The transformation of Daniel Murphy started with confidence and a Long discussion

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

When Kevin Long got fired by the New York Yankees after the 2014 season, it didn’t take long for the Mets to scoop him up. Curtis Granderson was one of Long’s staunchest supporters from their Yankees days, and Grandy helped Long in gaining the confidence of some of the Mets’ players in the 2015 season like Daniel Murphy who just didn’t have the power swing he wanted.

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Tanner Roark can dominate the Fish. 4-1 win! : Postgame

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

The Nats held on to the 4-1 lead they held for 6 inning with Roark earning the win as he dropped his ERA to 2.89. Jonathan Papelbon earned his 12th save and with a great 8th inning Hold by Shawn Kelley, the bullpen once again did a great job. Felipe Rivero relieved Tanner Roark and finished off the 7th. Continue reading →

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Game #42 Roark gets another chance to prove his Werth (Happy Birthday): Game Thread

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

Last weekend, it was Tanner Roark pitching against the Marlins, and he had his worst outing of the season. There are many theories as to why he has struggled against the Fish, and tonight he gets to prove that he can dominate their line-up. The Marlins are without the suspended Dee Gordon, and Giancarlo Stanton is mired in a huge slump as the Phillies completely shut him down as he went 0-for-10 with 9 strikeouts in the three games.

“I’m playing like [garbage],” Giancarlo Stanton said. “Can’t do it no more. [Your team is] not going to be successful when you get zero production out of your clean-up guy. I’ve said that before. That clearly shows you’re not going to win series. They’ll pick you up some games, but that’s not ideal.”

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The NL East – A Review of Head-To-Head Schedules/Results

Posted on May 20, 2016 by DonH

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Stephen Strasburg cruised and Harvey cursed as #Nats have laugher: Postgame

Posted on May 19, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

The Nats won the crucial first series of the season against the Mets in New York and improved to 25-16 on the season for the best start in team history.

Nobody knew which Matt Harvey would show up tonight as he has been struggling, and it was the bad Harvey. He gave up a 2-run HR in the 1st inning to his ex-teammate Daniel Murphy on an 0-2 pitch. The wheels came off the bus in the 3rd inning for Harvey with bases loaded as Ryan Zimmerman hit a possible 6-4-3 doubleplay ball to Asdrubal Cabrera and he booted it and Harvey fell apart and the Nats pounced for 7 more runs knocking out Harvey in his shortest outing of his career at 2 2/3 innings.

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Game #41 Rubber game of this series Strasburg/Harvey: Game Thread

Posted on May 19, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

As we discussed yesterday, the Washington Nationals were at the quarter pole of the season, and with the win in last night’s game the team’s 24-16 record is the best 40 game start in Nationals’ history.

The Nationals are guaranteed to remain in 1st place in the NL East even after today’s games. As of this morning,  the NL East boasts the best top 4 teams in combined records in baseball with a combined total of 91 wins as the vaunted NL Central with the Cubs has 87 wins for their top 4 teams and are the only division with 4 teams with 20 or more wins.
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Is it the teacher or the student? That is the question. #Nats offense

Posted on May 19, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

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Felipe Rivero stomped on the brakes and the Nats bats got 7: Postgame

Posted on May 18, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

There is that old saying that no lead is safe, and Dusty Baker gave Gio Gonzalez some rope, and he almost hung himself. Gio was nails for the first 6 inning, and then hit the wall quickly and loaded the bases with a 5-1 lead. Dusty Baker brought in Felipe Rivero as his relief pitcher as a strategic choice as he had the righty Shawn Kelley warming also which did not give Terry Collins beforehand a clue to who would relieve Gio.

Dusty knew Collins’ bench was mostly key lefty bats (Conforto, DeAza, Duda) plus his backup catcher and a weak hitting righty named Reynolds. Collins inserted the righty Reynolds as a pinch-hitter and Felipe Rivero got a comebacker for the 2nd out of the inning throwing home for the force play and no run scored, and then Terry Collins went to Michael Conforto with 2 outs and bases loaded as his pinch-hitter and Conforto who is in the upper 1oo’s in batting average against lefties grounded to 1st and as Rivero covered 1st base to cover the relay toss from Ryan Zimmerman, Rivero stomped on that bag for the 3rd out in the 7th.  Any potential comeback from the Mets was snuffed out there with no runs scoring from a bases loaded situation. Continue reading →

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Game 40: The 40th game is the 1/4 point of the season. Big game implications tonight: Game Thread

Posted on May 18, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

The Nationals and Mets have another game tonight in this battle of the NL East and each team is trying to show their strengths while the other team exposes their weaknesses. Last night was an old-fashioned pitchers duel that the Mets came up on the right side of.

The Nationals had a few opportunities to make things happen last night and failed. We want to illustrate one of the biggest moments and opportunities in the game. Continue reading →

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The star of Section 105, Jayson Werth has a big birthday on Friday

Posted on May 18, 2016 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears
I wrote a shorter version on my MASN column on Tuesday and some have asked for the full piece as I am limited on space on that site:

There is this player in Nats Park who has a cheering section out there in the unheralded part of the park tucked in between the foul-pole and the visitor’s bullpen in Section 105 in Nationals Park. That’s right, it’s in leftfield where the man they call out to there has numerous nicknames like “The Beard” and “The Werewolf” and some just refer to him as “JDub” as Bryce likes to call him and others rib him with calls of “Grandpa”, and the man with the big beard calls leftfield his position.

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