The season is almost 75 percent complete with just over 40-games to play in 2024. While some of the Washington Nationals coaches named Sean Doolittle and Kevin Long could have been in high-demand this offseason, what was the rush to extend the rest of the coaches with new contracts for 2025? This was obviously manager Dave Martinez‘s decision with the go-ahead from his boss.
Maybe first base/outfield coach Gerardo Parra was going to get some calls. Maybe pitching coach Jim Hickey too, after the successes with many of the young starting pitchers. But what was the rush to extend the contract of hitting coach Darnell Coles?
The Washington Nationals shocked the 28,000 fans in Baltimore last night as the Nats have now taken 2-of-3 games from the Orioles this season with the season finale tonight. The crowd was well-attended by Nats fans, and they had a lot to cheer about in the blow-out win last night. The Nationals were deep underdogs at the sportsbooks, and there is a reason you play the games. There is roughly 25 percent of the season remaining to play.
The Washington Nationals just finished a long homestand and stay in the region with a game up I-295 at Orioles Park against their regional rival.
With CJ Abrams back in the lineup after a few days off with back spasms, the team will give another rest day to Jose Tena after he took a grounder off his thumb on his throwing hand. The team had several roster moves with reliever Jordan Weems and DH Harold Ramirez both designated for assignment. To take their places, the team added Andres Chaparro for his MLB debut after he played in 627 minor league games. Reliever Orlando Ribalta will make his MLB debut when he is called into his first bullpen appearance. Joey Gallo, who is rehabbing in Triple-A, was not called up today.
While you would appreciate less drama in your Washington Nationals’ wins, the team has the chance to have a walk-off for an entire series if the Nats can win today via a walk-off to go with Friday and Saturday’s walk-off wins. A rare feat.
The heroes from the bullpen to throw zeroes in both games in come-from-behind wins that saw Alex Call and Jose Tena get consecutive walk-off hits has been dramatic to say the least. The LED lights that are new at Nats Park this season have added to the effects of these walk-offs as they go red and flicker.
With CJ Abrams dealing with back spasms and Nasim Nunez cramping up in his legs, general manager Mike Rizzo had to make a roster change and called up Jose Tena who he just acquired less than two weeks ago as part of the Lane Thomas trade with the Cleveland Guardians.
With fewer than seven weeks of baseball remaining for the Washington Nationals’ 2024 season, Patrick Corbin‘s remaining starts, after tonight, for the Nats will be counting down in single digits. He is still in search of his 100th career regular season win.
On Saturday, baseball’s top prospect, James Wood, reached the 130 at-bat milestone which moved his status from “prospect” to “rookie” within MLB’s definition. With Wood graduating as a prospect, a few of us in NatsTown gave TalkNats our Top-30s, and what we knew going into this is that few people agree on even a Top-10.
You can use different methodologies on ranking prospects from the 80/20 tools rankings to future value to the most potential. Who will be the best MLB players?
From Thursday to Friday, the Washington Nationals got a do-over of sorts. With identical tie scores of 2-2 entering the 9th inning at Nationals Park, a disastrous 9th and 10th innings on Thursday went 180° on Friday to a walk-off winner.
In the new MLB scheduling, the Washington Nationals have the Los Angeles Angels in Nationals Park on even years, and hopefully one day for a World Series. Both teams are rebuilding now, and by the looks of it, the Nats are far ahead in the rebuilding process. This week in fact, Baseball America ranked the Nats as the 4th best farm system in baseball, while the Angels were ranked at dead last. If the Angels were a playoff team now, maybe you could justify their barren farm system — but they are a 3 1/2 games ahead of the lowly Oakland A’s in the AL West standings. Sadly, the Nats are only 1/2 game ahead of the Angels in MLB standings.
Yesterday’s game was a muddy mess at Nationals Park, both figuratively and literally. The rains pelted the playing surface for much of the day. The game itself, encapsulated the great, the good, the bad, and the ugly. The score was a 2-2 tie going into the 9th inning. Up until that point, during the pouring rain at parts of the game, and three separate rain delays, there was hope for a Washington Nationals victory.
A key mistake pushed the game to a 3-run deficit in the 9th inning from what should have been a 2-run deficit. Then a baseball miracle from Luis Garcia Jr. brought visions of a Nats’ victory. Never in the history of the Nationals has a game been tied in the 9th inning from a 3-run deficit in a 2-strike, 2-out situation until Garcia Jr. knocked a baseball just above the left field wall, 351 feet, for a wall-scraping home run to tie the game with the improbable, “Weaver.”
But what happened before that, had the postgame consternation, because the Nationals ended up losing the game in extra innings. With bases loaded in this 2-2 game in the 9th inning, it was a good pitch by Kyle Finnegan that turned into a disaster — because he did not back-up his catcher in case of an errant throw from the outfield — which occurred — as the throw skipped off the wet grass into the Giants’ dugout — allowing an extra run to score. A 4-2 deficit turned to 5-2 when the umpire awarded the runner at third base the advancement to home plate.
