Two unearned runs scored on a bases-loaded error by Harrisburg Senators third baseman Adrian Sanchez and two more on came in on a two-out RBI double later in the sixth inning of last night's game in Arm and Hammer Park in Trenton, N.J., where the Senators beat the Trenton Thunder 6-4 with a five-run comeback in the top of the ninth inning.
A.J. Cole, 22, left his ninth start of the season after 5 2/3 innings with a 1.97 ERA on the year and the Senators down 4-1. But the Matt Skole-led rally in...
Ian Desmond is one of three Nationals to play in all 40 games so far this season. Unlike right fielder Jayson Werth (.304/.391/.453) and second/third baseman Anthony Rendon (.282/.312/.479), the other two Nats to play in all 40, the 28-year-old shortstop has struggled at the plate (.226/.275/.368), while committing a major league-leading 10 errors.
With the primary backup at short, Danny Espinosa, pressed into everyday action with Ryan Zimmerman on the disabled list, Nats skipper Matt Williams...
Gio Gonzalez said this winter that he was a "big, big fan of Doug Fister." The acquisition of the 6-foot-8 right-hander, according to Gonzalez, was like "knowing that you just got the brand-new car you wanted for Christmas."
"For me," Gonzalez said, "when you've got someone with that kind of presence, he's going to set the tone in the fourth spot, fifth spot, first spot, second spot. It doesn't matter where he is in that rotation. He's just going to be to us an ace."
Ross Detwiler,...
As Mike Rizzo explained this winter, the decision to move Bryce Harper to right field and Jayson Werth to left field served two purposes. One, Werth could "save his legs" with less ground to cover in left, which Rizzo explained would lead to less wear in the short and long-term for the 35-year-old outfielder.
With Harper in right, the Nationals general manager said the team has younger legs capable of covering more ground, and a cannon of an arm that could seriously dissuade opposing teams...
Jayson Werth hit the big game-tying ninth-inning double last Wednesday night, on a 3-0 pitch from Angels closer Ernest Frieri. Adam LaRoche took Fernando Salas to left in the next at bat for a walk-off winner that capped off an improbable comeback in a game the Nationals appeared out of until catcher Jose Lobaton homered to start the bottom of the ninth inning.
Both Werth and LaRoche pointed to Lobaton's blast to right field as the spark that got the offense started after they were held to one...
New Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer said this spring that his conversations with his former teammate in Detroit, Rick Porcello, went a long way in helping in his own and Porcello's development as major league starters.
In an interview with Boston Globe writer Nick Cafardo in the leadup to his opening day start with the Nationals, Scherzer discussed the relationship, explaining that he and Porcello would study opponents from the bench when they weren't pitching, with Cafardo comparing the work...
Before Mike Rizzo was hired as Washington's full-time general manager on Thursday, August 20, 2009, after serving on an interim basis for the Nationals throughout the '09 season, there was a bit of drama in the nation's capital.
For a time, at least according to published reports, it appeared as if someone else might get the job.
Once he was officially announced the full-time GM, Rizzo was asked about the week he went through leading up to the final decision and the published reports which...
Late in the 2012 campaign, former Nationals manager Davey Johnson, who was tasked with helping to oversee the first two years of Bryce Harper's development as a major leaguer, was asked if there was anything he would like to see the then-19-year-old change?
He said, "No," initially.
"I like him just the way he is, to answer your question," Johnson told the reporter who asked. The all-out, hard-nosed, free-wheeling, super-aggressive approach Harper, the No. 1 overall pick in 2010, brought...
With wins in two of the three games in the nation's capital this week, the St. Louis Cardinals improved to 16-7 against the Nationals since 2012.
Different rosters, different managers (for the Nats at least), but the same outcome. Over the last several years, the Cards have held an edge in the head-to-head series.
The 2012 National League East Champion Nationals actually took four of seven from the Cardinals that season, and the National League Division Series with St. Louis went five games,...
General manager Mike Rizzo told reporters during Rafael Soriano's introductory press conference in the winter of 2013 that the signing a week earlier of first baseman Adam LaRoche freed the Nationals up to deal one year of control of Michael Morse to the Mariners in the three-team trade with Seattle and the Oakland A's that went through on the night before Soriano's official introduction. The deal netted the Nationals right-handers A.J. Cole and Blake Treinen and left-hander Ian Krol.
Cole,...
Nationals manager Matt Williams talked at the start of spring training about wanting to help shortstop Ian Desmond stay focused on the day-to-day this season instead of thinking big picture as Desmond began what could be his final season with the organization that drafted and developed him.
Though there were rumors of a potential trade this winter as Desmond entered his walk year, Williams said he wanted to help Desmond get past all that.
"I want to free his mind," Williams told reporters....
Drew Storen faltered some in Thursday afternoon's win over the Arizona Diamondbacks. He walked a batter. It was his first walk in seven appearances and 28 at-bats.
Washington's 27-year-old set-up man stranded the runner he put on, but snapped a streak of consecutive batters set down at 19.
What's wrong with Drew? Nothing. Nothing at all.
Though he gave up the walk, Storen did go on to complete another scoreless inning of work, extending his streak of scoreless appearances to 14 for 13 1/3...
Stephen Strasburg's second major league start took place in Cleveland's Progressive Field on June 13, 2010. After a dazzling 14-strikeout major league debut at Nationals Park, the Nats and Strasburg took the show on the road. The game between a 31-33 Nationals team and a 25-37 Indians team was picked up on a national broadcast solely because Strasburg was going to be on the mound. In the first two games of that three-game weekend set, the Indians drew 22,041 Friday night and 19,484 Saturday...
Gio Gonzalez was on a roll before he took the mound last week in San Francisco's AT&T Park. He was on a streak of eight straight starts in which he had allowed two earned runs or less, dating back to June 15th in Tampa Bay.
In those previous eight starts, the Washington Nationals' 29-year-old left-hander was 5-0 with a 1.48 ERA and a .245/.296/.326 line against in 48 2/3 innings pitched.
Gonzalez was coming off an eight-inning outing against the Los Angeles Dodgers in Chavez Ravine, in...
With his lost season in the Washington Nationals' bullpen in 2015 behind him, Tanner Roark entered spring training on a mission. He wanted to return to the starting rotation. Roark told his new manager as much early in the process.
"It was short," Roark said of the conversation with Dusty Baker this spring.
"I told you guys once before that I wanted to start and I'm telling you guys again that I want to start, and I feel like I'm a competitor on the mound and I know that the fight inside...
Mike Rizzo reluctantly parted with 2010 fourth-round pick A.J. Cole in the December 2011 trade with the Oakland A's that brought Gio Gonzalez to the nation's capital in return for Cole, left-hander Tom Milone, right-hander Brad Peacock and catcher Derek Norris.
Given a chance to reacquire Cole a year later when the Athletics got involved in three-team talks with the Nationals and Seattle Mariners, Rizzo pulled the trigger on a deal that brought the 21-year-old Cole back to the organization...
Before Denard Span suffered a setback last week, he'd progressed to full workouts, live batting practice and taking fly balls and line drives in the outfield in Nationals Park as he worked his way back from a back issue that landed him on the disabled list.
Washington's 31-year-old center fielder and leadoff man worked his way back from two surgeries this winter/spring - after he put together a line of .302/.355/.416, with 39 doubles, eight triples, five home runs, 31 stolen bases and a +4.0...
The Texas Rangers thought enough of Matt Purke coming out of Klein High School near Houston, Texas, that they took the 6-foot-3 prep school lefty with the 14th overall pick in the 2009 First-Year Player Draft.
Purke was 12-1 with 147 strikeouts (17.26 K/9) and a 0.37 ERA in 76 2/3 innings pitched as a junior and 4-2 with a 1.18 ERA and 91 strikeouts (17.30 K/9) in 47 1/3 innings of work in his senior year. There were rumors of a well-above slot $6 million deal for the pitcher, which was...
Danny Espinosa was 6-for-64 with 33 strikeouts over his first 19 games after he was sent to Triple-A Syracuse by the Nationals. Espinosa, 26, was initially placed on the disabled list and, after a minor league rehab stint, was optioned to the Chiefs on June 19. As Nats general manage Mike Rizzo explained at that point, in an interview on 106.7 the Fan, the 2008 third-round pick was there to work on his swing from both sides of the plate. "Once we feel that he's ready and capable to perform...
Jonathan Papelbon's first few appearances haven't been necessarily lights out, but the 35-year-old Nationals closer is a perfect 5-for-5 in save opportunities after Wednesday night's inning of work against the Braves.
Braves hitters lined pitches to right and center for an out and a single before Papelbon got an inning-ending double play and his fifth save, and Nationals skipper Dusty Baker told reporters after the game that getting the save, or the final result, at least in this case, was...