Ben Revere, the Igniter, leads in the clutch stat #Nats “One, if by land, and two, if by sea”

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

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Ben Revere is 14 karat….14 karat gold! Nats walk-off for 6th win in a row and provides the fireworks: Postgame

Posted on July 1, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Great pitching, great defense, some Web Gems, and a few timely hits. The Nats win a dramatic walk-off by Ben Revere in the bottom of the 14th inning, and that also was Revere’s first walk-off hit of his career. Perfect timing. The Nats relievers threw 7 scoreless innings in this game to keep hope alive for a Nats win. Tanner Roark lowered his ERA to 2.93 with a very nice 7 inning 2-run outing, and you can watch his highlights here.

This doubleplay started by Daniel Murphy was one of the best defensive plays of the year by the Nats and you can see it here and then there was this ball hit by Billy Hamilton that had triple written all over it and Jayson Werth caught it in the gap and you can see it here and then there was this sweet play by Anthony Rendon that you can see here and then there was this doubleplay started by Tanner Roark that you can see here . Continue reading →

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Game #81 Roark takes the Nats to the halfway point in the season: Game Thread

Posted on July 1, 2016 by Andrew Lang

Can you believe the Washington Nationals are now at the halfway point of the season? Tanner Roark will get the honor of pitching for the Nats in an early evening 6:05pm game on ‘Fireworks’ night. Bombs were bursting in air last night compliments of Ryan Zimmerman and Danny Espinosa.

The Nationals will face Anthony DeSclafani who has only 4 starts this season. His last start was an 8 inning shutout gem against the Padres. Roark has chiseled a few gems himself this season. The Nats want to continue their winning streak, and Tanner was the pitcher who started it on Sunday. Continue reading →

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It didn’t start pretty but ended pretty nice with a 13-4 Nats win. Espinosa 2 blasts and 7 RBIs: Postgame

Posted on June 30, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

The game started off with Gio Gonzalez walking the lead-off man in a 3-2 count then gave up a double to Votto and hit Phillips to load the bases. The next batter batter hit into a doubleplay scoring 1 run. That would be the only run Gio would give up until the 6th inning with a 13-1 lead, Gio gave back 3 runs for what held as a 13-4 Nats win. Unfortunately Gio raised his ERA because of that 6th inning meltdown to 4.81.

The offensive star was Danny Espinosa who stole the spotlight from Ryan Zimmerman who clubbed a 1st inning 3-run blast. Espinosa hit 2 HRs and one was a Grand Slam and the other was a 3-run HR and ran his OPS up to .787 and 41 RBIs on the season.

All Nats position players who started the game had at least 1 hit except Michael Taylor who did start the Nats offense with a leadoff walk in the 1st inning.

This win extended the Nationals win streak to 5 in a row.

boxscore 6 30 16

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Game #80 as Gio will try again to find success: Game Thread

Posted on June 30, 2016 by Andrew Lang

Gio Gonzalez (4.73 ERA) stays in the starting rotation, and tonight Gio will have to prove that he deserves to stay. Gio’s seven duds in a row is bad, and Eight Is Enough to probably push him into the bullpen or a DL stint. In the past 3  years, the Nats have had to make similar decisions with Doug Fister and Dan Haren, and it is never easy. Gio can make the decision easy on Mike Rizzo and Dusty by pitching great tonight and in turn send Lucas Giolito back to the Minors when Stephen Strasburg returns from the DL.  Gio’s catcher tonight for the 2nd start in a row: Wilson Ramos

Also with lefty Brandon Finnegan pitching for the Reds, Dusty is changing his line-up to match-up against that lefty arm on the mound and resting both Bryce Harper and Ben Revere. It seems like a good idea to rest Bryce who is getting back his stroke and could enter later in the game. Revere on the other hand has reverse splits and is hitting lefties (.290) better than righties (.201).

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It was not Déjà Vu from 7-31-15 to 8-2-15. Nats took care of business.

Posted on June 30, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

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Nats sweep the Mets and Murphy and Scherzer were a 2-man show tonight!: Postgame

Posted on June 29, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

The Nats now have a 4 game winning streak and lead the Mets by 6 games in the NL East standings. Daniel Murphy had 3 RBIs from 2 HRs tonight and has now tied his career high in home runs. Max Scherzer pitched a brilliant game in the first 7 1/3 innings of shutout baseball. The 8th and 9th innings got to the heart pounding level—the Nats bent but did not break.

Boxscore 6 29 16

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Game #79 Max Scherzer faces Mets in a pivotal game: Game Thread

Posted on June 29, 2016 by Andrew Lang

The true halfway point of the season is when Friday’s game ends which makes this statistically the last game against the Mets in the mathematical first half of the season. The Nationals and Mets play again in 2 weeks in a 4-game Thursday to Sunday weekend series in New York before the All-Star break starts which is baseball’s traditional ending to the first half of the season. After the All-Star break, the Mets and Nationals only have 2 series remaining on the schedule with one on Labor Day weekend in New York then a home series in Washington on September 12th to 14th.

The Cubs head to Citifield after their game today for a 4-game series against the Mets. The implications are huge to the standings if the Nats can take care of business and the Cubs help out. It all begins tonight as the Nats send Max Scherzer to the mound to face fill-in Logan Verrett for the Mets. The Miami Marlins have a 4-game series against the Atlanta Braves starting tomorrow. Continue reading →

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New numbers and protocols for Lucas Giolito and the intangibles for the team

Posted on June 29, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

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Lucas Giolito pitches a 4 inning 1-hit shutout as the rains did not cooperate…but everything else did: Postgame

Posted on June 29, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Put another win in the books for the Nats! A 5-0 shutout over the Mets!

You never know what you will get in a hyped debut with a big prospect pitcher, and in this debut tonight, Lucas Giolito out-pitched Matt Harvey tonight, but also out-pitched his top-prospect peers like Urias and Tallion who debuted this season.

Giolito was throwing free and easy and you could see his stuff on display. Well painted fastballs, a swing and miss change-up and a ‘fall off the table’ curveball. Giolito only needed 45 pitches to get through 4 innings which was extremely pitch efficient as that averaged 11.25 pitches per inning. It was a joy to watch for Nats fans until the night was interrupted by the second rain delay of the night. This game would not end until after midnight in the East.

The 1-0 lead wasn’t a comfortable lead until Bryce Harper hit a 2-run HR into the Nats bullpen to make the score 3-0, and the exclamation point was from Wilson Ramos who hit a booming 2-run double off of the 402 sign in straight-away centerfield.

The Nats played great defense for Giolito, and really all night long. It was a well-played Nats game by all players. Oliver Perez came in with 1 out and bases loaded in a tight jam and struck out the first batter he faced and got the next batter out on a flyout. Here is the video. The official scorer credited Perez with the win.

This game seemed very reminiscent of Jordan Zimmerman‘s debut in rainy weather. Mother Nature has a mind of her own.

Continue reading →

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