by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears
by Andrew Lang
The Washington Nationals came out swinging and took a quick 3-0 lead. Then they failed at the little things, and their lead quickly evaporated and boiled over into a 9-4 loss. After a rain-out on Friday, the Nats have a split-doubleheader today in Pittsburgh.
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The Washington Nationals had yesterday’s game won until they didn’t. Another case of the wins can’t be counted until final score is determined in the end. The Nats suffered another 1-run loss in extra innings. The value of 1-run and executing on the “little things” continue to bite this team in the W/L column.
Starter MacKenzie Gore had a perfect game going until a 3-2 pitch on the corner was ruled in favor of the batter, a rookie callup, with 2-outs in the 6th inning. Of course that runner scored on a double — and should have been out by a mile at the plate. A good throw would have easily beat the runner to the plate, but CJ Abrams threw the ball into the dirt, and it bounced 3-times and allowed the runner to score. The Nats came back with a 3-run 8th inning to take the lead, but Kyle Finnegan blew the save in the 9th inning.
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The Washington Nationals took care of business last night in Miami and will now try to secure a 2-game sweep in this quick series. After tonight’s game, the Nationals will fly through the night to Pittsburgh. This is a sad situation with Marlins management as they have not been accommodating the Nationals and other teams with an early get away game on weekday games.
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Ah, yes the experts. They have their algorithms programmed by humans, and their human opinions. The Washington Nationals won their 62nd game last night with 24 remaining.
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The Washington Nationals had chances on Friday and Saturday night for walk-offs, and then were blown-out on Sunday. That happens, and with a day-off yesterday — the team is back at work today in Miami. These are the final 25 games of the 2024 season. A sprint to the finish.
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Through six innings, yesterday’s game was actually close. Mitchell Parker earned a quality start by giving up three earned runs. The problem was that his own defense, and the rest of his infielders had their share of issues fielding and throwing. The offense scored only one-run and that run did not even earn an RBI because it came via a no-out bases loaded double-play off of the bat of Keibert Ruiz. The Nats had a 1-0 lead — it should have been more. They never scored again and lost to the Bears, err Cubs, after they scored two touchdowns in a 14-1 shellacking.
The Washington Nationals had chances on Friday and Saturday night for walk-offs. There was no final celebration for the home team as they couldn’t get the final hit to win. Maybe the issue is they lost it on mistakes earlier in the game. This is the learning a young team must do to take one-step back to move two forward. The Nats are now back in salvage mode in a series. They need that Curl W today.
Today is also September 1 when rosters expanded from 26 to 28 players. The Nats added a name that many fans will recognize in Darren Baker, the son of Dusty Baker, and the other player they added is a Scrabble word name you should remember in Zach Brzykcy.
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The Washington Nationals were this |—–| close to a walk-off last night against the Cubs. Dylan Crews had already homered in the game and was a single from tying it in the 9th inning and probably a double from winning it with the speedy Jacob Young on 1st base. A home run would have been a story book ending as the Nats were clawing back from a 7-3 score entering the 9th inning. In the end, it was a 1-run loss — but it showed how close the Nationals were.
Pitcher DJ Herz will face the Cubs team that traded him a year ago to the Nats. All Herz has done is find ways to improve and compete. He was drafted by the Cubs in the 8th round of the 2019 draft and traded for infielder Jeimer Candelario at the trade deadline in 2023. On June 4th, Nats’ starting pitcher Trevor Williams went on the 10-day IL, and Herz was called up. With nearly three months at the MLB level, Herz has turned in some of the best games of the year for this team. Everyone loves a good “revenge game” so let’s see what Herz can do against his former team.
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The Washington Nationals have the Chicago Cubs in town for this Labor Day weekend series. With a lefty on the mound, manager Dave Martinez will stick with Dylan Crews at lead-off. He also moved his struggling shortstop, CJ Abrams, down to 7th in today’s batting order with the lefty on the mound. Abrams was on the bench for Wednesday’s game and got the team day-off yesterday.
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The Washington Nationals just won a series against the mighty New York Yankees in Nationals Park in front of crowds that were large and enthusiastic. Manager Dave Martinez penciled up lineups of mostly rookie players for that series. One player made his MLB debut in this series. On first glance, last night’s lineup looked like a bunch of rooks that you would force to make the nearly 4-hour bus ride from West Palm Beach to Tampa for a Spring Training game between these two teams.
This is a story about the Nats’ next youth movement and how their future must be positively impacted by a Nationals’ revenue push to add tens of millions of dollars to the coffers. That money will allow the team to spend on the burgeoning star players to retain them beyond the year 2030, as well as adding some key free agents that are needed to compete for the postseason — sooner than later.
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"Opening Day should be a National holiday"
