The Home for Washington Nationals Game Talk

The Washington Nationals got a very nice win this afternoon led by DJ Herz‘s five scoreless innings with no hits. Dylan Crews carried the offense with a home run, double, walk, two RBIs and two runs scored. With the unexpected day-off yesterday after a rain-out in Pittsburgh, this is the second game of this afternoon/evening split-doubleheader today against the Pirates.

The Washington Nationals came out swinging and took a quick 3-0 lead. Then they failed at the little things, and their lead quickly evaporated and boiled over into a 9-4 loss. After a rain-out on Friday, the Nats have a split-doubleheader today in Pittsburgh.

The Washington Nationals had yesterday’s game won until they didn’t. Another case of the wins can’t be counted until final score is determined in the end. The Nats suffered another 1-run loss in extra innings. The value of 1-run and executing on the “little things” continue to bite this team in the W/L column.

Starter MacKenzie Gore had a perfect game going until a 3-2 pitch on the corner was ruled in favor of the batter, a rookie callup, with 2-outs in the 6th inning. Of course that runner scored on a double — and should have been out by a mile at the plate. A good throw would have easily beat the runner to the plate, but CJ Abrams threw the ball into the dirt, and it bounced 3-times and allowed the runner to score. The Nats came back with a 3-run 8th inning to take the lead, but Kyle Finnegan blew the save in the 9th inning.

The Washington Nationals took care of business last night in Miami and will now try to secure a 2-game sweep in this quick series. After tonight’s game, the Nationals will fly through the night to Pittsburgh. This is a sad situation with Marlins management as they have not been accommodating the Nationals and other teams with an early get away game on weekday games.

The Washington Nationals had chances on Friday and Saturday night for walk-offs, and then were blown-out on Sunday. That happens, and with a day-off yesterday — the team is back at work today in Miami. These are the final 25 games of the 2024 season. A sprint to the finish.

The Washington Nationals had chances on Friday and Saturday night for walk-offs. There was no final celebration for the home team as they couldn’t get the final hit to win. Maybe the issue is they lost it on mistakes earlier in the game. This is the learning a young team must do to take one-step back to move two forward. The Nats are now back in salvage mode in a series. They need that Curl W today.

Today is also September 1 when rosters expanded from 26 to 28 players. The Nats added a name that many fans will recognize in Darren Baker, the son of Dusty Baker, and the other player they added is a Scrabble word name you should remember in Zach Brzykcy.

The Washington Nationals were this |—–| close to a walk-off last night against the Cubs. Dylan Crews had already homered in the game and was a single from tying it in the 9th inning and probably a double from winning it with the speedy Jacob Young on 1st base. A home run would have been a story book ending as the Nats were clawing back from a 7-3 score entering the 9th inning. In the end, it was a 1-run loss — but it showed how close the Nationals were.

Pitcher DJ Herz will face the Cubs team that traded him a year ago to the Nats. All Herz has done is find ways to improve and compete. He was drafted by the Cubs in the 8th round of the 2019 draft and traded for infielder Jeimer Candelario at the trade deadline in 2023. On June 4th, Nats’ starting pitcher Trevor Williams went on the 10-day IL, and Herz was called up. With nearly three months at the MLB level, Herz has turned in some of the best games of the year for this team. Everyone loves a good “revenge game” so let’s see what Herz can do against his former team.

The Washington Nationals have the Chicago Cubs in town for this Labor Day weekend series. With a lefty on the mound, manager Dave Martinez will stick with Dylan Crews at lead-off. He also moved his struggling shortstop, CJ Abrams, down to 7th in today’s batting order with the lefty on the mound. Abrams was on the bench for Wednesday’s game and got the team day-off yesterday.