The Nationals believe they could have Matt Adams back on their active roster Wednesday, with Ryan Zimmerman on track to return next week and Matt Wieters still shooting for a return right around the All-Star break.
All three injured position players took at-bats in a simulated game this afternoon, facing a couple of minor leaguers the club brought in to pitch on a day with the heat index at 106. And all three emerged from the session feeling well, they and manager Davey Martinez said.
Adams is...
It is scorching hot here in Washington, but the local ballclub is anything but hot. The Nationals just went 1-5 on a road trip through Tampa Bay and Philadelphia and have lost 12 of their last 16. They currently sit two games over .500, six games behind the Braves, three games behind the Phillies. And now they get three games against the Red Sox, owners of the second-best winning percentage in baseball.
After all eight active relievers were used during Sunday's 13-inning loss at Citizens Bank...
It's not that the Nationals are losing a lot of ballgames. It's how they're losing them.
Though there have been a few blowouts along the way - most notably last Monday's 11-0 drubbing at Tampa Bay - most of the Nats' losses of late have been by the slimmest of margins.
In fact, each of their last four losses has come by one run, each in low-scoring affairs that easily could have been won had they simply been able to produce one more well-timed hit. The final scores of the Nationals' four...
PHILADELPHIA - The temperature was approaching triple digits, the heat index had long since surpassed it, and what remained of a crowd of 22,051 at Citizens Bank Park was saving its last ounce of energy for the moment when either the Nationals or Phillies would break their longstanding deadlock and score the run that would win this game.
That moment finally came in the bottom of the 13th, with both teams having exhausted their pitching staffs and something needing to give. It gave when Andrew...
PHILADELPHIA - Matt Adams, Ryan Zimmerman and Matt Wieters will all move a step closer to returning to the Nationals' active roster Monday when they face live pitching in a simulated game before their teammates face the Red Sox in Washington.
Adams, Zimmerman and Wieters will face a couple of minor league pitchers the Nationals are flying into town for the occasion.
It's the first time each will have batted against a live pitcher since going on the disabled list, but that doesn't mean all...
PHILADELPHIA - Some 12 hours after explaining Daniel Murphy was available only in an emergency, Davey Martinez wrote out a lineup card that included Murphy as his starting second baseman for the first time this season.
What changed from Saturday night to Sunday morning? The two principals offered up their explanations today as the Nationals prepared to face the Phillies for the seventh time in the last 10 days, seeking only their third head-to-head win.
The process began Thursday, when Murphy...
PHILADELPHIA - As is the case across much of the country today, it is blazing hot here in Philly. Temperatures are expected to approach triple digits this afternoon, making for quite an uncomfortable setting at Citizens Bank Park as the Nationals wrap up their four-game series with the Phillies and try to get July off to a positive start after a bad June.
There are some interesting nuggets in today's lineup. Bryce Harper and Juan Soto have essentially swapped swaps, with Soto batting third and...
PHILADELPHIA - June has come to an end, and not soon enough for a Nationals club that just went 9-16 in the last month.
The calendar change also coincides with the halfway point of the regular season. Yes, the Nats have played 81 games now. And I'm not sure anyone expected their record at this juncture to be 42-39.
That's simply not going to cut it. Eighty-four wins almost certainly isn't getting them into the playoffs. To get to 90, they'll have to play .593 ball the rest of the way, which...
PHILADELPHIA - When Chip Hale asked Davey Martinez for tonight's lineup, the Nationals manager looked at his bench coach with a skeptical eye. Uh, they scored 17 runs and launched seven homers Friday night. They were going with the exact same lineup tonight, no need to ask.
Past success, especially fleeting past success, of course does not guarantee future success. Martinez knew this, but he also knew you don't tempt the baseball gods after a game like that. So he instructed Hale to fill out...
PHILADELPHIA - The Nationals made another set of transactions today in addition to the ones that allowed Jeremy Hellickson to come off the disabled list at the expense of Sammy SolÃs. They also moved Ryan Zimmerman to the 60-day DL so they could reinstate minor league catcher Raudy Read after he completed his 80-game suspension for a positive drug test.
Read, whose suspension was handed down in early February after he tested positive for the performance enhancing drug Boldenone, saw his term...
PHILADELPHIA - Sammy SolÃs knew the Nationals were going to need to drop one of their nine relievers today to make room for starter Jeremy Hellickson. He just didn't expect to be the one who got dropped.
SolÃs, though, was the only one of those nine relievers on the current roster who still had a remaining option and thus could be sent to the minors without first passing through waivers. So the club made the decision to demote the guy who leads their staff and ranks second in the...
PHILADELPHIA - What do you do after hitting seven homers and exploding for 17 runs? Trot out the same lineup the next night, right?
That's what Davey Martinez is doing tonight, going with the same batting order from Friday night's win over the Phillies.
There is one change, of course, and that's the return of Jeremy Hellickson from a strained hamstring. The veteran right-hander, who hurt himself covering first base four weeks ago in Atlanta, returns not only to the Nationals rotation but...
PHILADELPHIA - Erick Fedde was well aware of the situation. He had started seven previous big league games and had yet to emerge with a win in any of them.
"I mean, it was a thought," the rookie right-hander admitted. "Not something ever when I was out on the field. Maybe when I get back home. But it's really nice to get that first one out of the way."
Pitcher wins are a strange stat, and often they aren't at all a reflection of a pitcher's actual performance. But they do still mean...
PHILADELPHIA - Answering a question this afternoon after his team's dramatic drop in home runs during this long and frustrating month, Davey Martinez offered up a different cure for the Nationals' offensive woes.
"If you've noticed the days we've actually had good at-bats, we've hit a lot of balls up the middle," the manager said. "And the approach was like that. There's a lot of hits up the middle and in the gaps. So just stay there. They're going to hit home runs, I know they are....
PHILADELPHIA - The Nationals entered play tonight dead-last in the majors with only 12 home runs hit this month. Two innings later, they've taken over sole possession of 29th place, and they're only one away from moving into a tie for 28th.
Three big blasts by Trea Turner, Juan Soto and Anthony Rendon have brought this previously moribund lineup to life and allowed the Nats to open up a commanding 7-0 lead on the Phillies after only two innings.
The Nationals roughed up Nick Pivetta, with...
PHILADELPHIA - Ryan Zimmerman took the unusual step this afternoon of walking into the visitors' bullpen at Citizens Bank Park with a bat in hand. The purpose: To stand in the batter's box as both Max Scherzer and Gio Gonzalez threw pitches during their standard between-starts bullpen session.
"Just trying to see pitches as much as I can," said Zimmerman, who has been on the disabled list with a strained oblique muscle since May 12. "So when it is time to come back, I've already seen as...
PHILADELPHIA - The Nationals have gotten into a habit of doing virtually nothing at the plate for much of a ballgame and then trying to mount a furious rally late. That strategy worked once (Sunday night at home against the Phillies) but has failed several other times (most recently Thursday night here at Citizens Bank Park). So perhaps they'll see if they can generate something a little earlier tonight.
Some changes to the lineup tonight: Adam Eaton is back in there as promised, leading off...
PHILADELPHIA - First things first, and the first thing everyone noticed about Tanner Roark when he took the mound Thursday night was the major alteration he made to his facial hair. Having sported a thick beard for several years now, the right-hander suddenly showed up with a mustache and sharp-angled sideburns, a look best described as a parody of a style popular in the 1970s.
What, exactly, was Roark's inspiration?
"I don't know," he said, before going on to explain. "I told (pitching...
PHILADELPHIA - Davey Martinez wasn't afraid to admit it.
"We've got some pretty big games coming up, some teams that are doing really well," the Nationals manager said this afternoon. "What I'd really like for them to see is to kind of play with a sense of urgency. This is a time right now where we can make up some ground and do some good things for ourselves."
It's the final weekend of June, and there's still half a season of baseball to be played. But the Nats, surprise residents of...
PHILADELPHIA - Tanner Roark has a new look adorning his face, but his performance on the mound so far tonight unfortunately has looked too familiar to the Nationals.
Roark, who shaved off his large beard but retained a thick mustache and sharp-angled sideburns for tonight's start against the Phillies, has been laboring on the mound from the get-go and appears headed for another quick exit.
On the heels of back-to-back troublesome outings in Toronto and Washington, Roark has needed 71 pitches...