LOS ANGELES - Stephen Strasburg vs. Clayton Kershaw lived up to the hype. But as Nationals fans surely know by now, these games against the Dodgers almost always come down to some key moments late against the respective teams' bullpens.
And in the finale of a fantastic, tightly contested series at Chavez Ravine, it was the Dodgers bullpen that stepped up to get the outs necessary to deal the Nationals a 2-1 loss.
After Kershaw was surprisingly pulled following seven dominant innings, the...
LOS ANGELES - Stephen Strasburg has reached an impressive career milestone. Ryan Zimmerman is well on his way to surpassing one of his own.
Strasburg completed his 1,000th career inning pitched early in today's game against the Dodgers, and his strikeout of Corey Seager in the bottom of the first helped him match a major league record. With 1,666 strikeouts, Strasburg tied Kerry Wood for the most strikeouts by any big league starter in his first 1,000 innings.
It's been a winding path for...
LOS ANGELES - Dusty Baker admittedly didn't see what happened at the end of Tuesday night's game because he had turned to shake hands with his coaches after the Nationals finished off a 2-1 victory over the Dodgers. Once he had a chance to watch the video and hear from others about the post-strike three encounter between Koda Glover and Yasiel Puig, the Nats manager had some more perspective.
"My take is: There's a lot of testosterone out there," Baker said. "It happens sometimes. Puig,...
LOS ANGELES - When this long road trip through the state of California began 10 days ago, would you have taken a 7-1 record with a chance to sweep the Dodgers in today's finale? I think so.
Today's game, quite frankly, is gravy for the Nationals, who already took the first two in this series and now face Clayton Kershaw in a Wednesday matinee at Chavez Ravine. A win would be fantastic, but nobody should be complaining too much if they don't pull this one off.
Stephen Strasburg certainly...
LOS ANGELES - Dusty Baker keeps saying the only way for a closer to get experience is to, well, get experience. You don't know how any young reliever is going to handle the pressure of the ninth inning until he starts pitching it. And you don't know how he's going to handle the extra pressure of a ninth inning on the road against an elite opponent until he gives it a try.
So consider Tuesday night a significant experience for Koda Glover, and a positive one at that. Handed a 2-1 lead in the...
LOS ANGELES - The running joke around the Nationals is that anytime Max Scherzer takes the mound, you better watch because something special is probably going to happen.
Thing is, it's not a joke. It's real. And these days, Scherzer is spectacular.
Or as teammate Koda Glover described it: "He's a stud."
The Nationals ace added another memorable performance to his ever-growing resume tonight, striking out 14 Dodgers in only seven innings, 11 of them in the game's first 3 2/3 innings. And...
LOS ANGELES - Max Scherzer has something special going on tonight at Dodger Stadium.
No, the Nationals ace isn't working on another no-hitter; he has allowed two clean hits in three innings, not to mention an unearned run.
But through three innings, Scherzer has nine strikeouts. Even though one Los Angeles batter made an out on a ball put into play.
Scherzer struck out three batters a piece in each of his first three innings, but one of them - a called third strike to Cody Bellinger in the...
LOS ANGELES - When Koda Glover was unavailable to pitch Monday night against the Dodgers due to the fact he was - in manager Dusty Baker's words - "a little sore," it might have raised a few eyebrows among Nationals fans.
It doesn't appear you have anything to be worried about, though. Glover's arm was indeed sore, and he informed the coaching staff shortly before gametime he needed the night off. But the rookie reliever said it was simply a case of his arm not being ready to come back and...
LOS ANGELES - The Nationals already won 5-of-6 in the Bay Area to begin this road trip. They already won the opener of this three-game series against the Dodgers. And now they send Max Scherzer to the mound tonight. Not a bad position to be in, eh?
Scherzer will be looking to pick up where he left off Wednesday night in San Francisco, when he went the distance and struck out 11 to beat the Giants in dominant fashion. The ace now has 100 strikeouts in 77 1/3 innings, tops in the league and ahead...
LOS ANGELES - The Dodgers, as the Nationals saw firsthand last October, are awfully vulnerable against left-handed pitching. Even though they've improved somewhat in that regard this season, so many of their prominent batters swing from the left side of the plate that an opposing manager would be foolish not to play the matchups as much as possible when given the opportunity.
Dusty Baker knew that heading into Monday night's game. And so - aided in part by the fact Koda Glover reported a sore...
LOS ANGELES - The outcome of this week's series at Dodger Stadium isn't going to have a dramatic effect on the Nationals' season. No matter the result, they're going to head home with a winning record on this long California trip and will be comfortably in first place in the National League East.
There was an understanding, though, heading into tonight's opener that these next three days will serve as something of a measuring stick for a Nationals club that by luck of schedule and division...
LOS ANGELES - If you're looking for a bright spot about Jayson Werth landing on the disabled list, the fact he was able to ditch the crutches and walk around with his left foot in a protective boot today is at least somewhat encouraging.
Werth was placed on the 10-day DL this afternoon, a move that was backdated to Sunday since he didn't play in the Nationals' series finale against the Athletics. Thus, he'll be eligible to return June 14, and the club is hopeful he'll be ready by...
LOS ANGELES - Hello from Dodger Stadium, which looks resplendent as ever in this, its 56th year of existence. The Nationals have made their way down from the Bay Area after going 5-1 in San Francisco and Oakland. Now they face not only the toughest leg of this road trip but possibly their toughest test of the season to date in the red-hot Dodgers.
The Nationals won't have Jayson Werth for this series after placing the veteran left fielder on the 10-day disabled list with a bruised left foot....
LOS ANGELES - Jayson Werth's left foot isn't seriously injured, but it is injured enough to require a stint on the disabled list.
The Nationals have placed Werth on the 10-day DL with a bruised foot and promoted veteran outfielder Ryan Raburn from Triple-A Syracuse to fill his roster spot for tonight's series opener against the Dodgers.
Werth fouled a ball off his foot in the ninth inning of Saturday's game in Oakland, then sat out Sunday's game. X-rays taken of his foot were negative for...
OAKLAND, Calif. - It got lost in the shuffle amid all those ninth-inning runs Sunday afternoon, but Tanner Roark pitched yet another impressive game and continues to resurrect what was beginning to look like a wayward season.
With 7 2/3 strong innings against the Athletics, Roark extended his recent hot stretch and further distanced himself from the struggles that had consumed him only a few weeks ago.
"He was in control," manager Dusty Baker said.
For six innings, Roark certainly was. He...
OAKLAND, Calif. - This was going to be Tanner Roark's day, the latest in a string of dominant starts by the right-hander, who has turned his season around in the process.
Then this was going to be Ryan Zimmerman's day, the latest in a string of clutch hits by the slugger, whose three-run homer off Ryan Madson in the top of the eighth inning got Roark off the hook and gave the Nationals a late lead over the Athletics.
But these are the Nationals, after all, and games almost always seem to come...
OAKLAND, Calif. - Six years later, Ryan Zimmerman made Ryan Madson pay once again with a big blast late to win a ballgame for the Nationals.
Facing the veteran reliever for the first time since 2011, Zimmerman launched a three-run homer down the left field line, breaking an eighth-inning tie and propelling the Nationals to what became a 11-10 victory over the Athletics after a wild ninth inning for both lineups.
The blast was Zimmerman's 16th of the season, tied for the league lead and...
OAKLAND, Calif. - Bryce Harper is back with the Nationals, back in the lineup after a four-day trip home to Las Vegas he never wanted to take but nonetheless tried to enjoy.
"I'm just happy to be back," he said. "I'm definitely happy to be back here with the guys and to be able to play today. I'm glad that's out of the way and we can all move forward."
Having served his full three-game suspension (with an off-day for the Nats in the middle of that) Harper was free to rejoin the team for...
OAKLAND, Calif. - It's a beautiful Sunday here in Oakland as the Nationals wrap up their weeklong trip to the Bay Area with one final game against the A's, looking to bounce back from yesterday's loss and win the three-game series before heading down to Los Angeles for the final leg of the road trip.
And it's a beautiful day for the Nationals because Bryce Harper is back. Having served his three-game suspension, the young star is active again and back in his customary spot in the lineup....
OAKLAND, Calif. - The baseball season is long, and there are plenty of ups and downs, hot streaks and slumps for every player and every team through the course of a 162-game schedule.
So it would be irresponsible to suggest that what we've seen so far from the Nationals, both on a team and individual level, is going to continue exactly the same way over the remainder of the season.
But having made that caveat, we do have to point out that after Saturday's game, the Nationals' season reached...