The Home for Washington Nationals Game Talk

The Washington Nationals got a pitching gem from MacKenzie Gore and kind of wasted his 6.0 innings of 1-run baseball in a 1-0 loss. This season starts its mathematical second half with this game against the Angels as the team is back in the Los Angeles area.

For this game, the Nationals have Jake Irvin on the mound. The Angels head into this game at 40-40, and they called a closed door team meeting it was reported this afternoon.

The Washington Nationals keep doing that Hokey-Pokey dance where you put one foot in and one foot out and you don’t get ahead, you just shake it all about. While that dance might be fun, losing sucks — let’s just be honest about that. Finishing the night and taking over last place in the NL East is a stain on the Nationals’ organization in a year when we were promised that this team was improved.

Truth be told, it should have improved. The pre-Winter Meetings roster had positive vibes with the much needed addition by subtraction as the team cut ties with many players who were negative performers. Players play the games. Coaches make key decisions. General managers sign the players. Owners set the budget. All of those components funnel into the product on the field — for good and bad. Right now, the record speaks for itself.

The Washington Nationals bats came alive in the first game of this series in San Diego to run away with a 10-6 win. Mitchell Parker completed 6.0 innings last night, and the team is now 8-8 (.500) in his starts — even though his run support had been lacking over his previous five starts.

The Washington Nationals took a bus down I-5 from Los Angeles to San Diego last night. A promising start to yesterday’s game was replaced by angst as the Nats gave up their 3-0 lead against the Dodgers en route to a blowout loss. A year ago in San Diego, the Nats entered that game with a 9th inning lead and a chance to get back to .500. Let’s just say that was the series that put the Nationals in a nose-dive with the realization the Nats were going to be sellers at the trade deadline.