The Nationals are going to have a say in the outcome of the National League East race this season. Not because they're likely to climb back into contention after trading away eight veterans for 12 prospects two weeks ago. But because the final two months of this season will see them face the three teams still angling for what could be an ugly division title a bunch, and the outcome of those games is going to have a real impact on how everyone finishes in the standings.
Just in the last...
Looking for more pitchers who can provide innings during the 24 innings of baseball on tap over the next 24 hours, the Nationals promoted left-hander Sean Nolin from Triple-A today, optioning reliever Sam Clay to Rochester in the process.
Nolin, 31, is on a big league roster for the first time since 2015, when he started six games for the Athletics. After bouncing between the minor leagues, independent ball and even Japan in the ensuing years, he wound up in the Nationals organization this...
The final 50 games of the Nationals' season are about evaluating young talent. Even more than that, they're about evaluating how young talent handles various situations.
Like seeing if some of the club's less experienced hitters can perform in prominent parts of the lineup.
We've already seen Victor Robles get an opportunity to bat leadoff again after spending most of the season at the bottom of manager Davey Martinez's batting order. The results have been mixed so far, but Robles did...
Everything was going swimmingly for the Nationals in New York tonight. Until the skies opened in the second inning and left everyone at Citi Field swimming in a deluge.
The Nats' series opener against the Mets ultimately had to be suspended in the top of the second inning, the visitors leading 3-1, after a long and ultimately fruitless wait for a major storm system to clear out of the region.
It will be resumed from the point of suspension Wednesday at 4:10 p.m., still scheduled to complete...
Juan Soto is back in the Nationals lineup, his right knee feeling better five days after he tweaked it running the bases. Soto, who was held out of the lineup for the Nats' entire weekend series in Atlanta, was cleared to return to full-time duties tonight for the opener of a three-game series in New York.
"I talked to him; he felt pretty good," manager Davey Martinez said during his pregame Zoom session with reporters. "He felt like he could play today. He went through his routine. He's...
For months, the Nationals found themselves chasing the Mets in the National League East, and because they ultimately weren't able to gain enough ground in the division race, their leaders decided it was time to undergo a mass rebuild. Since then, what's happened to the Mets? They've gone in the tank as well, losing nine of 11 and turning a four-game lead in the NL East into a 2 1/2-game deficit that now sees them trailing both the Phillies and Braves.
It's too late for the Nats to take...
As much as the Nationals roster has undergone massive changes in the last two weeks, let's not forget what happened to manager Davey Martinez's coaching staff as well.
Just one day before the frenzied 36-hour stretch that saw eight veteran players traded away for 12 prospects, the Nats learned five of their big league coaches, plus four other staff members, had tested positive for COVID-19.
With pitching coach Jim Hickey, bench coach Tim Bogar, first base coach Randy Knorr, third base coach...
So, anything interesting happen around here recently?
The last two weeks of July, to be honest, were as eventful as any two weeks in Nationals history, aside from perhaps the final two weeks of October 2019. Even having had some time now to process everything that happened, I'm not sure I can fully grasp everything that did occur. It was nuts.
And the end result of all that is a completely reshaped franchise, one that now is far more focused on future success than current success. It's a...
The Nationals' objective over the final two months of this season, first and foremost, is to identify which young players are going to be part of the organization's long-term plan. That's what made a game like Saturday night's 3-2 victory over the Braves, in which Josiah Gray dazzled on the mound and Riley Adams delivered a momentous blast at the plate, so uplifting for anyone associated with the club.
But the 2022 Nationals aren't going to be made up entirely of kids. There are going to...
Five years removed from his last appearance there in a game, and one month since he began getting early-afternoon reps there, Josh Bell is finally making his official return to the outfield.
Bell, who has exclusively played first base since 2017, will start in right field this afternoon when the Nationals wrap up their weekend series against the Braves at Truist Park.
It's a move that has been in the works for a while, with manager Davey Martinez hoping to find a way to get both Bell and Ryan...
Last night was a good night for the Nationals. Not only because they won, 3-2, but because the guys who made the win possible are front-and-center members of their rebuilding effort. Josiah Gray struck out 10 over five impressive innings. Mason Thompson struck out a pair during a scoreless inning of relief. Riley Adams blasted the game-flipping homer with two outs in the top of the ninth. And Kyle Finnegan shut the door on the Braves with a 1-2-3 bottom of the ninth.
So, what's next? Well,...
The Nationals' decision to sell off veterans at the trade deadline and transition into a rebuilding phase freed up Davey Martinez to try some different things with his lineup without the pressure to win every night. And high on that list was the return of Victor Robles to the leadoff spot.
It's a look the fourth-year manager liked when this season began, but after a week of less-than-ideal results, Martinez bumped Robles all the way down to the bottom of the lineup, where he remained for four...
These are the games that will be worth watching, no matter the outcome, no matter the Nationals' sinking place in the standings. When Josiah Gray takes the mound the rest of the season, it will amount to something close to must-see TV.
And when another young prospect acquired in last week's trade deadline sell-off delivers a game-flipping homer with two outs in the ninth as Riley Adams did tonight to produce a stunning, 3-2 victory over the Braves? Well, the Nats couldn't draw up a scenario...
Juan Soto is out of the Nationals lineup for the second straight day with a right knee contusion that required an MRI this morning to be sure the injury wasn't more serious.
Soto, who hurt himself while taking a secondary lead off second base in the ninth inning of Wednesday's game at Nationals Park, has been taking part in some pregame drills in Atlanta prior to each of the team's last two games. But manager Davey Martinez said the club wasn't ready to take a chance putting him back in the...
The Nationals aren't playing winning baseball right now, not anything close to winning baseball. They enter tonight's game in Atlanta having dropped five in a row and 23 of 32 overall. So the focus, of course, turns to individual performances, especially those who figure into the club's long-term plans.
So tonight we get an opportunity to watch one of the key building blocks again: Josiah Gray. The 23-year-old right-hander, one of the key prospects acquired from the Dodgers for Max Scherzer...
The Nationals lost Friday night's game 8-4 in Atlanta for any number of reasons, but two defensive miscues certainly played a significant role in the final outcome. Miscues by a couple of young players getting an extended look in the big leagues for the first time. Miscues that led to long conversations with the manager at the end of the night.
"Unfortunately, it's going to be a learning process going through this for the next six, seven weeks," manager Davey Martinez said afterward in his...
Take a Nationals lineup already depleted by the trades of Trea Turner, Yan Gomes, Josh Harrison and Kyle Schwarber, then remove Juan Soto from the equation, and what do you get?
Well, you get this: The Nats were held to five hits (two of them in the ninth inning with the game already out of reach) by the Braves during an 8-4 loss tonight at Truist Park.
Already having a tough go of things one week after selling off just about every prominent veteran on their roster at the trade deadline, the...
Davey Martinez arrived in the visitors' Zoom press conference room in Atlanta shortly before 5 p.m. today and immediately was asked about Juan Soto's status for the Nationals' series opener against the Braves. Martinez, while insisting he's not significantly concerned about his star slugger's right knee, made it clear he was hesitant to put him in tonight's lineup.
"I'm at 50-50 right now, I really am," Martinez said. "Unless he comes in and says he's feels great, we might do...
The Nationals are in a tough spot right now, and if you didn't already know why, here's some evidence: In eight of their last 12 games, they've held the lead going into the ninth inning. And they've only emerged victorious in three of them.
So on one hand, even the rebuilding, inexperienced Nats are still putting themselves in a position to win more than they lose. But they're not actually winning more than they're losing. Quite the contrary. They've lost 22 of their last 31. That's the...
Upon recording his 10th strikeout of the night late Wednesday, Max Scherzer stalked off the mound at Dodger Stadium and returned to the home dugout, where a bunch of new teammates doled out high-fives and ultimately pushed the three-time Cy Young Award winner back up the steps to acknowledge a sellout crowd seeking a curtain call.
On the other side of the country, Nationals fans could be excused for feeling sickened by the sight of it all. Scherzer wearing Dodger blue, striking out Jose Altuve...