ATLANTA - And we're back at SunTrust Park, as the Nationals and Braves prepare for the second game of their three-game series, hoping for a little less drama (or at least a lot less umpiring drama) than they got last night during what ended as a 3-1 Nats victory.
We know who will be pitching the first inning for the Nationals tonight: Joe Ross, who makes his long-awaited 2017 debut after spending the last 2 1/2 weeks at Triple-A Syracuse. We don't know yet who will be pitching the ninth...
ATLANTA - Had the bottom of the ninth gone according to plan and without incident last night, the biggest takeaway from the Nationals' 3-1 victory over the Braves would have been Max Scherzer's dominant start.
As it was, Scherzer's outing took a backseat to the chaos that was the bottom of the ninth, from Blake Trienen's implosion to Shawn Kelley's takeover as closer to C.B. Bucknor's blown call on what everyone thought was the final pitch of the game but wound up as only the...
ATLANTA - The Nationals won a ballgame tonight. They probably are going to have a new closer when they wake up in the morning. And, oh by the way, the final out of this game turned into a full-blown fiasco after an egregious mistake that led their veteran leader to go on a postgame tirade that delicately teetered the line between acceptable criticism of umpires and the kind of rant that typically leads to punishment from league officials.
Just a run-of-the-mill Tuesday night in suburban...
ATLANTA - Max Scherzer scoffed after his last start when asked if his ring finger injury was finally behind him. His performance tonight would seem to confirm once and for all it's no longer a topic for discussion.
Scherzer dominated the Braves with seven scoreless innings of two-hit ball, appearing to talk his way into taking the mound for his final frame and building up his pitch count to 116, leading the Nationals to a 3-1 victory that wasn't sealed until Shawn Kelley replaced Blake...
ATLANTA - Trea Turner was at SunTrust Park this afternoon, putting his healing hamstring through a rigorous test that included baserunning drills and a full round of batting practice with his Nationals teammates, but it doesn't appear he'll remain here in Atlanta for long.
Though he's eligible to come off the disabled list Wednesday, Turner likely won't play for the Nationals until he's had a chance to get at-bats and innings in a minor league rehab game, manager Dusty Baker...
ATLANTA - Joe Ross will make his long-awaited season debut Wednesday night, and the Nationals hope they don't have to make any more changes to their rotation for quite some time.
Ross will be recalled from Triple-A Syracuse and start the second game of the Nationals' series against the Braves at SunTrust Park, manager Dusty Baker said today, slotting in between Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg for the foreseeable future.
The 23-year-old right-hander was healthy coming out of spring...
ATLANTA - Hello from SunTrust Park, the brand-new home of the Braves. I'm still taking it all in, but my first impressions of this place are better than I expected. It actually has a few interesting features. Unfortunately, most seem to be lesser versions of similar things in other parks: a brick wall in right field (like AT&T Park in San Francisco), pine trees and rocks in the batter's eye (like Coors Field in Colorado). The main seating bowl has a Citi Field vibe to it, with dark seats,...
Ask anyone who has watched the Nationals through the season's first two weeks to name Adam Eaton's biggest contribution to the team, and you'll get a bunch of answers about his offensive performance. The 28-year-old sports a .326 batting average and .946 OPS and has successfully reached base in all 11 games he has started.
Ask Eaton what he believes has been most consistent about his game so far, and you'll get an entirely different answer.
"You know what? I don't think there's been much...
As Gio Gonzalez took the mound late Sunday afternoon at Nationals Park, his pitch count approaching triple digits and only a couple of empty slots remaining on the scoreboard, he couldn't help but recognize the rarity of this situation.
"It was the eighth inning," the left-hander said. "I haven't seen one of those in a while."
No, he most certainly hadn't. Gonzalez reached the eighth inning only once in the two previous seasons combined, so he truly was in uncharted waters when he...
Jayson Werth looked at Bryce Harper at some point this afternoon, having already seen his teammate hit one home run and deliver another opposite-field single to beat the opposition's shift. Harper, the 2012 National League Rookie of the Year and the 2015 league MVP, entered the day batting .300 and slugging .500, basically having done just about everything he could by age 24 to establish himself as one of the best players in baseball.
Werth, though, is not as easily impressed as others. And...
Their bullpen and their defense had conspired to leave them in position to suffer yet another demoralizing loss late. Then Bryce Harper decided to take matters into his own hands and completely flip the script for the Nationals.
Harper's three-run homer on a full count with two outs in the bottom of the ninth brought the Nats back from the dead and gave them a 6-4 victory that already stands as their most inspired of the young season.
Trailing by a run when the final frame began, the Nationals...
Trea Turner went through a full round of pregame drills this morning and suggested he's ready to come off the disabled list Wednesday when he's eligible, but acknowledged the Nationals may want to be more cautious in bringing him back from a mild right hamstring injury.
Turner ran sprints in the outfield, took full batting practice and fielded grounders at short before today's series finale against the Phillies. That heavy workout left him optimistic he could return to game action as soon as...
You wouldn't have thought the Nationals' toughest opponent through the season's first two weeks would end up being the Phillies, but here we are nonetheless. The Nats have lost three of their five head-to-head matchups so far with their rebuilding rivals from a couple hours up the road, including yesterday's disheartening 4-2 defeat via another late home run off a reliever.
The Nationals will try to reverse the trend today, looking to at least take this weekend series and even up their...
His 3.00 ERA, his 1.00 WHIP and his 19-to-5 strikeout-to-walk ratio all suggest Stephen Strasburg has pitched quite well to begin his season.
The stat that the Nationals right-hander takes the most pride in after three starts? The 21 innings he has pitched.
"Going out there for the seventh inning, every time," he said. "I think that's something that I want to try, and as much as I can, is go deep into the ballgame and keep it close and give the guys a chance to win the game."
Strasburg has...
Once he had reached out and poked Jeanmar Gómez's sinker to left field, and once he saw the ball safely hit grass and start rolling toward the corner, Daniel Murphy's eyes shifted to the man running the bases in front of him.
"I'm watching Bryce," Murphy said.
As were 38,664 fans, and everybody else inside a crowded Nationals Park on this rare Friday late-afternoon ballgame.
Bryce Harper, who was standing off first at the time of the pitch in the bottom of the 10th, didn't hesitate...
The first two weeks of the Nationals' season have seen multiple games lost late when the bullpen couldn't post zeros and the lineup couldn't deliver a key hit. Perhaps this evening's 3-2 victory over the Phillies will reverse that trend.
Daniel Murphy's double into the left field corner in the bottom of the 10th brought Bryce Harper all the way home from first base and provided the Nationals with their first walk-off victory of the season.
The clutch hit came after the Nationals got...
Dusty Baker sees the same minor league box scores available to everyone else online, so he knows Joe Ross pitched seven innings of one-run ball Thursday afternoon for Triple-A Syracuse.
The Nationals manager, however, isn't so quick to evaluate Ross' performance strictly off his pitching line. Because the setting didn't exactly match what the right-hander would be seeing in the big leagues.
"It's a little different pitching down there," Baker said. "You've got to create your own...
Fresh from a day off, the Nationals return to action today for a rare Friday matinee against the Phillies. For those asking: No, I don't know exactly why this game is starting at 4:05 p.m. It's Good Friday, which has something to do with it. But nobody with the Nats I've asked over the last week was able to provide an explanation, or was even able to say whether this was something they requested or was unilaterally done by MLB.
The Nationals are facing the same Phillies club that took two of...
The Nationals should finally have their regular No. 5 starter pitching for them next week. And, barring some unforeseen complication, for many weeks to come.
After a strong start for Triple-A Syracuse on Thursday, Joe Ross is now lined up to join the Nationals rotation next week and make his major league season debut Wednesday in Atlanta.
Ross tossed seven innings of one-run ball Thursday afternoon at Pawtucket, scattering six hits and striking out six without walking a batter. He threw 85...
The first week and a half of the Nationals' season has not lacked for compelling storylines. There have been positives (eight-ninths of the lineup, four-fifths of the rotation) and there have been negatives (injuries to everybody who plays shortstop, struggles by everybody who pitches out of the bullpen).
The end result of all of that? A 5-4 record, with series wins at home over the Marlins and Cardinals and a series loss on the road at Philadelphia.
The Nationals are off today before...