NEW YORK - The Nationals clubhouse at Citi Field is going to much more crowded than usual today, what with seven players added to the roster in the first round of September call-ups. And several of these guys (ie. Sean Burnett, Trevor Gott, Matt Grace) could get some significant opportunities down the stretch, potentially making their cases for spots on the postseason roster.
As for tonight's series opener against the Mets, it's A.J. Cole getting a chance to pitch on the big stage against a...
NEW YORK - The Nationals will have their first set of September reinforcements at their disposal for tonight's series opener against the Mets, including a pair of well-known veterans getting a shot at redemption.
The club promoted seven players to the big league roster this afternoon: left-handers Sean Burnett and Matt Grace; right-handers Mat Latos, Trevor Gott and Rafael Martin; catcher Pedro Severino; and outfielder Brian Goodwin.
Needing to clear two spots on the 40-man roster so Burnett...
And so September has arrived at last and the baseball season has reached the home stretch. If it feels like this has been a long time coming ... well, it has. Think about how much has happened since the Nationals left Viera for the final time and came north to open what most hoped - but weren't certain - would be a promising season.
Things have turned out almost as well as the Nationals could have hoped.
Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg and Tanner Roark are among the best pitching trios in...
PHILADELPHIA - The Nationals entered late July with a bullpen that, while successful in the big picture, featured some significant question marks.
Did they need a new closer? Did they need more reliable left-handed help? Did they need a burst of energy from another young arm?
One month later, as the calendar now shifts from August to September, the Nationals bullpen has been tweaked. General manager Mike Rizzo addressed all three of those issues, and the results (so far) have been...
PHILADELPHIA - It won't go down as their best 20-game stretch of the season, but it didn't need to be that. The Nationals simply needed to make it through the toughest three weeks of the 2016 campaign in one piece and not squander what they'd already built up over the previous four months.
So in that regard, the Nationals' 11-9 record over the last 20 days - capped off by tonight's 2-1 victory over the Phillies - turned out to be an important development for a team that looked gassed at...
PHILADELPHIA - Gio Gonzalez turned in one of his best starts of the season, Jayson Werth homered once again at Citizens Bank Park and Wilson Ramos delivered yet another clutch hit to lead the Nationals to a 2-1 victory tonight and a series sweep over the Phillies.
Ramos' two-out RBI single to right in the top of the seventh broke a 1-1 deadlock and gave the Nationals the lead for good, the latest big hit in a big spot from the All-Star catcher.
After falling behind in the count 0-2, Ramos...
PHILADELPHIA - Thanks to yet another Jayson Werth home run at Citizens Bank Park, the Nationals have themselves yet another 20-homer guy on the roster.
Werth launched a titanic blast to straightaway center field in the top of the first tonight, sending Phillies left-hander Adam Morgan's pitch over the batter's eye and into a camera well. The drive, which measured 453 feet according to Statcast, was Werth's fourth homer in his last six games and his 20th of the season.
That means the...
PHILADELPHIA - When Trea Turner led off for the Nationals on July 30 in San Francisco, little did he know it would be more than a month before he would get his next day off.
Not that the rookie is complaining about all the playing time he has been getting ever since.
"No, I usually never have (days off), because even when I don't start I usually pinch-hit or pinch-run, at least in Triple-A I did a lot," he said. "I don't know what the case is today, but I don't ever really count on a day...
PHILADELPHIA - The end of the Nationals' stretch of 20 games in 20 days has arrived, with one more game to play tonight against the Phillies before they'll enjoy their first off-day since Aug. 11. This has been a long, difficult stretch for many players, perhaps none more so than Trea Turner, who has started 29 consecutive games.
That streak ends tonight, though, with Turner given a well-deserved night off. It'll be Michael A. Taylor getting the start in center field and leading off, with...
PHILADELPHIA - It began way back on Aug. 12, with a weekend series against the Braves at Nationals Park.
Bryce Harper was still on the bench, nursing a nagging neck injury. Ryan Zimmerman was still on the disabled list, a full week away from returning to the active roster. Stephen Strasburg was healthy. Trea Turner was hitting only .286. Jayson Werth still had six games left in his streak of consecutive games reaching base. Marc Rzepczynski was an Oakland Athletic. Koda Glover was a Syracuse...
PHILADELPHIA - This is what it has come to, what Max Scherzer has done to our longstanding sense of baseball and how typically not to get too excited too soon about the possibility of history.
Two innings into tonight's 3-2 Nationals victory at Citizens Bank Park, only two measly innings into this one, you couldn't help but think to yourself: Scherzer might just throw a no-hitter.
That's not the kind of thought you're supposed to have after two innings. Or, if you do, you're supposed to...
PHILADELPHIA - Stop us if you've heard this one before: Max Scherzer carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning tonight at Citizens Bank Park, only to have it broken up on a double down the right field line by Freddy Galvis.
It happened last summer. And it happened again tonight, with the pesky Phillies shortstop spoiling another one of Scherzer's attempts to make history with the same kind of hit in the same inning.
Of more importance to Scherzer, the Nationals won both times, including...
PHILADELPHIA - There's still a long way to go, and who knows what could happen between now and season's end. But if Max Scherzer can keep doing what he's been doing up to this point, he's going to wind up in some elite company.
Especially in the strikeout department.
Scherzer entered tonight's game against the Phillies with a league-leading 227 strikeouts in 182 innings. And after striking out six more batters in the first three innings, he now has left himself on pace to end the regular...
PHILADELPHIA - The Nationals have understood all along that Stephen Drew's recovery from an inner ear ailment would have no set timetable. The veteran infielder would simply start to feel well enough at some point to resume playing.
By all accounts, he's nearing that point.
Drew has ramped up his baseball activities over the last two days, taking batting practice and fielding grounders with the rest of his Nationals teammates. His mood and energy level also have been noticeably different to...
PHILADELPHIA - Max Scherzer has faced the Phillies seven times over the last two years. In those seven starts, he's 5-0 with a 1.94 ERA, 55 strikeouts and 10 walks. Needless to say, the Nationals have fair reason to expect more good things tonight when Scherzer takes the mound at Citizens Bank Park.
Dusty Baker has his entire regular lineup out there for the second game of this series. That includes Ryan Zimmerman, who sat out last night's game after working extensively in the cage earlier in...
PHILADELPHIA - Dusty Baker constantly talks about how hard it is for players to be productive off the bench in the big leagues, how the lack of consistent at-bats makes it difficult to find a rhythm, even when there are rare opportunities to start games and step to the plate four or five times in one night.
Which perhaps makes Clint Robinson's performance of late all the more impressive.
Robinson hasn't seen a whole lot of action lately, not with the Nationals trying to give Ryan Zimmerman as...
PHILADELPHIA - Ask a bunch of people around baseball - players, coaches, managers, executives, scouts, media members - for a list of the best pitchers in the National League, and you're likely to get several recurring names: Kershaw, Arrieta, Scherzer, Strasburg, Bumgarner, Cueto, Lester, Syndergaard, Fernandez.
All, of course, are excellent pitchers, all deserving of the recognition they receive. But how many voters are including Tanner Roark on their list?
"If they're not," Jayson Werth...
PHILADELPHIA - While their offense remains very much in hit-or-miss mode, the Nationals at least know they can still count on Tanner Roark to deliver a big-time start when they most need one.
The Nationals scored two quick runs off the Phillies tonight, then sat back and watched as Roark and the bullpen took care of the rest, tossing a combined shutout during what became a 4-0 victory by night's end at Citizens Bank Park.
Roark handled the first seven of those shutout innings, never entirely...
PHILADELPHIA - Dusty Baker planned to give Ryan Zimmerman his share of days off down the stretch, regardless of the veteran's performance. So the fact Zimmerman was not in the Nationals lineup for tonight's series opener against the Phillies wasn't a shock.
Baker, though, didn't want Zimmerman to take the day off altogether. No, the two spent considerable time (along with other members of the coaching staff) in the batting tunnel at Citizens Bank Park earlier in the afternoon working on...
PHILADELPHIA - It has taken a while, and it has included a few more bumps than they would have liked, but the Nationals have reached the final leg of their 20-games-in-20-days stretch. That also means they've almost reached September and the home stretch of a season they hope to continue well into October.
Make no mistake, the Nationals are well aware of all this.
"You start checking off the months until the season goes by. Now, we're down to one-sixth of the season," manager Dusty Baker...