceptionally well and worked around a costly 2-base error when the game was close. Continue reading
As the Nationals open this 3-game series in Atlanta, Matt Wieters has gone to the 10-day DL with what the team is calling a mild left oblique strain. Pedro Severino has been called up to take Wieters’ spot on the roster and has been inserted into the starting line-up against tonight’s lefty pitcher. In addition, Trea Turner will be leading-off in place of Adam Eaton who was just named the NL Player of the Week — and this was actually only a partial week as most team’s only played 3 games — but what a three games it was for Adam Eaton. Continue reading
Photo by Michael Daalder for TalkNats
This is no April Fool’s joke that Adam Eaton is tied with Bryce Harper for the team’s home run lead with a scant 1.852% of the season completed. Adam Eaton hit his second home run of the season in this game, and Bryce Harper hit two bombs in this game with his second home run the difference maker in this 6-to-5 final as the Washington Nationals swept the Cincinnati Reds and took sole possession of first place in the NL East. Continue reading
Bryce Harper sees Gio Gonzalez
When Dave Martinez was hired, he did not mince words. He said he was here to win. The schedule-makers were kind to Martinez with his first quest against the Cincinnati Reds for his first series of the season. The Reds only won 68-games last season, and they no longer have +5.0 WAR Zack Cozart. It set-up what good teams want in sports — good teams are supposed to beat the bad teams and the Washington Nationals have done that so far. Today, the Washington Nationals go for the three game sweep.
“You embrace those expectations,’’ Dave Martinez said. “In my first press conference I said, ‘I’m here to win.’ If you don’t think that way, or any player thinks that way, why are you playing the game? I want them to understand we’re here to win.’’
Wins can come with a price to pay. Dave Martinez had a nice four run cushion leading into the seventh inning and stuck with Stephen Strasburg too long. By doing that, the game turned to high leverage when Martinez finally went to the bullpen with bases loaded and Joey Votto stepping into the batter’s box representing the tying run. While Sammy Solis toed the rubber, Brandon Kintzler was getting hot in the bullpen. Solis got the job done not allowing a run to score, and Kintzler got to sit back down. But over 2 2/3 innings yesterday after Strasburg departed, Davey Martinez warmed up every bullpen arm not named Sean or Shawn. Even A.J. Cole was warming up in the bullpen.
What Dave Martinez was guilty of is affectionately called dry-humping by pitchers and they hate it. Dry-humping happens when you warm-up relievers and don’t use them in the game. Brandon Kintzler got up twice to warm-up and was not used. Even Ryan Madson warmed-up and did not get into the game. While traditional statistics only keep track of reliever innings actually pitched in the game, dry-humping relievers don’t show up in the stats. How effective would Kintzler be if he was used in today’s game? The same with Madson. Then you have the situation of some relievers are not as effective in consecutive games with Solis and that .412 batting average. On top of that, Enny Romero and Matt Grace were both used in relief yesterday and did not look good which will take a leap of faith as both should be available.
So who is available out of the bullpen today besides Shawn Kelley and Sean Doolittle? You can expect Dave Martinez and pitching coach Derek Lilliquist will be taking stock today as they talk to their bullpen pitchers.
“I think injuries are the best lesson,” Brandon Kintzler said. “I have had enough injuries and surgeries to know how the body works and how to take care of yourself.”
Kintzler wants to be honest with his manager and coaches and declare himself unavailable when he has been over-worked. It was not always that way for Kintzler in his career he said. Most relief pitchers have that bravado to tell their coaches they are fine when they are not.
Trevor Gott should be available today. He was the last reliever used in the game, and only needed to pitch to one batter to close out the six run victory for the Nationals. Gott had to replace the ineffective Enny Romero in the ninth inning.
“By winning one more game each day,” Dave Martinez said which is his philosophy to the end of the season.
With Gio Gonzalez as the starting pitcher today, the hope is he can control the game and save the bullpen. The decision to go with the eight-man bullpen sure looks like a wise move now. The decision to dry-hump Kintzler and Madson was a shame. Two things we expected from Dave Martinez was better reads on when his starters are spent regardless of pitch counts, and not abuse his bullpen arms. While yesterday is just one game out of a long season, there is no reason to panic. We hope yesterday was a learning experience for a manager who has all of two games on his resumé.
The Reds have righty Sal Romano starting for them today. Only Matt Adams has faced Romano before and he was 1-for-3 with a home run against the rookie. We will see if that small sample size nugget sways Martinez on today’s line-up.
Washington Nationals vs. Cincinnati Reds
Stadium: Great American Ballpark, Cincinnati, Ohio
1st Pitch: 4:10 pm EDT
TV: MASN; MLB App out-of-market
Nats Radio: 106.7 The Fan and via the MLB app
Line-ups subject to change without notice:
Today at CIN: Eaton LF, Rendon 3B, Harper RF, Zimmerman 1B, Turner SS, Taylor CF, Montero C, Gonzalez LHP, Difo 2B pic.twitter.com/e3aGSS9YPS
— Talk Nats (@TalkNats) April 1, 2018
Photo by Michael Daalder for TalkNats
The ball was flying in the Great American Ballpark as witnessed by the 7 combined home runs today, but it was Sammy Solis who came into the game in the 7th inning with bases loaded in a 4-run game with one-out to face All-Star slugger Joey Votto. While Votto represented the tying run, Solis struck him out on a moving two-seam fastball that got Votto bending back. That didn’t get the Nats out of the inning because Solis had to face the hitterish Scooter Gennett. Solis threw Gennett a knuckle-curve to induce a comebacker back to the reliever to end the threat. Continue reading
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