Corbin hits his spots, finally rewarded with first Nats win

Corbin hits his spots, finally rewarded with first Nats win
The Nationals had seen glimpses of Patrick Corbin at his best, but today they saw the left-hander at his absolute best from the moment he took the mound until the moment he departed 7 2/3 innings later. And what they saw during a 4-2 victory over the Giants confirmed what they've suspected all along: This is one of the best starters in baseball. "He really wasn't giving them any chance to get into any kind of rhythm," catcher Yan Gomes said. "He was taking apart the corners. We were...
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Behind Corbin's gem, Nats take series from Giants

Behind Corbin's gem, Nats take series from Giants
Patrick Corbin had pitched well every time he had taken the mound wearing a Nationals uniform. Now the prized lefty finally has his first win in Washington. With 7 2/3 innings of two-hit ball, Corbin put his team in prime position to defeat the Giants today. And thanks to some early offense and a late escape act by the bullpen, the Nationals walked off the field with a 4-2 win and another series victory. At one point, Corbin (1-0) looked poised to go the distance and spare Davey Martinez from...
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Rendon extends hit streak to 16 games (Nats up 4-0)

Rendon extends hit streak to 16 games (Nats up 4-0)
Anthony Rendon went hitless on opening day against Jacob deGrom. He hasn't gone hitless since. With a double off the left field wall in the bottom of the third this afternoon, Rendon extended his career-best hitting streak to 16 games and helped the Nationals open up a 2-0 lead on the Giants. Rendon, who kept his streak alive with a single in his final at-bat Wednesday night, didn't make things nearly as dramatic today. Though he struck out looking at a 3-2 fastball in the bottom of the...
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Eaton gets first day off, Robles gets first chance to bat first

Eaton gets first day off, Robles gets first chance to bat first
It's been kind of taken for granted, but given what he went through the last two years, the fact that Adam Eaton started each of the Nationals' first 16 games this season is quite significant. Eaton, of course, missed most of 2017 after tearing the ACL in his left knee. Then he missed considerable time early in 2018 after Baltimore foot specialist Lew Schon suspected loose cartilage in the outfielder's ankle following an awkward slide, a diagnosis that was later confirmed by Green Bay...
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Game 17 lineups: Nats vs. Giants

Game 17 lineups: Nats vs. Giants
Surely this is the most important official release of the day in Washington: the Nationals' starting lineup for their series finale against the Giants! While much of the world is focused on a different building in a different part of town, baseball fans are most interested in what takes place here on South Capitol Street, where the Nats are trying to take back-to-back games and win this three-game series in order to head out on a road trip to Miami and Colorado with a winning record. Patrick...
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Big blasts for Soto and Adams, for different reasons

Big blasts for Soto and Adams, for different reasons
Let's ignore, tough as it may be, the Nationals bullpen for just one night. Yes, this remains the biggest topic of discussion on a team that too often is seeing the good work of others overshadowed by ineffective work in the late innings by the majors' worst relief corps. Tonight's 9-6 victory over the Giants was that close only because of a near ninth-inning collapse, rescued only by Sean Doolittle's hurried appearance to record the final two outs with the tying run at the plate. But the...
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Early, late blasts power Nationals to 9-6 win over Giants

Early, late blasts power Nationals to 9-6 win over Giants
Davey Martinez spent most of the evening sweating in the dugout, this despite the heavy coat he was wearing on a deceptively chilly mid-April evening on South Capitol Street. His Nationals had opened up an early lead on the Giants but couldn't add on, and so now the second-year manager had to figure out how he was going to get the requisite outs necessary from his beleaguered bullpen while protecting only a two-run lead. Then Matt Adams and Kurt Suzuki made life a whole lot easier on Martinez...
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After sluggish few days, Martinez trying out different lineup

After sluggish few days, Martinez trying out different lineup
In making some changes to his lineup for tonight's game, Davey Martinez had a couple of goals in mind: * Get Matt Adams and Howie Kendrick, both swinging hot bats in recent days, in the lineup. * Give Brian Dozier, who fouled a ball off his toe Tuesday night, a breather. * Move Anthony Rendon, the team's best hitter to date this season, up to try to give him more at-bats and more early opportunities to give the Nationals a lead. The end result of all that is the lineup card that Martinez will...
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Game 16 lineups: Nats vs. Giants

Game 16 lineups: Nats vs. Giants
Davey Martinez has stuck with a pretty consistent lineup since opening day. When he's made changes, he's simply plugged in a Matt Adams or a Howie Kendrick or a Kurt Suzuki into the same spot in the batting order as the regular said player is replacing. But after struggling to score runs Sunday and again Tuesday night, Martinez is going with a different look. Adams and Kendrick and Suzuki are all in there against Giants right-hander Jeff Samardzija. But the order has changed, with Anthony...
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Strasburg laments predictability of pitches that led to homers

Strasburg laments predictability of pitches that led to homers
Stephen Strasburg gives up home runs, but typically not in bunches. He entered Tuesday night's game against the Giants having surrendered three homers in a start only two previous times in his career. So when it happened this time, when he surrendered three long balls in a span of only eight batters, to the least productive lineup in the National League, it obviously raised some eyebrows. What exactly happened? To listen to Strasburg's explanation, what happened was a simple case of...
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Little goes according to script in Nats' 7-3 loss (updated)

Little goes according to script in Nats' 7-3 loss (updated)
Stephen Strasburg was serving up home runs with alarming regularity. The Giants, owners of the least productive lineup in the National League, were piling up runs. Davey Martinez was getting fired up and getting ejected. And Trevor Rosenthal was throwing strikes and retiring batters. No, very little went according to script tonight during the Nationals' 7-3 loss to the Giants. Was this just one of those nights when nothing makes sense? Or was any of this evidence of anything still to come?...
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Sources: Rendon, Nationals resumed negotiations today

Sources: Rendon, Nationals resumed negotiations today
Both the Nationals and Anthony Rendon have insisted they're willing to hold contract negotiations in-season, and they're staying true to their word. Rendon and general manager Mike Rizzo met this afternoon prior to batting practice before the Nationals' series opener against the Giants, according to multiple sources familiar with the meeting, which took place in the team's family room just outside the home clubhouse at Nationals Park. Managing principal owner Mark Lerner participated in the...
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Game 15 lineups: Nats vs. Giants

Game 15 lineups: Nats vs. Giants
We've got a pretty cool pitching matchup here in tonight's series opener between the Nationals and Giants. It's Stephen Strasburg versus Dereck Rodríguez, son of Iván, who of course was behind the plate for Strasburg's major league debut nine years ago. Yep, it's OK to start feeling old after reading that tidbit. After a great rookie season, Rodríguez has pitched OK through his first three starts this year. But the way things are going, the Giants don't need great work out of...
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Some positive early-season developments (non-bullpen division)

Some positive early-season developments (non-bullpen division)
You know what the dominant storyline of the Nationals' season has been to date. It's been the overriding narrative in nearly all of their 14 games so far. Which sometimes pushes other players and facets of this team out of the spotlight, through no fault of their own. So as a new week begins and the Nationals prepare to host the Giants for three games, let's talk about some players and some performances without resorting to using the "B word" ... * Though individually they haven't all hit...
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Sánchez turns in latest gem for Nationals rotation

Sánchez turns in latest gem for Nationals rotation
Before Wander Suero pitched a 1-2-3 top of the eighth, before Adam Eaton and Howie Kendrick hit back-to-back homers in the bottom of the eighth, before Sean Doolittle closed it out in the top of the ninth for the Nationals' first save of the season, there was Aníbal Sánchez. The Nats' dramatic 3-2 win over the Pirates on Saturday wouldn't have been possible without the late heroics of several key figures. But neither would it have been possible without the seven standout innings...
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After drama on ice, a comeback on the diamond

After drama on ice, a comeback on the diamond
As he stood in the batter's box with two outs in the bottom of the eighth, fouling off pitch after pitch, Adam Eaton heard some random pockets of the stands at Nationals Park begin to cheer. He wasn't exactly sure what had happened, but he knew they weren't cheering his foul balls off Richard Rodríguez. What Eaton didn't know was that 2.4 miles north of here at Capital One Arena, Brooks Orpik had just scored in overtime to give the Capitals a Game 2 win over the Hurricanes in their...
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Back-to-back blasts propel Nationals to come-from-behind win

Back-to-back blasts propel Nationals to come-from-behind win
The Nationals finally found a formula to win a game late: Get a scoreless top of the eighth from one of their few effective relievers, take the lead with back-to-back homers in the bottom of the eighth, then let Sean Doolittle take care of the ninth. Oh, and do all this moments after the Capitals win a playoff game in overtime a few miles away. Talk about a turn of events. On an otherwise lazy Saturday afternoon that saw them flail away at the plate for seven innings against Chris Archer, the...
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Williams is next man up in ever-changing bullpen

Williams is next man up in ever-changing bullpen
Austen Williams figured something was up when he was summoned out of Fresno's bullpen in the third inning of Friday night's game at Las Vegas. He knew he wasn't being called in to pitch that early in a game. Sure enough, Williams' hunch was correct. He was being called up to Washington, and now he had to race the clock (and the sun) to get to D.C. in time for today's 4:05 p.m. game against the Pirates. Williams' itinerary: A red-eye flight from Las Vegas to Chicago, then a connecting...
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Game 13 lineups: Nats vs. Pirates

Game 13 lineups: Nats vs. Pirates
The sun is out, and it's going to be a warm afternoon here on South Capitol Street as the Nationals and Pirates return to action after last night's rainy (and frustrating, for the Nats) affair. They'll try to get back on track with Aníbal Sánchez on the mound, though, as we all know, the performance of the starter matters less than the performance of whichever relievers are summoned from the bullpen to replace said starter. On that front, the Nationals have a new face in the bullpen...
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Bullpen's latest collapse ends with Miller headed to IL

Bullpen's latest collapse ends with Miller headed to IL
They can't trust their planned setup man in any situation of consequence. The other experienced right-hander they added this winter can't prevent an inherited runner from scoring. The lefty they signed late in spring training doesn't look fully ready for this workload. And now one of the few members of the Nationals bullpen to perform early on and merit a chance in high-leverage spots is injured after three straight disastrous outings. Suffice it to say, the Nationals relief corps - already...
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