The Home for Washington Nationals Game Talk

Max Scherzer played the role of stopper, and the four game losing streak has ended! The Nationals won behind some great Scherzer pitching, and a Ryan Zimmerman three-run home run which cut the Magic Number to 3 then minutes later Ender Inciarte went over the outfield wall to rob Yoenis Cespedes of what would have been a three-run walk-off home run winner and instead was the game-ender as the Braves beat the Mets 4-3 to cut the Nationals’ Magic Number to 2.

All of the Nats starters, including pitcher Max Scherzer, had one hit in the game except Danny Espinosa who reached base on a walk. Trea Turner could be the happiest about his hit in the game which was a 402′ home run and was his only hit in this three-game series.

Turner was playing each game in front of dozens of family and friends who traveled over an hour from Palm Beach County and some traveled even further. It was originally reported that Turner purchased forty tickets per game, and those who were there tonight got to witness Turner’s 12th home run of the season which is the 6th highest total for a Nationals rookie. Continue reading →

Prior to this game, you probably had visions of a 2-1 game in a pitcher’s duel between Tanner Roark and Jose Fernandez with the hopes that Roark would be on the winning side of the ledger, but it was not to be in a final score of 1-0 as the Nats misery has extended to four straight losses. The winning run was a solo opposite field home run to Giancarlo Stanton. Continue reading →

Mistakes were made by the rookies, a second-year player, and a few veterans. The biggest mistake was ruled a double on a line drive to Trea Turner that went over his head in the 6th inning to score the tying run and the eventual winning run. The Nationals had chances to get back into the ballgame, and with runners on 3rd and 2nd with one out, Stephen Drew entered the game as a pinch-hitter and struck out. The Nationals had errors by Koda Glover and Danny Espinosa. In impact, Michael Taylor was inserted into the game as a pinch-runner, and we all know that he leads the Nationals in TOOTBLAN over the last two seasons, and he made a gigantic error of judgment and was thrown out at 3rd base on a Zimmerman dying quail over the pitcher that landed near the 2nd base bag, but it was Taylor’s hesitation that cost him. A.J. Cole pitched so-so giving up 2 runs over 4 innings, but threw a slider across the plate to Giancarlo Stanton who was looking for it.

The offensive star was Danny Espinosa who pulled a 3 run home run. Wilson Ramos had two hits and led off the 9th inning with a gap double. Chris Heisey added two hits, and was replaced by a pinch-hitter in the 9th inning. Ryan Zimmerman had two hits on the night, but both came with bases empty and was hitless in both at-bats with runners on base, and in the 9th inning was not able to move up Taylor who got thrown out. Trea Turner was 0-4 on the night as was Anthony Rendon.

Dusty Baker made many good moves on the night, but curious moves was infield set in the middle of the basepaths with the go-ahead run on 3rd which was the slow Justin Bour. Another move was bringing in Treinen in relief to face the lefty Deitrich. Pinch-hitting for Difo with Stephen Drew with 1 out was another move that didn’t work out, but execution was the story of this game or lack of as it turned out. Perhaps the biggest play was inserting Michael Taylor in to pinch-run when he is a poor baserunner—yes he is fast, but his baserunning decisions in key spots cost the Nats before and did in this game at a crucial time.

“I can’t speak to what another man is thinking,” Dusty Baker said regarding Michael Taylor’s TOOTBLAN.

The Washington Nationals season finale with the Atlanta Braves and final game in (Trea) Turner Field did not go according to (Dusty’s) plan. In a game with multiple rain delays, the game was finally called as an official rain shortened game with a Nationals loss of 6-2.

Joe Ross pitched well in his first start since July 2nd, and he was pulled early after he gave up just 1 run today in 3 innings as he got near his limit today. Ross threw 51 pitches and had five strikeouts and no walks while the Braves were able to scatter 6 hits. Continue reading →