Going Deep with The Nats

The Nats and Mets square off for a 3 game series in Nationals Park tonight with Gio Gonzalez and Bartolo Colon as their teams’ respective pitchers.

What a difference a few days have made for Ben Revere and Anthony Rendon. Both players were getting the grumbles from fans who were concerned about their production. Ben Revere needs a few more 2 hit and 3 hit games to get his stats to a level of respectability, but how great is it to see him raise his batting average nearly 100 points in a few games. Equally as wonderful is watching Anthony Rendon who was slashing .120/.241/.120/.361 on May 7th in RISP situations, and 2 weeks later is now slashing .256/.370/.359/.729 in RISP spots. How quick things change as Rendon has more than doubled his OPS. Continue reading →

Today it was Max Scherzer as the star of the game, and Ben Revere has to be the second star as he manufactured the first 2 runs of the game and collected 3 hits and 2 RBIs. The third star goes to Anthony Rendon who was the big RBI man today with 3 RBIs while hitting a double and a triple and was robbed on the CF wall by Marcel Ozuna. Wilson Ramos was 2-3 with 2 walks today, and the team wins it in a game that was never close at a final score of 8-2.

“Ben Revere our ‘Igniter’ had a big day”, Dusty Baker said with a smile. “[Revere] made those first 2 runs. Ben came out right away and got us on the board. He had to get his timing and confidence back. Hopefully he will be hot in the New York series.”

The Nationals improved to 27-17 on the season, and improved to 7-6 this season against the Marlins. The next time the Nationals see the Marlins will be in late September for 1 road series and 1 home series to finish the regular season on September 30th to October 2nd. Max Scherzer saved the bullpen today as they only had to throw the 9th inning.

RECAP: Ben Revere goes 3-for-5, #MadMax tosses solid 8 in #Nats victory over the Marlins. https://t.co/oT2Z0Gd67I pic.twitter.com/zOiK9vGgc5

— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) May 22, 2016

The Nats showed they had plenty of energy and fight in them last night as the 9th inning was as exciting as you would hope when you’re behind by 2 runs. Bryce Harper got a spinning single followed by a single by Daniel “Hits” Murphy and Harper sprinted to 3rd base to set up a clutch RISP hit by Wilson Ramos. The next batter was Anthony Rendon who loaded the bases with a walk, and the Nats were in business (or so they thought) with no outs. Continue reading →

Today presents the perfect day for a rest day for players who just don’t match-up well with Jose Fernandez. Joe Ross needs to get back to dominating the Miami Marlins on his 23rd birthday. Dusty Baker can rest some players while strengthening the bench in case he needs some key players for later in the game.

This game is being broadcast by FOX and not by MASN and first pitch is scheduled for 7:15pm.

Continue reading →

Last weekend, it was Tanner Roark pitching against the Marlins, and he had his worst outing of the season. There are many theories as to why he has struggled against the Fish, and tonight he gets to prove that he can dominate their line-up. The Marlins are without the suspended Dee Gordon, and Giancarlo Stanton is mired in a huge slump as the Phillies completely shut him down as he went 0-for-10 with 9 strikeouts in the three games.

“I’m playing like [garbage],” Giancarlo Stanton said. “Can’t do it no more. [Your team is] not going to be successful when you get zero production out of your clean-up guy. I’ve said that before. That clearly shows you’re not going to win series. They’ll pick you up some games, but that’s not ideal.”

Continue reading →