SAN FRANCISCO - Mark Melancon is expected to join the Nationals in time for Sunday's series finale against the Giants and told reporters in Milwaukee (where the Pirates are currently playing) he believes he'll immediately be available to close for his new club.
The Nationals will need to make another roster move to clear a spot for Melancon, but the trade comes at a particularly fortuitous time for the team that allows them to make a simple transaction.
With three off-days coming up in the...
SAN FRANCISCO - The Nationals have found their much-needed closer, and though he's only going to be a two-month rental, the club didn't have to give up any of its top prospects to get him.
The Nationals have acquired Mark Melancon from the Pirates in exchange for left-hander Felipe Rivero and Single-A left-hander Taylor Hearn, the team announced this afternoon.
The deal came together just before the scheduled 4:05 p.m. EDT first pitch of today's game against the Giants, allowing the...
SAN FRANCISCO - After another wild victory last night, the Nationals are back at it this afternoon, trying to make it three in row over the Giants at AT&T Park. They'll be fielding a lineup that's a bit shorthanded, with Daniel Murphy sitting out after tweaking his left leg last night and Wilson Ramos getting a well-deserved day off after catching nine in a row.
Murphy is dealing with tightness in the same leg he injured during the All-Star Game, though Dusty Baker said it's not...
SAN FRANCISCO - Lost amid the chaos and the celebration of last night's triple-play-featured Nationals victory was a potentially disheartening sight: Daniel Murphy coming out of the game with an apparent injury.
Murphy departed in the bottom of the sixth, one inning after he appeared to pull up a bit rounding second base on a long triple to deep right-center.
According to manager Dusty Baker, Murphy said "his legs were tightening up."
"It's cold," Baker said. "Invariably whenever you...
SAN FRANCISCO - Sammy Solis, standing on the mound, wasn't quite sure what was going on. Max Scherzer and a few others, watching from the clubhouse, were confused as well. Denard Span obviously had no idea, because he kept running to the plate, unaware he needed to run back to third base. Dusty Baker, in the dugout, was just happy he actually was able to see the entire play develop with his own eyes after missing a similar opportunity 40 years ago.
The only ones who truly needed to be in...
SAN FRANCISCO - It's not the kind of streak that draws headlines, but that doesn't make what Jayson Werth has been doing for more than a month now insignificant.
Werth has successfully reached base in 32 consecutive games now, easily the longest such streak of his career and tied for the third-longest streak in the majors this season.
Werth broke his previous career-best of 29 games Wednesday afternoon in Cleveland, then extended it Thursday night and again tonight in San Francisco. His...
SAN FRANCISCO - Reynaldo Lopez will, as anticipated, start Saturday afternoon's game against the Giants, forcing the Nationals to make a corresponding roster move that could tie directly in with their current closer dilemma.
With Lopez set to be recalled from Triple-A Syracuse for his second career start, the Nationals will need to drop one of the eight relievers on their active 25-man roster. And it's possible that reliever could be Jonathan Papelbon, who has struggled mightily in his last...
SAN FRANCISCO - It's a new day in the Bay Area, which means the Nationals will start anew after last night's near-disaster in the bottom of the ninth. We don't know yet who will be closing for them if the situation arises, but we do know they've got a very different lineup tonight against Giants right-hander Jeff Samardzija.
Ben Revere is back atop the lineup and in center field. Danny Espinosa gets his first day off in a long time, but his replacement at shortstop isn't who you might have...
SAN FRANCISCO - The Nationals have placed backup catcher Jose Lobaton on the 15-day disabled list with left elbow tendinitis and recalled Pedro Severino from Triple-A Syracuse to take his spot on the big league roster.
Lobaton hadn't appeared in any of the Nationals' last eight games, so the transaction is retroactive to July 20 and makes him eligible to return as soon as August 4.
The 31-year-old's playing time has been minimal in recent weeks, with All-Star Wilson Ramos getting the vast...
SAN FRANCISCO - Decisions, certainly the big ones with long-lasting ramifications, aren't made minutes after a ballgame ends, when emotions are still running hot and the opportunity for reflection has yet to arrive.
So Dusty Baker wasn't about to make any definitive statements about Jonathan Papelbon's future role in the Nationals bullpen in the wake of Thursday night's near-calamitous bottom of the ninth at AT&T Park.
"I don't know," Baker said. "You're asking me some questions,...
SAN FRANCISCO - Tanner Roark gave them the seven strong innings they needed from their starter. The lineup delivered a quick burst of two-out hits off Johnny Cueto that put the Nationals in position to lead nearly the entire night.
But no victory is compete until the ninth inning is complete. And anyone who has followed the Nationals recently knows just how difficult it has been to complete that ninth inning with a lead intact.
The Nationals did manage to do it tonight and pull off a 4-2...
SAN FRANCISCO - Trea Turner is starting in center field again tonight for the Nationals, the rookie's third straight game at the position he had never played professionally until a six-game tryout at Triple-A Syracuse a month ago.
That shouldn't come as a huge surprise, given Turner's offensive performance the last two days in Cleveland - 4-for-8 with two doubles, three RBIs, a walk and a stolen base - and his adequate play in the outfield. But manager Dusty Baker isn't committing to the...
SAN FRANCISCO - Denard Span isn't having a great season, not by his standards. But the 32-year-old outfielder is healthy again after an agonizing 2015 with the Nationals that included three different surgeries, never-ending rehab and then the uncertainty that accompanied that once he hit free agency last fall.
So as he prepares to face his former club this weekend, Span has come to appreciate the opportunity he was given by the Giants, who despite his health questions over the winter were...
SAN FRANCISCO - Hello from AT&T Park, simply one of the finest venues in baseball, where the Nationals and Giants tonight open a four-game weekend series between a pair of first-place clubs sporting identical 59-42 records. Between the strong matchup on the field and the specter of Monday's trade deadline looming, this is obviously a big weekend.
The Nationals come here with some significant question marks, but Dusty Baker has chosen to answer one of those (who is leading off and playing...
SAN FRANCISCO - Good morning from the left coast, where tonight the Nationals open a four-game weekend series with the Giants, another significant test for this team during a long road trip.
(OK, so I need to be honest with you: I'm not actually in San Francisco as I type this. I'm somewhere over the Midwest, 33,000 feet in the air, en route from Cleveland. It's still Wednesday night. But by the time you read this in the morning, I will be in San Francisco. Promise.)
Before we move ahead and...
CLEVELAND - Ballclubs can plan a season out, think they have everything set as they prefer, even have contingencies in place in case something goes awry. But sometimes they still have to adjust on the fly and go with something that may not have been their preferred course of action but became necessary to attempt to win that day's game.
The Nationals thought they had most everything planned out properly this season, and even well into the summer. But when things started to go awry in the last...
CLEVELAND - Two sure ways to wash away the bitter taste of back-to-back losses via bullpen meltdown: 1) Get a dominant start from one of your aces, and 2) Score enough runs that you don't need to send your embattled closer back to the mound.
The Nationals did both this afternoon, riding Stephen Strasburg's seven innings of scoreless ball and clutch hits from Trea Turner and Daniel Murphy to a 4-1 victory over the Indians that salvaged a two-game series split at Progressive Field.
Back to work...
CLEVELAND - Jonathan Papelbon has pitched four of the last five days, and has given up six total runs in two most recent outings, leaving Dusty Baker facing quite a conundrum: Who does he turn to if he needs a closer in this afternoon's series finale against the Indians?
The Nationals manager couldn't offer up a definitive answer this morning.
"Sometimes as a closer you've got to go four or five days in a row sometimes, which I don't like to do," Baker said. "A closer either pitches a...
CLEVELAND - The illness that made Stephen Drew unavailable to the Nationals for six days last week has now landed him on the disabled list.
Drew was placed on the 15-day DL this morning after a recurrence of the dizziness that plagued him last week while he was out with what the club initially called "flu-like symptoms." The veteran infielder no longer has those traditional symptoms, but he continues to feel dizzy, so the club is now referring to his ailment as "vertigo-like symptoms."
Drew...
CLEVELAND - And we're back. Only 11 hours have passed since the Nationals walked off the field in disgust following a 7-6 loss to the Indians, but everyone is back at Progressive Field, preparing for today's early matinee (12:10 p.m.) to wrap up this unusual two-game interleague series. This could be a good thing (no time to stew over the loss) or it could be a bad thing (the hangover effect). We'll just have to wait and see.
One good thing from the Nats' perspective: Stephen Strasburg is...