ATLANTA - Max Scherzer didn't have his best stuff, but the Nationals ace gutted his way through seven strong innings, took advantage of some stellar defense behind him and rode his team's latest offensive outburst against the Braves to a 7-2 victory tonight at Turner Field.
Scherzer allowed two runs over seven innings, the 18th time he has done that or better this season, tops in the majors. He struck out eight, raising his major league-leading total to 259. And he improved to 17-7 with three...
ATLANTA - Dusty Baker is back in the Nationals dugout tonight, back with his team after spending two days at home in California following the death of a family member.
Baker arrived at Turner Field shortly after 4 p.m., luggage in tow after an all-day flight from the West Coast. He said he was able to watch Wednesday's game (a 1-0 victory over the Mets) on television, and found himself getting perhaps even more emotionally invested than he usually does when he's watching up-close.
"It's a...
ATLANTA - The Nationals haven't announced yet who will start Sunday's series finale against the Braves, but it looks like the club plans to get Joe Ross into the game in some capacity.
Ross, who has been on the disabled list since July 3 with right shoulder inflammation, has made three minor league rehab starts and threw 60 pitches in a simulated game last weekend. He threw a light bullpen session this afternoon at Turner Field, which would put him on track to pitch in Sunday's game.
Whether...
ATLANTA - Hello yet again from Turner Field, where it seems like the Nationals occupy the visitors' dugout every couple of weeks. This, of course, is the team's final trip to this ballpark, with the Braves moving to their new digs in the northwest suburbs next spring. There won't be many tears shed among the Nats players, coaches (or media members) about this development.
Tonight the teams open a three-game weekend series. The Nationals can't clinch the National League East title here - the...
ATLANTA - We've reached the home stretch at last. The Nationals tonight open their final road trip of the season. And by the time they return home for the final week of the season, they're very likely to be National League East champions.
The actual clinching can't happen this weekend in Atlanta. The best the Nats could do is reduce their magic number to one by Sunday evening, and even that would require the Mets getting swept by the Twins. So the big day is most likely to come next week,...
More stats, thoughts and quotes after yesterday's 1-0 victory over the Mets, which sent the Nationals off on their final road trip of the regular season owning a commanding 10-game lead in the National League East, with the magic number down to seven ...
* Tanner Roark knows he's going to have to step up as the Nats' No. 2 starter for the postseason with Stephen Strasburg out. Truth is, Roark doesn't need to step up. He just needs to keep being who he has been throughout his career.
Roark...
They won't admit it, because they know better than to do such a thing and tempt the baseball gods. But let's deal in reality here, and the reality is this: The Nationals wrapped up the National League East title this week.
No, they haven't mathematically clinched anything yet. But after today's 1-0 win over the Mets, their second in three days against their division rivals, they have opened up a 10-game lead with 16 to play. Their magic number is seven.
The Nationals left town tonight with...
Tanner Roark churned out his customary seven innings of scoreless ball. All the Nationals had to do was score one run somehow, some way to ensure the effort from their bulldog right-hander wasn't wasted.
Enter Wilson Ramos, who took care of business with one mighty swing in the bottom of the seventh to move his team another step closer to the National League East crown.
Ramos' solo homer deep into the Red Porch seats in left-center field broke what had been a deadlock all afternoon between...
Chris Speier has been through this before, filling in temporarily as manager of Dusty Baker's team when the latter had to leave for personal reasons. The longtime big league coach stepped in for 11 games in Sept. 2012 when Baker (managing the Reds at the time) landed in the hospital with what eventually was discovered to be a mini-stroke.
So when he learned a few days ago that he would need to take the reins again while Baker left town due to a death in the family, Speier did his best both to...
The Nationals will open the 2017 season at home against the Marlins, will meet the Orioles in early May for their traditional home-and-home Beltways Series and face the entire American League West in interleague play.
Major League Baseball revealed next season's schedule this afternoon. It begins Monday, April 3 when the Nationals host Miami, the third time in 11 years those teams have opened a season in D.C.
Following their opening series, the Nationals make a brief road trip to Philadelphia,...
Dusty Baker has left the Nationals temporarily due to a death in the family and won't manage today's series finale against the Mets, the club announced.
Bench coach Chris Speier will assume managerial duties for the game.
Baker is expected to rejoin the team in Atlanta and manage Friday night's series opener against the Braves.
This will be the first game Baker has missed since taking over as Nationals manager. The 67-year-old hasn't missed an inning of his team's first 145 games; he's...
There were no shortage of emotional reactions the Nationals could have tonight in the wake of their wild 4-3, 10-inning loss to the Mets. The final 30 minutes of this game alone ran the full gamut, from despair to hope to flat-out belief to confusion to despair again to hope again to exhaustion in the end.
From Dusty Baker's standpoint, the most important reaction to this game was an upbeat one, with reason to think the manner in which his team rallied to tie the game in the bottom of the...
If the Nationals are going to make noise in October, they're going to have to beat some elite opposing arms. Like Noah Syndergaard, one of the top starters in the game right now. Or Jeurys Familia, one of the top closers in baseball.
They couldn't do it to Syndergaard tonight, managing just four hits in seven innings. They nearly did it to Familia, rallying from two runs down in the bottom of the ninth to tie the game and force extra innings.
But then the Mets returned the favor and beat...
Dusty Baker hears the question a lot these days, from all variety of sources: At some point, is he going to bench Ryan Zimmerman, who is mired in a season-long slump?
Baker understands why people ask him that. But his response is clear: He's going to keep playing Zimmerman as much as possible, because he knows the Nationals' chances of success are far greater with a productive Zimmerman in the lineup than out of it.
"See, this guy is a carrier," Baker said. "There are carriers and there...
After taking care of business last night with an 8-1 trouncing of the Mets, the Nationals did the bare minimum they needed to do in this series: Avoid getting swept. Anything they do from here on out is just gravy. But since they now lead the division by 10 games with 18 to play, with their magic number down to nine, why not go for the jugular?
We'll see if they can do that tonight when A.J. Cole squares off against Noah Syndergaard. It looks like a mismatch on paper, but it was only 11 days...
Here's yet another sign that Bryce Harper has nearly made it all the way back from his months-long slump at the plate: Teams are intentionally walking him again.
That was the strategy early this season for opposing clubs facing the reigning National League MVP. Harper was intentionally walked 13 times in his first 43 games.
But as he slid into his funk, the strategy changed. No longer as fearful about losing the game in that situation, opposing managers intentionally walked Harper only three...
Mat Latos didn't know if this opportunity would come, certainly not this season. Ditched by the White Sox in June, the odds of the journeyman right-hander starting a key pennant race game for a first-place club in mid-September seemed ludicrous.
Yet there was Latos tonight, not only taking the mound in the top of the first inning for the Nationals in their series opener with the Mets, but pitching effectively and even homering for the home team during an 8-1 victory that brought its magic...
Given a surprise opportunity to start a mid-September ballgame for a first-place club trying to put the finishing touches on its chief division rival, Mat Latos delivered both on the mound and at the plate.
Unfortunately, what was shaping up to be a memorable night for the 28-year-old journeyman ended prematurely when he was forced to depart the Nationals' 8-1 victory over the Mets in the top of the fifth inning with an apparent leg injury.
As disappointing as the end of Latos' night was, he...
It's looking like Joe Ross will be ready to rejoin the Nationals rotation later this week when his turn comes up. Until then, they'll take their chances with short-term insurance policies like Mat Latos and A.J. Cole.
Ross emerged from his simulated game Saturday with no problems and, according to manager Dusty Baker, looks ready to pitch in his first big league game in more than two months.
"I think he's game-ready," Baker said. "He's just not game-endurance-ready. But that can play,...
It's one of the biggest games of the season, a mid-September matchup of the first- and second-place teams in the National League East, one of them trying to move closer to the division title, the other trying to continue a late surge toward a wild card berth that looked implausible only a couple weeks ago.
And the pitching matchup for the opener between the Nationals and Mets will be ... Mat Latos vs. Rafael Montero?
Such is the state of both clubs' rotations, which have been disrupted by...