by Andrew Lang
by Andrew Lang
by Andrew Lang
The Nationals have dropped three games in a row, and the team will be without Daniel Murphy for the third game in a row. Tanner Roark steps into his familiar role of ‘stopper’ which is reserved for aces who stop losing streaks. On the other side is the Marlins ace Jose Fernandez who is excellent pitching in Marlins Park.
Besides the Nationals being without Daniel Murphy in the starting line-up, the Nationals will also not have Jayson Werth and Ryan Zimmerman. 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.
As the team celebrates Gio Gonzalez‘s birthday in the city of his youth, the Nationals really want to celebrate an improved Magic Number to make up for losing two in a row in Atlanta.
Tonight’s match-up is rookie A.J. Cole for the Nationals, and Wei Yin Chen for the Florida Marlins. Chen returns from the disabled list, and A.J. Cole continues in his quest to impress for a shot to make the Nationals post-season roster in some capacity. Continue reading
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
Today is the season finale with the Atlanta Braves, and the last time that the Washington Nationals will ever be scheduled to play in Turner Field aka Trea Turner Field. The stadium nicknamed the ‘Ted’ by Braves fans in honor of media mogul and former Braves team owner Ted Turner has been ‘owned’ by Trea Turner since his call-up last year to the Majors. Trea Turner hit his first career home run in Atlanta last year and now has 5 home runs in Turner Field with 10 RBIs and 4 stolen bases and a full slash line of .395/.429/.842/1.271. Don’t fret Braves fans, Trea is hitting .500 in Camden Yards and Progressive Field, and Trea Turner dominates more than any stadium in the Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati where he is batting 1.000. Continue reading
The Nationals lost 7-3 today with six runs charged to the ledger of Gio Gonzalez in just 4 1/3 innings of work for Gonzalez who did not execute many pitches today.
The Nats offense started off great with another lead-off home run from Trea Turner, and Turner got 3 of the 6 hits from the Nats starters today. With bases loaded in the 2nd inning and 2 outs, Turner struck out. Jayson Werth was 0-5 with 3 strikeouts, and Daniel Murphy did have one hit today, but his at-bat in 7th inning where he refused to work a walk with one out in a 3-0 count and Turner on 3rd base snuffed out a chance at a rally as he popped up on the infield on the 3-0 pitch in a 6-3 game. In addition, Bryce Harper and Anthony Rendon were both hitless on the day. Zimmerman and Espinosa chipped in with base hits. Ben Revere was credited with a pinch-hit infield single.
Both Trevor Gott and Koda Glover were shaky today in relief as Gott gave up a hit and walked a run home in bases loaded and Glover’s velo was down and he wasn’t particularly sharp. Sean Burnett continues to look great against lefties who are now 1-10 against him.
For the other positive news, Trea Turner hit two home runs for a 3-4 day plus a walk and a stolen base, and Turner had the only RISP hit on the day for the Nats. Turner leading-off games is now batting .471 with a .491 on-base-percentage. It basically gives Jayson Werth the ability to face a pitcher out of the stretch 1 out of every 2 games in the 1st inning. Turner now has 11 home runs and 27 stolen bases.
Turner ranks 9th in the Majors in stolen bases now, and with 23 net stolen bases and his 11 home runs, Turner is only 1 of 5 players with those stats or better.
Tomorrow is scheduled as a Joe Ross start.
Today marks just fifteen games remaining in the season, and Dusty Baker is resting Wilson Ramos today as Pedro Severino gets a rare start. Danny Espinosa is back in the line-up as he returned from California mid-game last night. Danny was able to be with his wife Sara for the birth of their son Ty Espinosa who was born on Thursday. Technically, MLB allows for 3 days of paternity leave, but Danny only used one day which was the day-off on Thursday to schedule the birth with his wife Sara. Danny flew back yesterday afternoon from California to arrive near game time. Dusty Baker encouraged Danny to take his time as we saw with Ryan Zimmerman who took the full 3 days for the birth of his second daughter, and Danny had to make two long cross-country trips. Continue reading
The Nationals dropped the Magic Number to 6 while going to a season’s best 29 games over .500 as Max Scherzer won his 17th game while Trea Turner gave Max all the offense he needed with 4 runs scored on 4 hits. The Nats won 7-2, and it was never really close.
Max Scherzer was good as he got to face a Braves line-up without Freddie Freeman who was on paternity leave. Scherzer was charged with 2 earned runs, and it is possible that the first run is changed to unearned as Matt Kemp stopped at 3rd base on a single, but then ran home on a fielding error which was followed by a walk and 2 strikeouts.
Trea Turner’s night just adds to his legendary status as he went 4-5 with 8 total bases highlighted by a 408 foot home run off of a 79mph off-speed pitch where Turner had to supply most of the power. Turner stole 2 bases and scored 4 runs and had 2 RBIs. Turner raised his batting average to a rookie leading .349 BA and .927 OPS for rookies with at least 250 plate appearances. Possibly the most amazing stat is Turner leads the Majors in the 1st at-bat of the game as he is now batting .460. Continue reading
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