A Nationals club already beset with major pitching issues now has a major lineup problem: Juan Soto is injured.
The Nats placed Soto on the 10-day injured list this evening with a left shoulder strain, an out-of-nowhere announcement less than an hour before they face the Cardinals on South Capitol Street, one that leaves this 5-9 club in further disarray at a moment when it couldn't afford any more bad news.
There hadn't been any obvious indication Soto was dealing with any ailment in recent...
Desperate for fresh arms who could help them navigate their way through a week that has seen three starters get knocked out early, the Nationals made another roster move today while continuing to map out a pitching plan for the weekend and beyond.
The Nats promoted Steven Fuentes from their alternate training site in Fredericksburg, summoning the 23-year-old right-hander now in case he's needed during tonight's game against the Cardinals. Ryne Harper, who pitched each of the last two days,...
Well, this is what it has come to: The Nationals tonight desperately need a quality start from Patrick Corbin, who has yet to come close to producing such a performance in 2021 (and often didn't do it in 2020, for that matter). In 13 starts since the 2019 postseason, Corbin has made it through six or more innings allowing three or fewer earned runs only six times. And four of those came in his first six starts last season.
Recent history aside, the Nats simply can't afford another blowup from...
Maybe it was the diving catch in deep left-center after a long run from his position in the middle of the outfield. Maybe it was the 270-yard bullseye he hit on the fly from the base of the center field wall to second base to nab a greedy runner.
Whatever moment you choose, chances are you've at some point in the last two weeks watched Victor Robles in the field and thought to yourself: He looks like his 2019 version again.
It's been hard not to notice it. After a major regression in defense...
If the Nationals are going to survive with Stephen Strasburg on the injured list, Patrick Corbin a mess and Jon Lester still building his arm up at the alternate training site in Fredericksburg, they're going to have to rely on the remaining members of their rotation not only to pitch effectively but to at times exceed expectations.
For two starts, that's exactly what they got from Joe Ross, who didn't so much as allow a single Dodgers or Cardinals runner to cross the plate while he was on...
Josh Bell, maybe more than just about any big-name hitter in the majors, depends on proper timing at the plate to be successful. The big slugger doesn't have the short, compact swing of an Anthony Rendon. His is a long swing with long arms that, when in sync, produces explosive results but otherwise can produce a lot of whiffs.
When the Nationals first baseman departed West Palm Beach, Fla., on March 29, everything was in sync. He enjoyed a monster spring at the plate, hitting .383 (18-for-47)...
Joe Ross has been probably the most positive development for the Nationals so far this young season. The right-hander, who won the fifth starter's job in spring training after opting out of the 2020 campaign, has been outstanding in each of his first two outings and has yet to allow a run in 11 innings. It's everything the Nats could've hoped for and more from the 27-year-old right-hander.
Except now they actually need Ross to continue being this guy to help them survive while much of the...
The Nationals' 2021 season is only two weeks old, but boy does it feel like a lot has happened already or what?
It's been an eventful 13 days since they took the field to face the Braves after seeing their first four scheduled games of the year postponed due to their COVID-19 outbreak. Prominent players have gone on the injured list, prominent players have come off it. There have been two walk-off wins and there have been two blowout losses. There have been lights-out pitching performances...
The day began with aggravating - though not terribly shocking, if you've been paying attention - news. Stephen Strasburg was going back on the injured list, this time with right shoulder inflammation, and the $245 million pitcher would not be making his scheduled start against the Diamondbacks.
Rarely in the past have the Nationals not suffered as a result of a Strasburg IL stint, and it's certainly now fair to wonder how they will survive this one, with Patrick Corbin also struggling and Jon...
Anytime during his 11-year career Stephen Strasburg has looked as bad as he did Tuesday night in St. Louis, when he was rocked for eight runs in five innings with diminished velocity, erratic command and poor body language, the right-hander has proven either to be injured or tipping his pitches.
Turns out he was injured after all.
The Nationals placed Strasburg on the 10-day injured list this morning with right shoulder inflammation, a transaction loaded with ramifications, the most immediate...
The Nationals would like to win today's series finale against the Diamondbacks, no question. If they do, they'd have taken three of four over the weekend and five of seven over the last week, a nice bounceback since that ragged 1-5 start to the season. But truth be told, there's a bigger story going on right now that supersedes anything: Stephen Strasburg is injured.
Despite his and the team's insistence nothing was physically wrong Tuesday night when he was shelled in St. Louis, the...
If you walk around the Navy Yard this morning, you might still feel the reverberations from Kyle Schwarber's walk-off homer Friday night. That bottom-of-the-ninth blast, which landed on the concourse beyond the second deck in right field, made for as exciting a finish as Nationals Park has witnessed in a while.
Before the Nationals and Diamondbacks get back at it this afternoon, let's take one more look at the first Schwarbomb in Nats history, by the numbers ...
463 - Distance, in feet, of...
Max Scherzer gave the Nationals exactly what they needed, reminding everyone this team still is built on the broad shoulders of a rotation that may be showing cracks in some spots but remains rock-solid at the very top.
Great starting pitching, however, can't win a ballgame all by itself. Somebody's got to score a run at some point.
Which the Nats finally did in the bottom of the ninth. On the first official Schwarbomb in club history.
Kyle Schwarber launched a 463-foot moonshot onto the...
Davey Martinez stayed up late Thursday night, stayed at Nationals Park til 12:30 a.m., went home and then stayed up until 2 a.m. pondering the state of his team, specifically his pitching staff.
The Nationals manager was simultaneously trying to figure out what's going on with Patrick Corbin and Stephen Strasburg and how to get both veteran starters back into a recognizable form while also making sure the rest of his staff was prepared and available for tonight's game against the...
The Nationals have slogged their way through a few clunkers in the last week. The good news: They've bounced back in each case to play well the following day and win. So perhaps that portends better things tonight when they face the Diamondbacks and try to erase all memory of Thursday night's fiasco.
It starts, of course, with Max Scherzer, who is desperately needed tonight not only to pitch well but to pitch as deep into the game as possible after Patrick Corbin was knocked out two innings...
It's been far too long since we've done one of these. But now that we're 10 games into the season, with no shortage of topics to discuss, it seems like a good time open up the phone lines and hear what you have to say about the Nationals and their not-so-ideal start to the 2021 campaign.
What's happened so far? Well, there was the COVID-19 outbreak, which postponed the first four games and sidelined five players for the opening series and four more for the next series as well. There have...
Once was perhaps cause for concern but potentially forgivable. Twice is cause for alarm and potentially disastrous for a Nationals club that is built to win behind a dominant rotation but has now seen two of its top three starters get rocked in the last week, one of them twice.
Stephen Strasburg, for the moment, isn't the Nats' greatest concern. Patrick Corbin is after another cringe-inducing start tonight in which the left-hander was battered for 10 runs in only two innings during a 11-6...
When Asdrúbal Cabrera was picked up by the Nationals in early August 2019, he figured he'd finish out the season in D.C. and then probably call it a career.
"I told my family: Probably this is going to be my last three months," the veteran infielder said today during a Zoom session with reporters. "I'm just going to try to have fun here and see what happens. And we made it to the World Series, and we won the World Series.
"I'm never going to forget that year."
Neither will Nationals...
After an eventful road trip, the Nationals are back home tonight and will be here each of the next seven days. First up, it's a four-game weekend series with the Diamondbacks. Then it's three more with the Cardinals. And with capacity restrictions eased up for this homestand, there should be roughly 10,000 fans in the park now, which will be much appreciated by everyone.
Tonight's opener against the Diamondbacks represents an important start for Patrick Corbin, who labored in his delayed...
The Nationals flew home from St. Louis on Wednesday night, owners of a 3-6 record. It's not a record anyone is going to brag about, nor should it be, but neither is it a record anyone should be afraid to acknowledge.
Given all they've been through already during a roller coaster couple of weeks to begin the season, 3-6 hardly feels like a disaster.
The Nats were missing nine major league players during their opening three-game series against the Braves. And perhaps the three most important...