NEW YORK - It's rare you get two legitimate marquee pitching matchups in the same series, but the Nationals and Mets are the rare teams with the rotation depth to be able to pull that off. And so two days after Max Scherzer and Noah Syndergaard dueled, Stephen Strasburg and Matt Harvey will attempt to the same in tonight's series finale at Citi Field.
Strasburg, of course, has been outstanding for the Nats so far, becoming the first pitcher in club history to open a season 6-0 and going 12-2...
NEW YORK - The last time he reached base five times in a game, Jayson Werth was serving as the Nationals' leadoff man. It was Sept. 2012, and manager Davey Johnson's unconventional move to put Werth atop his lineup was paying significant dividends.
Werth actually reached base five times on two separate occasions in the span of two weeks that fall, becoming an unlikely but excellent table-setter for a Nationals lineup that was in peak form on its way to 98 wins and its first-ever division...
NEW YORK - Gio Gonzalez has been a constant for the Nationals through the first quarter of the season, a welcome development from a pitcher who in the past befuddled with his inconsistency.
Consistency at the plate has not been a hallmark for the Nats so far in 2016, and that has been a source of frustration.
But when the lineup clicks on the same night Gonzalez takes the mound, the result is particularly encouraging. Like a 7-1 thumping of the Mets in a game of at least moderate...
NEW YORK - There was no offensive outburst from a lineup that has sorely needed of one of those. But there were a whole lot of quality plate appearances, plenty of patience when necessary and a couple of clutch hits at opportune moments.
Combine that with another strong pitching performance by Gio Gonzalez, and the Nationals did just enough things right tonight to beat the Mets, 7-1, and hold their tenuous position atop the NL East as the season reaches the quarter mark.
Daniel Murphy and...
NEW YORK - Gio Gonzalez has been sharp early. And his Nationals teammates have scrapped their way to one early run off Bartolo Colon, thanks to a great at-bat by one of the veteran right-hander's former teammates.
Gonzalez has posted three zeroes so far against the Mets, his only baserunner coming via a walk. The left-hander, who entered with a 1.93 ERA in seven starts, has continued to pitch efficiently (26-of-37 for strikes) while also putting away opposing hitters (three strikeouts of the...
NEW YORK - The Nationals play game No. 40 tonight, a traditional milepost that represents the one-quarter point of the season and is viewed by some around the sport as the point in which you have a pretty clear idea whether a team is good or not.
The Nationals reach this juncture in first place in the NL East, though only by percentage points over the surprising Phillies and 1/2-game over the Mets. They do so with one of the majors' best-performing pitching staffs, a couple of the majors'...
NEW YORK - It's a new day at Citi Field, where the sun has come out and the Nationals hope their bats break out tonight against Bartolo Colon and the Mets.
It's been a rough couple days for the Nats lineup, which over the last two games has scored a total of two runs while striking out 28 times. Of course, when the opposing pitchers those games are Jose Fernandez and Noah Syndergaard, it's a bit of a challenge scoring runs. So perhaps the task will be a bit easier tonight with Colon taking...
NEW YORK - As the at-bats continue to be squandered and runners continue to be left on base, it becomes more and more appropriate to question what the Nationals can do to try to inject some life into a lineup that too often early this season has been anemic.
Dusty Baker has tried to tweak his batting order. He swapped Daniel Murphy and Ryan Zimmerman. He swapped Jayson Werth and Anthony Rendon. That hasn't made much difference so far.
Ben Revere came back from an oblique strain, replacing the...
NEW YORK - There are three conventional ways to score runs in baseball. You can string together several hits in an inning. You can try to manufacture with small ball. Or you can hit the ball out of the park.
The Nationals proved adept at none of the three tonight. The Mets proved adept only at the latter. And that was this game in a nutshell: a 2-0 New York victory made possible by two solo homers off an otherwise dominant Max Scherzer, combined with no real offensive attack by Washington...
NEW YORK - Max Scherzer was good. Not 20-strikeout good. But more than good enough to win most nights.
Just not on nights when Noah Syndergaard is this good.
Syndergaard tossed seven scoreless innings, striking out 10 without issuing any walks and outdueling Scherzer, whose two solo homers allowed proved the difference in the Nationals' 2-0 loss to the Mets in the first matchup of 2016 between the National League East's last two champions.
The opener of this series, which also featured Daniel...
NEW YORK - Max Scherzer is striking out opposing hitters again. Unfortunately, he's also giving up home runs again.
Scherzer's return to the mound following his historic 20-strikeout performance last week has looked awfully familiar so far. Through three innings, he has struck out four, but Curtis Granderson's leadoff homer in the first and Michael Conforto's solo homer in the third have left the right-hander and the Nationals in a 2-0 hole.
Granderson pounced on Scherzer's very first...
NEW YORK - Daniel Murphy strolled into the visitors clubhouse at Citi Field today for only the second time ever - he made a cameo appearance there a couple years ago for a Mets fantasy football draft - and then he strolled into the nearby interview room to find a throng of New York reporters and photographers eagerly awaiting his return as a member of the Nationals.
Murphy may not rate as one of the true superstars of baseball. But in these parts, he remains a main attraction after helping lead...
NEW YORK - The first game of the season between the Nationals and Mets would be a big deal regardless, but there's added intrigue tonight because Max Scherzer is taking the mound for the first time since his record 20-strikeout game.
That game on Wednesday, as you might expect, took a lot out of Scherzer, who threw 119 total pitches in beating the Tigers. How has his arm felt since? "Let's just say I'm happy that we had six days (between starts)," the right-hander said with a laugh.
If...
When last the Nationals and Mets faced each other in a game of actual significance, the lasting image was that of Yoenis Cespedes circling the bases while Drew Storen fumed on the mound, the final dagger of a miserable three-day stretch for the Nats having been delivered in the harshest possible manner.
That scene pretty much encapsulated the 2015 pennant race between these two teams. A Nationals club that was supposed to run away with another National League East title instead wilted in...
It's not at all uncommon for a player to miss a sizeable chunk of time early in the season due to injury, then struggle at the plate for a prolonged stretch even when healthy at last. Ben Revere, though, is testing the boundaries of that phenomenon right now, and the end result is one awfully frustrating leadoff man.
In nine games since returning from a strained right oblique muscle, Revere is a scant 4-for-41 at the plate. When he looked up at the scoreboard following his final at-bat...
There was a routine popup lost in the sun, letting two runs stroll across the plate. There was a clutch, two-run single by the opposing pitcher after the guy in front of him had been intentionally walked. And there were strikeouts, 15 of them in total, 10 of them with runners on base.
Suffice it to say, the Nationals didn't do many things right this afternoon. And suffice it to say, all of that resulted in a 5-1 loss to the Marlins that never felt particularly close, given the manner in which...
The Sun Monster has claimed its share of victims at Nationals Park over the years, most memorably Bryce Harper (who coined the scary-sounding term after losing a fly ball in the sun during his rookie season in 2012).
This afternoon, it reared its ugly head again and found a new victim at a most inopportune moment: Stephen Drew.
Drew couldn't see a routine popup to second base with two outs in the third inning, ultimately letting the ball bounce off his glove as two Marlins baserunners came...
Two Nationals regulars are out of the lineup for today's series finale against the Marlins. One was planned, one was a last-minute change.
Jayson Werth is sitting out this game, most likely a byproduct of his longstanding struggles against Jose Fernandez. (Werth is 1-for-16 in his career against the Miami ace.)
That means Clint Robinson (who is 2-for-3 with a homer vs. Fernandez) gets the start in left field today, his first appearance in the outfield in any game so far this season.
Robinson,...
What a strange few weeks of weather the Nationals have experienced. It seems like the conditions have alternated just about every day, from warm and muggy to mild and rainy to cold and windy. We've got the latter this afternoon for the Nats' series finale against the Marlins, with temperatures in the 50s and a strong, steady wind blowing from left to right fields.
That may help the ball carry for left-handed batters today, which might not be a bad thing for the Nationals, who are going up...
If baseball truly is a game of adjustments, as they like to say, Tanner Roark has some major work staring him in the face before next weekend's series in Miami.
Roark figures to start Friday night's opener at Marlins Park - unless Nationals manager Dusty Baker decides to bump him up to pitch against the Mets the night before instead of Stephen Strasburg - and that means the right-hander will have to figure out some way to beat a Miami lineup that has owned him for two seasons now.
The latest...