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When I was growing up, the standard warranty for most American-made automobiles was five years or 50,000 miles, whichever came first. Livan Hernandez hit the 50,000 pitch mark for his career last night in Atlanta, and like that great old family sedan, he just keeps starting up and taking you down the highway. I was speaking with a colleague yesterday who wondered aloud if that
Through 131 games, the Nationals have scored exactly 500 runs, matching their total output for 2010. If you'd rather not do the math yourself, it comes out to an average of 3.8 runs a game. Overall, teams that score 4.5 runs or more per game win far more often than teams who score less than 4.5 runs per game. That's just the way it is,
I knew Mike Flanagan for the better part of the last 30 years. I never really socialized with him, but we had lots of conversations about baseball, and we did some radio together. His departure from this earth at such a young age is a tremendous loss for many, many people. Most people who knew Mike likely have a specific memory or two, and I'm
Jordan Zimmermann's penultimate 2011 start looks pretty good from here: no runs and only three hits through six innings. At 95 pitches, Davey Johnson is letting him go out for the seventh, maybe a tad surprising since no one is currently warming up. Tyler Clippard was up last inning, but he's seated now. Dumb moment of the night: Arizona right fielder Justin Upton was hit
Last night the Nationals drew a Nationals Park record crowd in excess of 44,000 for the matchup with the Phillies, on a night when they were also giving away 15,000 Ian Desmond bobbleheads. Since the giveaway was announced, I heard from a number of Nats fans who wondered why they'd give away such desirable swag on a night when they'd already be drawing a large
A rain delay of two hours, 22 minutes meant two things: One, Phillies' starter Roy Oswalt wouldn't actually take the mound at all, given the weather and his well-documented back problems; and two, by the time play resumed a lot of the local fans had opted to head home. The result? It's now the fourth inning and if you had your eyes closed, you'd swear
It appeared that George may have hyperextended his right arm during the President's race. Is there Tommy John surgery for mascots? On another note, Johnny Cueto of the Reds has broken five Nats' bats through the first four innings. I don't know if there's a record for such a thing, but it's no less impressive.
Time is ticking away for clubs to sign their amateur draft picks, but at this hour I'm taking a moment to salute Jim Thome of the Minnesota Twins. Tonight, Thome hit the 599th and 600th home runs of his major league career in consecutive at-bats at Comerica Park in Detroit. Thome broke in the with the Indians in 1991 at the age of 20, and
OK, so the Nats and Phillies have split a pair a Citizens Bank Park. The real action, however, is taking place in the inner sanctum of the Nationals' executive offices. Monday at midnight marks the deadline to sign selections in the June amateur draft. It's the same old song and dance we get every season at this time, with negotiations going down to the 11th
After Nats Xtra postgame today, I went down to Camden Yards to watch the Orioles take on the White Sox in the final game of that series. I wanted to see Adam Dunn, and while he went 0-for-3, he did walk a couple of times. It's been a lost year for Dunn, who's now hitting .161 with 11 home runs and 40 RBIs. Last fall
I don't know whether Chien-Ming Wang is a country music fan or not, but I'd like to think he walked off the mound in the bottom of the sixth last night with the old Toby Keith tune "How Do You Like Me Now?" playing in his head. Six one-hit, shutout innings is only one start, I know, but it should at least quiet some of
Through two starts and nine innings, Chien-Ming Wang has recorded two losses and an ERA of 6.00. Many of you, based upon phone calls to "Nats Talk Live" and e-mails I've received, have seen enough, and feel the ballclub should chalk another one up to experience, and just move on. But that's not how things like this work. Between Independence Day 2009 and his start
Matt Stairs announced his retirement from baseball yesterday at 43. No, his time in a Nationals uniform wasn't a career highlight, but he walked away knowing he still had the respect of the pitchers in the National League. They rarely threw him a fastball. When you talk with baseball professionals about the surest sign that a hitter is about done, you usually get the same
Yesterday marked the 104th anniversary of Walter Johnson's major league debut for Washington - Aug. 2, 1907 - and the beginning of the journey that eventually made him one of the first five inductees into the Hall of Fame. All these years later, there's a high school in Montgomery County - close to where he lived for several years - named in his honor, and
