Tuesday night's 10-4 win over the Phillies took a lot out of the Nationals. They only got three innings out of Tanner Roark because of a 1-hour, 45-minute rain delay that prevented the starter from retaking the mound.
That forced an already makeshift bullpen to churn out six innings, with no true long man available after Tommy Milone threw four innings in garbage time during Sunday's blowout loss to the Marlins and then landed on the disabled list with left shoulder inflammation.
Davey...
It's been a strange, eventful summer for the Nationals, and it has only grown stranger and more eventful in recent days - and that's not going to change tonight. Because in the wake of everything else that has gone on around here lately, Stephen Strasburg is coming back from the disabled list to make only his second start in 2 1/2 months, looking to help the Nats gain another game on the Phillies.
What can we expect from Strasburg? Hard to say. He didn't make a rehab start, only a 70-pitch...
If the Nationals truly have waved the white flag on 2018 - whether they have depends on your interpretation of Tuesday's trades and subsequent statements made by Mark Lerner, Mike Rizzo and Davey Martinez - then their focus for the remaining 5 1/2 weeks of the season is going to have to shift at least somewhat toward preparing for 2019.
What, though, does that mean from a practical standpoint? What players might we see the rest of the way who might not otherwise have received this kind of...
Hours after watching their front office trade away two popular veterans and their owner issue a statement that all but served as a concession speech for the 2018 season, the Nationals took the field tonight to face a Phillies team that is very much in a pennant race for the first time in seven years, then sat through a 1-hour, 42-minute rain delay in the third inning before re-taking the field in front of a crowd with a vibe not felt around here since maybe 2010.
With Daniel Murphy on his way...
The general manager and manager stopped short of calling it a concession on the remainder of a disappointing season. The owner's statement, though, was more forthright in its admission that today's dumping of Daniel Murphy and Matt Adams came about once Nationals officials decided it simply wasn't going to happen in 2018.
"I believed in this team, and would have loved to see them all play healthy together this season," managing principal owner Mark Lerner said in that prepared statement...
If the Nationals have any hope whatsoever of storming back to win their fifth National League East title in seven years - and yes, we fully acknowledge the odds of it are rather slim at this point - they're going to have to win a whole lot of their remaining games with the Phillies and Braves.
Twelve of the Nats' final 37 games come against the two teams they've been chasing in the NL East all summer, nine of those against Philadelphia. They enter play tonight 7 1/2 games back of the Braves,...
It's the most pervasive question in Washington this summer, at least in the realm of sports: What happened to the Nationals?
The answer isn't nearly as simple as many would like.
If only there was one concrete reason for the Nationals' slow descent from division favorites to a sub-.500 club trying to hang on for dear life. But the truth is, a combination of things had to come together this season to create this mess. Alter any one of them, and the story of the 2018 Nats might be totally...
The Nationals desperately want their 12 remaining games with the Phillies and Braves to be meaningful. The way they've been playing against the Marlins suggests those games with the National League East's top two contenders aren't going to matter.
In their latest - and most aggravating - performance vs. the division's cellar-dwellers, the Nationals were trounced by Miami 12-1 this afternoon, capping an ugly weekend with one of the ugliest losses of a season that is on the verge of being...
The significance of the series, given the Nationals' current predicament in the standings, can be debated. But if nothing else, they can take some solace in knowing they'll finally be able to send their three best starting pitchers to the mound this week against the Phillies.
Davey Martinez confirmed as much this morning when he announced that Stephen Strasburg will return from the disabled list and start Wednesday night's game at Nationals Park. The rehabbing right-hander will be surrounded...
The Nationals made a late rotation change this weekend, electing not to start Tommy Milone as planned Saturday night against the Marlins and instead promote Jefry Rodriguez from Triple-A. The rationale? Rodriguez had been on a roll - he had an 0.83 ERA over his last four starts, split between Syracuse and Washington - and Milone could prove more valuable as a much-needed long reliever in the bullpen.
A lot of things didn't go right for the Nats during their 7-5, 10-inning loss. But the...
The Nationals know they can't win every game the rest of the way, that there are going to be nights they simply don't put themselves in position to win and have to shrug off a loss. But they also know there have been and will continue to be games that are right there for the taking, games they absolutely must win if they have any hope of a meaningful, late-season charge.
Games like tonight's contest against the Marlins, in which opportunities were abundant and victory was so close they could...
The Nationals could have both Stephen Strasburg and Kelvin Herrera back on their active pitching staff for next week's series against the Phillies, though a final determination on each injured right-hander won't be made until Sunday at the earliest.
Strasburg and Herrera each threw this afternoon at Nationals Park, and each appeared to emerge from the session in good shape.
Strasburg threw more than 40 pitches in a bullpen session, a typical activity for him between starts. This came three...
The Nationals tonight are seeking their third straight win, and they'll be doing so with a different pitcher on the mound then they originally planned. Tommy Milone no longer is starting this game; instead it'll be Jefry Rodriguez getting the promotion from Triple-A Syracuse. We haven't heard any official reasoning for this, but the hunch is simply that they liked the Rodriguez matchup against the Marlins better than Milone (who will still be available out of the bullpen).
We're awaiting...
ST. LOUIS - OK, so it's not quite the addition to the Nationals bullpen everyone is looking for at this perilous moment in a season on the brink. But if the club's new bullpen cart can bring some smiles to people's faces and maybe even help relievers save some energy before they enter to pitch, this could prove to be an important late-summer acquisition after all.
The Nats are set to unveil the "WGL Energy Bullpen Cart" later today and make it available for use by relievers from both teams...
ST. LOUIS - It wasn't all that long ago that Davey Martinez had no shortage of established late-inning relievers at his disposal when he needed to try to close out a game. There was Sean Doolittle. There was Kelvin Herrera. There was Ryan Madson. There was Brandon Kintzler.
When Martinez looked down to that bullpen this evening at Busch Stadium, though, none of those established guys were there. Or, at least not on the active roster. No, when he needed someone to protect a one-run lead against...
ST. LOUIS - It may come too late to have much impact on their fortunes this season, but Joe Ross is on track to return from Tommy John surgery and pitch for the Nationals in September.
Ross, who had elbow ligament replacement surgery on July 19, 2017, made a rehab start for Single-A Potomac this afternoon, throwing 63 pitches of scoreless ball over 3 2/3 innings.
"He threw well," manager Davey Martinez said. "They said he had good action on his fastball, which is good, cause that's who he...
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...