PHILADELPHIA - A.J. Cole knows his final line Saturday night was not entirely reflective of the way he pitched. He and the Nationals also know style points weren't important in this one. Positive results were of far greater consequence.
"I was always fighting the whole game, really trying to get ahead of hitters and throw strikes," the right-hander said. "And a lot of times, I was getting behind, which made it pretty difficult for me. But like I said, you have the defense behind me making...
PHILADELPHIA - The comparison, on the surface, is ludicrous. Because one of the players involved did this for entire seasons at a time, while the other has merely done it for five weeks.
But the comparison came straight from Dusty Baker's mouth, and if anyone in the world is qualified to make this statement, it is the only person who has managed both players in question.
After watching Ryan Zimmerman go bananas at the plate once again tonight during the Nationals' 6-2 victory over the...
PHILADELPHIA - Rather than stress too much over how he was going to cobble together his bullpen tonight, Dusty Baker conjured up a less-stressful road map to victory a few hours before the Nationals and Phillies took the field.
"Hopefully we score a lot of runs," the manager said. "And hopefully Cole goes deep in the game."
Baker got his wish. On both counts. The Nationals once again got homers from Ryan Zimmerman and Anthony Rendon. And they got six innings of one-run ball from A.J. Cole,...
PHILADELPHIA - It's turning into a daily question for Dusty Baker: Who's your closer tonight?
"Same thing as yesterday," the Nationals manager said this afternoon.
So, Matt Albers gets the ninth inning again?
"I don't know, Albers has thrown two days in a row," Baker said. "I don't know. We'll figure it out as the game goes. That's how it's been every day."
The conglomeration of Shawn Kelley, Koda Glover and Sammy SolÃs all landing on the disabled list while Blake Treinen and...
PHILADELPHIA - Bryce Harper informed Dusty Baker today his minor groin tweak has healed, hoping that might convince the Nationals manager to put him in the lineup for tonight's game against the Phillies.
Deep down, though, Harper must've known Baker's standard policy for this type of situation. Which is why he remained on the bench for the second straight day.
"He's better," Baker said. "When they tell me they're better, I like to hold them out at least another day."
It has long been...
PHILADELPHIA - The Nationals have the best record in baseball, a .690 winning percentage, and they've done so despite a steadily revolving door of pitchers. Tonight the door opens again, and in walks A.J. Cole, making his first big league start of the season.
Cole technically takes over Joe Ross' rotation spot, though the Nationals would have liked to give that spot to Jacob Turner (had he not been needed to throw four innings out of the bullpen on Wednesday). The 25-year-old Cole made four...
PHILADELPHIA - His pitch count over 110, his left calf cramping up each time he finished his delivery and his gray Nationals jersey soaked through on a humid night at Citizens Bank Park, Stephen Strasburg looked done during the bottom of the sixth Friday night.
And when Dusty Baker, Mike Maddux and Paul Lessard emerged from the visitors' dugout upon seeing Strasburg in some amount of discomfort, the right-hander's night figured to be over.
Strasburg, however, had other ideas. He glared as his...
PHILADELPHIA - Matt Albers has been a professional pitcher for 16 seasons, a major leaguer for 12, a full-time reliever for 10. He's the guy who is called upon to pitch in whatever situation is needed on a given night. Long relief. Extra innings. Mop-up work. A random sixth or seventh inning here or there. And a whole lot of ninth innings ... with his team trailing.
It's about as unglamorous a role as there is in baseball, and after more than a decade it surely gets you typecast. Albers has...
PHILADELPHIA - Ryan Zimmerman homered again, which is no surprise. Anthony Rendon homered, which is not a surprise this week. But a Stephen Strasburg home run? That was most surprising and elicited the biggest gasp among the crowd at Citizens Bank Park tonight.
Strasburg's solo blast, only the second of his career, helped the Nationals open up a lead tonight. His heavy workload on the mound held the Phillies in check and ultimately put his team in position for a 4-2 victory in the opener of...
PHILADELPHIA - Still dealing with a sore groin, Bryce Harper is not in the starting lineup for tonight's series opener against the Phillies, but the Nationals remain confident the injury isn't anything serious and that their slugger will return in short order.
"He's a little sore," manager Dusty Baker said. "Like I said yesterday, he's day-to-day. I said I'll check with him daily. I didn't check with him today, but I checked with the trainers. Hopefully he'll come back sometime this...
PHILADELPHIA - The Nationals hoped they'd have Shawn Kelley available out of their bullpen tonight after he missed the last two days with an illness. Turns out they're going to be without him a while longer after they placed him on the 10-day disabled list with a strained lower back.
The surprise move came only 15 minutes before first pitch between the Nationals and Phillies, after Kelley's back flared up while trying to determine if he'd be able to appear in the series opener at Citizens...
PHILADELPHIA - As was the case in Washington, it poured in Philadelphia this morning. But as is the case in D.C., the rain has mostly cleared out now and so the Nationals and Phillies shouldn't have much trouble getting the opener of their weekend series in tonight at Citizens Bank Park.
If and when they play, Stephen Strasburg will be on the mound for the Nats in a ballpark in which he has enjoyed an awful lot of success. Strasburg has 1.64 ERA in seven career starts here, including seven...
Ryan Zimmerman found out Wednesday afternoon he had been named National League Player of the Month for April. Then he took the field for his second game in May and picked up right where he left off.
Zimmerman went 2-for-3 and drove in the go-ahead run with a sixth-inning double, helping lead the Nationals to a 2-1 victory over the Diamondbacks.
In doing so, he extended his hitting streak to 10 games, his multi-hit streak to six games and raised his batting average to a major league-best...
Before their team takes the field every night, Dusty Baker and Mike Maddux come together and map out a pitching plan for that particular game.
They know who's starting and how much can be expected from him. They know who is available and who isn't available out of the bullpen. And they know which reliever they ideally want to turn to for each potential scenario.
When they mapped out the plan for tonight's game against the Diamondbacks, Baker and Maddux knew they had a short bullpen. Shawn...
Their starter walked seven batters in five innings. Their emergency starter pitched four scoreless innings of relief, taking over all the setup roles and the closer's job by himself.
This isn't how the Nationals envisioned pitching their way to a 2-1 victory, but hey, whatever works, right?
Behind five ragged-but-effective innings from Gio Gonzalez and then four surprising and dominant innings from Jacob Turner, the Nationals defeated the Diamondbacks tonight, and perhaps found themselves a...
Dusty Baker has managed more than a few guys who won their league's Player of the Month award. Shoot, you don't even have to go back to his previous jobs to compile a deep roster of honorees.
When Ryan Zimmerman was named National League Player of the Month today, he became the Nats' fourth different starter to earn such an honor in the last seven months, joining Bryce Harper (April 2016) and Daniel Murphy (May and July 2016).
"I didn't even know that," Baker said when informed. "That...
As impressive as Ryan Zimmerman was in April, there was no bigger surprise on the Nationals roster in the season's first month than Gio Gonzalez. After a ragged 2016, Gonzalez burst onto the scene to begin this year, going 3-0 with a 1.62 ERA in five starts.
Now we find out if the lefty can keep it going and not fall back into the same traps that befell him last season after a strong start. He'll face a tough challenge tonight in the Diamondbacks, who, as we saw last night, can grind out...
Nationals first baseman Ryan Zimmerman was officially recognized for his remarkable April this afternoon when he was named National League Player of the Month.
It was a worthy capper to a dominant month for Zimmerman, who entered the season facing major questions about his ability to bounce back from the worst year of his career and proceeded to put those questions to rest in emphatic fashion.
Zimmerman ended April leading the majors in batting average (.420), homers (11), RBIs (29), hits (37),...
In their quest to fix what ails Blake Treinen right now, the Nationals coaching staff isn't looking as much at the reliever's mechanics or pitch selection as the slow pace in which all those pitches are being delivered to the plate.
"I'd like to see him pick up the pace," manager Dusty Baker said Tuesday night after Treinen struggled again during the Nats' 6-3 loss to the Diamondbacks. "He's very deliberate. It looks like he's thinking while he's throwing versus just throwing."
The...
The game lasted 3 hours, 48 minutes. It felt like it took even longer for the Nationals to slog their way through an uninspired 6-3 loss to the Diamondbacks that bore virtually no resemblance to the high-energy, high-drama games they had played nearly every night in April.
"It was kind of a downer day," manager Dusty Baker conceded. "I don't know why, but it seems like we don't bounce back with a lot of life after an off-day. 'Cause an off-day kind of just sits on you after that long...