Tonight is the rubber game of a five-game series, and how often do you get to say that? The Nationals and Marlins have played a lot this weekend, and they're not done yet. Tonight they'll play the finale of this extended series, the winner taking three of five and perhaps carrying some momentum into the rest of the week.
After Sunday's 9-3 win, the Nats have to feel good about their lineup, but they still need to prove they can maintain some consistency at the plate. They've got about as...
Twenty-four games is not enough to adequately evaluate a ballclub. It's certainly not in a 162-game season. No club executive, manager or reasonable outside observer would try.
But in this most unusual baseball year, 24 games represents 40 percent of the regular season. And under normal circumstances, 40 percent of a season is ample time to start making judgments. Even the 2019 Nationals could tell at that juncture they were headed in the right direction after their terrible start.
So how do...
Because he doesn't possess the kind of eye-popping "stuff" his counterpart Sixto Sánchez has, Wil Crowe wasn't going to win tonight's battle of rookie pitching debuts unless his eight Nationals teammates around him on the field did their part to make every play they had a chance to make.
And because those guys didn't come close to making every play they had a chance to make, Crowe was left to suffer a hard-luck loss to Sánchez in the nightcap of today's doubleheader at Nationals...
Major league debuts are always special. But how about two starting pitchers making their major league debuts against each other? That's a rare special occasion. Tonight we'll witness it when Wil Crowe and Sixto Sánchez square off in the nightcap of this 14-innings doubleheader between the Nationals and Marlins.
Crowe isn't as highly touted as Sánchez, who was the key piece Miami got from Philadelphia in the J.T. Realmuto trade, but he's no slouch. The Nationals' second-round pick in...
Who's ready for 14 innings of thrilling baseball action? For the first time, the Nationals are playing a doubleheader today, 2020 style. That means seven innings per game (unless it's tied at the end of the seventh, of course, in which case they continue into the eighth using the new extra-inning rules).
There's going to be some different strategy to this. All of a sudden, the fifth and sixth innings have more importance and would be prime time for top relievers. Or, a successful and...
All night long, they waited for their lineup to strike. It felt like it was going to happen eventually, right? Someone would get a rally going against the Marlins bullpen and bring the Nationals back from the one-run deficit they had faced nearly the entire game, right?
Well, no. It never happened. And so another eminently winnable ballgame was won not by the Nationals but by their opponents.
Held to two early solo homers by Yan Gomes and Trea Turner, the Nats were silenced the rest of the...
Stephen Strasburg's follow-up exam with a hand specialist confirmed the Nationals' initial diagnosis of carpal tunnel neuritis. The veteran right-hander and the club are still discussing a course of action to address the injury, but manager Davey Martinez acknowledged surgery is a possibility.
"I'm going to talk to him, see what his options are and what he wants to do," Martinez said this afternoon during his pregame Zoom session with reporters. "But I think it's something that's going...
The Nationals return to action tonight. Howie Kendrick does not. For the sixth straight scheduled game and seventh straight day overall, Kendrick is not in the team's starting lineup. That's a growing concern, because before Wednesday night's game in Atlanta was rained out, manager Davey Martinez made it sound like there was a good chance the veteran hitter would be ready to play tonight against the Marlins. Clearly, he's not. Stay tuned.
With Kendrick and Starlin Castro out for the last...
After their first scheduled series was postponed because of the coronavirus outbreak that swept through the Marlins roster, the Nationals finally will face Miami for the first time in 2020 this weekend, with a rare five-game series on tap that includes the first 14-inning doubleheader in club history.
At least, that's the plan as of right now.
All systems appeared to be go for tonight's opener at Nationals Park, but then Thursday evening the Marlins' series finale against the Mets was called...
Well, the Nationals are getting back-to-back days off, thanks to last night's rainout in Atlanta. (For those who wonder why they scheduled a doubleheader for Sept. 4 instead of making up the game today, players generally tend to prefer doubleheaders over losing scheduled days off, especially at home. Plus, they would've already checked out of their hotel before heading to the ballpark yesterday afternoon.)
It was an eventful road trip, one that saw the Nats officially go 5-4 but also lose the...
Though he's out of the lineup for the fifth consecutive day, the Nationals continue to believe Howie Kendrick will be ready to return from a tight hamstring soon enough to make a trip to the injured list unnecessary.
Kendrick last played Friday night in Baltimore, going 1-for-5 with a sacrifice fly in the Nationals' 15-3 rout of the Orioles. He has complained of a tight hamstring since, and despite some hope he would be available to pinch-hit, it hasn't happened yet.
With an off-day...
In spite of all their issues - and they have plenty - the Nationals can win a road series against the Braves with a victory tonight and move to within two games of first place in the National League East. Truth be told, they should already have won this series and were one out away from doing it. This doesn't mean everything's perfect in NatsTown. But it does serve as a reminder things aren't always as bad as they seem.
There's still a significant challenge ahead tonight in the series...
Austin Voth earned a spot in the Nationals' opening day rotation based on the major step forward he took in 2019, when increased velocity, improved command and renewed confidence came together to make the rookie right-hander look like a part of the organization's long-term plan.
Four starts into his 2020 campaign, Voth finds himself searching to gain all of that back. And soon.
"Definitely the last couple starts just haven't felt confident on the mound," he said during his Zoom session...
Davey Martinez can wish for more innings from his rotation. Until it actually happens, he has no choice but to ask for a lot from his bullpen.
That unit couldn't finish the job Monday night during a gut-punch loss in Atlanta. Tonight, seven different relievers joined forces to pitch five scoreless innings and complete the job.
And when Daniel Hudson, pitching for the third straight day and only 24 hours removed from an ugly blown save, closed it out in the bottom of the ninth, the Nationals...
During a 16-year playing career from 1986-2001 that included 6,480 plate appearances, Davey Martinez reached a 3-0 count 300 times. And on only four of those occasions did he put the ball in play, going 2-for-4 with a triple.
Such an approach wasn't uncommon in those days. Most guys didn't swing on a 3-0 count. And they certainly didn't in a lopsided game, when doing so could be construed as showing up the opposition.
Martinez still feels that way. And if he was at the plate in that kind of...
The Nationals did a lot of things right Monday night. And because of it, they were in position to win their series opener against the Braves at Truist Park. Of course, they didn't win because of Daniel Hudson's disastrous bottom of the ninth, so that only adds to the pressure to emerge victorious in tonight's middle game of the series.
The Nats will hope to continue hitting the longball the way they did Monday when they smacked four homers. But they also need to take advantage of their other...
Luis GarcÃa isn't a power hitter. At least, he hasn't been throughout his professional career. The 20-year-old infielder hit a total of 12 home runs in 1,308 minor league plate appearances.
So when GarcÃa stepped to the plate Monday night in Atlanta and launched a 410-foot blast to right-center for his first home run in his ninth career major league plate appearance, his manager had some particular words of advice once he returned to the dugout.
"Don't let it go to your head," Davey...
Yes, they already played 19 games over the last 3 1/2 weeks, an erratic stretch of games their manager referred to as "seesaw baseball." In practical terms, 2020 really began for the Nationals tonight in Atlanta with their first game against their top division rival in a season that will be defined by intradivisional play.
The first of 10 games between the Nats and Braves was exactly what you'd expect it to be: a tense, tight, perhaps contentious battle between a couple of heavyweights that...
As much as the Nationals have gone out of their way to keep Carter Kieboom focused on learning how to play third base, the rookie infielder is actually spending a lot of time on the other side of the diamond so far this season.
When they utilize the shift against a left-handed batter, the Nats are leaving Trea Turner at shortstop and having Kieboom move all the way over to what would typically be the second baseman's spot on the infield (with the second baseman moving into shallow right...
Juan Soto was named National League Player of the Week after a torrid road trip at the plate.
During a seven-game stretch at the Mets and Orioles, Soto hit .462 (12-for-26) with five home runs, 12 RBIs, 12 runs scored at a 1.610 OPS. He hit safely in six of the seven games and drove in a run in five of the seven contests.
Though he doesn't qualify yet for the league leaderboard because he opened the season on the injured list while quarantining from what he believes was a false positive test...