The Cubs are coming to town Monday, and so the question on everybody's mind this week is a simple one: Will they pitch to Bryce Harper?
They most certainly did not last month when the Nationals visited Wrigley Field. Though he stepped up to the plate 19 times in that four-game series, Harper wound up with only four official at-bats. He was walked 13 times, four of them intentional. He tied the major league record with six walks in the series finale, part of a stretch of 12 consecutive plate...
After an early afternoon Saturday win over the Phillies, the Nationals now go for the series sweep in a late afternoon Sunday ballgame, with first pitch not scheduled until 4:05 p.m. (Reminder: All of this was done to create as much space as possible around last night's annual team charity gala.)
The Nationals, who are looking to improve to a season-best 15 games over .500, send Joe Ross to the mound. Like Tanner Roark yesterday, Ross is making his third start this year against Phillies, and...
There are different ways to break up the baseball season into chunks - 10 separate 16-games stretches, nine separate 18-game stretches, quarters, thirds, halves, etc. - and the Nationals are at one of those junctures right now. They've played 62 games, which means there are exactly 100 to go.
Mathematically, it doesn't really mean much. The season is now 38.2716 percent complete. That's not a nice, round number.
But there's something philosophically about there being exactly 100 games left...
The 162-game season can be a meat grinder much of the time, with tense contests, tough decisions and constant roster-tinkering required for a team to navigate its way through six months and emerge on top.
So when a team can enjoy a week like the Nationals just did, five times holding a lead of five runs or more en route to victory, it offers a much-welcomed respite for all those involved.
"I'll tell you, it's good for the manager," Dusty Baker chuckled following the Nationals' 8-0 win over...
The Nationals have relied on the home run often during their recent offensive surge. So far today, they're scoring runs the old-fashioned way: with a string of quality at-bats and timely base hits.
Thanks to four singles, a hit-batter and a perfectly executed squeeze bunt, the Nationals racked up four runs in the bottom of the second this afternoon, storming out to an early lead against the Phillies.
There were no long bombs in this rally, only a bunch of solid hits off right-hander Aaron Nola...
Slowly but surely, the Nationals are building their resume, piling up wins at a rate faster than any other big league club than the Cubs. They've now won eight of their last 11, moving to a season-best 13 games over .500. They're getting contributions from up and down their lineup. Their pitching staff continues to be among the best in the majors. And their defensive play remains outstanding.
So the Nats will try to keep the ball rolling today, with an early 12:05 p.m. start against the...
CHICAGO - If you didn't watch last night's game and merely glanced at Gio Gonzalez's pitching line - 7 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 10 K, 116 pitches - after the fact, you most likely would emerge with positive emotions.
The end result may have been fine, but the process that got Gonzalez there was a bit less satisfying, certainly for the left-hander, who gave up all three of his runs in the first inning before flipping a switch and dominating the rest of the way.
"I've got to get on the ball...
CHICAGO - No, they weren't going to score 10 runs every night the rest of the season. But after reaching double digits in three straight games, the notion of the Nationals being held to one run and five total baserunners (two of them coming with two outs in the ninth inning) sounded pretty implausible entering tonight's series finale against the White Sox.
By the time they trudged off the field following a 3-1 loss that was completed in a scant 2 hours, 21 minutes, that's exactly what the...
CHICAGO - A three-run first inning off Gio Gonzalez put the Nationals in an early hole. And even though the left-hander recovered nicely from that inauspicious first frame, his teammates couldn't duplicate their recent offensive exploits in their series finale against the White Sox, losing 3-1 to wrap up their longest road trip of the season.
Miguel Gonzalez, the former Orioles right-hander now trying bounce back with the White Sox, carried a perfect game into the fifth inning and departed...
CHICAGO - Gio Gonzalez has been perfect since struggling in the first inning. But Miguel Gonzalez has been perfect from the moment he took the mound tonight, leaving the Nationals in trouble early in their series finale against the White Sox.
The Nationals don't have a baserunner in four innings against Miguel Gonzalez, the former Orioles right-hander given an opportunity to start for the White Sox tonight after left-hander Carlos Rodon was scratched with neck and shoulder stiffness.
There...
CHICAGO - From a personal standpoint, Ryan Zimmerman couldn't have timed his paternity leave much better.
Zimmerman's wife, Heather, gave birth to the couple's second daughter Thursday (an off-day for the Nationals). Then Zimmerman missed his team's three-game series in Cincinnati while officially on the paternity leave list. Then he got to take advantage of another off-day for the Nationals before rejoining them here Tuesday night for the opener of their interleague series against the...
CHICAGO - The good news: It's warmer today than it was either of the previous two days, when temperatures never got out of the 60s. The bad news: It's raining. And it's not supposed to stop all night. What that means for the series finale between the Nationals and White Sox: This could be dicey.
The problem is that the Nats don't return to Chicago again this season. So a postponement would require a special trip back here at some point. Which nobody ever wants to do. But the Nats also...
CHICAGO - Well, well, well ... look what team suddenly has one of the most potent lineups in baseball? Did you know the Nationals now lead the National League in home runs? It's true. They've hit 81 of them, one more than the Cardinals.
Ryan Zimmerman and Anthony Rendon finally look like Zimmerman and Rendon. Bryce Harper is starting to look like Harper again. Daniel Murphy and Wilson Ramos, meanwhile, have looked like George Brett and Mike Piazza all season.
Tonight, the Nationals will seek...
CHICAGO - On nights like this, when he is handed a comfortable lead and can actually take a few moments to watch his own teammates hit, Max Scherzer can't help but be impressed by what he sees.
Then again, what wasn't to like about the Nationals' 11-4 thumping of a shell-shocked James Shields and the rest of the White Sox?
"Man, one through nine we did a great job against Shields tonight," Scherzer said. "All the guys were just fouling off pitches, and any time there was a mistake, they...
CHICAGO - They played the full nine innings at U.S. Cellular Field tonight, but that was merely to preserve the integrity of the official major league ballgame. There is no mercy rule at this level, even if the Nationals and White Sox happily would have agreed to one, probably after three innings.
With an onslaught of offense against a woefully ineffective James Shields in his Chicago debut, the Nationals jumped out to a seven-run lead and never looked back, cruising to a 11-4 victory that felt...
CHICAGO - On the bright side for James Shields and the White Sox, there's nowhere to go but up from here.
The Nationals are putting a hurting on Shields in his White Sox debut, pounding out six runs on seven hits (three of them homers) in two innings to open up a commanding 6-0 lead at U.S. Cellular Field.
Ryan Zimmerman, Stephen Drew and Danny Espinosa all homered in their first at-bats, the latter two prompting the crowd to boo their recently acquired veteran right-hander. Shields, just...
CHICAGO - After the Nationals needed to ask for 11 total innings out of their bullpen over the last two games, it was fair to wonder if they would need to bring in a fresh arm before tonight's game against the White Sox.
The short answer: No.
"We didn't even talk about it," manager Dusty Baker said.
The thinking behind such a move: Blake Treinen just threw 66 pitches over three innings, leaving him out of commission for several days, and Sammy Solis threw three innings Sunday in Cincinnati,...
CHICAGO - They piled up 10 runs against John Moscot and the Reds bullpen. Then they piled up 10 runs against Mat Latos and the White Sox bullpen. Now the Nationals will try to keep their offensive surge going tonight against James Shields, the newest member of Chicago's rotation, plus this same relief corps.
Shields, acquired from the Padres over the weekend, is trying to rediscover the form that made him one of baseball's most consistent starters for years before things surprisingly fell...
CHICAGO - Bryce Harper has slipped behind Dexter Fowler in All-Star balloting, but the Nationals star remains comfortably in position to earn a starting spot in the outfield for the National League in next month's Midsummer Classic.
Harper, who led all NL outfielders in the first round of voting released by Major League Baseball last week, has since fallen slightly behind Fowler. The Cubs center fielder currently has received 1,170,718 votes to Harper's 1,119,168. The Mets' Yoenis Cespedes...
CHICAGO - When the night began, the Nationals certainly weren't expecting Joe Ross to last only four innings. And they really weren't expecting Blake Treinen to then throw three innings of relief after that.
Sometimes you've got to adjust on the fly, though, and that's exactly what last night's 10-5 victory over the White Sox required. Ross' uncharacteristic command issues early forced the young starter out of the game early and left the Nationals to ask Treinen to do something out of the...