Game #125 Reynaldo Lopez continues the youth movement: Game Thread

Posted on August 23, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

The Nationals continue their youth movement with the flamethrower Reynaldo Lopez as tonight’s starter to face Kevin Gausman in this 2nd game of the four game road/home series with the Baltimore Orioles.

The Nationals hope to get back to their winning ways as they have now dropped two consecutive games in which they have lost by one run.

The Nationals lead is now 8.0 games in the NL East as the Nationals are now 22 games above .500, and the Orioles are currently in tight race in the AL East where they are in 3rd place.

The Baltimore Sun and the Washington Post had very different views on the series.

Washington Nationals and Baltimore Orioles
Stadium: Camden Yards, Baltimore, Maryland
1st Pitch:  7:05 pm EDT
TV: MASN2, MASN-Orioles, MLB Network, MLB.tv

Line-ups  (subject to change without notice):

  1.  Trea Turner CF
  2. Jayson Werth LF
  3. Daniel Murphy 2B
  4. Bryce Harper RF
  5. Anthony Rendon 3B
  6. Wilson Ramos C
  7. Ryan Zimmerman 1B
  8. Clint Robinson DH
  9. Danny Espinosa SS

Reynaldo Lopez RHP

 

 

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Strasburg did the right thing. Will other players come forward?

Posted on August 23, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

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No prizes for a nice try but A.J. Cole was impressive: Postgame

Posted on August 22, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

The youngsters on this team continue to impress. Tonight it was A. J. Cole who really seemed to pitch better than the boxscore. He gave up 4 runs over 7.0 full innings, and was pitching in a stadium that plays small, and he gave up two home runs that were costly, but only the Trumbo home run was a mistake pitch. Cole struck out 8 batters on the night and only gave up 5 hits. Cole got twelve swing and miss strikes tonight out of the 108 pitches he threw.

The Nationals on offense had numerous opportunities to blow the game open, and did not execute in four separate situations to move runners over. Daniel Murphy led-off the 8th inning with a double and represented the tying run. For reasons unknown, he took off to 3rd base on a comebacker to the pitcher and was thrown out trying to get back to 2nd base. On that same play, Bryce needed to pull the ball to at least advance Murphy to 3rd and that didn’t happen. Continue reading →

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Game #124 Strasburg scratched with a DL stint. A. J. Cole starts: Game Thread

Posted on August 22, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

This road/home series against the Orioles will now feature two rookies in A. J. Cole and Reynaldo Lopez along with Tanner Roark and Max Scherzer as the Nats are now without All-Star Stephen Strasburg who was placed on the DL today with elbow soreness, and right-handed starting pitcher Joe Ross remains on the DL with shoulder inflammation.

Joe Ross continues to throw long toss on flat ground and will need to complete a bullpen session with no pain to allow the Nationals to send him on a rehab assignment in some Minor League assignment or Mike Rizzo can decide just to use Joe Ross in the bullpen where Ross finished his season last year.

Tonight’s starters are Dylan Bundy for the Orioles and A.J. Cole. This is Cole’s second start for the Nationals after his debut last season in Atlanta. Dylan Bundy has made 7 starts this season and was pulled after 4 1/3 innings after giving up 5 runs. Continue reading →

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Breaking: Stephen Strasburg moved to the DL

Posted on August 22, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

The Nationals will be  placing Stephen Strasburg on the DL with right elbow soreness according to a source. AJ Cole will most likely get the start tonight.

Stay tuned.

UPDATE 1:34pm EDT: It’s official. Let’s hope nothing serious.

Our source says this is just precautionary and Strasburg felt minimal pain on Saturday and informed Dusty Baker of the situation. They don’t expect  that the elbow will even require an MRI, and Strasburg could make his next start during the first week of September.

In more than 140 characters, Joel Sherman writes this in the NY Post: http://nypost.com/2016/08/22/the-thinking-behind-nationals-putting-stephen-strasburg-on-dl/

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39 Games Left and Counting Down to the #Nats in the Post-Season

Posted on August 21, 2016 by DonH

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Nats’ errors finally catch up with them and drop one: Postgame

Posted on August 21, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

The Nats won 3-out-of-the-4 game series, and drop this finale in extra innings 7-6. The Nationals committed five errors, and the last one cost the Nationals the lead as it turned out.

Gio Gonzalez had a few rough patches in his appearance today and only made it to 5 2/3 innings putting stress on the bullpen as Yusmeiro Petit relieved Gonzalez who finished with giving up 4 runs (3 earned) and left the game with a 6-4 lead. The Nationals couldn’t add-on any runs after the 6th inning. Petit exited the game with a 6-5 lead and bases loaded and no outs and Blake Treinen threw 1 pitch and got a doubleplay allowing the tying run to score.

As the game went into extra innings, with Jace Peterson up with 2 outs and a 3-2 count he smoked a line drive into the rightfield bleachers for the game winning walk-off home run.

Bryce Harper was the offensive star for the Nationals as he hit a three-run home run and had two hits on the day. Chris Heisey also had a home run and two hits on the day.

The Nats 1-3 hitters today were Turner, Espinosa, and Murphy and they combined for 0-12 with 2 walks and a HBP.

The team now heads back to Washington, D.C. for their short road trip for a 2 game series in Baltimore.

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Game #123 Nats look for the sweep & #100 for Gio: Game Thread

Posted on August 21, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Gio Gonzalez looks for his 100th victory of his career today as the Nationals try for the rare four-game sweep of the Braves on the road. The Washington Nationals enter this game at a season-high 24 games over .500 at 73-49 with just 40 games remaining in the regular season.

The Atlanta Braves are going in a different direction from the Nationals and are in the competition for the worst record in baseball and the coveted #1  draft pick in 2017. The Braves are now in a seven game losing streak. Here is what the bottom of the MLB looks like: 1. Atlanta 44-79 2. Minnesota 49-74 3. Angels 51-72 4. Diamondbacks 51-72 5. Tampa Bay 51-70 Of all those teams, only the Braves held fire sales this year. The Nationals are going for the best record in the MLB, and are only behind the Cubs who are 78-44. Continue reading →

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The game should have been a laugher when Scherzer departed with a 9-3 lead: Postgame

Posted on August 20, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

If you knew that the Nats scored 11 runs tonight with Max Scherzer on the mound, you are thinking ‘laugher’. Scherzer went 6 1/3 innings and left with a runner on base with a 9-3 lead. Blake Treinen relieved Scherzer and allowed the inherited runner to score. The defense failed Matt Belisle once again to where he gave up 2 runs (0 earned), and Dusty would need 5 relievers on the evening as only Shawn Kelley had a clean frame tonight.

Koda Glover came in for the 9th in a non-save situation and quickly gave up 1 run and left 2 runners in scoring position and Dusty went to Mark Melancon to get the final out of the game in a Save situation. The first batter Melancon faced hit a single with 2 outs to score 2 runs and make the score 11-9. That closed the book on Koda Glover who was charged with 3 runs on his statline. Melancon got the next batter to pop-up for the final out for his 6th save (36th overall) as a Nat, and a 11-9 win.

The Nationals offense had 9 hits and 8 runs scored in the 4th inning for the most productive inning in Nats history. The add-on runs were needed to keep that final margin at 11-9 win in a 17 hit assault with 3 walks in this game. Continue reading →

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Game #122 After tonight’s game, there are 40 games remaining in the regular season: Game Thread

Posted on August 20, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

The Nationals enter today with a W/L record of 72-49, and the Nats are up on the Braves 2-0 in this four-game series as Dusty Baker’s team will try to secure the series win with a curly W tonight.

The Braves will pitch right-hander Tyrell Jenkins who the Nats just faced, and Max Scherzer will start for the Nationals.

Dusty Baker last night has already committed to Wilmer Difo starting today as well as Ryan Zimmerman. We anticipate that it will be A. J. Cole who will be sent back to Syracuse to make room for Ryan Zimmerman. There is also a high likelihood that Jose Lobaton will be activated with Pedro Severino sent back to Triple-A Syracuse until rosters expand in less than two weeks. Continue reading →

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