Trea Turner was supposed to inject speed and energy to the top of the Nationals lineup. Who knew he'd inject a whole lot of power as well?
Turner blasted two home runs in the game's final three innings tonight, including a walk-off homer to straightaway center field that gave the Nationals a dramatic 5-4 victory over the Phillies and added another chapter to the rookie's sterling season.
Turner, who hit a two-run homer on the first pitch he saw in the bottom of the seventh, needed to work...
Tanner Roark has enjoyed a standout season on the mound that may earn the Nationals right-hander some down-ballot votes for the National League Cy Young Award.
Roark has been effective against just about everybody, but stick the Phillies in the batter's box and he really reaches for the stars.
Roark tonight is looking to improve to 4-0 against Philadelphia this season and potentially lower his ERA from its current 0.64 mark, though that basically gives him zero margin for error.
So far, so...
It has been one of the bigger questions facing the Nationals all season: Which left-handed reliever (or relievers) can they trust when crunch-time arrives?
The answer to that question has changed several times in five months. Felipe Rivero and Oliver Perez were the primary left-handers in the Nationals bullpen back in April, but then Sammy Solis emerged as manager Dusty Baker's top southpaw as May turned to June and July.
Then Rivero was traded to the Pirates in the Mark Melancon deal and...
On the heels of a bit of a clunker last night, the Nationals are back to work tonight against the Phillies. Tanner Roark, whose role within the rotation has become a bit more important in the last 48 hours, gets the start and will look to rediscover the consistency he displayed for most of the season before a couple of hiccups in recent weeks.
Rookie right-hander Jake Thompson starts for the Phillies, one of three pitchers starting in this series who was acquired as part of the Cole Hamels...
Just when it looked like the Nationals' slow-and-steady march to the National League East title was going to proceed unabated, an all-too-familiar sight potentially altered the remainder of this season in dramatic fashion.
We've seen Stephen Strasburg wince after throwing pitches before. And we've seen him leave games due to injury after only a few innings. But not since that awful August 2010 night in Philadelphia had we seen him depart like this, with legitimate reason to worry he might...
If the Nationals are fortunate enough to have reason to create a 2016 Year-in-Review video, tonight's 4-1 loss to the Phillies most certainly won't merit even a passing reference.
Perhaps the most notable thing about this game was the mere fact that the Nationals lost to the Phillies. That hadn't happened since April 28, after which the Nats won nine consecutive matchups with their rebuilding division foes.
"I didn't know it, but after the game somebody told me we had beaten them nine in a...
They hit the ball hard all night. But hard contact doesn't guarantee base hits, only a better chance of base hits. And the Nationals were guaranteed nothing tonight against the Phillies and handed a 4-1 loss despite a sustained barrage of line drives that found just about every fielder wearing a glove.
Rookie right-hander Alec Asher tossed two-hit ball over six innings, earning his first career win despite zero strikeouts. A trio of Phillies relievers finished things off, handing the Nationals...
With Stephen Strasburg shelved again for at least a while and perhaps the rest of the season, A.J. Cole suddenly finds himself in an unlikely spotlight.
The Nationals need someone to fill these starting slots while Strasburg is out with a strained flexor mass in his right elbow and Joe Ross is still rehabbing from shoulder inflammation. And right now, Cole is the man getting the opportunity.
In order to keep himself out there, though, the 24-year-old right-hander is going to have to avoid the...
An MRI taken of Stephen Strasburg's elbow today revealed what Nationals officials described as a best-case scenario given the circumstances, though an injury that still might prevent the right-hander from returning to pitch this season.
Strasburg has "a little strain in his flexor mass," according to Nationals head athletic trainer Paul Lessard, who added the pitcher's elbow ligament is "good."
The club isn't offering a timetable for Strasburg to return, but the immediate plan is for the...
There is a healthy amount of anticipation and concern at Nationals Park this afternoon, as everyone awaits an update on Stephen Strasburg's elbow. Dusty Baker is scheduled to meet with reporters at 4 p.m., though I'd offer one word of caution: It's possible the Nats won't provide a definitive diagnosis this afternoon, especially if the MRI results need to be viewed by outside doctors (which would not be unusual at all).
Regardless of any Strasburg news or non-news, the Nationals open a...
Lost amid the chaos that was last night's game, from Stephen Strasburg's injury to an 11-inning contest that didn't end until 12:41 a.m., was this little nugget: The Nationals, by virtue of their 5-4 victory over the Braves, earned their 82nd win of the year.
Yes, that clinches a winning record in 2016. And it means this franchise has now had five consecutive winning seasons.
This may not seem all that important at the moment, and it's easy to say this means nothing at all for a franchise...
Stephen Strasburg "felt a pinch in the back of his elbow" and will undergo an MRI on Thursday morning to determine the extent to which the Nationals right-hander is injured, manager Dusty Baker said.
Speaking at nearly 1 a.m., about 15 minutes after his team wrapped up a 5-4 11-inning, rain-delayed victory over the Braves, and about four hours after Strasburg departed in the top of the third with that elbow injury, Baker expressed both clear concern about his pitcher's health while also...
The status of Stephen Strasburg's right arm - which is very much an open question at this moment - has far more significance to the remainder of the Nationals season than the outcome of tonight's series finale against the Braves.
But the game wasn't called off after Strasburg walked off the mound in apparent pain two batters into the top of the third. They all still count, and right now the only thing the Nationals can do beyond hoping Strasburg isn't seriously injured is keep trying to win...
What should have been among the most encouraging moments of the season's final month - Stephen Strasburg returning to the mound after a brief stint on the disabled list - instead turned into a potential nightmare scenario for the Nationals and their $175 million right-hander, who had to depart in the top of the third inning with an apparent injury that left the ballpark in stunned silence.
Strasburg grimaced after throwing each of his last two pitches: a fastball to Braves pitcher Mike...
Stephen Strasburg is going to have to wait a bit longer to make his return to the mound.
The start of the Nationals' series finale against the Braves, featuring Strasburg's first start in three weeks, has been delayed by a line of thunderstorms that has been hovering near South Capitol Street for several hours but has yet to produce significant precipitation at Nationals Park.
The grounds crew stood at the ready with the tarp for more than 30 minutes, but the threat of rain apparently was...
When Stephen Drew came down with the flu shortly after the All-Star break, the veteran infielder couldn't have anticipated he wouldn't be able to make a full return to the Nationals for another seven weeks.
Then again, how could anyone have anticipated that seemingly innocent illness would lead to an inner-ear condition that left Drew with extreme bouts of dizziness that resembled vertigo and made many daily routines, let alone anything that takes place on a baseball field, difficult to...
With their lead in the National League East a comfortable 8 1/2 games and their magic number at 16, there is some, but not a ton, of drama left to the Nationals' season. While the actual end result of every game does matter most in the end, at this point you could argue there are more important individual matters still at stake over the final 24 games.
And among the most important individual matters is the return of Stephen Strasburg, which begins tonight at Nationals Park.
After a 16-day...
To his already hefty list of accomplishments in a brief major league career, Bryce Harper can now add another achievement: He has joined the 20-20 club for the first time.
With a successful swipe of second base during last night's 9-7 victory over the Braves, Harper notched his 20th steal of the season. He already had 23 homers, which makes him the newest member of the 20-20 club.
Harper is one of seven big leaguers with at least 20 homers and 20 steals so far this season, joining Mike Trout,...
It's generally not a manager's preference to summon his bullpen two batters into the fourth inning. Nor is that generally a surefire path to victory.
Let's just say Dusty Baker and the Nationals were feeling fortunate to emerge from tonight's nailbiter against the Braves with a 9-7 come-from-behind victory that did not come easily for the home team.
"You got to believe and think it, and everyone on the bench was believing it," Baker said. "The power of positive thinking goes a long way,...
They weathered a laborious (and brief) start from Gio Gonzalez, used Anthony Rendon's grand slam to get back in the game, rode their expanded bullpen through a string of scoreless innings and then watched as their lineup sealed the deal late.
Suffice it to say that the Nationals' 9-7 victory over the Braves tonight had a little bit of everything.
Tied in the bottom of the eighth, the Nationals took the lead for good when Atlanta catcher Tyler Flowers airmailed a throw to third base on Ben...