ST. LOUIS - Jeremy Hellickson may not be able to make his next scheduled start for the Nationals, but Stephen Strasburg appears on track to return himself and perhaps mitigate the loss of Hellickson to a wrist injury suffered during Wednesday's loss.
Hellickson, who hurt himself bracing for impact after he jumped over the Cardinals' Harrison Bader sliding across the plate on a wild pitch, had his right wrist wrapped in a protective sleeve today. He didn't attempt to play catch, as pitchers...
ST. LOUIS - There may be no bigger house of horrors for the Nationals than Busch Stadium. Either version of the ballpark. Did you know that in the 14 seasons since this franchise arrived in D.C., it owns an 11-31 record on the road against the Cardinals? That's 11 wins in 14 seasons. That's really not good. And three of those wins came during a stunning sweep in May 2016.
Given that backdrop, it's perhaps not all that surprising that the Nationals tonight are trying to avoid a four-game...
ST. LOUIS - At 10:03 p.m. CDT Sunday, as Ryan Madson prepared to deliver his 2-2 pitch to David Bote at Wrigley Field, the Nationals were one strike away from moving to within 4 1/2 games of first place in the National League East.
By 10:21 p.m. CDT Wednesday, as Trea Turner's fly ball to center field at Busch Stadium settled into Harrison Bader's glove, the Nationals were nine games back in the division.
Yes, in the span of 72 hours, 18 minutes, this team lost 4 1/2 games in the standings....
ST. LOUIS - This isn't the Nationals' longest road trip of the season. It only feels like it.
And because of that, the 41 games that still remain on the schedule in 2018 are perilously close to losing all significance.
With a lackluster 4-2 loss at Busch Stadium tonight, the Nationals dropped their third straight to the Cardinals and fell to 1-5 on this season-defining trip through Chicago and St. Louis.
They are now, stunningly, the owners of a losing record at 60-61. And with the Braves...
ST. LOUIS - If Stephen Strasburg recovers from today's simulated game against Nationals teammates with no lingering issues, the right-hander could make his return to the active roster as soon as Tuesday to face the Phillies in Washington, D.C.
Though Davey Martinez had previously said the plan for Strasburg, out since July 20 with a pinched nerve in his neck, included a minor league rehab start, today's 70-pitch session may have convinced club officials to speed up the process and get the...
ST. LOUIS - This critical road trip in the Nationals season has not gone how they would have liked, but it's not over yet. There are two games left to be played against the Cardinals, two games that could either continue the slide into oblivion or perhaps perk everyone up a bit and recapture some semblance of positive momentum.
It begins tonight with Jeremy Hellickson on the mound for the Nats. It's been quite an interesting season for the right-hander. He has allowed three or fewer earned...
ST. LOUIS - It probably feels like grasping at straws, but it's about all the Nationals can do at this point without completely giving up on the season. And they are making it plain and clear they aren't doing that.
"The energy's there," Davey Martinez said after Tuesday night's 6-4 loss to the Cardinals, the Nats' third straight and fourth in five games to begin this road trip. "These guys don't quit. And they're going to fight to the end. I love them. I really do. They're playing...
ST. LOUIS - There was no ninth-inning disaster tonight, no bullpen implosion, no nightmare for the manager or his players to have to try to explain. There was only a 6-4 loss to the Cardinals that felt relatively mundane for a Nationals club that hasn't experienced anything resembling a mundane loss in some time.
There was the requisite last-gasp rally that brought the go-ahead run to the plate, because this is what they do before they ultimately walk off the field each night. But there also...
ST. LOUIS - On the heels of back-to-back bullpen implosions caused both by injury and poor performance, the Nationals brought in two new relievers - Tim Collins and Trevor Gott - for tonight's game against the Cardinals and removed Ryan Madson and Sammy SolÃs from the active roster.
Madson, who turned a 3-0 lead into a 4-3 loss via David Bote's walk-off grand slam Sunday night in Chicago, was placed on the 10-day disabled list with a back injury (the official diagnosis was lumbar nerve...
ST. LOUIS - And we're back for another evening of exciting Nationals baseball at Busch Stadium. What does tonight have in store for the D.C. nine? It's tough to imagine anything more dramatic (or devastating) than what this team has experienced in the last 48 hours. But at this point, nothing should surprise you.
We don't yet know the state of the Nats bullpen for tonight's game, but reinforcements have arrived. Ryan Madson and Sammy SolÃs are not listed on the lineup card for tonight's...
ST. LOUIS - Every manager has to enter every game with a plan in mind for bullpen usage. He considers that night's starting pitcher. He takes into account who pitched the previous night, who warmed up and who's available tonight. He sets contingencies for an abrupt exit by the starter and/or extra innings in which someone is needed to provide length. He might even consider who's scheduled to start the next night, in case a reliever needs to be held back for that possibility.
Davey Martinez...
ST. LOUIS - The 2018 Nationals don't lose baseball games. They lose Greek tragedies.
There's no such thing as a simple ballgame for this team right now. The wins, few and far between as they seem, are still excruciating affairs. The losses? Well, they fall into a category all their own, suitable only to be written about by men named Thespis or Euripides.
And so even when there were glimmers of hope tonight at Busch Stadium, in the form of seventh- and ninth-inning rallies by the visiting...
ST. LOUIS - For a guy who not long ago was laboring through the worst season of his career, Bryce Harper can still launch a baseball with the best of them. And he sure is starting to look like his peak self again.
Harper hit his 29th homer of the season tonight, a solo blast that came on the 10th pitch of a fourth-inning at-bat against Cardinals right-hander Miles Mikolas. This being game No. 119 for the Nationals, Harper is on pace for a 40-homer season despite all his struggles earlier this...
ST. LOUIS - As Ryan Madson was struggling on the mound in the bottom of the ninth Sunday night at Wrigley Field, Davey Martinez was unaware his fill-in closer was battling anything other than a loss of command. By the time Justin Miller had begun throwing off the bullpen mound behind the ivy in right field, the bases already were loaded and David Bote was stepping to the plate.
Had Martinez known Madson was dealing with back pain that shot down his right leg and, according to the veteran...
ST. LOUIS - It's a new day, in a new town and there's a new ballgame for the Nationals to play tonight. Whether last night's events have any carryover effect in their series opener at Busch Stadium remains to be seen. Your guess is as good as anyone's when it comes to this.
The Nats will need Tommy Milone to give them a chance, though. The lefty very much did that in his first two starts in place of Stephen Strasburg, against the Marlins and Mets. He very much did not do it in his last...
ST. LOUIS - It will come as very small consolation after a crushing weekend at Wrigley Field for the Nationals, but Ryan Zimmerman's individual performance was nonetheless recognized.
Zimmerman was named National League Player of the Week this afternoon after going on a tear that culminated with some big-time games against the Cubs.
Zimmerman hit .476 (10-for-21) with three doubles, three homers, 12 RBIs and four walks in seven games. He led the NL in slugging percentage (1.048), OPS (1.586)...
CHICAGO - The Nationals have gone 12-10 since the All-Star break, but consider how five of those 10 losses went down ...
* July 24 at Milwaukee: Up 4-3 in the seventh, the Nationals blew the lead, then lost 5-4 in 10 innings.
* July 28 at Miami: Down 1-0 in the ninth, the Nationals rallied to tie the game, then lost 2-1 in 10.
* Aug. 7 vs. Atlanta: Tied 1-1 in the ninth, the Nationals lost 3-1.
* Aug. 10 at Chicago: Up 2-0 in the sixth, the Nationals let the Cubs tie it, then took the lead in...
CHICAGO - The Nationals have been in this position too many times this summer. And too many times they've trudged off the field agonizing over a game that somehow got away from them late.
If somehow they're going to survive this roller coaster season to keep playing in October, they simply are going to have to flip the script on these games. Where better, then, to start but on a Sunday night at Wrigley Field, with a national television audience watching a classic pitchers' duel and a stellar...
CHICAGO - Daniel Murphy has been terrorizing the Cubs since the 2015 National League Championship Series, and he's been up to his old tricks this weekend at Wrigley Field.
Murphy, finally feeling healthy and confident in his swing after a long recovery from knee surgery, had seven hits in his first 10 at-bats of the Nationals' series against the Cubs. That included a single down the left field line in the top of the second tonight, one that advanced Ryan Zimmerman from first to third and put...
CHICAGO - Anthony Rendon is out of the Nationals lineup for the second straight day, but manager Davey Martinez expressed some level of confidence his starting third baseman won't need to miss a third straight game.
Rendon, who was hit by a pitch on his left hand in the first inning Friday afternoon at Wrigley Field, is available to come off the bench for tonight's series finale against the Cubs. That would most likely be if the Nats needed him in the field, though, not as likely if he was...