It's too early to actually write about these things, but because you're wondering (and because we're smack dab in the middle of the dog days right now) ... the Nationals' magic number to clinch the NL East is currently 37. Obviously, there's still a long way to go, but that's also a really low number for Aug. 10.
The Nats will have a chance to reduce that number to 35 tonight if they beat the Marlins again and take this four-game series from the division's current second-place squad....
There are few compliments one ballplayer can heap on another more telling than to refer to him as a "professional hitter."
It sounds silly, but that's the kind of designation that is reserved for only a select few, those who consistently produce the kind of quality at-bats that impress even the best this game has to offer.
So when Dusty Baker referred to Howie Kendrick last night by that term, you knew he meant it as the highest compliment.
"He knows how to hit," the Nationals manager...
Some athletes try to compartmentalize their professional lives and their personal lives, making sure not to let one impact the other. Gio Gonzalez just decides to embrace it all and enjoy both to the fullest, even if they sometimes intersect.
For the veteran left-hander, there was no way to separate the two this week, not with everything he experienced. Nine days ago, he nearly threw a no-hitter in Miami, on the night the Marlins were memorializing José Fernández on what would have been...
An altered pitching schedule due to the birth of his son over the weekend did nothing to throw Gio Gonzalez out of whack.
The left-hander was back on the mound tonight and dominated the Marlins just as he did nine days earlier in his near-no-hitter. This time, he tossed seven innings of one-run ball, leading the Nationals to a 10-1 victory on a night in which they did just about everything right.
Ryan Zimmerman led the Nats' offensive barrage against Miami's pitching staff with one of the...
Stephen Strasburg took a key step in his return to the mound for the Nationals this afternoon by throwing a simulated game, the most significant test the right-hander has put his elbow through since going on the disabled list 2 1/2 weeks ago.
Strasburg said he threw 57 pitches over four simulated "innings," facing two batters (teammates Jayson Werth and Andrew Stevenson), and emerged with no concerns about the state of his elbow.
"It feels really good," he said. "I'm definitely happy with...
When last we saw Gio Gonzalez on the mound, he was carrying a no-hitter into the bottom of the ninth at Marlins Park before Dee Gordon broke it up on an emotional night in Miami. Since then, Gonzalez has left the Nationals for a few days for the birth of his second son, Gabriel, and now he returns to the mound for his first appearance in nine days.
And the opponent ... will be the Marlins again. As we saw last night with Vance Worley and A.J. Cole, the advantage doesn't necessarily change from...
The Nationals have been able to withstand the long-term injuries to lineup regulars by getting contributions from a number of backups. And in some cases, even the backups to the backups.
But they do need to start seeing those regulars come back from the disabled list, and in the process allow those backups to slide back into the roles for which they were intended all along.
There is some good news in that regard: Michael A. Taylor last night played his seventh rehab game, and launched a...
Had things gone as originally planned, Vance Worley most likely would have started tonight's game at Nationals Park, not for the visiting club for the home squad.
The Nationals signed Worley to a minor league contract last winter and offered him an invitation to big league camp. It was a non-guaranteed deal, but given the right-hander's track record and versatility, he looked like a strong bet to make the opening day roster and serve as both a long man in the bullpen and emergency starter if...
The second A.J. Cole-Vance Worley matchup in a week didn't go any better for the Nationals than it did the first time.
In a rematch of Wednesday night's blowout loss in Miami, Worley once again handcuffed the Nationals lineup while Cole served up a couple of towering home runs to the Marlins during a 7-3 loss that looked all too familiar.
Worley, the journeyman long reliever/spot starter who dominated the Nationals during seven scoreless innings six days ago at Marlins Park, wasn't quite as...
Enny Romero was back throwing on the field at Nationals Park this afternoon, cleared to begin ramping up again after tests revealed the left-hander is dealing only with muscle tightness in his forearm and nothing more serious than that.
Romero had to come out of Wednesday's game in Miami after complaining of arm trouble, and the Nationals placed him on the 10-day disabled list and sent him back to Washington while the club proceeded to Chicago for the weekend.
Romero said he was examined by...
The Nationals' rotation is getting back to normal, with Max Scherzer having returned last night and Gio Gonzalez set to return tomorrow night. But there's one more stop-gap start needed from a fill-in tonight, and so A.J. Cole will be taking the mound to face the Marlins for the second time in a week.
It didn't go so well for Cole in Miami; he allowed five runs in five innings, four of those coming during a rough bottom of the fifth. We'll see if the right-hander is able to make any...
CHICAGO - There's nothing like experience, and Erick Fedde made sure to take what he learned from his major league debut last week and apply it to Sunday's start against the Cubs.
For example: Trust his entire repertoire, not just two of his four pitches.
"The first game, I felt like I really got away from my breaking ball, and just turned into a two-pitch pitcher," the right-hander said. "Today, I got to all four of my pitches and stayed with them throughout the game and kept guys...
CHICAGO - There was no trophy presentation inside the cramped visitors' clubhouse at Wrigley Field this afternoon, no champagne celebration, no extra-loud music to distinguish this from any other game the Nationals have won this season.
Maybe that says more about this team than anything else. Had they whooped it up and made a big deal out of a 9-4 victory over the Cubs - thrilling as it was - and the clinching of both this weekend series and the season series from the defending World Series...
CHICAGO - They trailed much of the afternoon, unable to string together much against Jon Lester and unable to keep Willson Contreras in the park. But the Nationals knew they still had a chance if they could: 1) keep the game close, 2) get Lester out and get into the Cubs bullpen and 3) get to their own new bullpen trio.
Wouldn't you know they managed to do all three, and thanks to that - with a huge assist from Matt Wieters' biggest blast of the season - the Nationals walked out of Wrigley...
CHICAGO - Erick Fedde has come out throwing strikes again. And so far, that has produced better results for the Nationals rookie than in his first career start.
Taking the mound seven days after he was roughed up by the Rockies for seven runs in four innings, Fedde retired the first five Cubs batters he faced today, three via strikeout. The bottom of Chicago's lineup strung together three straight two-out singles to produce the afternoon's first run, but the rookie right-hander bounced back...
CHICAGO - Dave Jageler has spent the last 11 1/2 years broadcasting Nationals games in vivid detail on the radio, so there is a natural comfort level he has found along the way. A comfort level he hasn't fully felt over the last week as he has continued to broadcast Nationals games, just in the entirely different medium of television.
"I've done over 2,000 games on the radio," Jageler said. "You just do it. It's your routine. It's every day. And this is so different because I've done it...
CHICAGO - It's a big day at Wrigley Field, if you care about things like head-to-head records against big-name opponents. The Nationals and Cubs have not only split this weekend's series so far, they've also split the season series. Yes, each team has won three games. And so today's finale will settle that score. (And if, by some chance, the two teams wound up tied at the end of the season, that would determine home-field advantage for a theoretical playoff series.)
Given the stakes, the...
CHICAGO - Matt Wieters, by his own admission, isn't the type to argue with umpires very much. Certainly not to the extent he risks ejection.
But every once in a while, the Nationals catcher feels like he needs to make a point. Usually when it comes to balls and strikes. And so when he felt it was necessary in the bottom of the sixth Saturday afternoon, he let plate umpire Chad Whitson know it. And then was forced to watch the rest of the Nationals' 7-4 loss to the Cubs from the clubhouse.
It...
CHICAGO - That the Nationals "had action" - as Dusty Baker likes to call it - several times late in today's 7-4 loss to the Cubs speaks to their ability to rarely be out of a ballgame, even one that felt like an uphill climb from the outset.
Then again, with a couple of well-placed pitches in a couple of key situations earlier, the Nationals might not have found themselves trying to finish off a comeback but instead a wire-to-wire victory.
In the end, the Nats' attempted rallies against the...
CHICAGO - A disastrous first inning from Edwin Jackson left the Nationals trying to climb their way out of a significant hole nearly from the get-go this afternoon at Wrigley Field. But every time they made some progress and nearly got their heads back up to ground level, the Cubs pushed them back down the hole and made them start all over again.
The end result: a 7-4 loss on a long and often frustrating afternoon at the Friendly Confines, setting up a rubber match Sunday afternoon, not only to...