Here's some good news: There's no serious threat of rain tonight, the temperature and humidity have dropped and it should be a very pleasant Friday evening at the park as the Nationals and Dodgers play the second of four games this holiday weekend.
And here's some more good news: Max Scherzer is on the mound. How good has the ace been? Well, over his last 10 starts, he's got a 1.70 ERA and hasn't allowed more than two runs in any of them. And he held these Dodgers to one run over six...
When two of their four major league middle infielders were unavailable due to injury and four more potential call-ups from their farm system likewise weren't available for promotion due to injury, the Nationals were left with no choice but to start 34-year-old backup catcher Alex Avila at second base for Thursday night's series opener against the Dodgers.
To hear Davey Martinez discuss the state of things after the Nats' 6-2 loss in a rain-shortened five-inning game, they won't be caught in...
Anyone with a smartphone and a weather app knew what was coming. It was approaching from the west and it was going to reach Nationals Park at some point this evening. It was just a question of when. And what the status of the Nationals' series opener against the Dodgers was going to be when it did arrive.
The answer: It arrived moments after the Nats went down in order in the bottom of the fifth, which came moments after Patrick Corbin gave up five runs in the top of the inning. That meant...
The Nationals didn't submit tonight's starting lineup until 45 minutes before first pitch, the sense being they were waiting to see if any or all of Juan Soto, Trea Turner and Jordy Mercer were available to play after departing Wednesday's win over the Rays with injuries.
Then the lineup came out, and Turner and Mercer were missing. Which leaves the Nats in a most precarious position: Backup catcher Alex Avila is starting at second base for the first time in his career.
Yes, you read that...
Good afternoon from Nationals Park, which just experienced a minor hurricane a few minutes ago. Seriously, it was intense. The skies have let up since then, and at this moment the forecast suggests it will be dry until about 8 p.m. That, of course, doesn't guarantee anything. So don't assume anything. As always, when we know something about the status of the game, we'll let you know.
If they play, the Nationals will be looking to stay red hot against a particularly difficult opponent: the...
Only once in his career had Jon Lester made a major league start on a hotter day, and that was 11 years prior when his Red Sox were in Texas on a 102-degree afternoon. So there was a built-in excuse for the veteran left-hander to use Wednesday after he slogged his way through five innings on a muggy 95-degree late afternoon at Nationals Park, if he chose to use it.
Which he did not. Though the conditions were miserable, Lester would not give them any credence in affecting his performance during...
The thermometer was loaded with mercury, the heat index was in triple digits, the ball was flying at Nationals Park, and as everyone else was dragging from exhaustion, there was Trea Turner racing around the bases in the bottom of the sixth, chasing history.
Having already singled in the first, doubled in the third and homered in the fourth, here was Turner - on his 28th birthday - lining a ball over Manuel Margot's head in right field and immediately deciding it was time to turn on the...
Asked during his pregame Zoom session with reporters around 2:15 p.m. who he planned to have pitching the late innings today if the Nationals hold a lead, Davey Martinez laughed like a manager who knew there was no simple answer to that question.
"Actually, I've got a meeting at 3 o'clock with (pitching coach Jim) Hickey, so we're going to start figuring this stuff out," Martinez said.
Suffice it to say, the situation is more complicated than it normally would be. Four key late-inning...
It is scorching hot today. It's going to be 95 degrees with a heat index well above 100 when the Nationals take the field at 4:05 p.m. for the finale of their two-game series with the Rays. If you've got tickets, make sure you dress appropriately and prepare to drink a lot of water.
And, of course, make sure you're in your seats in time for the first pitch of the bottom of the first, when Kyle Schwarber digs in to face Rays opener Drew Rasmussen and tries to do it again. The current tally,...
Given the historic home run barrage he's been on over the last 2 1/2 weeks, it's only been natural to wonder if Kyle Schwarber is going to earn a coveted spot in the upcoming Home Run Derby at Coors Field.
Schwarber, though, all but said Tuesday night he doesn't expect to find himself in Colorado in two weeks for the annual midsummer power exhibition that leads into the following night's All-Star Game.
"If I was approached, I would probably not do it just in terms of ... you get a little...
It's not quite on par with Dodger Stadium, but Nationals Park typically takes a couple innings to fill up most nights. Such is life in this traffic-infested town we call home.
If you've got a ticket to watch the local nine, though, you might want to start budgeting some extra commuting time to make sure you're in your seats well before the first pitch of the bottom of the first. Because if you're not here, there's a good chance you're going to miss something memorable from the hottest...
A Nationals bullpen that already was being stretched thin with the losses of several key late-inning relievers to injury has lost another key late-inning reliever: Tanner Rainey, who today was placed on the 10-day injured list with a stress reaction in his lower right leg.
It's a serious blow to a relief corps that has been trying to proceed without the services of Daniel Hudson, Kyle Finnegan and Will Harris and now enters a daunting closing stretch to the first half of the season against...
It's a rare thing when a ballclub plays three different opponents on three consecutive days, but that's the case for the Nationals tonight. After wrapping up their weekend series with the Marlins on Sunday, then facing the Mets in a one-off makeup game Monday, tonight they welcome the Rays to town for the first of two games in an interleague series.
These two teams split a series at Tropicana Field a couple weeks ago, but things have changed a bit since then. The Nationals have gotten red...
When Juan Soto steps to the plate these days, he does so with one task in mind: Get on base. Don't worry about hitting a ball 450 feet somewhere. Just do whatever it takes to reach, whether via single, walk or some other mechanism.
And he's done quite well in that department, with a .396 on-base percentage that ranks among the league leaders.
"Yeah, that's what I'm trying to do," Soto said Monday during a face-to-face interview with several reporters at Nationals Park. "Like I told the...
As the balls flew off the bats of Kyle Schwarber (twice), Trea Turner and Gerardo Parra, and as Paolo Espino was carving up the Mets for five scoreless innings, the mood inside of Nationals Park was ... well, how exactly to describe this?
Was it ecstasy? Was it delirium? Was it some emotion that has yet to be defined, because nobody in attendance had ever witnessed anything quite like this on a baseball field in a long time?
And then how to describe the vibe as the Nationals bullpen turned a...
Victor Robles is out of the Nationals lineup, his right knee still bothering him enough to keep him from starting against the Mets one day after he was struck by a pitch in Miami. It was not bothering the 24-year-old center fielder enough, though, to keep him from participating in batting practice, suggesting he may not need to miss much time.
Robles took a full round of BP with teammates, and though he wasn't moving around at full strength, he didn't appear to be significantly...
And so begins the closing stretch of the first half of the 2021 season, a stretch that will test the Nationals unlike any that have come before. Fourteen games in 14 days, all against contending teams. It begins tonight with a one-off against the Mets, another makeup from the season-opening series that was postponed due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
The great mystery for the last 24 hours has been the identity of the Nats' starting pitcher tonight. This should've been Erick Fedde's game, but...
Here's what the Nationals accomplished over the last two weeks: By winning 11 of 14 games, they climbed their way out of a significant hole, briefly reached the .500 mark and moved into sole possession of second place in the National League East, now within striking distance of the first-place Mets.
It was the best two-week stretch this club has experienced since the end of the 2019 season, a true turnaround for a team that looked ready to collapse altogether and head into a long, hot summer...
There are any number of reasons you can point to for why the Nationals have won or lost a ballgame this season, but here's a simple one to consider: When they hit a home run, they usually win. When they don't, they usually don't.
And when they clear the fence twice in the same inning, as they did today during a 5-1 win over the Marlins? Well, that's about as good a piece of evidence as you'll get to foretell a Nats victory.
Trea Turner and Josh Bell provided the big blows in this one, each...
Erick Fedde felt nothing during his start Wednesday afternoon in Philadelphia. But when the Nationals right-hander woke up Thursday morning in Miami, his left side was bothering him. The club told him to take it easy, and he didn't attempt to throw his typical bullpen session between starts. And after an MRI revealed what manager Davey Martinez called "a minor strain of his left oblique," Fedde was placed on the 10-day injured list this morning.
It's the latest blow to a Nationals rotation...