HOUSTON - If there's a Game 7 to the 2019 World Series, Max Scherzer will start it for the Nationals.
Manager Davey Martinez made that proclamation late this afternoon after Scherzer completed a 10-minute throwing session in left field at Minute Maid Park and reported himself good to go just two days after he was scratched from his scheduled Game 5 start and received a cortisone injection in his neck.
"He threw, he felt good," Martinez said. "We'll see what transpires between now and...
HOUSTON - They've played 177 games, won 103 of them, three of those when staring elimination in the face. They'll play Game 178 tonight, and the only way they can ensure there will be a Game 179 is to win.
Is this the biggest game in Nationals history? Well, yeah.
The Nats themselves, of course, will insist they can't think of it that way. They've specialized all year long in focusing on the daily task at hand and ignoring the larger significance. It's worked up until now. Might as well...
HOUSTON - They've won three elimination games in the last month, twice when trailing by multiple runs in the eighth inning. And that's to say nothing of the uphill climb they faced after opening this remarkable season 19-31 before reaching the World Series.
So while there are plenty of reasons to doubt the Nationals' ability to come back from three straight home losses to the Astros over the weekend and now flip the 115th Fall Classic back in their favor the next two nights at Minute Maid...
The Nationals, at least publicly, don't appear to be any closer to knowing today if Max Scherzer will be able to return to pitch in the World Series than they were Sunday after scratching their ace from his scheduled Game 5 start due to nerve irritation and spasms in his neck and upper back.
"I haven't yet spoken to Max today. I'm waiting for him to get here," manager Davey Martinez said during a conference call with reporters shortly after 12:30 p.m. "Hopefully, he's a little bit...
Once the shock of the mid-afternoon news that Max Scherzer wouldn't be starting Game 5 of the World Series tonight wore off, a harsh realization must have crossed the minds of everyone wearing a Nationals uniform: If they were going to pull this off and regain control of the Fall Classic, they were going to have to score some runs. Against Gerrit Cole. And hope Joe Ross and whoever came out of the bullpen tonight could hold the Astros down enough to give them a chance.
It was an extremely...
A Nationals team that already has seen its two-game lead in the World Series disappear over the last two nights now must take the field for a critical Game 5 tonight against the Astros without its three-time Cy Young Award winner on the mound.
Max Scherzer was scratched from his scheduled start tonight due to what he described as nerve irritation in his neck that has caused his muscles to "completely lock up," leaving Joe Ross to take the mound against Houston's fearsome lineup and Cy Young...
No matter what happens, whether positive or negative, tonight is the final baseball game of 2019 at Nationals Park. We've never known that before going in, at least not going into a postseason game. So it makes for both an exciting and bittersweet feeling. This season will end not here in D.C. but in Houston, either Tuesday night in Game 6 or Wednesday night in an oh-so-stressful Game 7.
But Nationals manager Davey Martinez opened his pregame press briefing with a piece of unexpected news: Max...
They hardly ever hold team meetings, and on those rare occasions when Davey Martinez does gather the Nationals together they keep what was said within what they like to refer as their "circle of trust."
The second-year manager did, however, have a few words to share with his players following Saturday night's 8-1 loss to the Astros, a loss that left the World Series tied after four games. And the basic message was simple, not needing to be withheld from public consumption.
"I just told the...
The defining moment of Game 4 of this World Series, the moment that will be replayed over and over and remembered fondly in Houston, was Alex Bregman's seventh-inning grand slam off Fernando Rodney, an MVP candidate blasting an erratic 42-year-old reliever deep into the D.C. night and propelling the Astros to an 8-1 victory to even up the series.
The moment that created that nightmare scenario, though, the rally that was squandered by the heart of the Nationals lineup the previous inning, was...
Kurt Suzuki will remain on the Nationals' active roster for Game 4 of the World Series after undergoing an MRI of his right hip that convinced club officials the veteran catcher would be available tonight if something happened to teammate Yan Gomes.
Suzuki had to depart Game 3 on Friday night in the bottom of the sixth, a few minutes after he blocked a pitch and injured his right hip flexor. The 36-year-old was uncertain after the game if he'd be well enough to return for tonight's game, but...
Perhaps with the hubbub of Friday night's festivities behind them, everything at Nationals Park tonight will feel a little more normal for the Nationals. Or at least as normal as a World Series game can feel. Point is, the outcome of tonight's game is really important for both teams. At the end of the night, the Nationals are either going to be up three games to one or the Astros are going to have tied the series and recaptured home field advantage.
On paper, the Nats would seem to have...
Frustrating as Friday night's 4-1 loss was, the Nationals perhaps could take some solace knowing this: While the Astros had to burn up five relievers, including three of their top guys, the Nats used only three low-leverage bullpen arms.
And that could prove significant tonight in Game 4 of the World Series, especially when considering the two teams' pitching plans.
The Nationals will start Patrick Corbin, who threw one inning of relief in Game 1 but is rested enough to top the 100-pitch...
They came looking for a party, fully expecting the first World Series game played in the District of Columbia in 86 years to produce the same kind of thrills that have become commonplace here all month long, only ratcheted up to an entirely new level that would leave the Nationals on the precipice of a championship.
What the overflow gathering at Nationals Park tonight got instead was 30 minutes of pregame nostalgia and anticipatory hype, then four hours of frustration as the home team...
In choosing to start Asdrúbal Cabrera over Howie Kendrick tonight, Nationals manager Davey Martinez went with the numbers. Cabrera has excellent career numbers versus Astros starter Zack Greinke, and so he gets the nod over Kendrick, who has been among the biggest contributors to the Nationals' run to the World Series.
Cabrera is 16-for-37 with a .512 on-base percentage and 1.079 OPS in his career against Greinke, no insignificant sample of head-to-head at-bats.
"Asdrúbal has history...
It's Oct. 25 and there's a ballgame being played on South Capitol Street tonight. How cool is that? Welcome to the World Series, Washington. It's kind of a circus around here, but there's no better reason to have a circus in town than this.
There's also the matter of the actual ballgame, which let's not forget is kind of important. The Nationals had a great time in Houston, but now they need to keep the positive vibes going and not give the Astros reason to feel like they're right back...
There have been 4,183 major league baseball games played in the District of Columbia since 1934. Long-gone Griffith Stadium hosted 2,150 of those through the 1961 season, with RFK Stadium opening in 1962 and hosting 1,047 games through the 2007 season (with, of course, a 33-year gap in the middle of all that). And then Nationals Park opened in 2008 and has since been the site of 986 ballgames, 16 of those coming in the postseason.
None of those previous games, not one, was played this late in...
HOUSTON - So much has been asked, answered and written about the evolution of Stephen Strasburg. Here, though, is the perfect encapsulation of it all, viewed entirely through the prism of the final batter he faced in Game 2 of the World Series on Wednesday night.
Embroiled in a tense, 2-2 game in the bottom of the sixth, Strasburg was facing Astros pinch-hitter Kyle Tucker with two on and two out. He fell behind in the count 2-0, and as the sellout crowd of 43,357 at Minute Maid Park rose and...
HOUSTON - The late-inning implosion came not from the Nationals but from the Astros. The relievers who gave up six runs in the seventh wore a block H on their caps, not a curly W. The fielders who kicked the ball around the infield to prolong the inning and turn a once-tense ballgame into a rout played for Houston, not Washington.
If you've watched this season from start to finish, you know the narrative that has surrounded the Nationals all along. But if you've watched this postseason at...
HOUSTON - AnÃbal Sánchez will start Game 3 of the World Series, a reflection not only of the Nationals' confidence in the veteran right-hander but also evidence of their continued willingness to use Patrick Corbin out of the bullpen if the opportunity arises.
Manager Davey Martinez had been holding off naming a Game 3 starter, in part because he wanted to see if Corbin was needed in relief in the first portion of this series against the Astros. The left-hander indeed entered from the...
HOUSTON - And we're back. If Game 1 of the World Series wasn't thrilling and/or nerve-racking enough for you, you're in luck because the Nationals and Astros are right back at it tonight for Game 2, with no shortage of storylines to consume.
The most significant, of course, is the overall state of the series following the Nats' 5-4 win last night. All of a sudden, they're sending Stephen Strasburg to the mound with a chance to head home up two games to none in the best-of-seven series. How...