That minor league deal the Nationals were working on with Bud Norris? It isn't happening anymore.
And that Nationals bullpen that had been a train wreck through the season's first eight games? It might be starting to come together.
Norris had been invited to West Palm Beach earlier this week to work out at extended spring training as Nationals baseball and medical personnel determined whether they believed the veteran right-hander was worth signing right now as a potential Band-Aid for their...
SOMEWHERE ALONG THE AMTRAK NORTHEAST CORRIDOR - There's nothing quite like covering a road trip via the train. It's the way they used to do it all the time a few generations ago, and we still get a few opportunities to do it in the 21st century, like when the Nationals play the Mets and Phillies in succession.
What a road trip this turned out to be to cap off a wild two weeks to begin this season. The Nats have survived their 11-game gauntlet against two division rivals and emerged with a...
PHILADELPHIA - The Nationals left town one week ago having survived a ragged homestand against the Mets and Phillies, with a mess of a bullpen, a shortstop with a broken finger and a daunting road trip looming against those same two division rivals.
The Nationals will return home tonight owners of a winning record, thanks to a potent lineup that scored 49 runs in six games, quality starting pitching, better bullpen work, and a renewed vibe that has allowed this club to relax and enjoy the ride...
PHILADELPHIA - Matt Adams knows the situation here. He's not going to be regular playing at first base as long as Ryan Zimmerman is healthy. So the big slugger knows he's going to have to get himself into a rhythm at the plate even when he's only getting one at-bat a night as a pinch-hitter.
"It's tough coming from spring training when you're playing every other day," he said. "You're getting pretty steady at-bats. And then you come in, and I knew I was going to be Zim's backup. He's...
PHILADELPHIA - Though they've listed him as their starter for Saturday's game against the Pirates, the Nationals aren't 100 percent sure yet Max Scherzer will be able to pitch as scheduled because he's still feeling the effects of a comebacker off his lower right leg in his last outing.
Scherzer would normally have thrown off a bullpen mound today in advance of his next start. But with his ankle wrapped, he walked out to the field at Citizens Bank Park this afternoon and only threw off flat...
PHILADELPHIA - If you thought last night's game had some fireworks, you may want to tune in again tonight for the series finale between the Nationals and Phillies. Because if these two lineups were able to produce against Stephen Strasburg and Aaron Nola the way they did, imagine what could happen against Jeremy Hellickson and Nick Pivetta.
No offense to those two right-handers, but they don't have the track record of last night's starters. And both have been beaten up by these respective...
PHILADELPHIA - It was well past 11 p.m. and inside the Nationals clubhouse players were still coming down from the high they had just experienced during a dramatic, come-from-behind 10-6 victory over the Phillies. Their manager seemed to be on the verge of tearing up as he praised his team for battling through a wild ballgame to emerge victorious. The players had let out a huge roar after holding a postgame "cabbage race" that continued a tradition started in spring training.
Over by his...
PHILADELPHIA - Bryce Harper's early home run brought out a mighty roar from the Philly faithful. Victor Robles and Juan Soto's late home runs brought out the boos.
And the Nationals-Phillies rivalry just got ratcheted up to a whole new level.
Brushing off Harper's third-inning blast off Stephen Strasburg and a five-run deficit, the Nationals came storming back to stun the Phillies tonight, riding Robles' ninth-inning homer and Soto's gargantuan 10th-inning moonshot to a 10-6 victory in an...
PHILADELPHIA - Davey Martinez has already been asked this question multiple times in the last week: Is he tempted to move Victor Robles out of the No. 9 spot in the Nationals lineup? And the manager's answer has remained consistent.
"Right now, no," Martinez said. "I like what he's doing in the nine-hole. We're 10 days in, and he's done really well. I want him to just play the game. And he's having fun. He's doing the little things that we're asking him to do. He's playing really...
PHILADELPHIA - The Nationals are working to finalize what will be a minor league contract with veteran right-hander Bud Norris, though the deal is not yet done, according to general manager Mike Rizzo. It's their latest attempt to patch together a viable bullpen after a disastrous start to the season.
Norris will report to the Nationals' spring training headquarters in West Palm Beach and be evaluated by club officials before they determine a course of action, Rizzo said. If he checks out...
PHILADELPHIA - Though they lost 4-3, the Nationals played a clean, pretty crisp game last night. No, it wasn't perfect, but neither was it anything like some of their other games to date that featured all manner of dysfunction.
So Davey Martinez will be looking for a similar performance tonight. And yet, the Nationals need not only to play well but also to win, lest they fall to 4-6 overall and a full four games behind the Phillies in the standings. Yeah, these games matter, even in early...
PHILADELPHIA - Brian Dozier has been in the big leagues for eight years, and during that time he's hit 173 homers, been an All-Star and three times received MVP votes. So he's not the type to panic over a season-opening slump.
And yet when he stepped to the plate in the top of the ninth Monday night, Dozier couldn't avoid the giant picture of his face on the Citizens Bank Park scoreboard and the number .071 residing next to it.
"Playing a number of years, you know you can have a bad week or...
PHILADELPHIA - There was no bullpen meltdown tonight, no wild back-and-forth ballgame featuring all kinds of twists and turns. No, the Nationals' first game of the season at Citizens Bank Park featured quality pitching done in solely by five fly balls that reached the bleachers in this hitter-friendly facility.
The Phillies' 4-3 victory was rather ho-hum, at least in comparison to just about every other game the Nationals have played so far in 2019, all of them against two division rivals.
It...
PHILADELPHIA - Davey Martinez gave Trevor Rosenthal an opportunity to get himself right pitching in a low-leverage spot Sunday afternoon, and it didn't work. If the situation arises again tonight, Martinez will give his woefully ineffective reliever another opportunity to get himself right.
Rosenthal, who hasn't retired any of the nine batters he's faced so far this season, remains an active member of the Nationals bullpen and will continue to pitch. Just not in high-leverage spots.
"Right...
PHILADELPHIA - When he saw Michael A. Taylor hit the ground hard making a diving catch March 14 in Fort Myers, Fla., Davey Martinez assumed it would be a long time before the Nationals outfielder was back in action again.
Little could Martinez have imagined he'd be at Citizens Bank Park this afternoon, welcoming Taylor back to the active roster only 3 1/2 weeks after spraining his left knee and hip.
"I wouldn't have thought that," Martinez said. "When I saw him fall and try to get up and...
PHILADELPHIA - We knew all along this opening stretch of the season was going to be a bear for the Nationals, who had to face the Mets and Phillies at home and then the same two teams on the road. And it indeed has been a bear, but the Nats have survived so far, going 3-3 against New York and entering tonight's series opener against Philadelphia with a 1-1 head-to-head record.
That makes this three-game set a big one, of course, because the end result will pretty much end up defining how these...
NEW YORK - Max Scherzer had dominated, Anthony Rendon had homered and the Nationals had busted their way out to a double-digit lead on the road heading into the final innings. And then the majors' worst bullpen somehow turned that blowout win into a tension-filled bottom of the ninth that ended in an unlikely save situation.
Sound familiar? It should, because it just happened Sunday at Citi Field. It also happened July 15, 2017, at Great American Ball Park.
Yeah, the 2019 Nationals bullpen...
NEW YORK - If Davey Martinez was asked this morning to draw up a best-case scenario for the Nationals' series finale against the Mets, this had to be awfully close to what the second-year manager imagined.
With his bullpen in shambles but his ace on the mound, Martinez was hoping not only for a dominant Max Scherzer start but also a big day at the plate against Zack Wheeler and the New York pitching staff, creating a comfortable lead that would take all the pressure off that beleaguered...
NEW YORK - Desperate for bullpen help only a week and a half into the season, the Nationals have promoted one of their standby starters from the minors to take over a relief role.
Joe Ross, who was supposed to open the season in the rotation at Triple-A Fresno, was recalled today, with infielder Adrián Sanchez optioned to Double-A Harrisburg to clear a roster spot. Ross, who had been scheduled to make his first start of the season Monday, instead took a red-eye flight from Fresno to New York...
NEW YORK - For all the trouble they've been through already this young season, the Nationals still have an opportunity to win a weekend series against the Mets today and get back to the .500 mark heading into a three-game series at Philadelphia. And they have Max Scherzer on the mound in an attempt to do it.
Scherzer is already making his third start of the season in only the team's eighth game, a byproduct of all the off-days the Nats have had. He's on normal rest, but he'll get an extra...