Game 28 lineups: Nats at Cubs

Game 28 lineups: Nats at Cubs
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...
Continue reading

Revere activated off DL, den Dekker optioned to Syracuse

Revere activated off DL, den Dekker optioned to Syracuse
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...
Continue reading

Thursday morning Q&A from Chicago

Thursday morning Q&A from Chicago
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,...
Continue reading

After 13-run explosion, Nationals lineup rounding into form

After 13-run explosion, Nationals lineup rounding into form
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...
Continue reading

Nationals throttle Royals 13-2 to capture another road series

Nationals throttle Royals 13-2 to capture another road series
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...
Continue reading

Latest first-inning explosion plates six runs (Nats win 13-2)

Latest first-inning explosion plates six runs (Nats win 13-2)
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...
Continue reading

Ben Revere finishes rehab, will join Nationals in Chicago

Ben Revere finishes rehab, will join Nationals in Chicago
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...
Continue reading

Game 27 lineups: Nats at Royals

Game 27 lineups: Nats at Royals
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...
Continue reading

Harper's slump continues, now 1 for his last 23

Harper's slump continues, now 1 for his last 23
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...
Continue reading

Blown save exposes Jonathan Papelbon's biggest red flag

Blown save exposes Jonathan Papelbon's biggest red flag
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...
Continue reading

Royals rally to beat Papelbon in ninth, end Nats winning streak

Royals rally to beat Papelbon in ninth, end Nats winning streak
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,...
Continue reading

Early power can't offset Royals rally vs. Roark (Nats lose 7-6)

Early power can't offset Royals rally vs. Roark (Nats lose 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...
Continue reading

Updates on Rendon, Zimmerman, Arroyo and Revere

Updates on Rendon, Zimmerman, Arroyo and Revere
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...
Continue reading

Game 26 lineups: Nats at Royals

Game 26 lineups: Nats at Royals
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...
Continue reading

Nats getting contributions from entire bullpen

Nats getting contributions from entire bullpen
KANSAS CITY - With his team holding onto a 2-0 lead in the seventh inning last night against a Royals lineup that won last year's World Series thanks in large part to its ability to string together big rallies late in games, Nationals manager Dusty Baker could have gone the paint-by-numbers approach with the back end of his bullpen. Felipe Rivero in the seventh. Blake Treinen in the eighth. Jonathan Papelbon in the ninth. That, on paper, is the way the Nationals have drawn up the final three...
Continue reading

Calm, poised Gonzalez turning into "a different guy on the mound"

Calm, poised Gonzalez turning into "a different guy on the mound"
KANSAS CITY - There were moments during tonight's game that looked all too familiar to Gio Gonzalez, moments when the left-hander could have been on the brink of disaster and too often in the past succumbed to the pressure. A 28-pitch first inning that featured tough at-bat after tough at-bat from the Royals. A two-on, two-out jam in the third with the heart of the lineup at the plate. A two-on, one-out jam in the sixth as his pitch count approached and then topped the century mark. Each time,...
Continue reading

Gonzalez runs Nats' winning streak to four games

Gonzalez runs Nats' winning streak to four games
KANSAS CITY - They marched into St. Louis and won three straight, pulling off their first sweep at Busch Stadium. Now they've marched into Kansas City and taken the opener of their interleague series against the defending World Series champs. Behind another highly effective pitching performance from Gio Gonzalez and another early offensive explosion, the Nationals took a quick 2-0 lead on the Royals and made it hold up the rest of the night. Gonzalez wasn't as sharp as he had been in several...
Continue reading

First-inning offense continues, even without Harper (Nats win 2-0)

First-inning offense continues, even without Harper (Nats win 2-0)
KANSAS CITY - The Nationals continue to do damage in the first inning, even if Bryce Harper isn't contributing to it. With Harper mired in a sudden slump, the Nats have had to turn to others for offense. They delivered all weekend during a three-game sweep in St. Louis, and they delivered again in the top of the first tonight in their interleague series opener in at Kauffman Stadium, scoring two quick runs to take an early lead. Michael A. Taylor and Anthony Rendon set the table with a leadoff...
Continue reading

After shaky debut, Kelley quietly dominant out of Nats bullpen

After shaky debut, Kelley quietly dominant out of Nats bullpen
KANSAS CITY - The Nationals gave Shawn Kelley a three-year, $15 million contract over the winter because they believed he was a guy they could trust to pitch in big spots late in ballgames. And they couldn't have found a much bigger spot to throw Kelley into for his first assignment this season: a bases-loaded, two-out jam in the bottom of the eighth inning of a tie game on opening day. So when Kelley proceeded to walk that batter (Atlanta's Adonis Garcia) on four pitches (all of them at...
Continue reading

Game 25 lineups: Nats at Royals

Game 25 lineups: Nats at Royals
KANSAS CITY - Hello from beautiful Kauffman Stadium, maybe baseball's most underrated ballpark. This is only the Nationals' second trip here; they took two of three in 2013, but this is a far different Royals team they're facing now than they did back then. The defending World Series champs are off to a bit of a ragged start, but they remain an imposing foe, making this a marquee matchup for the next three days. The Nationals are flying high after their three-game sweep in St. Louis, their...
Continue reading