Does a team's record in one-run games reveal anything about it? Is a good record in those tight games evidence of a team that just finds ways to win or a sign of good fortune? Is a bad record evidence of an unlucky team or one that has a fundamental flaw?
We don't know yet which explanation applies to the 2018 Nationals. But we do know this: They've been terrible in one-run games so far.
Friday night's 5-4 setback to the Diamondbacks left the Nats with a 1-7 record in one-run games, worst...
Four runs, with Stephen Strasburg on the mound, probably should have been enough for the Nationals tonight. It would've been enough in any of his final 10 starts last season.
This season, it's been a slightly different story. Three times in six starts, Strasburg has allowed four or more runs, including the five he surrendered to the Diamondbacks in 6 1/3 innings tonight.
So you could pin the Nationals' 5-4 loss on the right-hander, who twice was handed a lead by his teammates and twice gave...
The depleted Nationals know they have little margin for error right now if they want to eke out victories in close ballgames. Once again tonight, they did just enough to put themselves in position to win, and then just enough to end up on the wrong side of the final tally.
Despite several opportunities to bust the game open at the plate, and despite multiple opportunities for one of their aces to protect a slim lead, the Nationals found a way to lose 5-4 to a very good Diamondbacks club and...
Mike Rizzo goes into every season knowing there will be unexpected ailments and performances that require roster changes. And the Nationals general manager goes into every season prepared to tap into as much depth as is necessary from his club's farm system.
The first month of this season, though, is testing that depth like never before.
"It's a grind, man," Rizzo said this afternoon before his fourth-place, 11-14 Nationals opened a 10-game homestand. "Nobody said it would be easy."
Well,...
Walking into Nationals Park this afternoon, it felt like it had been a month since the Nationals last played here. It hasn't been quite that long, but it has been 12 days since their last home game, and that is a while. They also have undergone quite a few roster changes since then, adding to their air of mystique when they finally take the field here tonight for the opener of a 10-game homestand.
It begins with a tough challenge: the Diamondbacks, who on the heels of a 96-win season in 2017...
What a long, strange road trip it was. The Nationals went to New York desperate for some success and used a dramatic, eighth-inning rally in the opener to propel them to back-to-back wins before losing the finale. Then Max Scherzer outdueled Clayton Kershaw in the opener in Los Angeles, and everything appeared to be on track. Except the Nats then lost four straight to the Dodgers and Giants, scoring a grand total of eight runs. But just when things looked especially dire, a makeshift lineup...
SAN FRANCISCO - The flight home at the end of a three-city, nine-game, cross-country road trip is pleasant for no one. The Nationals were scheduled to land at Dulles International Airport at 2:20 a.m. this morning, but by the time they bused back into the city to retrieve their cars and then head home, they were looking at something like a 3:30 a.m. walk through the front door.
If nothing else, at least they boarded that flight Wednesday night in San Francisco with the positive vibes that came...
SAN FRANCISCO - The hits would come, Davey Martinez insisted, as long as the Nationals kept giving themselves opportunities and had the right approach in key situations.
The first-year manager is a relentless optimist, but he surely had developed more than a few doubters over the season's first month, especially over the last week while his club flailed away at what few scoring opportunities they had on the West Coast.
And then, in a sustained display unlike anything else they had offered up...
SAN FRANCISCO - The Nationals figured the best way to end their four-game losing streak was to send Max Scherzer to the mound for today's series finale at AT&T Park. Turns out the better strategy was sending a lineup featuring several backups and recent call-ups up to the plate against Jeff Samardzija and the Giants bullpen.
Behind an onslaught of two-out hits with runners in scoring position, the Nationals blasted Samardzija and company during a 15-2 victory that, if nothing else, allowed...
SAN FRANCISCO - Bryce Harper is about to become the third Nationals player to have a youth baseball field named for him.
The Washington Nationals Dream Foundation announced today it will be dedicating Bryce Harper Field at the Takoma Community Center in Northwest Washington in early May.
The project was made possible through financial contributions from Harper and the Dream Foundation, in partnership with the D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation.
"I am excited and honored to participate in...
SAN FRANCISCO - The Nationals have won only one of their last six games. That win came Friday night in Los Angeles, against Clayton Kershaw, which sounds improbable given the current state of the lineup except once you remember who pitched that game for the Nats: Max Scherzer.
Today, the Nationals are going to need another effort from Scherzer - not to mention some runs against Jeff Samardzija - if they hope to at least head home on a positive note after a long and often difficult road...
SAN FRANCISCO - What's the most important inning in a ballgame? For the Nationals right now, it might be the sixth.
The Nats pitching staff has had all kinds of trouble navigating through that bridge inning without getting into serious trouble, and it has cost them several games along the way.
The Nationals have been scored upon in the sixth inning in 11 of 24 games this season, including five of eight during this road trip and each of the last three nights. And those have been key runs...
SAN FRANCISCO - It felt like a potential turning point for a lineup desperately in need of one. Michael A. Taylor's three-run, opposite-field homer in the top of the fourth tonight at AT&T Park was exactly what the offensively starved Nationals needed, a jolt of life that left them tied with the Giants and chance to win this game if they simply made key pitches the rest of the way and delivered one more big hit.
Then Tanner Roark failed to make one key pitch, and the Nats found themselves...
SAN FRANCISCO - The Nationals were doing absolutely nothing at the plate for 3 2/3 innings tonight against Ty Blach. Of the first 12 batters who came to the plate against the Giants lefty, only one (Howie Kendrick) hit a ball out of the infield.
And then Ryan Zimmerman drew a two-out walk in the fourth, and Moisés Sierra followed with a single through the right side. And then Michael A. Taylor delivered the big blast this team has so desperately needed for days.
Taylor's three-run,...
SAN FRANCISCO - With Shawn Kelley headed to the disabled list, but two workhorses starting the final games of this road trip in advance of an off-day, the Nationals decided to go with an extra bench player tonight and Wednesday against the Giants.
That led to the recalls today of infielder Adrian Sanchez and outfielder Rafael Bautista from Triple-A, the two taking the roster spots previously held by Kelley and infielder Matt Reynolds (who was optioned to Syracuse).
And manager Davey Martinez...
SAN FRANCISCO - The Nationals need a win tonight. It's kind of that simple after losing three in row to the Dodgers and Giants. Beyond that, they need some other events as well to help make a win more possible.
The Nats could certainly use a big-time start from Tanner Roark. Here's the good news: He has owned the Giants in his career, to the tune of a 6-0 record and 2.02 ERA in seven regular season appearances (four starts). (We'll ignore a certain home run he surrendered to Brandon Belt on...
SAN FRANCISCO - A long road trip for the Nationals has featured a host of roster transactions, and a bunch more are being added to the list today.
The Nationals are calling up infielder Adrian Sanchez and outfielder Rafael Bautista from Triple-A, optioning infielder Matt Reynolds to Syracuse and placing reliever Shawn Kelley on the disabled list with an elbow injury, sources familiar with the moves confirmed.
It's merely the latest attempt by the club to address a litany of issues that have...
SAN FRANCISCO - The focus inside the Nationals clubhouse after Monday night's 4-2 loss to the Giants was on the pitching staff, notably Gio Gonzalez's frustration after getting pulled following a leadoff walk in the sixth and then Shawn Kelley immediately giving up a 464-foot home run and departing three pitches later with a recurrence of nerve irritation in his elbow.
A clutch hit or two at some point during the game, though, might well have changed the entire storyline of the game and maybe...
SAN FRANCISCO - The details of the Nationals' 4-2 loss to the Giants tonight contained some familiar events. Squandered opportunities with runners in scoring position. An ill-advised play in the field. Decisive runs scored off the middle of the bullpen.
Adding to the dismay of the Nats' third straight loss, though, was the departure of Shawn Kelley with the latest in his long string of elbow injuries and the overt frustration voiced by Gio Gonzalez after getting pulled by manager Davey...
SAN FRANCISCO - A.J. Cole's time with the Nationals is officially over, but he's going to get another chance to pitch in the big leagues. With the Yankees.
The Nats announced tonight they traded Cole to the Yankees for cash considerations, receiving something in return for the right-hander who had been designated for assignment on Friday.
Cole opened the season as the Nationals' No. 5 starter but was moved to the bullpen after two starts, once veteran Jeremy Hellickson (a late spring...