Gio Gonzalez with a pure gem. Turner & Ramos with the fireworks: Postgame

Posted on August 5, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Gio Gonzalez threw a 2-hitter over 7 innings with only 1 walk in a Nats 5-1 win over the San Francisco Giants. It was one of the best games Gio has ever thrown as a Washington Nationals’ pitcher. Bruce Bochy stacked his line-up with right-handed batters, and it did not faze Gio Gonzalez who was efficient and effective.

The Nationals runs on offense once again had Trea Turner front and center. He had a double and a home run, and two runs scored.

Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats.com

Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats.com

Wilson Ramos had a big home run to go with a walk and a Sac Fly for 2 RBIs as Ramos set his career high with his 17th home run of the season. Ramos closes in on his career high in RBIs as he currently has 61. Continue reading →

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Game #109 Three games in DC with San Francisco: Game Thread

Posted on August 5, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

The Nationals are 64-44 with a 7.0 game lead in the NL East, and a year ago at the same point the Nationals were 56-52 and -2.5 games behind in the NL East. Game #108 ended with a devastating loss a year ago as Drew Storen had a 4-1 lead and walked a batter and 2 straight singles to load the bases for Carlos Gonzalez who hit a grand slam to win the game. What a difference a year makes!

The Nationals will be playing the Giants for three game this weekend that should have the feel of post-season baseball if Bruce Bochy plays these game like he did last week in San Francisco.

Dusty Baker adjusted his pitching rotation to have Gio Gonzalez start tonight, and he will face Jeff Samardzija of the Giants. Stephen Strasburg will pitch on Saturday against Matt Cain, and Tanner Roark and Madison Bumgarner are set for Sunday.

You might recall that last week against the Nationals at AT&T Park  Samadzija took the loss in the  4-1 game. Samardzija gave up four runs on seven hits in six innings against the Nats.

Even if Ryan Zimmerman is healthy Dusty Baker could sit him as he is a career .053 batter against Jeff Samardzija in 19 at-bats. By the way, in regular season games, Hunter Pence is .059 against Gio Gonzalez in 17 at-bats.

Continue reading →

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“We like the team we have” — Mike Rizzo, General Manager of the #Nats

Posted on August 4, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

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Nats are 64-44! #1 in the NL East, #2 in pitching in the MLB, #8 in offense in the MLB, and #1 in fielding in the MLB

Posted on August 4, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

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Nats sweep the D’Backs: Postgame

Posted on August 3, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

The Nationals swept the three-game series from the Diamondbacks, and the Nats head home with a 6-3 road trip in the books.

To add to a good day, the Cubs swept the Marlins to give the Nats a 7 game cushion in the NL East with 54 games remaining in the regular season.

Max Scherzer pitched a good game striking out 11 in 8 innings with 3 earned runs. Mark Melancon was warming up in the top of the 9th in a 4-3 game figuring to make his first save, and when the Nats scored 4 runs with 2 outs in the top of the 9th Melancon pitched with a 8-3 lead to close the game out.

The Nationals offense was helped by a 451 foot blast from Trea Turner and another home run from Daniel Murphy. Every starter had at least one hit today and perhaps the biggest hit was Scherzer’s 2-run single with bases loaded and 2 outs.

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ESPN Stats and graphics

Here is the game highlights video which you can watch here.

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Game #108 Rest days for JDub & the Buffalo: Game Thread

Posted on August 3, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

We had a scare in the 9th inning last night as Wilson Ramos was knocked backwards after he took a foul tip to his upper chest. It looked serious as the trainer Paul Lessard sprinted out to Ramos’ aid. It appeared after removing Ramos’ chest protector that the issue was the foul tip broke his gold chain. Dusty Baker joked after the game, “I don’t know what he was reaching for down there and pulled out some gold. Ramos has been a Godsend. He feels good about himself. I can’t imagine not having Ramos. He’s figured it out. It takes some time. I’m hoping we do something with Big Ramos here to retain him soon.”

“They have told me absolutely nothing still,” said Ramos in response to Baker’s comment. “I’d like [to stay with the Nats], but those are decisions they make … They haven’t made any calls or communicated with [my agents]. We’re still waiting.”
Continue reading →

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Nationals clinch this series win in Arizona!: Postgame

Posted on August 3, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

The Diamondbacks and Nationals had a tight game going with a 2-2 tie until Wilson Ramos busted open the game with a long 3-run HR in the 5th inning off of the starter Robbie Ray.

Tanner Roark pitched a decent game giving up 3 runs over 6 1/3 innings of work. The defense behind him was very good all night. The bullpen was a little shaky after Blake Treinen got 2 quick outs to finish off the 7th inning. Shawn Kelley took the 8th inning and loaded the bases, but did not allow any runs to score. Matt Belisle gave up one run in the 9th to make the final score 10-4.

The Nationals offense was led by Wilson Ramos, Jayson Werth, and Wilmer Difo, and the rest of his teammates who came up big except for Danny Espinosa who was a hard luck 0-5.

boxscore 8 2 16

The highlights video can be seen here. The Nationals improve on this road trip to 5-3 with the final game of the road trip tomorrow. The Nats have already clinched a series win with tonight’s win in Arizona, and the Nats will go for a sweep tomorrow.

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Game #107 Roark and Ray. Two familiar names face off: Game Thread

Posted on August 2, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

The Nats face a player they are very familiar with tonight. Robbie Ray was the Nats’ 12th round draft pick out of Brentwood High School in 2010. Ray was a fast riser in the Nats system, and he became the centerpiece of the Doug Fister trade with Detroit.  The Tigers subsequently traded the lefty to the Arizona Diamondbacks as part of a three-team trade.

Robbie Ray has been inconsistent so far in his career and has struggled with command. Ray is lefty power pitcher and averages 96mph with his fastball, and he throws a reach-back heater at 98mph. His fastball will move from 92 to 98mph in a game. His secondary pitch is a slider, and he will throw a few slurves. Ray will issue walks, and give up some location mistakes that get hit far.

Tanner Roark starts for the Nationals, and Dusty Baker had this to say about him earlier, “He’s built kind of like Roger Clemens a little bit, and the guy’s got some big….you know…..guts.”

Ryan Zimmerman is out of the line-up again tonight as he nurses his injured wrist. There is still no mention of Zimmerman’s availability off of the bench. We do not know if he took batting practice, but he did take grounders at first base during BP.

Continue reading →

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Trades and tirades after the deadline hit 4pm yesterday

Posted on August 2, 2016 by DonH

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The Nats offense scored 2 touchdowns for Strasburg: Postgame

Posted on August 2, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

The Nationals only needed to score two runs for Stephen Strasburg who gave up one run over six innings to lower his ERA to 2.63 and improve his record to 15-1. The Nationals hitters exploded for 19 hits and 5 walks on their way to score 14 runs tonight en route to a 14-1 win.

All nine Nationals starters improved their batting averages last night, and none larger than Stephen Strasburg who had 3 hits on the night including an infield hit he legged out. The other impressive feat was the Nationals had a season’s high four hits with 2 outs and RISP (runners in scoring position) by Wilson Ramos, Clint Robinson, Danny Espinosa, and Stephen Strasburg.

We got to see Mark Melancon make his Nationals’ debut in a scoreless 9th inning where he struck out 2 batters and made it look easy. Jonathan Papelbon threw the 7th inning with a quick 1-2-3 inning.

If you could not watch the game, here is the video recap.

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