CHICAGO - It's a warm, sunny day at the corner of Clark and Addison, but the wind's actually blowing in, a rarity at Wrigley Field given the other conditions. That could help keep the ball in the park, which of course benefits the pitchers in today's series opener between the Nationals and Cubs.
Jeremy Hellickson is the kind of pitcher who looks for groundballs, so he won't complain about the conditions this afternoon. The right-hander still faces a stiff challenge, of course, in the Cubs...
There were any number of reasons the Nationals lost to the Braves on Wednesday night, and any number of ways they could have made up for those reasons and actually pulled off an impressive comeback that would've changed the entire outlook of this critical series.
But the primary focus from many corners afterward was on Juan Soto's sixth-inning ejection, so it's worth revisiting that sequence, as well as all the principal participants' postgame comments.
In the bottom of the fourth, Soto was...
The Nationals showed some much-needed emotion tonight during a critical game against the Braves. Unfortunately, it only came after they trailed by a hefty margin and after their youngest star was ejected for the first time in his life.
After Tommy Milone dug his teammates into a six-run hole, and the Nats tried to claw their way back while also watching 19-year-old slugger Juan Soto and hitting coach Kevin Long get ejected during a wild bottom of the sixth. In the end, the fiery emotions...
Koda Glover was extraordinarily excited to be in the Nationals clubhouse this afternoon, back on an active big league roster, healthy and available to pitch for the first time in 2018. Given what the high-energy reliever has been through the last two years, can you blame him?
"You have no idea. It was way worse than Tommy John, anything like that," he said. "But like I said, trust in the medical staff, and they did an excellent job."
Glover, who had Tommy John surgery on his elbow before he...
Kelvin Herrera is now on the disabled list, and though the Nationals hope his stay won't be long, they also know any time lost to injury right now is a detriment to their chances of catching up in a pennant race that is running out of days.
Herrera, who had to depart Tuesday night's game after giving up two runs and three hits in the top of the ninth to the Braves, received results of an MRI this afternoon that showed a rotator cuff impingement in his right shoulder. Manager Davey Martinez...
As if the sting of Tuesday night's 3-1 loss to the Braves in the second half of their day-night doubleheader wasn't enough, today the Nationals learned they've now lost Kelvin Herrera to a shoulder injury. Herrera, who had an MRI this morning, has been placed on the 10-day disabled list with a right shoulder impingement. We'll get more details - and, hopefully, an estimated timeline for his return - shortly, but in the meantime the Nationals bullpen has yet another new face: Koda Glover....
The sting of Tuesday night's 3-1 loss to the Braves in the nightcap of a significant doubleheader was still fresh in everyone's mind, but if the Nationals were looking for reasons to remain optimistic the day and night Ryan Zimmerman had the plate was a good place to start.
Zimmerman was a one-man wrecking crew with the bat on a long day at the ballpark. He went 3-for-5 with two doubles and a homer in the opener (an 8-3 Nats win) and then he followed that up by going 3-for-3 with a double and...
It was right there for the taking, a doubleheader sweep and a chance to make a definitive statement that they intend to thrust themselves into the mix of the National League East's three-team pennant race right now.
Instead, the Nationals squandered yet another golden opportunity to win a close ballgame, and because of that a long and exhausting day and night at the ballpark wound up as nothing more than a push. No ground gained, no ground lost. Which is not what they need right now.
A 3-1...
With each passing day, Juan Soto does something else that makes you pause to remember just how remarkable the Nationals rookie's season has been. No matter his age.
Soto added to the growing legend tonight when he homered in the bottom of the first. To the opposite field. Off a left-hander. On an 0-2 pitch.
This, of course, has become commonplace for the 19-year-old since he burst onto the scene 2 1/2 months ago and started doing things few (if any) 19-year-olds have ever done before on a...
And we're back for the nightcap of today's doubleheader. The Nationals did what they needed to in the opener, riding five strong innings from Jefry Rodriguez and a pair of four-run rallies to an 8-3 victory that moved them to within five games of the Phillies and 3 1/2 games of the Braves. There's still an opportunity to either gain or lose ground the rest of the evening, with Philadelphia playing late at Arizona.
The Nats have to like the fact they've got Max Scherzer on the mound tonight,...
Davey Martinez didn't want his players looking at this week's critical series as a whole, believing there was no good to be had worrying about all four games with the Braves until they'd played the first one.
Well, Martinez's Nationals did exactly what they needed to do it today's matinee opener. And now they get to go for a doubleheader sweep with their ace on the mound.
Behind five strong innings from fill-in starter Jefry Rodriguez, a pair of four-run rallies in the middle innings and...
Greg Holland last pitched on July 21, for the Cardinals at Wrigley Field. He gave up three runs to the Cubs, took a blown save and watched his ERA rise to 7.92. The Cardinals would go on to designate the veteran reliever for assignment, then released him after he cleared waivers.
Today, Holland is in a No. 56 Nationals jersey, active and almost certain to pitch at some point during their key doubleheader against the Braves, hoping he can turn around a season that hasn't gone anything close to...
Who's ready for a long - and important - day and night of baseball? The Nationals better hope they are. They enter the day 5 1/2 games behind the Phillies, four games behind the Braves. By night's end, they could be anywhere from four to seven games behind Philadelphia, two to six games behind Atlanta. So, yeah, it's a big day.
It all gets started with the opener of this day-night doubleheader, with Jefry Rodriguez taking the mound for the Nats. It'll be the right-hander's sixth career...
They're all big games and big series for the Nationals at this point, with fewer than one-third of the season remaining on the schedule. But four games in three days against the Braves? Yeah, this is an especially big series.
The Nationals get 16 more cracks in total against the two teams that have resided above them in the National League East for much of the summer: seven with Atlanta, nine with Philadelphia. If they're going to make up this deficit and return to the postseason for the...
Even though Sean Doolittle has been sidelined for four weeks now with a toe injury, the Nationals on Sunday called upon Kelvin Herrera in a save situation for only the third time. The vast majority of their wins over the last month have come with sizeable leads, leaving their fill-in closer rarely taking the ball in the ninth inning with a slim lead.
Sunday, though, presented a new opportunity for Herrera. And the result was especially encouraging for the right-hander and the...
Shawn Kelley's tenure with the Nationals officially came to an end today when the club traded the veteran reliever to the Athletics in exchange for international bonus slot value.
Kelley had been designated for assignment Wednesday, the morning after he upset team officials when he slammed his glove to the ground after giving up a home run in the top of the ninth inning of a 25-4 rout of the Mets. That transaction unofficially ended his time with the Nationals, but officially they had seven...
Tanner Roark isn't No. 1 on the list of "Most Important Nationals for the Remainder of the Season," but he's on the list somewhere, and probably closer to the top than the bottom.
The Nats have been built to win behind consistently great starting pitching for many years now, and typically as Roark has gone so has the team as a whole. So among the most significant developments of the second half to date has been the reemergence of the wily right-hander as a guy who can be counted on to...
The Nationals have shown they can win some lopsided games, riding big offensive showings to big victories. If, however, they're going to pull off a late-season surge, they're going to have to start winning some tight ballgames when there's little-to-no margin for error.
Like today's series finale against the Reds, in which the Nationals held a one-run lead in the fourth inning and then tried to make it hold up the rest of the afternoon.
It wasn't easy, but the challenge facing the Nats...
Bryce Harper is back in the Nationals' lineup for today's series finale against the Reds, a development that was very much uncertain when the star outfielder left the ballpark Saturday night with a barking right knee.
Harper was hit by a pitch square on the kneecap during the bottom of the sixth inning of the Nats' 6-2 win over Cincinnati. He remained in the game and did take his position in right field to begin the top of the seventh but then was removed after laboring to track down a...
After a long day and night at the ballpark on Saturday, the Nationals return to the ballpark today for what amounts to a pretty big series finale with the Reds. Obviously, every game is big at this point, but consider that the Nats need to win today to win the series. And carry some positive momentum into their critical upcoming four-games-in-three-days series with the Braves. Which leads into a seven-game road trip to Chicago and St. Louis.
So, yeah, a win today would help a lot of things....