Category: Nationals

In what many pegged as a preview of the National League Division Series, the Nationals and Cubs met in Wrigley for a three game series over the weekend.

With the Dodgers clearly ahead of the pack in the National League and likely to meet the wild-card game winner, the Cubs and Nats seem to have already been locked in to the series even this early in August. This despite the fact that the Cubs just recently went ahead in the National League Central and maintain only a slim lead over the Brewers and others in the Central. Both teams really beefed up leading up the trade deadline seemingly in preparation to face the other in the playoffs. The Cubs picked up a frontline starter in Jose Quintana from the White Sox and back of the bullpen help in Justin Wilson from the Tigers (with Alex Avila also added into the deal as catching depth behind Wilson Contreras). The Nationals meanwhile, remade their bullpen picking up 3 shutdown relievers to help stabilize their late-game woes and a sneaky good bench piece in Howie Kendrick.

The highly-anticipated matchup quickly fizzled when Dusty Baker announced that Max Scherzer and Gio Gonzalez would both miss their scheduled starts as Scherzer was recovering from neck spasms while Gio was on paternity leave in anticipation of the birth of his second child. The Cubs had two of their top four starters lined up in Kyle Hendricks and Jon Lester sandwiched between John Lackey, who started on Saturday. Given the circumstances, you could forgive the Nationals for dropping the series or even getting swept since the Nationals countered with journeyman Edwin Jackson and rookie Erick Fedde following Tanner Roark’s turn in the rotation. Daniel Murphy crushed two homeruns on Friday afternoon as the Nationals revamped bullpen shut things down after Roark’s solid 6.1 innings of work.

Bryce Harper went deep in the first inning against John Lackey on Saturday, but Edwin Jackson continued his hot and cold pattern by giving up 4 runs in 5 innings and Matt Grace gave up two more in the sixth as the Nats dropped the middle game of the series. Facing Jon Lester on Sunday, Erick Fedde was solid, but unspectacular as the Nationals went into the eighth inning trailing 5-3. The middle of the order then came up and turned the game around loading the bases for Anthony Rendon, who promptly was hit by a pitch and drove in a run. A struggling Matt Wieters came to the plate looking to tie the game or give his team the lead. He did one better, driving the first pitch out to centerfield for a grand slam to give the Nats the lead. Brian Goodwin padded the lead with a solo home run in the ninth and Ryan Madson and Sean Doolittle shut things down once again as the Nationals took the series in Wrigley.

So, what did this series really tell us? In actuality, not very much given the state of the Nationals rotation during this series and that the lineup is still without Trea Turner, Jayson Werth, and Michael A. Taylor. The Nationals also faced John Lackey, who will most likely not be a part of the playoff rotation for the Cubbies. With the revamped bullpen looking sharp however, it must be comforting for Nats fans to watch a finally stabilized back of the bullpen. Kendrick also has given the Nats a true 2-hole hitter in front of Harper, Zimmerman, and Murphy until the return of Werth. Kendrick’s flexibility also gives the Nationals a chance to rest as many as 6 regulars down the stretch and a solid backup plan should Werth’s injury continues to linger into the playoffs. What is certain though is that the Nationals and Cubs (should they hold on to their lead in the Central) will provide a memorable division series.

After a grueling West Coast road trip and time off during the All-Star break, this was not the homecoming the Nationals had hoped for upon returning to the District in yesterday’s home opener against the Brewers.

With Edwin Jackson starting his 2^nd game in replacement of the injured Stephen Strasburg, the Nats hoped E-Jax could build on the success he had last week in Anaheim and continue the momentum of a 7-2 road trip. But Jackson labored through 5 innings and wasn’t nearly as sharp yesterday as he was in Anaheim last week. E-Jax gave up seven hits, three walks, three home runs, and seven runs total (3 ER), throwing 112 pitches in what ended up an 8-0 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers.

Meanwhile, the bats the Nationals had relied on so heavily for their recent success went silent at home as Zach Davies held the Nationals in check over 7 ²⁄₃ scoreless, efficient innings of work in, giving up three hits and three walks in his longest start of the season. Daniel Murphy and Ryan Zimmerman both went 1 for 4 with a single each, as Zimmerman continues to struggle to get his early season groove back. On a bright note, Bryce Harper singled in the 8^th inning to keep his hitting streak going at 17 games.

After the game, manager Dusty Baker seemed unfazed by Jackson’s rough start and showed confidence in the veteran. “His pitch count got up high,” Dusty Baker said, “and he didn’t have the command that he had last time. He was wild high and away.” It a perfect summary statement, Baker added, “It was a rough night for Edwin tonight.”

In spit of his struggles in the loss, Jackson will get another opportunity to start next time his turn in the rotation comes around. “He’s not on a pitch-by-pitch, performance-type thing,” Baker said. “That can happen to anybody. So, sure, I don’t see why not.”

Luckily, before the game, Baker had reassured the assembled press who had gathered for his pregame presser that Stephen Strasburg’s issues seemed to be minor and not long term, and that he would be making his next start. That piece of news ended up being the best news of the night for a Nats team who hopes to rebound tonight with Gio Gonzalez on the mound. All eyes will be on him tonight literally, as the entire baseball universe will be tuned in to see the 2018 All-Star logo which will be on display over his right shoulder throughout the game as well.

*Note: Congratulations are in order to Dusty Baker for being inducted into the USMC Sports Hall of Fame. The officially ceremony took place last night prior to the first pitch at Nationals Park. Thank you Dusty, from all of us!

On a beautiful night at Nationals Park honoring our brave men and women of the U.S. Marine Corps, a nice surprise greeted all the servicemen and women who had gathered behind home plate. To the naked eye, Jayson Werth crushing baseballs 400 feet during batting practice before a mid-summer game isn’t anything to write home about or stop the presses. But Werth has been on the DL since June 3^rd with a toe injury and foot fracture and was moved to the 60 day DL on July 23^rd to clear a spot on the 40 man roster. So it was quite a surprise to those around the ballpark when Werth came out for BP and crushed ball after ball after ball into the left field bleachers.

We caught up exclusively with Jayson after his BP session and he was in high spirits and very positive about his progress and rehab. When asked about a possible return in the near future, Werth responded, “Should be any day now.”

Werth’s position in the Nationals batting lineup has proven hard to replace. The coveted, and precious #2 spot has seen a revolving door of participants hoping to match Werth’s production, including Wilmer Difo, Stephen Drew, Michael A. Taylor, and Ryan Rayburn. While the bench players have produced admirably, none have matched Werth’s production before he went down. In 47 games, he was batting .262 with 8 hrs and 18 RBIs and had been just starting to find his rhythm after a slow start.

Only time will tell you how Jayson will respond to the long layoff and come back and find his niche in a Nationals lineup that is best in the MLB this season. While Werth is participating in baseball activities, but he still hasn’t been cleared to sprint and will go on a rehab assignment before rejoining the National League East-leading Nationals.

While Jayson was gracious enough to talk to us exclusively about his injury, one topic he was more than willing to discuss was our Game of Thrones recaps and his analysis of the season so far. He was quite intrigued with Arya’s reunion with Nymeria and predicts that Nymeria will meet up with her again and wreak havoc on the Army of the Dead. So I don’t know what will happen, but we’re going with the guy who’s got a beard that would put Tormund to shame.

It isn’t often that the conclusion of a 9 game road trip where you finished 7-2 and you averaged 6.8 runs/game comes with such angst and anxiety? But that’s exactly where the Nationals find themselves on their off day today as they head back to DC in the wake of a 6-2 win and series clinching win over the Diamondbacks in Arizona on Sunday.

The bittersweet taste in our mouths comes on the heels of some casualties in the game to two of their best pitchers. Stephen Strasburg was removed after the 2nd inning with what appeared to be a forearm issue, and Enny Romero was removed in the 7th inning with an issue that appeared to be his back. Now we wait, in what feels all too familiar of a position with Strasburg over his career here in DC. Losing Strasburg for some time in the regular season is not the end of the world but lingering shoulder and arm problems could very well signify something more structurally damaging which could be catastrophic. Last year, Strasburg signed a 7 year, $175 million extension with the Nationals. No one denies he has Cy Young stuff but can he be trusted as a top tier starter given his injury history.

On the bright side, the Nationals took the season series from the Diamondbacks 4 games to 2, and moved back to 21 games above .500 while lengthening their lead in the NL East to 12.0 games ahead of the Braves. The Nationals went 7-2 on this road trip, and have a Monday day-off which they will certainly need after a late night plane trip back to Washington, D.C.. before starting a 3 game series with the once first place NL Central leaders, the Milwaukee Brewers. The Brewers now find themselves in a dead heat with the surging Chicago Cubs, who many expected to make this postseason run in the 2nd half of the season.

Another noteworthy moment for the Nats came yesterday when Andrew Stevenson made his MLB debut, pitch hitting in the 6th inning and playing left field. Stevenson got 2 at-bats and hit a grounder and was out on a force-out, and in his 2nd at-bat he worked the count to 3-2 and fouled off several pitches to get it to a 10 pitch at-bat before striking out. He looked very comfortable in the box as you would expect from a player who was playing baseball on national TV at 11-years-old in the Little League World Series.

All things considered, the Nats have to be very pleased with how their 2nd half of the season kicked off after the All-Star break and will look to build on that momentum as they come home to back to back series against the Brewers and Rockies. We’ll keep an eye out on any updates from this ever-growing injury list and hope to see some discernible improvements in the status of Jayson Werth, Kodai Glover, Trea Turner, and Michael A. Taylor in the coming days and weeks.