The Nationals have clawed their way back to the .500 mark, sweeping the Marlins over the weekend. Their next challenge is climbing over that mark and staying there, against some stiffer competition: the Braves.
The three-time defending National League East champs are back in town for their second visit of the season already. They took two of three in the season-opening series on South Capitol Street, sweeping a 14-inning doubleheader after the Nats won in dramatic fashion on opening day. Things...
Throughout their 60-game season last summer and the first month of this season, when the Nationals needed to add a player to their big league roster they simply sent word to their alternate training site in Fredericksburg and waited for the player to make the short drive up Interstate 95 to Nationals Park. It was, under the circumstances, the safest way to make transactions while playing through a pandemic.
No more. Beginning today, all major league clubs will have the ability to call players...
It's been an astounding 20 months since official Minor League Baseball games were last played, an interminable length of time for prospects, staff members, and fans in communities large and small across America to wait since the end of the 2019 season.
Suffice it to say, there are a lot of eager folks right now on the eve of a long-awaited 2021 opening day.
"It's going to be an exciting day tomorrow for everyone involved," Mark Scialabba, the Nationals' assistant general manager for player...
For nearly two weeks, Ryan Zimmerman mostly sat on the Nationals bench, readying himself for pinch-hitting opportunities that often didn't come. Yes, he started back-to-back games last week against the Blue Jays, but that was possible only because the Nats were facing an American League opponent and needed a designated hitter.
So when Zimmerman found himself in Sunday's lineup against the Marlins, it represented his first start in a National League game since April 18. And given his lack of...
There is, believe it or not, a scenario more imposing for a lineup than facing Max Scherzer. Daunting as that is, it's nothing compared to the challenge of facing Scherzer five days after he was roughed up by another club.
Or, apparently, facing the longtime Nationals ace hours before his wife is due to give birth.
Every pitcher insists he wants to bounce back from a rough outing, but nobody actually does it better than Scherzer, who was battered around by the Blue Jays on Tuesday night and...
Juan Soto isn't in the Nationals lineup for today's series finale against the Marlins, but there's a chance he could be back for Tuesday's series opener against the Braves.
Soto, on the 10-day injured list since April 20 with a strained left shoulder, continued to ramp up his throwing program before today's game at Nationals Park, throwing from 120 feet.
"We'll see how he gets through today, and then we'll go from there. Hopefully it won't be that much longer," manager Davey Martinez...
The Nationals have already secured their first three-game winning streak of the season. Now they've got a chance to secure their first three-game sweep of the season.
Having taken the first two games of the weekend against the Marlins, the Nats will look to finish the job this afternoon, with Max Scherzer on the mound looking to rebound from a ragged start against the Blue Jays in Dunedin, Fla. How often has he struggled in back-to-back starts? Hardly ever. Eight times since he signed with the...
April has come and gone for the Nationals, and nobody can say they saw the season's first month playing out the way it did.
A COVID-19 outbreak sidelining nine players? Injuries to Juan Soto and Stephen Strasburg? An implosion by Patrick Corbin? A complete lack of production from Josh Bell and Kyle Schwarber?
There were, of course, surprisingly positive developments as well. Who expected Joe Ross and Erick Fedde to become consistently dominant pitchers? Josh Harrison and Yadiel Hernandez to...
The Nationals don't need Patrick Corbin to be elite right now. They would happily settle for solid.
Which is precisely what he was today during a 7-2 victory over the Marlins.
With seven innings of two-run ball, Corbin turned in the exact kind of performance the Nationals have been seeking from their erratic left-hander since the season began one month ago. He wasn't in peak form, but he displayed improved command of his fastball and slider and provided length to help take pressure off the...
Stephen Strasburg and Juan Soto each took another step toward returning to the Nationals roster prior to today's game, Strasburg throwing off the bullpen mound for the first time since he landed on the 10-day injured list and Soto continuing to throw in right field to test out his strained left shoulder.
Both players are now eligible to be activated off the IL, but both still have additional steps they need to take before the club makes the move, especially in Strasburg's case.
Strasburg, who...
A quick turnaround from a night game to a day game is never easy, but when it comes on the heels of a walk-off win, it does at least brighten everyone's mood a little bit. So the Nationals have to be feeling pretty good about themselves after Friday night's 2-1, 10-inning victory over the Marlins, capped by Kyle Schwarber's 454-foot blast to right-center.
In order to keep the good vibes going, they'll need Patrick Corbin to give themselves a chance to win today. Once this season, the...
When they needed to make a transaction prior to Friday's game to open up a spot on the active roster for Jon Lester, the Nationals elected to option right-hander Steven Fuentes. That wasn't terribly surprising; the 23-year-old prospect hadn't appeared in a game after getting called up 10 days earlier, and the organization wants to make sure he gets back into a typical, five-day routine as a starter who may have a bright future here.
The more notable aspect of the transaction was the location...
The Nationals have gotten used to this by now, looking up at the scoreboard and staring at a string of zeros, not only in their column but next to the opponent's name as well. They'd already been involved in four games that were scoreless entering the sixth, not to mention three games that finished 1-0. (They won two of those, against the Diamondbacks and Cardinals, and lost the other, to the Dodgers.)
So tonight's series opener against the Marlins on a blustery night on South Capitol Street...
The Nationals are getting Jon Lester back from the injured list tonight. They'll have to wait a while longer to get Juan Soto and Stephen Strasburg.
Though both superstars are now eligible to come off the 10-day IL, neither has been able to pass the throwing tests necessary to be activated.
Soto, out since April 20 with a left shoulder strain, did begin some light tossing Thursday for the first time, manager Davey Martinez said in today's pregame Zoom session with reporters. He was due to...
The Nationals signed Jon Lester over the winter to be a big part of their rotation, counting on the veteran left-hander to make 30 starts and win big games for them. Tonight, he finally makes his D.C. debut.
Lester, the last of nine Nats players still on the COVID-19 injured list, has been activated and will start tonight's series opener against the Marlins. It took longer than expected, but after three rehab outings at the alternate training site in Fredericksburg, the 37-year-old is ready to...
What are we to make of the Nationals rotation as the season's first month comes to a close? There's ample reason for serious concern, yet there's also not-so-insignificant reason to be encouraged.
The bad: Nationals starters currently own a 5.18 ERA, which ranks 28th out of 30 major league clubs. Their 1.323 WHIP is slightly better but still ranks a mere 22nd. Four times this season their starter has been charged with six or more earned runs, tied for the most in the major leagues.
The good:...
Well, it's been an eventful April for the Nationals, has it not? A COVID-19 outbreak. Injuries to Stephen Strasburg and Juan Soto. Some truly awful starts by a supposedly elite rotation. Some really ugly swings by Josh Bell and Kyle Schwarber.
But then there have been some spectacular starts by Max Scherzer, Joe Ross and Erick Fedde. Six homers from Trea Turner. A Ryan Zimmerman resurrection. Quality work from the bullpen.
What should we make of all this? At 9-12, are the Nats in major...
If there has been a consistent theme to a mostly disappointing April for the Nationals, it has been the all-or-nothing nature of most ballgames. There have been very few run-of-the-mill, back-and-forth contests. Most have either been comfortable wins or blowout losses. The lineup either explodes for a big night or is completely shut down. The starting pitcher either looks fantastic or gets blasted.
In the long run, that formula isn't going to take the Nats to the place they desire. But in the...
The Nationals haven't yet figured out their pitching plans for the weekend. And it doesn't appear they will until they've decided if Jon Lester truly is ready to make his long-awaited season debut.
Lester, who opened the season on the COVID-19 injured list, has made three rehab starts at the club's alternate training site in Fredericksburg. On Sunday, he threw 90 pitches over six innings, which would typically be as much as a pitcher needed before he was activated.
And the Nats may indeed...
The Nationals need to generate offense any way they can right now. How do they do that, given the resources currently available to them? They have to stick with some of their struggling regulars and sprinkle in some backups who create more favorable matchups.
Tonight, with left-hander Steven Matz on the mound for the Blue Jays, that means an emphasis on right-handed hitters. Manager Davey Martinez decided the best way to do that was to stack four right-handed bats atop his lineup (Trea Turner,...