As damaging as Trevor Rosenthal's early season performance was to the Nationals bullpen, Kyle Barraclough's struggles have had nearly as much of a negative impact on that group as a whole.
Barraclough, who like Rosenthal was acquired early in the offseason by general manager Mike Rizzo, was supposed to join his fellow right-hander as setup men for Sean Doolittle, offering manager Davey Martinez experience and success in that role over the last three seasons for the Marlins.
Rosenthal's...
Stephen Strasburg, more often than not, has pitched deep into games this season and at worst given the Nationals a good chance to win. The Nats lineup, more often than not, has battled late even when trailing and at worst brought the tying run to the plate and given the team a good chance to win.
When neither of those regular developments occurred this afternoon on South Capitol Street, the end result was the ugliest, least-inspiring loss this team has suffered in a while.
With four early home...
When Matt Adams had to depart Monday night's game in Chicago with what he believed was an oblique injury, the Nationals understandably had reason to worry this was serious.
"I'm a little concerned," manager Davey Martinez said that night. "Whenever it's an oblique, that's going to be days missed."
Adams did miss three days, but that's all he missed. He's back in the lineup for this afternoon's game against the Diamondbacks, and it turns out the injury wasn't to his oblique after...
The Nationals don't often oversell injuries, but it looks like perhaps they did with Matt Adams this week. When Adams departed Monday night's game in Chicago with an oblique strain, manager Davey Martinez admitted he was concerned. And the club considered placing the big slugger on the injured list. But they decided to hold off for a couple of days and see if Adams responded well to treatment, and sure enough he was able to pinch-hit Friday night and now is back in the lineup this...
Unless you've been traveling around the country with them, you probably haven't seen very much of the Nationals in person the last three weeks. They may be finally playing their best baseball, going 12-5 since a late-May sweep in New York, but only six of those 17 games have taken place in D.C.: four against the Marlins, two against the White Sox.
So the Nats will be a sight for sore eyes tonight when they take the field for the opener of an 11-game homestand, their longest of the season. And...
They had just been swept in ugly fashion in New York. Their bullpen was a disaster. Their defensive play was sloppy. Their manager's job security was being questioned.
The Nationals were 12 games under .500 on May 24, 10 games back in the National League East, and few gave them any chance of resurrecting themselves at that point. Only a handful of teams this century had managed to even finish with a winning record after playing so poorly through their first 50 games.
As the team returned home...
CHICAGO - Just as the Nationals as a whole are rounding into shape and finally resembling a team capable of going on a sustained run, one of the most important members of their rotation - a bright spot even as the team was struggling early on - has turned into one of their biggest concerns.
Patrick Corbin, pitching like an All-Star only three weeks ago, has now turned in three consecutive sub-par outings, including tonight's latest effort during a 7-5 loss to the White Sox that put a damper on...
CHICAGO - Davey Martinez was admittedly concerned about Matt Adams' strained left oblique after Monday night's game.
"Whenever it's an oblique, that's going to be days missed," the manager said following his team's otherwise uplifting 12-1 thumping of the White Sox.
But today brought encouraging news about the slugger, enough to keep him from going on the injured list for now.
"Actually, he's a lot better than we anticipated," Martinez said this afternoon. "He woke up today and he's...
CHICAGO - Matt Adams has been a big part of the Nationals resurgent lineup, which has scored an MLB-high 6.44 runs per game since May 24, so his potential loss from an oblique strain wouldn't be ideal. That said, with Howie Kendrick and Brian Dozier both red-hot at the moment, there's room for both to start on the right side of the infield most days. And Ryan Zimmerman appears to be inching closer to a return himself. So the Nats might not suffer too much if Adams ends up on the injured list...
CHICAGO - Anthony Rendon has an awful lot of ground to make up if he's going to even have a chance of being elected the National League's starting third baseman for the All-Star Game.
Despite leading all NL third basemen in several statistical categories, Rendon currently ranks fifth at his position in the first round of balloting released today by Major League Baseball. That's the highest rank for any Nationals player so far. Brian Dozier is ninth among second basemen, with Trea Turner 10th...
CHICAGO - Davey Martinez wanted to find a low-pressure situation to ease Trevor Rosenthal back into a big league game, and with his team up five runs entering the ninth inning Monday night, this looked like a good situation to do it.
By the time Rosenthal actually entered from the right field bullpen, it had become a great situation to do it. The Nationals had tacked on six insurance runs in the top of the ninth, so now Rosenthal was able to pitch with a 12-1 lead.
Of course, that also...
CHICAGO - The Nationals signed AnÃbal Sánchez over the winter because they believed the veteran right-hander could duplicate his bounceback 2018 season with the Braves by virtue of his ability to induce weak contact.
For six weeks, it looked like a colossal mistake. Sánchez couldn't get ahead of hitters, he couldn't keep himself from issuing free passes and he couldn't keep his ERA under 5.00.
A two-week stint on the injured list with a strained hamstring followed, and when...
CHICAGO - The Nationals' lineup wasn't exactly built with American League baseball in mind, but the lineup Davey Martinez will be fielding the next two nights in a quick interleague series with the White Sox certainly fits the profile.
Martinez recently has had room to start only two of the three players who make up the right side of his infield: Howie Kendrick, Brian Dozier and Matt Adams. That was less of a problem when Dozier was slumping or Adams was on the injured list, but now all three...
CHICAGO - Good afternoon from whatever this stadium is called these days. To me, it'll always be Comiskey Park. Or, actually, New Comiskey Park, since the original one was across the street. The Nationals make their third-ever trip here to the South Side, having won two of three both in 2011 ("The John McLaren Series") and in 2016 ("The Beat Up on Mat Latos and James Shields Series").
This is a different White Sox team, but just as they did last week in D.C., the Nats do catch a bit of a...
SAN DIEGO - Howie Kendrick stepped to the plate in the top of the eighth Sunday afternoon, the Nationals and Padres tied. It was his first at-bat of the game, manager Davey Martinez having hoped to give him a well-earned day off, but now needing his veteran utilityman to pinch-hit in a key spot.
Inside the visitors' dugout, the Nationals - to a man - just knew something big was about to happen, courtesy the 35-year-old they affectionately view as a grandfatherly figure.
"I feel like when...
SAN DIEGO - The first one, a pinch-hit rocket to left by Howie Kendrick, was impressive both because of the situation and the fact it gave the Nationals a lead in the top of the eighth.
The second one, a 402-foot shot to center by Trea Turner, drew some oohs and aahs because it had now extended the Nationals' lead to two runs in very short order.
The third one, another blast to center by Adam Eaton, was reason for some to drop their jaws and others to boo Padres reliever (and former Nats...
SAN DIEGO - There are any number of factors a manager must consider when filling out a lineup card, but the identity of the opponent's starting pitcher typically is high on the list.
What, though, does a manager do when the opponent's starting pitcher is a reliever who threw an inning the previous night and is scheduled to be the first of a parade of arms coming out of the bullpen?
That's the dilemma Davey Martinez faced this morning as he selected a batting order for the Nationals' series...
SAN DIEGO - It's another picture-perfect day here. Too bad we have to leave after today's series finale at Petco Park. The Nationals will hope to leave on a high note with back-to-back victories and a four-game split with the Padres. To do that, they'll need a big start out of Stephen Strasburg in his hometown and some sustained offense against a conga line of San Diego relievers.
Strasburg notched his 100th career win his last time out, but it was actually one of his worst performances of...
SAN DIEGO - Did Brian Dozier know, when he stepped to the plate in the top of the fourth Saturday night, that he was sitting on 999 career hits?
"No," he insisted. "I knew it was creeping up, just because of people like you guys tweeting about that kind of stuff."
Wait, does Dozier follow Nationals reporters on Twitter?
"No," he replied. "I actually deleted Twitter because of you guys."
Fair enough. Dozier could be excused for trying to block out the criticism that was being levied at...
SAN DIEGO - After a chaotic and gut-wrenching loss Friday night, what the Nationals needed tonight more than anything else was a nice, clean game with no reason for panic.
What they needed was a no-nonsense Max Scherzer start.
And that's what they got, riding their ace's seven scoreless innings and some timely early hits to a 4-1 victory over the Padres that very briefly felt in danger of falling apart in the ninth until Sean Doolittle took care of business and locked it down.
Scherzer played...