Game #118 Gio for the Nats in Colorado: Game Thread

This is the second game in Colorado and the bullpen used 5 of the 7 arms last night as only Yusmeiro Petit and Oliver Perez were not used. Gio Gonzalez is trying to build on his recent starts, and can hopefully shut down the Rockies’ very lefty line-up. The last time out Gio got a 7-4 win against the Cleveland Indians.

The Rockies will pitch righty Chad Bettis who has a winning record for the Rockies which proves that his 5.27 ERA can result in wins even with that 1.47 WHIP. Righties hit Bettis slightly better than lefties and combined he gets hit to a .333 BA this season. Continue reading

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#Nats have a quality comeback win to go 23 games over .500: Postgame

The Nationals began this 9 game road trip with a very nice 5-4 comeback win led by Bryce Harper and the Nationals bullpen. Harper had a great game on both offense and defense.

The Nationals bullpen shut-out the Rockies over 5 innings of work as they took over for Max Scherzer who was pulled after going 4.0 innings while giving up 4 earned runs. Matt Belisle pitched 1 1/3 innings only giving up 1 hit. Sammy Solis earned the win as he went 1.0 inning. Blake Treinen threw 1 pitch in the 7th inning and got 2 outs on a doubleplay ball for a Hold. With that play, Treinen induced his 13th doubleplay ball of the season which is the best of all relief pitchers.  Shawn Kelley had a 1-2-3 8th inning with 2 strikeouts for a Hold, and Mark Melancon got 3 groundouts for another save in a 1-2-3 9th inning. Continue reading

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Game #117 Nats on the road in Coors: Game Thread

Today’s game has the Washington Nationals in Colorado to face the Rockies for a 3 game series. Tonight’s pitching match-up has lefty Jorge De La Rosa for the Rockies going up against Max Scherzer of the Nationals.

The Nats brought Joe Ross on the trip to get him restarted on his road back. Ross is scheduled to throw a bullpen session. Stephen Drew is also on the trip, and will be working with the team on his recovery. Wilmer Difo will be working at 3rd base so Dusty Baker can get Anthony Rendon a day off in Atlanta.

Jose Lobaton will be catching tonight on a rehab start along wtih Ryan Zimmerman who will DH tonight for the Triple-A Syracuse Chiefs.


Washington Nationals and Colorado Rockies
Stadium: Coors Field, Colorado
1st Pitch:  8:40 pm EDT
TV: MASN, ROOT, MLB.tv

Line-ups  (subject to change without notice):

  1. Trea Turner 2B
  2. Jayson Werth LF
  3. Daniel Murphy 1B
  4. Bryce Harper RF
  5. Anthony Rendon 3B
  6. Wilson Ramos C
  7. Danny Espinosa SS
  8. Ben Revere CF
  9. Max Scherzer RHP
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T-n-T and Bennie & The Jets and Play The Harp & The Team MVPs.

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

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Nationals Host Little League Coaches Clinic

Saturday morning about 300 little league coaches from local leagues were invited to Nationals Park to attend the Nats first ever “Coaches Clinic”. This was one heck of a fun morning, a million thanks to the Nats staff and coaches for inviting us.

The Nats divided us up into four groups to get some professional insight into how to coach catching, pitching, hitting, and general motivation. That was followed by lunch and a presentation by Inova Sports Medicine on how to lower the chances of injuries to young pitchers.

Continue reading

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Tanner Roark pitches another gem as he fields his way to a 2.81 ERA: Postgame

Tanner Roark befuddled the Braves hitters most of the day in a 9-1 win. The Nationals are at 22 games over .500 (69-47), and another day comes off of the calendar. Roark now has 10 starts going 7 innings with one run or less which leads the Majors. Tanner Roark also fielded his position nicely today cutting down a runner at home and starting a key doubleplay.

The Nationals offense scored 9 runs today led by Trea Turner opening up the game with a double and scoring two runs. Anthony Rendon had the big blast with a 3-run home run, and Bryce Harper had 3 good at-bats against the right-handed pitchers including an opposite field RBI double. In fact the Nationals put together all of this offense while resting Daniel Murphy and Jayson Werth. All starting position players had hits today except Danny Espinosa as the Nats combined for 9 hits and 3 walks on the day. Continue reading

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Game #116 Roark and a split squad: Game Thread

No Bryce Harper (is in) today while Daniel Murphy and Jayson Werth rest. We are being told from a source that Harper is feeling much better and available off the bench  is now as of noon in the starting line-up.

In reality, Bryce hasn’t played competitive baseball since the middle of last Saturday’s game on August 6th. Can he really be effective and is it safe to try to play Bryce without a rehab or sim game? We will find the answer today.

If Bryce plays today (he is) and then was put on the DL, the Nats would lose the advantage of being able to go back retroactive in back-dating a DL move for Bryce to August 7th.

BREAKING: The Nats announced at noon that Bryce will now be starting.


Washington Nationals and Atlanta Braves
Stadium: Nats Park, Washington, DC
1st Pitch:  1:35 pm EDT
TV: MASN, WUSA9, Fox Sports South, MLB.tv

Line-ups  (subject to change without notice):

  1. Trea Turner 2B
  2. Ben Revere CF
  3. Bryce Harper RF
  4. Wilson Ramos C
  5. Anthony Rendon 3B
  6. Clint Robinson 1B
  7. Chris Heisey LF
  8. Danny Espinosa SS
  9. Tanner Roark RHP

#Nats

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Lunch with Dusty Baker with some questions answered!

August 13, 2016

“As you go through life, collect experiences, not souvenirs. They don’t wear out, and you don’t have to dust them.”—Me

Thanks to the Stand Up To Cancer charity auction last winter, today we had lunch with Dusty and the coaches in the clubhouse.  That was one of those memorable experiences.  We actually got to walk through the clubhouse (Hi, Sammy!) after Kyle Brostowitz (media contact) went ahead to be sure there were no naked men. Given all the signs around, I suspect that this was one of the very few times that women have actually walked through there.  We got to see the video room where the replays are reviewed and players can come review their at-bats, the well-stocked kitchen (five different kinds of milk), and the conference room where we ate (only photo on the wall:  flying Werth).  The conference room included a beer fridge, although no one got anything out of it except cold water.  After lunch, Dusty invited us to his office where he explained the photos on his walls, and gave us a signed bat (ok, souvenir!). On the way out, we said Hi to Bat Hoarder, who was on his way in.

dusty

I didn’t get to ask all the questions proposed by the TalkNats crew, but I did ask some.  I’d ask a question, and the answers would meander off into related anecdotes, so it would be a few minutes before I’d get back to the next subject. I didn’t raise any questions about Pap, nor Bryce.  They said that Drew is just so frustrated that he can’t play, but it just takes time. Continue reading

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Reynaldo Lopez pitches a gem with offense from the 1-2-3

Reynaldo Lopez pitched 7 innings of one-run baseball as the Nats hold on to win 7-6. It was Lopez’s first career win.

The Nationals’ offense was led by the 1-2-3 batters in the order. Trea Turner was a double short of the cycle while Ben Revere hit 2 triples, and Daniel Murphy was the big RBI man with a home run to go with a Sac Fly and an RBI groundout. Danny Espinosa added the Nats final run on the night with an RBI single, and that run turned out to be the game-winning RBI.

Jayson Werth extended his on-base streak to 42 games with a single.

Mark Melancon had to save the game as Yusmeiro Petit faltered with a 7-2 lead. Petit was charged with 3 runs, and Melancon was charged with a run. The lead was almost given up and the defensive play of the game was a relay throw to nab Aybar at 3rd base trying to stretch a double into a triple with no outs in the 9th inning. Ben Revere threw to Danny Espinosa who threw a dart to Anthony Rendon who possibly tagged Aybar out like it was called on the field, and the call was upheld under a challenge by the Braves.

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