Another game, more Nationals longballs.
The Nats have played just four innings tonight and they've already smacked three home runs - a solo shot by Kurt Suzuki, a two-run bomb to straightaway center by Ryan Zimmerman and a two-run opposite-field shot by Ian Desmond.
That's been nothing unusual over the last week; in the Nationals' last seven games, they've hit 23 homers.
Not bad, I guess.
The Nats lead the Mets 5-1 after four innings thanks to the homer-fest and four decent innings from...
The Nationals have Ryan Zimmerman and Ian Desmond back in the lineup after both infielders sat out Sunday's 8-0 loss to the Marlins.
Manager Davey Johnson has planned to give Zimmerman Sunday off and Desmond asked for a bit of a breather to rest his sore hamstring. The Nats will have both their third baseman and shortstop on the field tonight when they open a three-game set with the Mets.
Gio Gonzalez will take the mound for the Nats, shooting for his 19th win of the season. Should he get...
Of course, the Nationals were disappointed they couldn't pick up a win yesterday to close out their homestand on a positive note and stay even with the Braves, who won in 10 innings to cut the gap in the National League East to 5 1/2 games.
The postgame frustration didn't linger too long, however. As the Nats packed up for a six-game road trip and put their 8-0 defeat behind them, they commenced with their annual rookie hazing, giving the veterans a chance to get a few laughs at their...
You'd think that when a team faces a starting pitcher twice in a 13-day span that they'd have a pretty good idea what was coming the second time around, wouldn't you?
"Yeah, you would think," Adam LaRoche said.
That didn't help the Nationals against Ricky Nolasco. The Marlins right-hander, who came into today with a 4.64 ERA this season, shut out the Nationals back on Aug. 28, and he did the same thing this afternoon, giving up just four hits over nine strong innings.
"He did the...
Davey Johnson sat down for his postgame press conference and flashed a smile.
"Well, there's not much to say about that one," he said.
Not much positive stuff, anyway.
The Nationals lost to the Marlins 8-0 today, putting the wraps on a 8-3 homestand. All in all, the Nats should be pretty pleased with how they played over the last week and a half, but they did very little today against Ricky Nolasco, who has thrown back-to-back shutouts against them.
"He can get nasty when he starts...
A day after the Nationals packed an offensive punch, put together some late-inning dramatics and smacked four more home runs, their bats have been dead silent through four innings against Ricky Nolasco.
Same can't be said for the Marlins' bats against Edwin Jackson.
The Nats trail 5-0 after four innings, as they've yet to record a hit against Nolasco and also watched as Miami has put up seven hits and two multi-run innings.
Jackson allowed three runs in the second inning on four straight...
Yesterday was the first Nationals home game I've missed all season.
Good thing I didn't miss anything.
Oh, Stephen Strasburg was shut down, the Nats and Marlins played a game which finished nearly six hours after it was scheduled to begin, Jayson Werth hit a dramatic game-tying home run in the bottom of the ninth and the Nats then won it in the bottom of the 10th?
Yup, sounds about right. You step away for one day and everything goes nuts.
Thanks to Pete Kerzel for filling in yesterday...
After Saturday's marathon, rain-delayed, 10-inning victory over the Marlins, the Nationals lineup will have a different look for the Sunday series finale.
Both third baseman Ryan Zimmerman and shortstop Ian Desmond will get the day off, meaning a new left side of the infield.
Chad Tracy will play third and Danny Espinosa will man shortstop, with Steve Lombardozzi taking over for Espinosa at second base.
Here's the lineup that will face right-hander Ricky Nolasco:
2B Steve Lombardozzi
CF...
Some fans and media pundits wondered why the Nationals waited so long to tell Stephen Strasburg about their plan to shut him down.
They questioned the Nats' decision to keep Strasburg out of the loop and implied that it was a case of mismanaging by the front office and coaching staff.
You want to know why the Nats didn't tell Strasburg about the shutdown plan earlier in the season? Because they didn't want that clouding his focus or giving him anything out of the ordinary to think about...
Pitching for the final time at Nats Park this season, Stephen Strasburg didn't exactly go out on a high note.
The Nationals' ace has seen his night end after just three innings of work. He was hit hard early, allowing five runs on six hits, walking three batters and surrendering four extra-base hits, two of which were homers.
His location was off, with a number of fastballs coming in thigh-high and right over the middle for Marlins hitters to hammer. Strasburg had trouble locating his...
Finally, an outsider's opinion on Stephen Strasburg's shutdown which makes sense to me.
Asked before today's game about the Nationals' decision to shut down their ace, Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen went all Ozzie Guillen on reporters.
The Nationals get their second crack at Marlins rookie hurler Jacob Turner in a 10-day span as the right-hander will take the mound tonight against a Nats lineup which is crushing pretty much everything of late.
Over their recent nine-game stretch, the Nats have won eight games, they've plated eight runs or more a whopping seven times.
Taking the mound for the Nationals tonight will of course be Stephen Stasburg, who is making his final home start this season.
For the Nats:
RF Jayson Werth...
Lost in all the testosterone that was on display at Nationals Park last night was the impressive offensive performance put up by Nats catcher Kurt Suzuki, who went 3-for-5 with a home run, three RBIs and two runs scored.
That type of production hasn't been rare from Suzuki of late.
Over his first 13 games with the Nats, Suzuki hit just .180 (9-for-50) with two extra-base hits and a .456 OPS.
Over his last nine games, however, Suzuki is batting .414 (12-for-29) with three homers, eight...
Cubs manager Dale Sveum didn't hold back. He knows what he saw over the last four days.
"It's probably one of the biggest butt-whuppings I've ever gotten in my career, as a coach or player," Sveum said last night.
Yeah, that just about covers it.
The Nationals badly outplayed the lowly Cubs over the last four days, crushing 15 homers and outscoring the visitors 31-9 in a four-game sweep.
Five of the Nationals' homers came from Adam LaRoche, who became just the sixth player in major...
Bryce Harper had a feeling he was going to get thrown at leading off the sixth inning, given what had happened an inning prior, when third base coach Bo Porter got into a heated argument with Cubs bench coach Jamie Quirk.
Sure enough, the first pitch Cubs righty Lendy Castillo threw in the sixth was aimed at Harper's kneecaps, causing the rookie outfielder to take a couple steps towards the mound and toss a few choice words in Castillo's direction.
"I wasn't going to do anything stupid,"...
There was a baseball game played tonight at Nationals Park, but as you might guess, the Nats' 9-2 victory over the Cubs wasn't what Davey Johnson spent the vast majority of his postgame press conference discussing.
There were two bench-clearing incidents tonight, one in the bottom of the fifth inning and then another in the bottom of the sixth. The action all started when Cubs bench coach Jamie Quirk began shouting at Nats third base coach Bo Porter, upset that the Nationals still had their...
Seemingly out of the blue, things got a little heated in the bottom of the fifth inning of tonight's game.
With the bases loaded and a 3-1 count on Jayson Werth, time was called as Cubs catcher Steve Clevenger walked to the dugout to get a new catcher's mitt.
As clubhouse staffers went back to grab a new glove, Nationals third base coach Bo Porter suddenly walked over to the top step of the Cubs dugout and started pointing and shouting at someone, believed to be Cubs bench coach Jamie...
Poor Dale Sveum.
The Cubs' manager probably wants to pull his hair out right about now. And he doesn't even have any hair.
Sveum said that last night's game, a 9-1 throttling by the Nationals, was like men playing against boys. Tonight hasn't been much different.
The Nats lead the Cubs 7-2 after 4 1/3 innings and have now put up 27 runs over their last 20 frames.
They've scored in three of their four times to the plate tonight. In the one inning they didn't bring a run across, the...
Sean Burnett is making slow progress in his rehab from what manager Davey Johnson says is an inflamed nerve in his elbow, but it's progress nonetheless.
Burnett is scheduled to play catch Saturday and if all goes well in that session, he could be on track to return as early as Monday.
Johnson said that the elbow issue which Burnett has battled since prior to the All-Star break is just a nerve issue and nothing muscular, which is good news. Burnett told me yesterday that he was feeling...
After being given Wednesday off, Jayson Werth is back in the Nationals' lineup, leading off tonight's series finale against the Cubs.
Jordan Zimmermann is taking the mound, as the Nats shoot for their fifth straight victory. Zimmermann, however, hasn't had the decisions going his way of late. He's been stuck on nine wins since Aug. 9, going 0-2 with a 7.91 ERA over his last four starts.
Perhaps he gets on track tonight.
For the Nationals:
RF Jayson Werth
CF Bryce Harper
3B Ryan...
