MIAMI - Not to jinx anything, but it would be irresponsible not to mention that Stephen Strasburg enters tonight's start riding a 12-game winning streak against the Marlins, dating all the way back to Sept. 20, 2015. Yes, that's three years and one day. Pretty amazing.
Of course anything can happen on any given day, so Strasburg and the Nationals aren't assured of anything tonight. But it's obviously an advantageous matchup for Strasburg, who is 4-0 with a 1.19 ERA, 43 strikeouts and four...
MIAMI - As the clock ticks down on September, the magnitude of every game result grows. And what looked like a tight race only days ago begins to look more comfortable.
No, the Nationals haven't clinched anything yet. Not even close to it. But in the simple act of winning 6-4 Friday night over the Marlins, and especially in the simple act of watching the Cubs lose three days in a row (once to the Reds, twice to the Cardinals), the Nats have put themselves in a pretty advantageous...
MIAMI - It's crunch time in the National League wild card race, and if the Nationals have any intention of extending their season beyond 162 games, they're going to have to win some close games over the next 10 days and do whatever's necessary to try to win those games.
Tonight, that meant a six-out save attempt for Daniel Hudson, the second time the veteran reliever has been asked to do that this week. And for the second time this week, Hudson pulled it off, in the process moving his team...
MIAMI - Kurt Suzuki played catch from 60 feet today, the first time the Nationals catcher has been able to throw a ball since he departed a Sept. 7 game in Atlanta with right elbow inflammation.
It was merely a first step for Suzuki, who has several more to take before he can return to the lineup. But it was a positive step for the veteran catcher, whose team hopes to have him back in some capacity for the season's final week-and-a-half.
Even if Suzuki isn't ready to get behind the plate yet,...
MIAMI - Davey Martinez strolled through the clubhouse this afternoon, a wide grin on his face, his arm open to receiving hugs from anyone and everyone who welcomed the Nationals manager back to work five days after he had to go to the hospital mid-game due to chest pains.
Nothing about the 53-year-old skipper looked or sounded different. He was full of energy. He was eager to talk about tonight's series opener against the Marlins, provide injury updates on Kurt Suzuki and Matt Adams and the...
MIAMI - When you think playoff race, you think Marlins Park. Right? Well, whether it fits the mold or not, this giant airport hangar of a ballpark is going to host three very important games this weekend. Important, of course, for the Nationals. Not the home team, which is trying to avoid 100 losses tonight.
The Nationals absolutely must take care of business. They've gone 13-3 against the Marlins this season. Two of those losses came here in late April. It's never easy to sweep anybody, no...
MIAMI - Davey Martinez will be back in the Nationals dugout tonight.
Martinez, who has not been able to manage the team since suffering from chest pain during the sixth inning of Sunday's win over the Braves, was cleared by doctors to travel to Miami and will rejoin the club in time for tonight's series opener at Marlins Park.
Club officials were hopeful the 53-year-old skipper would be ready to return this weekend but were at the mercy of doctors, who had to clear Martinez for travel after...
35,000 FEET OVER THE EAST COAST - I'm flying from Washington to Miami this morning for the Nationals' final road series of the regular season. And what better way to pass the time than to engage in a Q&A session with you fine folks?
There are 11 games to go, 11 games for the Nats to either complete an impressive turnaround from a disastrous start or suffer an even more heartbreaking fate. (It should be pointed out here, by the way, that the Brewers and Cubs only have nine games left...
ST. LOUIS - The Nationals' chances of reaching the postseason are built on the broad shoulders of their elite starting rotation. Max Scherzer. Stephen Strasburg. Patrick Corbin. AnÃbal Sánchez. That's how this team was built to win, and it's only going to win if those big arms come up big.
If only that was 100 percent true.
The Nationals rotation is very good, especially now that Scherzer appears to be back to his top form, or at least something very closely resembling it.
But that...
ST. LOUIS - They broke out the Greatest Hits this afternoon at Busch Stadium, with all of your least favorite moments in the history of Nationals-Cardinals matchups rolled into 2 hours and 55 minutes of agony for anyone who has ever worn a curly W cap and ecstasy for anyone who has ever donned the birds-on-the-bat jersey.
It's not that the Nationals lost 5-1, dropping the rubber game of a key September series that was right there for the taking. It's how they lost, in much the same manner...
ST. LOUIS - Day games following night games - especially day games with a 12:15 p.m. local time first pitch - are prime opportunities for veterans to get some rest and reserves to get some playing time. The Nationals, though, have reached crunch time of a season that appears likely to go right down to the wire. And so when it came time to fill out the lineup card for today's matinee with the Cardinals, Davey Martinez and Chip Hale decided it was appropriate to keep things exactly as they were...
ST. LOUIS - Funny how much a team's outlook can change in 12 hours. The Nationals had reason to be nervous when they carried a slim, 3-2 lead in the bottom of the seventh Tuesday night at Busch Stadium, the possibility of falling out of the No. 1 wild card slot very much real. But then they finished off the Cardinals 6-2 and saw the Cubs lose to the Reds.
Now they report to the ballpark for today's matinee with Max Scherzer on the mound and a chance to take two of three from St. Louis. I...
ST. LOUIS - Some news and notes to cleanse your palette before the Nationals and Cardinals return to action this afternoon for their series finale ...
* Howie Kendrick's fourth-inning homer Tuesday night was big because it helped set the tone for an eventual 6-2 victory, but it also was historic.
Kendrick's solo blast to center was the Nationals' 215th home run of the season. That ties the franchise record. Which was set only two years ago. But still.
Home run records are being set left and...
ST. LOUIS - "Late and close" has not been the Nationals' forte in recent weeks. When they've won, they've won by a sizeable margin. When they've been in a tight battle late, they've tended to lose.
Evidence of that? They entered tonight's game against the Cardinals having used a reliever in a ninth-inning save situation only once in a calendar month. The situation simply hadn't come up.
Chip Hale has been prepared for it to happen. And given how little current closer Daniel Hudson has...
ST. LOUIS - Kurt Suzuki took a full round of batting practice early this afternoon at Busch Stadium and also caught AnÃbal Sánchez's bullpen session, but the Nationals catcher is still days away from being cleared to throw and test his injured right elbow.
Suzuki, who hasn't played since feeling a tingling sensation in his elbow after trying to throw out a basestealer Sept. 7 in Atlanta, did take some important steps today in his recovery and was cautiously optimistic about his...
ST. LOUIS - Davey Martinez has been released from the hospital and has returned to his home in Washington, but doctors have not yet cleared him to travel, so the Nationals manager will miss at least his team's three-game series against the Cardinals.
Martinez, who felt chest pain during the sixth inning of Sunday's win over the Braves, was taken to a D.C. hospital, where he underwent a cardiac catheterization Monday. He won't need any more procedures, according to general manager Mike Rizzo,...
ST. LOUIS - There's going to be a lot of scoreboard watching tonight - and pretty much every night over the next 12 days - as four teams (the Nationals, Cardinals, Cubs and Brewers) go down to the wire to secure the three remaining postseason berths available in the National League. There's one thing the Nationals can do, however, to make life easier on everyone: Win tonight's game.
Every day the Nats win a game from here on out is a day they get closer to locking up a wild card berth....
ST. LOUIS - For more than two months now, the Nationals have not only been in wild card position but (aside from a couple of days) have been in the driver's seat to host the Oct. 1 winner-take-all game.
As recently as two weeks ago, they held a four-game lead over the Cubs for home field advantage and a seven-game lead for a spot in the wild card game.
And by the end of play tonight, they could have given all of it back.
The combination of a sluggish September (6-9) for the Nationals with a...
ST. LOUIS - Chip Hale insisted he would manage this game just like Davey Martinez, believing that he wanted to keep things as similar as possible tonight, even as the Nationals skipper watched from back home in Washington while recovering from a minor procedure after experiencing chest pain.
Beyond that, Hale just believes he and Martinez are on the same wavelength when it comes to managing this team through a tight ballgame.
The key decisions Hale made tonight - pulling Stephen Strasburg after...
ST. LOUIS - On a muggy Monday night at Busch Stadium, the last thing the Nationals needed was a short outing from Stephen Strasburg.
Alas, that's exactly what they appear to be getting.
Though he has allowed only two runs so far, Strasburg has thrown a whopping 76 pitches through three innings against a Cardinals lineup that is making the Nats right-hander work as hard as he has all season.
Strasburg needed 38 pitches just to complete the bottom of the first, with four of St. Louis' first six...
