The day-after-clinch game is always a tricky matter. All the moreso when the team in question still has something left to play for over the season's final few days.
The Nationals wanted to take it easy tonight, less than 24 hours after they clinched a spot in next week's wild card game. They also wanted to maintain their slim lead over the Brewers for home field advantage next Tuesday night.
They found a way to accomplish both during a 5-2 victory over the Phillies.
A game that started off...
For nearly six months, the Nationals couldn't afford to look beyond that night's game, recognizing the importance of winning every single contest to get back into a race after a 19-31 start left them staring up at a sizeable deficit in the standings.
Now that they've clinched a postseason berth, they can finally afford to start thinking more about what's ahead next week than what's in front of them tonight.
The Nationals are going to play Tuesday night in the National League wild card...
It's the day after a clinch, and that always makes for some, uh, interesting lineup decisions. Like Brian Dozier leading off. Or Asdrúbal Cabrera playing third base. Or Wilmer Difo starting at shortstop.
All of those are true of the Nationals lineup tonight, and understandably so. Anthony Rendon and Trea Turner can definitely benefit from at least one (if not more) days off. Truth be told, this lineup has more regulars in it than you might expect under the circumstances. Including all three...
The ultimate optimist to the end, Davey Martinez insisted Tuesday night that he never doubted his 2019 Nationals would make it to the postseason, even after their infamous 19-31 start that had some questioning whether the second-year manager should lose his job.
"You know what? I imagined it in spring training. I really did," Martinez said. "And I said it, May 24, I said this team is going to bounce back and turn it around. I thought we hit the bottom then. But this team, we get everybody...
The path was different this time, very different.
There was no division title, no early September clinch, no chance to turn on the cruise control and enjoy the nice, smooth ride to the postseason.
No, this time the Nationals had to earn it. They had to come all the way back from a 19-31 start that left more than a few observers wondering if major changes were about to take place. They had to go on a remarkable run that saw them play at a .645 clip for four full months that still wasn't enough...
Well, here we go. The Nationals took care of business this afternoon. Now, if they can take care of business again tonight, and if the Pirates can snap their long losing streak and extend the Cubs' long losing streak, there's going to be a celebration on South Capitol Street tonight.
The Nationals can only take care of their own business and then hope the Pirates do their part. With that in mind, they'll happily send Max Scherzer to the mound for the nightcap. The ace looked like the ace...
Baseball players are as superstitious as they get, so it's not surprising that Adam Eaton was none too pleased when he walked into the Nationals clubhouse Monday afternoon and saw rolled up plastic curtains positioned over every locker.
"Don't bring that up. I'm not happy about it," Eaton said with a smile but more than a hint of truth behind the facade. "I'm not happy at all. We've had a discussion. It won't happen again. If I had it my way, I would do a Chris Sale and rip every...
A roller coaster of a baseball season that began in hopeless fashion, then turned remarkably hopeful over the course of the summer before some September hiccups has now left the Nationals on the cusp of a significant achievement.
It will still take three positive results over the span of a long day of baseball, but it can now be said: The Nationals could clinch a postseason berth Tuesday night, with five games to spare.
The Nats put themselves in that position thanks to a 7-2 victory over the...
Tuesday's doubleheader against the Phillies has loomed on the Nationals' schedule for three months now, and so too has the question of who would make a cameo appearance to start that game.
The answer came today from bench coach Chip Hale, who revealed Joe Ross will get the ball for the 1:05 p.m. twinbill opener, with Max Scherzer making his regularly scheduled start in the 7:05 p.m. nightcap.
Hale, subbing for Davey Martinez in meeting with reporters pregame while the manager had some...
This has been looming on the schedule for months. Five games in four days against the Phillies, the result of a rainout in mid-June. At the time, we had no idea how significant this would be for one or both of these teams, or even whether it would be significant for either of them. The answer: It's very significant for the Nationals, not all that significant for the Phillies, who remain mathematically alive but are hanging on by a thread. (Their elimination number is three.)
The Nats, of...
It's been a ragged September for the Nationals, who despite hanging on to remain in strong position to reach the National League wild card game have gone 9-11.
This is crunch time, of course, a time for the best players on the roster to step up and deliver in key moments to help lift their team into the postseason.
Problem is, when it comes to the Nationals bullpen, the best players aren't the ones on the field in those key moments.
If you had to guess, who would you think had made the most...
MIAMI - Everybody in the Nationals bullpen has had his opportunity over the course of the season to prove he deserves the ball in critical moments. If anything, most of these guys have had so many opportunities they're now running on fumes as the final week of the regular season arrives.
Until someone - or, more preferably, multiple someones - proves he can actually get the job done in crunch time, this team is simply going to have to find some other way to win the games necessary to reach the...
MIAMI - Asdrúbal Cabrera is out of today's lineup, the veteran second baseman dealing with a sore right ankle after he was thrown out at the plate during Saturday night's 10-4 10-inning win over the Marlins.
Manager Davey Martinez said Cabrera is not scheduled to undergo an MRI and doesn't believe the injury is serious enough to prevent him from playing altogether, but he wanted to give the 33-year-old a chance to rest today.
"I haven't talked to (director of athletic training Paul...
MIAMI - Hello one last time from Marlins Park, where the Nationals will look to continue their utter dominance of the local ballclub. The Nats are 15-3 vs. the Marlins this season - they actually lost the first two games way back in April! - and carry an 11-game winning streak into today's series finale. I don't care how large the disparity in talent is between teams, that's really hard to do.
The Nationals sure could use one more win this afternoon, though, because with the Brewers doing...
MIAMI - A lot happened during the course of the Nationals' 10-4 10-inning win over the Marlins on Saturday night, and much of it was covered in the game story. But let's make sure we give a few more significant moments and developments from the game their just due. ...
* Asdrúbal Cabrera injured his right ankle. He hurt himself sliding while getting tagged out at the plate on a fourth-inning play that had plenty of folks up in arms, with third base coach Bob Henley waving the veteran...
MIAMI - They led by four runs in the bottom of the eighth. Stephen Strasburg had dominated the Marlins for the umpteenth time. The Nationals just needed to finish off a last-place opponent and move one step closer to a berth in the wild card game.
And then Fernando Rodney took the mound, charged with protecting a four-run lead. And the enigmatic reliever remained on the mound until that four-run lead was gone and panic began to consume living rooms throughout the DMV while hope suddenly emerged...
MIAMI - Though he says everything is going according to plan in his throwing program, Kurt Suzuki admits he won't be able to get his right elbow back to 100 percent health by season's end. Which means the veteran catcher has no choice but to try to get himself as close to playing shape as soon as possible to try to rejoin the Nationals lineup in time to contribute in this final playoff push and potentially beyond.
"That's kind of the plan now," Suzuki said this afternoon prior to the...
MIAMI - Not to jinx anything, but it would be irresponsible not to mention that Stephen Strasburg enters tonight's start riding a 12-game winning streak against the Marlins, dating all the way back to Sept. 20, 2015. Yes, that's three years and one day. Pretty amazing.
Of course anything can happen on any given day, so Strasburg and the Nationals aren't assured of anything tonight. But it's obviously an advantageous matchup for Strasburg, who is 4-0 with a 1.19 ERA, 43 strikeouts and four...
MIAMI - As the clock ticks down on September, the magnitude of every game result grows. And what looked like a tight race only days ago begins to look more comfortable.
No, the Nationals haven't clinched anything yet. Not even close to it. But in the simple act of winning 6-4 Friday night over the Marlins, and especially in the simple act of watching the Cubs lose three days in a row (once to the Reds, twice to the Cardinals), the Nats have put themselves in a pretty advantageous...
MIAMI - It's crunch time in the National League wild card race, and if the Nationals have any intention of extending their season beyond 162 games, they're going to have to win some close games over the next 10 days and do whatever's necessary to try to win those games.
Tonight, that meant a six-out save attempt for Daniel Hudson, the second time the veteran reliever has been asked to do that this week. And for the second time this week, Hudson pulled it off, in the process moving his team...
