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Stephen Strasburg delivered a much needed win! Koda Glover with the save and the Nats get a well-earned day off tomorrow.

Strasburg had a shutout going into the 8th inning and was clearly on fumes on a hot and humid day while he could be seen stretching out his legs as it would seem he was cramping. Strasburg began the 8th inning at 93 pitches, and he struck out Jace Peterson to begin the inning then walked Rio Ruiz to raise his pitch count to 103 pitches.  There was nobody warming up in the bullpen at that exact moment. The phone rang and Koda Glover got up.

The next batter was Brandon Phillips who was inserted as a pinch-hitter and Strasburg struck him out on a 3-2 count pushing the pitch count to 108. Ender Inciarte singled to put runners on 1st and 2nd base. Strasburg’s pitch count stood at 110 when Swanson stepped into the batter’s box.

The MASN cameras showed Dusty Baker inside the dugout in a deep conversation with his bench coach Chris Speier and his pitching coach Mike Maddux. No change was made as Koda Glover was ready to go, and Baker stuck with Strasburg. Dansby Swanson fouled off pitches and also looked at a slider that was in the zone (pitch #5) on a pitch that should have been strike 3, and Strasburg did not get the call. On the 8th pitch of the at-bat Swanson sent a low liner to the opposite field just out of Bryce Harper‘s reach for a 2-run double.

Strasburg ended up throwing 25 pitches in the 8th inning to finish with giving up 2 runs on 118 pitches and departing with the tying run on 2nd base. Koda Glover was brought in as Strasburg departed and angry. Luckily, Glover got Nick Markakis for the much needed 3rd out on a strikeout.

Glover closed out the 9th aided by a nifty unassisted doubleplay by Ryan Zimmerman on a Matt Adams hard liner.

Daniel Murphy, Jayson Werth and Bryce Harper provided the offense.

Talk Nats Podcast

The creative duo of Kevin Nibley and Bryan King have an exciting new TalkNats Podcast for us which includes the full Jude Oz interview, and Mike Weisman from Potomac Nationals to discuss the prospects in High-A which includes players like the Nationals number 1 prospect Victor Robles.

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We fondly refer to the Washington Nationals radio team with a joint nickname of “C&D”. Charlie Slowes and Dave Jageler are fixtures and rarely ever have missed a regular season game in their 12+ seasons together. The duo has Jack Hicks, who is there sound engineer and referred to as “The Jack of all Things” and also their hard-working interns.  They all form the popular radio team calling every one of the 162 Nationals regular season games along with Spring Training games and the post-season games.

This season would be different as Charlie knew late last year that his son Alex was graduating from High School while the Nationals were playing the Pittsburgh, and he would take two days off.

Like a true call-up of a minor leaguer, C&D decided that Kevin Brown who is in his 7th season with the Triple-A Syracuse Chiefs should make his MLB debut for the two games in the Pittsburgh series while Charlie stayed back in Maryland.

“Dave [Jageler] called me in February and said this might be a possibility,” Kevin Brown explained. “It wasn’t confirmed until the end of April — he sent me an email to let me know when it was official.”

Dave Jageler actually graduated from Syracuse University and began his professional career broadcasting Syracuse Chiefs baseball on Time Warner Cable and the Empire Sports Network, and knew Kevin Brown already. Eric Gallanty and Kevin Brown have been the radio team for the Syracuse Chiefs for the past three years. Continue reading →