A couple of plays could have ended the game:
* Pinch-hitter Victor Caratini's grounder to Daniel Murphy with one out in the ninth. Murphy appeared to have trouble getting the ball out of his glove and was only able to shovel to Stephen Drew for the lead runner Jeimer Candelario.
* Javier Báez singled. Tommy La Stella drove a 1-1 pitch over the outstretched arms of 6-foot Drew. Could the 6-foot-2 Trea Turner have gotten to it?
Jon Jay's two-run double cleared the bases and gave the Cubs the...
The Nationals fell to the Cubs 5-4 on Thursday when Blake Treinen struggled in the ninth inning and allowed three runs.
But the news got worse after the game when the Nats announced that postgame X-rays revealed shortstop Trea Turner has a non-displaced fracture in his right wrist.
A similar injury was suffered earlier this season by the Braves' Freddie Freeman. He was injured May 17 against the Blue Jays and is still out of the lineup. The diagnosis for Freeman was approximately eight to 10...
The Cubs used a pair of two-out base hits to get to Nationals starter Joe Ross in the first.
Ross struck out the first two batters in the game in Jon Jay and Ian Happ.
But then Anthony Rizzo doubled. On the very next pitch, Willson Contreras singled to left field to score Rizzo. Ryan Raburn made a nice throw to Daniel Murphy to nail Contreras at second base to end the inning. The Cubs led 1-0.
In the bottom of the first, Trea Turner walked and stole second. It was his sixth stolen base of the...
All-Star balloting is set to end tonight one minute before midnight Eastern. The All-Star teams are set to be unveiled at 7 p.m. Eastern Sunday on ESPN.
The race for first base in the National League is coming down to the wire and today's opponent is making a late push. The Cubs' Anthony Rizzo trails Nationals first baseman Ryan Zimmerman by only 75,000 votes: Rizzo at 1,915,790, Zimmerman has 1,989,104.
Major League Baseball sent out a visualization data map showing where the votes for...
The Nationals have an opportunity to win a series today against the defending world champion Chicago Cubs. Right-hander Joe Ross gets the call, stepping in at 4-3 with a 5.40 ERA. He opposes veteran left-hander Jon Lester (5-4, 3.83 ERA). After the game, the Nats head to St. Louis for a weekend series against the Cardinals.
Nationals second baseman Daniel Murphy is in the midst of a 12-game hitting streak. He hit a home run on Wednesday. Murphy is hitting .378 with 10 doubles, one triple, five...
A big part of the Nationals' quick-strike offense this season has been the ability to hit back-to-back homers.
In their 8-4 victory over the Cubs on Wednesday night, the Nationals pulled off the feat for the seventh time this season.
With the Nationals leading 1-0 in the second inning, the club attacked Cubs starter John Lackey with back-to-back homers by Anthony Rendon and Matt Wieters, extending their lead to 3-0. It was the start to a four-run rally that provided Stephen Strasburg with a...
Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant stepped on third base awkwardly as he concentrated skyward in pursuit of a Matt Wieters' popup in the fifth inning.
Bryant twisted his ankle on the base but still made the catch for the out. But after the play he limped off the field with help from the Cubs trainer and did not return.
The Cubs reported Bryant was diagnosed with a mild-to-moderate ankle sprain.
Nationals right fielder Bryce Harper, Bryant's childhood friend and fellow Las Vegas native, said he...
What a beginning to this game for Stephen Strasburg. John Lackey? Well, not so much.
Strasburg allowed a single by Kris Bryant in the first inning, but nothing else. He proceeded to strike out the side in the second.
Facing Lackey, Bryce Harper doubled with two outs in the bottom of the first. He came home on a Ryan Zimmerman RBI single.
In the second, Anthony Rendon (No. 15) and Matt Wieters (No. 7) slammed back-to-back home runs. It marked the seventh time this season two Nats have left the...
Second-round selection right-hander Wil Crowe has signed with the Nationals, a source with knowledge of the negotiations confirmed.
Crowe pitched for the University of South Carolina and has been drafted three times, the previous two by the Indians. He has fully recovered from Tommy John surgery he underwent in 2015.
The 22-year-old Crowe toured Nats Park and met Nats players prior to Wednesday's game against the Cubs. He was 6-5 with a 3.41 ERA in 92 1/3 innings last season with the...
The Nationals bullpen did their job Tuesday night, putting up three scoreless and hitless innings against the Cubs in a 6-1 win.
Blake Treinen, alongside Enny Romero, Oliver Peréz and Matt Albers, walked one batter and struck out one batter on their way to getting the last nine outs of the game.
Manager Dusty Baker assessed Treinen's scoreless eighth inning in which he struck out Javier Báez and collected a pair of outfield flyouts from pinch-hitter Addison Russell and Jeimer...
Max Scherzer and the Nationals got exactly what they needed from their No. 1 starter - a quality start - in a game in which he didn't have to be "maxed" out. He allowed the Cubs just one run in the first inning, doing it all without his best stuff.
Scherzer went six innings and used only 93 pitches as the Nats dropped the Cubs 6-1 to even the series at 1-1.
Manager Dusty Baker said what might be even scarier for the rest of the league is that Scherzer didn't even have everything clicking...
Nationals starter Max Scherzer hit Anthony Rizzo with a pitch to begin the first inning. Following a called third strike to Tommy La Stella and a flyout by Ian Happ, Kris Bryant blasted a triple off the right-center field wall out-of-town scoreboard.
Michael A. Taylor jumped a bit too far away from the wall and came up short on the catch attempt. Rizzo scored to lift the Cubs to a 1-0 lead. They have never trailed in the series.
In the bottom of the first, Trea Turner notched an infield single...
Through 76 games, the Nationals have four players on track to reach 100 RBIs this season: Ryan Zimmerman (59), Bryce Harper (56), Daniel Murphy (54) and Anthony Rendon (47).
The Nationals also have an opportunity to have five players be close to a .400 on-base percentage: Harper (.423), Rendon (.395), Murphy (.392), Adam Lind (.390) and Zimmerman (.384).
Manager Dusty Baker was asked what's more important in a season: .400 OBP or 100 RBIs?
"Which is more important chicken or the egg?" Baker...
Despite a 5-4 loss to the Cubs, left-hander Gio Gonzalez put together another tremendous start.
The Cubs enjoyed a leadoff homer by Willson Contreras and then nothing else against Gonzalez. He ended up allowing only one run on two hits over six innings with five walks (one intentional) and struck out eight.
But in the end, with the Cubs turning a 1-0 lead into 5-0 before the Nationals made it 5-4 and had the winning run on second base, all Gonzalez could think about was the homer to Contreras...
The Nationals defense did not handle the itself well in the eighth and ninth innings on Monday in a 5-4 loss to the Cubs in the opener of a four-game series.
With the game still in the balance and the home team down just 1-0, the run allowed in the eighth and the three runs in the ninth ultimately proved too much despite a furious rally.
The Nats could not execute a key fundamental defensive play in the eighth when the Cubs pulled off a successful safety squeeze. Then in the ninth, a pair of...
The Cubs struck first with a leadoff home run from catcher Willson Contreras. His eighth homer of the season came on a 3-1 pitch.
Left-hander Gio Gonzalez then induced a couple of flyouts.
Against Ian Happ, Gonzalez recorded the 1,500th strikeout of his career.
The Nationals enjoyed a two-out single from Bryce Harper in the bottom of the first facing Eddie Butler. But Butler managed to get Ryan Zimmerman to ground out to end the threat.
Gonzalez allowed a walk in the second, but got out of the...
Left fielder Jayson Werth continues to make progress in his recovery from what is listed as a left foot contusion that has kept him on the shelf since June 4.
Nationals manager Dusty Baker had a positive update on Werth during Monday's pregame media availability before the Nats faced off against the Cubs. Baker thinks a target date might be July 14 in Cincinnati for Werth's return to the field.
"Well, he's doing good," Baker said. "He comes in to see me every day. He took a few swings...
When Adam Eaton went down with a season-ending injury, there was some concern that Michael A. Taylor would not be able to hit for average and contribute offensively the way the Nationals needed him to.
No need for that concern now. Taylor is hitting .273 with 11 homers and 30 RBIs in his first 62 games of the season.
On Sunday, he hit his third homer in the past two games, a two-run shot, which accounted for all the offense for the Nats in a 6-2 loss to the Reds.
It marked the third time this...
The 5-0 deficit in the first inning was a difficult predicament for the Nationals, but they faced a similar situation Friday night and found a way to make another comeback.
This time, the Nats ultimately got as close as 6-2 against the Reds, but were never able to put together the big rally needed to come back from the early hole, as they have 19 times this season.
Michael A. Taylor hit a two-run shot in the fourth to get the Nats on the board. But that turned out to be the only offense they...
The first inning was a nightmare for Nats starter Tanner Roark. The Reds scored five runs on five hits to jump out early in Sunday's finale. Billy Hamilton doubled, Scooter Gennett singled and Joey Votto singled. Gennett's hit was a RBI knock. A Bryce Harper throwing error allowed Gennett to come home.
Roark walked Adam Duvall. A pair of fielder's choices plated Votto. The big hit was a two-run double from Tucker Barnhart.
The Nats looked like they would get back in the game quickly in the...