CHICAGO - They had been a stellar defensive team throughout the season's first month, entering play last night with fewer errors than any other club in the National League. Which only made the Nationals' defensive miscues during their 5-2 loss to the Cubs all the more striking.
From a purely official standpoint, the Nats were not charged with any errors. They still lead the NL with only nine in 28 games so far this year. From an unofficial standpoint, they were quite shaky in the field.
It...
CHICAGO - The Nationals didn't want to make Michael A. Taylor bat leadoff on a daily basis, and with Ben Revere about to return from the disabled list, they probably won't need to ask Taylor to do it much more.
But no matter where he bats in the Nats lineup, no matter how many or how few opportunities he gets moving forward, Taylor has to prove he can transform himself into the kind of hitter his team can trust in big spots.
Taylor found himself in one of those spots tonight during a 5-2 loss...
CHICAGO - The opener of a marquee series between the National League's top two teams featured plenty of big names, plenty of dominant pitching performances and some highlight-reel defense.
What it didn't include was very much offense.
The Cubs managed to pull off a 5-2 victory over the Nationals thanks to Ben Zobrist's two-run single to right in the bottom of the fourth and two-run homer off Felipe Rivero in the bottom of the eighth. Addison Russell added an RBI double in the eighth, as...
CHICAGO - The opener of a marquee series between the National League's top two teams featured plenty of big names, plenty of dominant pitching performances and some highlight-reel defense.
What it didn't include was very much offense by the visitors.
The Cubs managed to pull off a 5-2 victory over the Nationals thanks to a pair of big hits by Ben Zobrist: His two-run single to right in the bottom of the fourth, then his two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth, spoiling a mostly strong...
CHICAGO - Joe Ross showed no fear in staring down the Cubs lineup in his first career start at Wrigley Field. But you can't hold these guys down forever, and Chicago's big bats got to Ross in the fourth inning tonight to take a 2-0 lead on the Nationals.
Ben Zobrist's single to right brought home the first two runs of this highly anticipated series and sent Ross' ERA "soaring" over the 1.00 mark for the first time. The inning featured some shaky defense - Michael A. Taylor couldn't haul...
CHICAGO - Ben Revere joined the Nationals at Wrigley Field today, put on his uniform and participated fully in all pregame drills before the opener of a big, four-game series against the Cubs.
But he didn't suit up for the game itself and remains on the disabled list for another day, a decision the club made to remain cautious with their returning leadoff man and center fielder.
Given the fact Revere hasn't played in a big league game since straining his right oblique muscle 31 days ago, and...
CHICAGO - Good afternoon from the one and only Friendly Confines here at the corner of Clark and Addison on the North Side. There truly is no place in baseball (or really all of sports) like Wrigley Field, and this weekend there's no better place to be, with the top two teams in the sport going head-to-head for a four-game series that is being built up big time by the Chicago media.
The Cubs have been utterly dominant so far this season, with a .769 winning percentage and a run differential of...
CHICAGO - The Nationals have activated Ben Revere off the disabled list and will have their leadoff man and center fielder available to them this afternoon for the first time since opening day.
Needing to clear a spot for Revere on the active roster, the Nats optioned Matt den Dekker to Triple-A Syracuse, a decision manager Dusty Baker admitted earlier this week would be particularly tough.
A key offseason acquisition from the Blue Jays in the Drew Storen trade, Revere barely got a chance to...
CHICAGO - This has turned into quite some road trip, hasn't it? First the Nationals swept the Cardinals in St. Louis, despite Bryce Harper going 0-for-11. Then they nearly swept the Royals in Kansas City, missing out on that only by one Jonathan Papelbon blown save.
Now the toughest road trip of the season reaches its final (and toughest) leg. The Nats will face the blistering-hot Cubs each of the next four days, a battle of the National League's two best teams to date. Yes, it's only May,...
KANSAS CITY - Nobody would suggest the Nationals lineup has functioned as one complete, perfectly in-sync unit at any point yet in this young season. At least one key hitter has been mired in a slump on any given day. And leadoff man Ben Revere has been out since his first at-bat of the season, only now on the verge of rejoining the team from the disabled list.
Yet the Nats have had more than their share of days like this, days when they score runs in bunches and coast to victory, as they did...
KANSAS CITY - They marched into St. Louis and swept the Cardinals. Now they've marched into Kansas City and taken two of three from the Royals, coming within a blown save of another sweep of the defending World Series champs.
Wasn't this supposed to be the most daunting road trip the Nationals had ever faced?
Not to this point. With a 13-2 drubbing of the Royals this afternoon, the Nats added yet another impressive victory to their growing list, their fifth win in six days in Missouri.
Next...
KANSAS CITY - If anyone was worried the Nationals might suffer from a hangover in the wake of last night's gut-punch loss to the Royals, they wasted no time alleviating those fears this afternoon.
Six-run first innings have a way of easing the pain. And then four more runs in the third finish the job.
The Nats burst out of the gate in today's series finale, knocking Kris Medlen all around Kauffman Stadium and taking advantage of some more sloppy Kansas City defense.
Bryce Harper, who had been...
KANSAS CITY - The Nationals are getting their leadoff man back at last. Now they hope he helps complete a lineup that has sorely missed him for the last month.
Ben Revere has completed his rehab assignment with Triple-A Syracuse and will meet the Nationals in Chicago tonight, manager Dusty Baker said. The club won't decide for sure when to activate the center fielder off the disabled until he is checked out in person, but there's a good chance he'll be in the lineup for Thursday night's...
KANSAS CITY - Hello one last time from Kauffman Stadium, where the Nationals will try to bounce back from their gut-punch of a loss last night, win today's matinee against the Royals and thus take the interleague series. The clubhouse mood was really low after last night's 7-6 loss, as low as it has been at any point so far in this young season. Obviously that was an especially tough loss, with Jonathan Papelbon blowing a two-run lead in the bottom of the ninth, but in the big picture this...
KANSAS CITY - Let's get this out of the way, because it needs to be said right off the bat: Bryce Harper is going to start hitting again, and most likely sometime soon. He's going to start hitting like the menace to opposing pitchers he has been for the vast majority of the last two seasons.
That said, he sure isn't hitting like that guy right now.
With another feeble performance at the plate last night - 0-for-5 with three strikeouts - Harper's sudden and dramatic slump continued. He's...
KANSAS CITY - Because he had been quite effective at his job, successfully recording saves in nine of his first 10 opportunities this season, the Nationals had been able to overlook the other red flags attached to Jonathan Papelbon's name.
But on nights when Papelbon isn't effective - and he certainly wasn't tonight in blowing a two-run lead in the bottom of the ninth and sending the Nationals to a disheartening, 7-6 loss to the Royals - it becomes much easier to point out his flaws.
And...
KANSAS CITY - They did everything right yet again, getting power and clutch hits from their lineup, a quality start from their hurler and effective work from their setup men.
But when Jonathan Papelbon couldn't seal the deal in the bottom of the ninth, the Nationals saw their perfect road trip come to an ignominious end.
Papelbon blew a two-run lead, giving up four singles and then Lorenzo Cain's game-winning drive past a diving Michael A. Taylor in left-center, turning a 6-4 lead into a 7-6,...
KANSAS CITY - The Nationals scored in the top of the first inning, keeping with their usual theme. But then their starting pitcher gave it right back (and then some) shortly after, completely bucking recent trends.
Despite homers from Anthony Rendon and Daniel Murphy, the Nats find themselves trailing 3-2 after four innings at Kauffman Stadium after the Royals strung together a three-run rally against Tanner Roark.
First, the good news: Rendon finally hit his first homer of the season, a...
KANSAS CITY - Any discussion of how the Nationals can improve their offensive production almost certainly starts with two struggling lineup members who have track records of success: Anthony Rendon and Ryan Zimmerman. The two infielders have lagged behind others through the season's first month, combining for just one home run and nine RBIs (eight of them via Zimmerman).
There are signs of encouragement, though. Or, at least, signs of bad luck that may change.
Rendon, in particular, has been...
KANSAS CITY - Road interleague games present teams with the DH dilemma: Who to use, whether to pull a guy off the bench or whether to give one of your regulars a semi day-off by not playing the field.
Last night, Dusty Baker went with a bench guy, Stephen Drew. Tonight, he'll go with a regular, Jayson Werth. (The tentative plan for tomorrow is to use Ryan Zimmerman.) Werth has been hitting the ball harder of late; perhaps a chance to focus solely on offense for one night will help get him...