OK, it's time for the second of three doubleheaders the Nationals have scheduled in a five-day span. Slowly but surely, they're getting through this rough stretch and approaching the finish line of a difficult season.
Davey Martinez decided to have Max Scherzer start this afternoon's opener in Miami, thinking he can hopefully get six or even seven innings out of his ace and save his entire bullpen for the nightcap, in which Ben Braymer will start but several relievers will be needed....
Cade Cavalli could justifiably look at the summer of 2020 and be bitter he missed out on his first season of professional baseball. With no minor leagues and no opponents to face, the Nationals' first-round pick could only spend the last two months working out every single day at the club's alternate training site in Fredericksburg, pitching simulated games to the same group of hitters over and over and over.
You'll hear no such complaints from Cavalli. If anything, you'll hear nothing but...
It's impossible to look at the Nationals' record following tonight's 7-3 loss in Miami and not feel something.
Yes, they're now 19-31. That might make you laugh. It might make you cry. It might make you roll your eyes and wonder if the baseball gods have some kind of perverse sense of humor.
"Just so you know," Davey Martinez interjected tonight in his postgame Zoom session with reporters, "I really don't like that number. It worked out last year, but I'd rather be 31-19."
Fair...
Sam Freeman, one of the early bright spots in the Nationals bullpen during this unusual season, had Tommy John surgery one month ago, manager Davey Martinez confirmed today.
Freeman last pitched Aug. 12 in New York, when he motioned for a trainer after feeling a "pop" in his left elbow. He was immediately removed from the game, and though the club's initial diagnosis was a flexor strain in his forearm, Martinez admitted at the time he was worried the injury was more serious.
It was. An MRI...
Well, if you're a fan of symmetry and symbolism, tonight's game is really important for the Nationals. To lose, not to win. Because if they lose, their season record will be 19-31. Yep, same as it was after 50 games last season. The difference, of course, is that one year ago they had 112 games to turn everything around and this year they have 10 games. So the chance of this 19-31 start producing the same result as the last 19-31 start are nearly impossible.
Let the record show, these...
If there's a primary goal for the Nationals during this final stretch of a disappointing season - beyond a miracle rally to reach the playoffs, of course - it's to leave 2020 with a positive impression of anyone who has a chance to hold a prominent role in 2021.
Someone like Erick Fedde, who hasn't been able to make the most of his opportunity to stick in a depleted Nats rotation but might have one last chance to make his case in his final two starts of the year.
And what Fedde showed this...
With Adam Eaton out for the final two weeks of the season with a fractured index finger, the Nationals needed to figure out who's going to start in right field the rest of the way. Their decision: Andrew Stevenson and Michael A. Taylor.
Stevenson was recalled from the club's alternate training site in Fredericksburg this afternoon, with fellow outfielder Yadiel Hernández optioned back down after a disappointing first week in the majors.
The reason for that swap of left-handed-hitting...
Who's ready for a lot of baseball? I mean, a lot of baseball. Five games in three days this weekend in Miami, eight games in five days when you add the start of the Nationals' upcoming series against the Phillies in D.C. It's going to be quite a challenge, but at this point the Nats have nothing to lose. Might as well try to enjoy it.
Tonight's doubleheader at Marlins Park will see Erick Fedde take the mound for the 5:10 p.m. opener, followed by Wil Crowe, who starts his third doubleheader...
We don't know at this point if Adam Eaton has played his last game for the Nationals, and we won't know for a while longer. The club will decide after the season whether to pick up the outfielder's $10.5 million option for 2021 or take a $1.5 million buyout instead, making him a free agent.
But there's certainly a decent chance Eaton's time with the Nats is done after the club placed him on the 10-day injured list with a fractured left index finger Thursday evening. He won't have time to...
The Nationals lost another key member of their roster for the remainder of this shortened season today when they placed outfielder Adam Eaton on the 10-day injured list with a fractured left index finger.
Eaton hurt himself trying to bunt with two outs and the bases loaded in the second inning of Wednesday's 4-2 win at Tampa Bay. He remained in the game for two more innings and nearly made a diving catch in right field at one point, but was pulled before his spot in the lineup came up...
Well, we've just about reached the home stretch of a most unusual, and most disappointing, season. This hasn't played out how the Nationals hoped, not even close. They're 18-29 with 13 games to go, so they'd have to win out just to finish with a winning record for the ninth consecutive year. That seems ... unlikely to happen.
Plenty has happened, though. Most of it not very good. Some of it encouraging, though. Have we seen enough to get a sense of what might be in store in 2021? That's...
If you're looking for silver linings in this mostly disappointing baseball season, it's not hard to find them in the Nationals bullpen. Just maybe not from the well-known names you were expecting when this season began two months ago.
General manager Mike Rizzo built a relief corps that was supposed to be carried on the shoulders of three veterans with considerable late-inning experience: Daniel Hudson, Sean Doolittle and Will Harris.
Now, as the season winds down and thoughts start to turn...
Though they haven't finalized plans quite yet, the Nationals have a sense of how they hope to get through their upcoming stretch of eight games in five days. The likely answer: Wil Crowe, Ben Braymer and a lot of relievers.
With three doubleheaders in five days (Friday and Sunday against the Marlins, Tuesday against the Phillies), the Nationals will need eight different starting pitchers. Given the current lack of healthy depth at their disposal, they don't really have eight viable...
How do the Nationals avoid a repeat of Tuesday night's lifeless, 6-1 loss to the Rays? They need to get a much better pitching performance and they need to hit. Obviously.
On the mound, it's up to Austin Voth to somehow make the leap into a guy who can actually get hitters out twice in a game. We know he can do it the first time through the order. It's time for him to show he can do it the second time as well.
At the plate, it's up to this lineup to not get freaked out by the Rays'...
Much as he probably wishes he could give a couple of his struggling starters the season's final two weeks off, the cold, hard truth is that Davey Martinez has no choice but to keep giving them the ball every five days.
The Nationals' schedule to close out this agonizing season - 15 games in 13 days, including an upcoming stretch of eight games in five days - simply won't allow for anyone to shut it down early, not unless there's an injury involved. And even if there was, the Nats would be...
Tanner Rainey, one of the Nationals' brightest lights during a mostly dismal season, may not pitch again this season.
Rainey, who already had been sidelined over the weekend with forearm soreness, was placed on the 10-day injured list today with a right flexor strain. Though manager Davey Martinez didn't completely rule out the possibility of the reliever returning, with only 13 days remaining in this short season there's hardly enough time (or motivation) to make it back.
"Right now,...
The Nationals' final road trip of 2020 begins tonight in St. Petersburg, Fla., where they'll face the Rays in the first of a quick two-game series. It's a rematch of last week's two-gamer in D.C., both of those games won by the Nats. But the challenge may be greater this time.
For one thing, the Nationals just lost their best reliever. Tanner Rainey has been placed on the 10-day injured list with a right flexor strain, a move that is retroactive to Sept. 12. Rainey had pitched very well...
This one's hard to believe, but it's true: The Nationals today begin their final road trip of the season.
With their first and only trek to Florida to face the Rays and Marlins, the Nats are wrapping up the most difficult part of their shortened schedule from a health-and-safety standpoint. They've managed to travel to Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, Boston and Atlanta so far and avoid any positive coronavirus tests. Now they finally venture south to the Sunshine State.
The Nationals were...
Though they don't want to admit it publicly, the Nationals have reached the point in their season in which the playoffs are no longer a realistic goal. Sunday's 8-4 loss to the Braves left them at 17-28, a whopping 10 games behind Atlanta in the National League East and five games behind the Giants for the NL's eighth and final postseason berth.
To finish .500, the Nats would need to somehow go 13-2 down the stretch. A sub-.500 record might still be good enough to squeak in as the final wild...
Max Scherzer expended a lot to get through five innings today against the toughest lineup he's faced in 2020. Though the Nationals ace had some of the best pure stuff he's had all season, the Braves wore him down (like they've done to so many opposing pitchers) and left him with a pitch count of 104 as he walked off the mound at the end of the fifth.
And once his team scored two runs in the bottom of the inning to take the lead, Davey Martinez could've made the decision to pull Scherzer and...
