You want a return to normalcy? How about Stephen Strasburg on the mound posting a string of zeros, an opportunistic lineup finally delivering a string of clutch hits and (most importantly) a loud and enthusiastic crowd cheering the home team on a beautiful Friday night on South Capitol Street.
The Nationals' 4-2 win over the Orioles tonight felt as normal as things have been around here for some time. With Strasburg returning from 5 1/2 weeks on the injured list with right shoulder...
The Nationals are without Victor Robles again tonight and now are awaiting results of an MRI taken on the center fielder's right ankle, which remains sore two days after it buckled while he rounded first base in Chicago.
Manager Davey Martinez said during his Zoom session before tonight's game against the Orioles that Robles remains day-to-day for now.
"He went to get an MRI today, we're waiting on the results," Martinez said. "As the day progressed yesterday, he got sore. So we wanted to...
The last time we saw Stephen Strasburg on the mound in a big league game, it was obvious he wasn't right. The veteran hurler was throwing fastballs that barely registered 90 mph. His pitches weren't sharp at all. His mechanics were off. His body language suggested he didn't feel right.
Turns out Strasburg was indeed injured, dealing with right shoulder inflammation. The Nationals placed him on the 10-day IL and left him to go through a full rehab process. Tonight, that process finally ends...
It began, shockingly enough, with the biggest offensive explosion of the season. The Nationals opened their just-completed, seven-game road trip with a 17-2 dismantling of the Diamondbacks, a blowout win that saw everyone in the starting lineup score at least once.
At last, here was evidence the Nats' sluggish offense was ready to bust out for good.
Instead, the road trip turned into a bust for this team, and specifically its still struggling lineup.
Over their next six games in Arizona and...
For weeks, these two questions have loomed over the Nationals: When will Stephen Strasburg return from a shoulder injury, and who will lose his spot in the rotation once he does?
As this seven-game road trip to Arizona and Chicago progressed, the answer to the first question became clear: Strasburg would be ready to come off the 10-day injured list Friday to start the Nats' homestand opener against the Orioles.
The answer to the second question has become a bit more complicated, not because of...
Victor Robles isn't in the Nationals lineup for today's series finale at Wrigley Field, but the young center fielder's right ankle is apparently feeling well enough to give manager Davey Martinez reason to believe he could be available off the bench in a pinch.
Robles, who fell to the ground in a heap after his ankle gave out while rounding first base on his fourth-inning hit Wednesday night, had X-rays taken following the game. Martinez said today during his pregame Zoom session with...
After a crazy Wednesday night in Chicago, the Nationals are back at it this afternoon, looking to win their series finale against the Cubs and split the four-game set. It took a lot of effort to pull off their 4-3 victory, which came by the skin of its teeth. And they'll go into today's game with a depleted lineup.
Victor Robles, who injured his right ankle rounding first base on an RBI single, is not starting today. That's not surprising, given how scary the play looked and how Robles...
The play looked vaguely familiar. The interference call on Trea Turner that followed most definitely looked familiar. And the tirade Davey Martinez subsequently went on in defense of his shortstop certainly brought back some familiar memories, until the Nationals manager took his displeasure to a whole new level with an epic tirade.
Yes, Turner, Martinez and the Nats were victimized yet again by Rule 5.09a(11), which allows an umpire to call a batter running down the line out if he does not...
Maybe it's Wrigley Field. The Friendly Confines just seem to bring out the highest of drama when the Nationals are in town, and have so for many years now.
From epic playoff games to devastating walk-off grand slams to intentional walk records to wild back-and-forth contests, the Nationals and Cubs have experienced it all at the corner of Clark and Addison streets on Chicago's North Side.
Add tonight's 4-3 victory to the list. Maybe the stakes weren't as high as some of the previous...
The Nationals had to place pitchers Erick Fedde and Tanner Rainey on the COVID-19 injured list before tonight's game in Chicago after one tested positive for the coronavirus and the other was deemed a close contact to that player.
The club didn't specify which of the two tested positive, but manager Davey Martinez said that player was vaccinated, is asymptomatic and is feeling fine. The player deemed a close contact, however, is unvaccinated and now is subject to quarantine up to 10...
Remember how we all wondered if Max Scherzer would ever be able to pitch at a Cy Young Award-caliber level again? Well, guess what? He's doing it right now.
The Nationals ace has been nothing short of magnificent so far season, entering tonight's game against the Cubs seventh in the National League in ERA (2.10), third in WHIP (0.760), fourth in walk rate (1.4 per nine innings) and fourth in strikeouts (68). And when he's been good, he's been really, really good: In six of his eight starts,...
One by one, they swung at hittable pitches. And one by one, they pounded the ball into the ground.
Whether leading off an inning, trying to get something going with two outs or trying to drive in a runner from scoring position, the Nationals kept meeting the same fate during Monday night's 7-3 loss to the Cubs: Groundball outs.
How bad was it? Through the seventh inning, the Nats had put 18 balls into play. Only four of them were hit in the air, and all of those resulted in hits (two singles,...
Tonight's series opener at Wrigley Field was always going to be about Jon Lester and Kyle Schwarber, one way or the other. The return of the two former Cubs to their old stomping grounds as members of the Nationals for the first time had been wildly anticipated for days in Chicago. And the North Side faithful showered both players with love all night.
Lester and Schwarber were touched by it all, to be sure. They appreciated the warm welcome home from the crowd of 11,144. But more than...
The Nationals haven't decided yet if Stephen Strasburg will come off the injured list this weekend, but the fact the right-hander has rejoined the club in Chicago offers a hint they're hoping to do just that.
Fresh off a 75-pitch rehab start Sunday for Triple-A Rochester in Trenton, N.J., Strasburg flew to Chicago and will be with the Nationals for their four-game series against the Cubs. He'll throw what manager Davey Martinez termed an "extended" bullpen session Tuesday afternoon, and...
The Nationals have been involved in their share of dramatic games at Wrigley Field in recent years. The last time they played on the North Side of Chicago in August 2019, they swept the Cubs in a wild series that many saw as the first real evidence this team was capable of winning the World Series. One year earlier, their playoff chances essentially were crushed on David Bote's walk-off grand slam off Ryan Madson. And, of course, in October 2017, Stephen Strasburg pitched one of the best games...
Jon Lester never got to have his farewell moment at Fenway Park, that final walk off the mound accompanied by a roar from a crowd that knew this was his last appearance there in a Red Sox uniform, because he was traded to the Athletics on July 31, 2014, an off-day for the team.
Nor did he get to have that kind of moment at Wrigley Field last fall, even though he knew his contract was ending and the Cubs might not re-sign him, because there were no fans in the stands anywhere in 2020.
So excuse...
Davey Martinez had one simple piece of advice this morning for Erick Fedde, who took the mound in Arizona knowing Stephen Strasburg had just made a rehab start for Triple-A Rochester and might be deemed ready to take back his spot in the Nationals rotation.
"Make my decision tough," the Nats manager said during his pregame Zoom session with reporters. "That's what I want him to go out there and do."
It would be tough for Fedde to have made the decision any tougher on Martinez, general...
Stephen Strasburg appears to have done what he needed to do in today's rehab start for Triple-A Rochester. Now, the Nationals have to decide if it's enough to activate the right-hander off the injured list.
Strasburg threw 75 pitches over 4 1/3 scoreless innings this afternoon in Trenton, N.J., temporary home of the Buffalo Bisons while their ballpark is being prepped for the Blue Jays. Making his first official minor league rehab start after pitching in two simulated games at Nationals Park...
The Nationals' series finale in Arizona this afternoon is important, because they're trying to win the series and head to Chicago on a positive note. But there's another important event taking place this afternoon, across the country in Trenton, N.J., where Stephen Strasburg is making a rehab start for Triple-A Rochester.
It's important, of course, for Strasburg to emerge from his start (planned for five innings and 75-80 innings) healthy, because if that happens, he may be deemed ready to...
Any discussion of Juan Soto being in a slump has to include the qualifier that a Soto slump isn't like any other hitter's slump. Other hitters go 1-for-30 with 17 strikeouts, and that's clearly a slump. Soto goes 6-for-30 with six strikeouts and we start worrying about him.
Soto has set the bar for himself extraordinarily high. But having said that, it's not inappropriate to point out he's not hitting like himself right now. And hasn't been for a while.
In his first 10 games since coming...