by Andrew Lang
by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears
by Andrew Lang
The Washington Nationals averaged 6-runs scored per game in San Diego, and need keep that up in Tampa tonight as well as the team has to get back to some ace pitching and shutdown bullpenning.
At the end of the game tonight, the Nats’ season is mathematically half completed. The team opens the series at 4-games under .500, and they have to get back to their winning ways.
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One way to improve the product is by replacing the weakest parts with better parts, and you usually do that incrementally. News broke today that the Nats’ top prospect, and a Top-5 consensus prospect in all of baseball, James Wood, will be called up for the Nationals on Monday. Expect Wood to play tonight and tomorrow in Rochester Triple-A as his final tune-up, and then meet-up with the team for his Monday debut against the NY Mets.
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As soon as the Washington Nationals jet flew out of San Diego at 6:45 pm PDT, they turned the page on a miserable series. That series exposed a team that makes too many mistakes. Where is the internal improvement? What you do next is what counts. You must improve your product. No, it was not a happy flight after being swept by the Padres. The Nationals had leads in two of the three games in the series including a 3-run lead in the 10th inning on Monday.
If you had flashbacks to May 16 of last year in Miami, we get it. There are often parallels to other times, and Hunter Harvey had that same moment in both games with Luis Arraez coming up with two outs. This time his manager, Dave Martinez, made the right decision for Harvey and 4-fingered Arraez to take first base. Instead of Jorge Soler stepping into the batter’s box next — it was Jurickson Profar on Monday. Like with Soler, Harvey had him at 2-strikes with 2-outs, and then threw the fateful pitch. But here’s the thing, it’s what happened both times before Arraez stepped to the plate that cost Harvey and his team. The Nats got swept in that Miami series in 2023 after entering that series with an 8-5 record in the previous two weeks.
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The Washington Nationals have averaged 6.5 runs per game so far in San Diego, and that should have been enough to produce two wins if the defense and pitching did their jobs. They didn’t.
The Nationals are the 6th worst defensive team in baseball not counting their catching defense — and if you remove Jacob Young — the Nats are the worst by far. The plays not made are piling up. A flyball to Lane Thomas, a grounder to Luis Garcia Jr., a throw to Nick Senzel, a scoop by Joey Meneses are all recent costly missed plays … in the past few days. The infield has looked like swiss cheese for groundballs finding the fertile green outfield grass for back-breaking hits.
Would you be surprised if you learned that Abrams leads the Nationals in the worst fielding per Statcast, and also most recently in the worst baserunning. You want to be paid like Bobby Witt Jr.? Play a complete game like Witt! Going 3-for-3 then getting picked-off twice won’t get you the massive contract. You have to play all parts of the game, not just hit the ball.
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The Washington Nationals had one of their best comebacks of the season yesterday, with contributions from players in the back of the lineup. Unfortunately, another blown save negated a great win. That happens to all teams in experiencing a heartbreak loss. It is what you do in the next game that says more. That is what the Nats did on Sunday, after a Saturday night blown save.
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A year ago at this time, the Padres crushed the Washington Nationals in a Friday night game on June 23, in a 13-3 drubbing. On Saturday, ex-teammate Juan Soto was making gestures into the Nats’ third base dugout. Maybe that fired up the boys from D.C. because they won that game 2-0 by besting Matt Waldron and of course Hunter Harvey got the save. On the Sunday game a year ago, the Nats won the series with MacKenzie Gore dominating by a final score of 8-3. Some in San Diego felt that the Nats have taken advantage of their team before. Huh?
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The Washington Nationals arrived in San Diego last night just one-half game behind the Padres in the Wild Card standings. A Nationals win tonight, and the teams flip-flop spots. Can Patrick Corbin and his team replicate what they did with him on the mound in Boston? Corbin has pitched four games this season giving up 1-run or less, can he make it five games tonight?
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A year ago on this day, General Manager Mike Rizzo reached a tipping point with pitcher Chad Kuhl after a Friday night 1.0 inning appearance yielded 4-runs and pushed his ERA to 8.45. Rizzo got on his phone to get a pitcher to San Diego, and the next day Kuhl was officially DFA’d. At some point you have to perform even if you’re dealing with tough issues in your family as Kuhl certainly was going through. Rizzo had to think of the other 25-players, the fans, and the people who sign the paychecks.
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The Washington Nationals had to play the Colorado Rockies last night and the umps. In the end, the Nats lost on a blown-save on a bases loaded pitch violation with Kyle Finnegan giving up four consecutive singles and a walk with not one out recorded. He just couldn’t miss a bat last night in his 18 pitches. Not one swing-and-miss induced. He might have blown a bigger lead if he had it. Just a gut punch of a loss in an 8-7 final. The Nats drop to 6-11 in one-run games which is one of the reasons this team isn’t running away with a Wild Card berth right now.
In last night’s game, there were 12 strike calls in favor of the Rockies last night and only four in favor of the Nationals. That is a net of eight incorrect calls that went against the Nationals. A huge disparity, and some calls were costlier than others. Then you had a steal from CJ Abrams that was overturned on a replay challenge. Two replay angles shown on TV backed up that the base was stolen. Was there another angle? Well, the replay umpire reversed the call. It was a huge play at the time, and could have blown the game open.
Continue readingThe Washington Nationals had an offensive explosion last night in Colorado. A much-needed win for the Nats to get them back on track. Tonight, it is Mitchell Parker‘s turn to take the mound, and he hopes to improve on his previous start.
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"Opening Day should be a National holiday"
