“The fans are right to be frustrated. We’re all frustrated.” 10 reasons for frustration and the reasons for optimism!

Posted on July 10, 2025 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

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Postgamer #92: Nats’ Offense Explodes, Hands Miguel Cairo His First Win: A Recap

Posted on July 9, 2025 by Ryan MacReynolds
© Ffooter | Dreamstime.com – Busch Stadium – St. Louis Cardinals Photo

The home run hat and American flag suit are both back in the Nationals’ dugout, as was an energy and excitement level that we haven’t seen in weeks. The Nationals broke out of their offensive funk tonight, and it’s no coincidence that they seemed to genuinely be enjoying themselves for the first time in a while. Interim manager Miguel Cairo was rewarded for his efforts tonight with his first career win as a big league manager in the Nats’ 8-2 victory in St. Louis.

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Game #92 Gore needs to be the stopper

Posted on July 9, 2025 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears
Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats

The Washington Nationals have dropped 4-in-a-row and call on their All-Star ace, MacKenzie Gore, to be the stopper. After throwing a career-high 111 pitches in his previous start, Gore will pitch on two extra days of rest. Why he pitched 111 is more of the mystery.

Today we learned that Trevor Williams will be having UCL ligament surgery on his elbow after throwing 54 pitches in the first inning of his last start — be glad that Dave Martinez is no longer making decisions about the pitchers on this Nats’ staff. Some of his decisions boggled the mind. But then again, Miguel Cairo pulled a Davey last night and shoved a fatigued Jake Irvin into the 6th inning in a 3-2 game that quickly turned to 4-2. Irvin had pitched a season-high 107 pitches last week and got zero extra rest days and was actually moved up from starting Thursday to pitch last night to give Gore extra rest. What are we missing in this picture?

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Postgamer #91: New Leadership Same Woes, Nats Fall Again: A Recap

Posted on July 9, 2025 by Ryan MacReynolds

The Miguel Cairo-led era of Nationals baseball began tonight, in quite uneventful fashion. The Cardinals, while it wasn’t an overly impressive performance from their offense, put on a pitching clinic tonight thanks to Sonny Gray and a gaggle of relief arms. This one, while close throughout, never really felt like it was in doubt once St. Louis took the lead, a testament to the effectiveness of their pitching staff.

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Game #91 Nats debut for manager Miguel Cairo

Posted on July 8, 2025 by Andrew Lang
Photo by Bailey Accorto for TalkNats

The Washington Nationals will play their first game under interim GM Mike DeBartolo and manager Miguel Cairo. Both of them met with the media before the game.

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The sun will be heating up on the Lerner ownership group

Posted on July 8, 2025 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears
Photo by Kristin Beth Photography on IG for TalkNats

“The sun will come up tomorrow,” former Washington Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo said after his departure from the team on Sunday. If that quote sounds familiar, those were lyrics popularized in the musical, “Annie.” Yes, that is true, the sun will come out tomorrow. Rizzo will get paid the rest of his contract and can take that sunny 2-week vacation to Italy that he was just talking about on the radio a few weeks ago.

For Rizzo’s former bosses, the summer sweltering heat is getting dialed up on the Lerner ownership group, and that sun, when magnified, gets even hotter. They painted an even larger target on themselves once they fired Rizzo because he is gone as a buffer.

While the Lerners rarely ever speak publicly, they needed to say more than what was in their official statement from the team posted yesterday. What is the long-term direction? That is the unknown. Nobody knows what they are willing to do in the next offseason. If they would just say that they are committed to signing their next big contract, everyone could relax. But they said nothing of real substance about the future beyond the end of this 2025 season.

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I-GM Mike DeBartolo is on the clock, and the Lerner ownership group is also!

Posted on July 7, 2025 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears
Photo by Sol Tucker of the Nationals’ dugout

Dreams can come true, even when things seem to be at their lowest point. It just takes time to get to a high point from the lowest point. Divers know that as their norm, and so do mountaineers. Elite athletes on teams, aren’t used to low points. Is everyone rowing in the same direction is why you need a skilled coxswain. In baseball, coaches and especially the manager assume the coxswain position in the dugout. Those coaches better have a positive impact. Don’t believe for a second  “It’s never on coaching.” It’s on everyone, and that’s why the Washington Nationals had to part ways yesterday with two good men.

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The Nationals hire their interim manager, Miguel Cairo

Posted on July 7, 2025 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears
Miguel Cairo has the High-5 ready; Now he is the Nats’ interim manager; Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats

After manager Dave Martinez and general manager Mike Rizzo were fired simultaneously yesterday, the first order of business for interim general manager Mike DeBartolo was to hire an interim manager. With a day-off today as the team readies for a game tomorrow in St. Louis, DeBartolo had time to make his decision and chose Miguel Cairo from within the organization. And when we say inside the organization, he was Martinez’s bench coach in the dugout.

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Mike Rizzo and Dave Martinez fired!

Posted on July 6, 2025 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears
Photo by Marlene Koenig for TalkNats

As the 5 o’clock ESPN All-Star team “reveal” show wrapped up, the Washington Nationals PR crew was offline. No instantaneous social media mentions from the team as you would expect when two of your youngest stars, MacKenzie Gore and James Wood, were chosen from a last place team to play in nine days in the All-Star game. Odd indeed, and that is because the team was on standby. They were in the process of officially firing Mike Rizzo and Dave Martinez after today’s game.

As news broke from ESPN’s Jeff Passan, the Nats quickly confirmed the news just 9-minutes later with a prepared press release that announced that assistant GM Mike DeBartolo will be the team’s interim general manager for the remainder of the season, and his first order of duty will be to name an interim manager tomorrow to replace Martinez.

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Postgamer #90: Nats get 2 All-Stars; Battle Today But Unable to Avoid The Sweep: A Recap

Posted on July 6, 2025 by Ryan MacReynolds
Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats

The Nationals faced an uphill battle this afternoon in the final game of this weekend’s series with the Red Sox. They had to overcome another ineffective outing from a starting pitcher and had to go up against one of the toughest starting pitchers in all of baseball. Despite this, the Nationals managed to stay within striking distance all afternoon, even displaying some excellent hitting against Red Sox starter Garrett Crochet.

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