Down four runs early to Noah Syndergaard, with the Mets lineup all over Joe Ross, the Nationals found themselves in a precarious position in the middle of the third inning tonight, in danger of letting their chief division rivals draw even closer in the standings.
And then came the bottom of the third, at which point a Nationals lineup that spent the last week searching for any hit it could possibly get with a man in scoring position finally decided enough was enough.
Beginning with a five-run...
Jonathan Papelbon cruised through a 1-2-3 inning in the first minor league rehab appearance of his career, moving a step closer to rejoining the Nationals bullpen.
Pitching for high Single-A Potomac, Papelbon retired the side in the top of the first inning against Winston-Salem. Given a chance to start and get his work in quickly before making the short drive back up Interstate-95 to Washington, Papelbon recorded a flyout to center field, a swinging strikeout and then a groundout to second...
On the day they announced the promotion of their top pitching prospect to the big leagues, the Nationals also made an unconventional move that may be a precursor to a promotion of their top position player.
Trea Turner, an infielder throughout his amateur and minor league career, is starting in center field tonight for Triple-A Syracuse. And the 22-year-old figures to see significant action there in the next week, with the Nationals strongly considering him for use in the big leagues as an...
The Nationals had seen enough of Lucas Giolito in recent weeks to believe he was ready for a promotion. To Triple-A Syracuse, not the big leagues.
But when Stephen Strasburg's lingering back injury opened up a spot in their rotation, the Nationals decided to go ahead and promote their top pitching prospect all the way up from Double-A Harrisburg and send him to the mound Tuesday night against the Mets.
"We figured he gave us the best option to win the game tomorrow," general manager Mike...
The long wait is finally almost over as top Nationals pitching prospect Lucas Giolito will make his major league debut and start Tuesday against the Mets, manager Dusty Baker confirmed today in his pregame press briefing.
The announcement comes after much speculation that the Nats would recall either the right-handed Giolito or 24-year-old right-hander Austin Voth to make a spot start with Stephen Strasburg landing on the 15-day disabled list yesterday with an upper back strain. With Giolito...
Why does it feel like it's been ages since the Nationals last played a game here on South Capitol Street? OK, maybe it hasn't been ages in the technical sense, but it has been a full 12 days since Jayson Werth's walk-off single beat the Cubs and sent the Nats out west flying high for the moment. They return now after winning yesterday in Milwaukee to snap a seven-game losing streak, with Stephen Strasburg on the disabled list, a bullpen still trying to cobble things together minus Jonathan...
The Nationals called up right-hander Rafael Martin from Triple-A Syracuse, giving themselves another reliever for tonight's series opener against the Mets but still leaving the question of Tuesday night's starter unanswered for now.
Martin becomes the eighth member of the Nationals bullpen, but his stay in D.C. could be brief. Unless the club intends to use long reliever Yusmeiro Petit as Stephen Strasburg's replacement in the rotation - and manager Dusty Baker said Sunday in Milwaukee that...
Jonathan Papelbon's return to the Nationals bullpen may only be a handful of days away.
Papelbon will begin a rehab assignment with high Single-A Potomac on Monday night, the minor league affiliate announced, suggesting the injured closer is nearly ready to come back from a strained ribcage muscle.
Out since June 13 with what officially is considered a strained right intercostal muscle, Papelbon traveled with the Nationals throughout their just-completed road trip and had been playing catch...
When Jonathan Papelbon landed on the disabled list for the first time in his career 10 days ago, it was viewed in some corners as a potential addition by subtraction, given the veteran closer's oft-shaky outings that seemed to feature more hard-hit balls than swings and misses.
Dusty Baker knew better. Whatever heart palpitations Papelbon may cause his manager at times, he more than makes up for with experience and the domino effect he has on the rest of the Nationals bullpen.
"I think the...
LOS ANGELES - Michael A. Taylor's game-ending error late last night would have been tough enough for the Nationals to cope with had it come during a long winning streak. That it instead extended their current losing streak to a season-long five games only added to the disconsolation that was felt throughout the visitors' clubhouse at Dodger Stadium at the end of a brutal West Coast trip.
"Every loss on this road trip has been devastating," manager Dusty Baker said. "We had the lead in...
LOS ANGELES - For a split-second when the ball came off the bat, there was a fleeting thought it could be a double-play ball, one that would wrap up a much-needed victory for the Nationals. But then Yasiel Puig's hard grounder up the middle got past a diving Danny Espinosa, and so everyone inside Dodger Stadium immediately assumed it would be a simple single to center field, extending the bottom of the ninth.
But then as he came charging in, Michael A. Taylor's eyes gazed slightly upward,...
LOS ANGELES - After a frustrating few nights trying (and mostly failing) to come up with clutch hits, the Nationals managed to record a couple of them in succession in the top of the second tonight, giving themselves an early lead over the Dodgers.
Danny Espinosa and Joe Ross hit back-to-back RBI doubles off 19-year-old phenom Julio Urias, a pair of desperately needed two-out hits with men in scoring position for a Nationals lineup that has struggled mightily to deliver in those situations.
The...
LOS ANGELES - Stephen Strasburg played catch in the Dodger Stadium outfield this afternoon, the first time he had thrown a ball since an upper back strain left him unable to start Monday night's game.
It's still too soon for the Nationals to know if Strasburg will be able to make his next scheduled start Sunday in Milwaukee, and he'll likely need to throw off a bullpen mound one of the next two days to do that. But today's step was an encouraging one.
"Yeah, it's an encouraging sign,"...
LOS ANGELES - The Nationals need a win tonight, plain and simple. They certainly don't want to leave the West Coast on a five-game losing streak before heading to Milwaukee for the weekend.
So they'll need a strong offensive performance against 19-year-old phenom Julio Urias, still seeking his first big league victory in his sixth try. The left-hander has electric stuff and hasn't been giving away free passes (he has 22 strikeouts and only three walks in his last three starts), but he also...
LOS ANGELES - This has turned into a more eventful trip - certainly more negative events - than the Nationals would have liked when they first arrived on the West Coast six days ago. After two well-played victories in San Diego to get the road trip started, they have now dropped four straight, two of them in games they led by multiple runs in the eighth inning.
Stephen Strasburg was scratched with an upper back strain. The bullpen is in a bad place right now with Jonathan Papelbon on the...
LOS ANGELES - The fateful bottom of the eighth - specifically Yasmani Grandal's towering, game-changing, three-run homer off Tanner Roark - will show up in every highlight reel late tonight and into tomorrow. And certainly it deserves that treatment, because it was the obvious difference in the Dodgers' 3-2 victory over the Nationals.
But the less obvious difference in this game, the overriding factor that left Roark in position to lose the game on one swing, came during the previous 7 1/2...
LOS ANGELES - It took Bryce Harper 2 1/2 months to hit his first opposite-field homer of the season. It took him only five days to hit his second.
Harper took Scott Kazmir deep to left field in the top of the first inning tonight at Dodger Stadium, giving the Nationals an early 1-0 lead with yet another encouraging sign the once-slumping MVP is getting his stroke back.
Harper went the other way on Kazmir's 2-1 pitch, sending it beyond left fielder Howie Kendrick's leap and beyond the fence....
LOS ANGELES - The Nationals don't know yet if Stephen Strasburg will be able to make his next scheduled start, but they don't intend to wait til the last minute to make a decision the way they did Monday night when they scratched the right-hander about 90 minutes before first pitch with an upper back strain.
For now, the Nationals are hoping Strasburg will be able to go Sunday afternoon in Milwaukee, slotting back into his original spot in the rotation. But for that to happen, they'll likely...
LOS ANGELES - It is a full 20 degrees cooler this afternoon at Dodger Stadium than it was yesterday at this time. Which means it's only in the mid-80s. Still remarkably more comfortable for the second game of this series, which finds the Nationals trying to snap a three-game losing streak.
They'll be facing their third straight left-handed starter tonight, this time in the form of Scott Kazmir, who is no Clayton Kershaw, as evidenced by the fact he hasn't lasted more than five innings in any...
LOS ANGELES - Against Clayton Kershaw, you can't expect to score runs. You can only hope to give yourself as many opportunities to score runs as possible.
So Dusty Baker couldn't find fault with the approach his Nationals lineup had last night against the Dodgers ace. He just wished his guys had found some way to make the most of one of the opportunities they had, which might well have altered the course of what became a 4-1 loss at Dodger Stadium.
"All you can get are opportunities," Baker...