Nothing went right for the Nationals Friday night during an 11-0 whitewashing at the hands of the Orioles. They can only hope for a better result tonight in the second game of the weekend series.
Most of Davey Martinez's lineup remains the same, with two exceptions: Eric Thames is back at first base, because the Nats are facing a right-hander (Thomas Eshelman), and Asdrúbal Cabrera is back at third base instead of Carter Kieboom.
That lineup had better have the right approach against...
Rio Ruiz is back in the Orioles lineup tonight as they open a three-game series against the Nationals in D.C.
Ruiz has been on the bench with inflammation in his right shoulder.
Austin Hays drops to ninth in the order while Hanser Alberto continues to lead off. José Iglesias is batting third as the shortstop.
Pedro Severino is catching tonight and Chris Davis is batting eighth again.
Chance Sisco, who isn't in the lineup, has gone 5-for-11 with two doubles, a home run and five walks. He's...
They've had more days off than days on recently, but that changes tonight for the Nationals, who begin a stretch of 13 consecutive days with games on the schedule with the opener of a weekend series against the Orioles.
There's still uncertainty about the status of the top two members of the Nats rotation, so that puts some added pressure on the guys beneath them to do their job in the interim. Tonight that responsibility falls upon AnÃbal Sánchez, who makes his second start of the...
José Iglesias is getting the start at shortstop tonight rather than kept as the designated hitter or a pinch-hitter. Rio Ruiz, however, isn't ready to return to third base while dealing with a sore right shoulder.
Ruiz is 7-for-22 (.318) with three home runs and a 1.112 OPS. Iglesias is 11-for-24 (.458) with six doubles and a 1.188 OPS. The Orioles need both of them with their offense in a major funk.
An offense that's totaled one run and 10 hits in three losses in the series.
Ruiz could...
Juan Soto last came up to bat in an official major league game 280 days ago. You may or may not remember this, but he actually made the final out of the 2019 season for the Nationals, flying out to center field to end the top of the ninth in Game 7 of the World Series. He, of course, had drawn a critical walk off Zack Greinke in the top of the seventh and then delivered an RBI single in the top of the eighth, so it's not like there was any reason to remember that final at-bat.
Tonight, Soto...
The 2020 Major League Baseball season is now 19 days old, and for the first time the Nationals are playing a division opponent. Add that to the list of strange facts about this strange season.
After three games with the Yankees and four games with the Blue Jays (followed by three postponed games with the Marlins) the Nats finally face the Mets tonight in the opener of a two-game series between National League East rivals. The Nationals haven't played in five days. The Mets just snapped a...
Chris Davis is out of tonight's lineup, but he's back with the Orioles.
Davis confirmed in a Zoom call this afternoon that he had had a low fever due to a sinus infection. He underwent about eight tests for COVID-19 in the past few days that came back negative.
Davis is on the bench against Rays left-hander Blake Snell. Shortstop José Iglesias remains day-to-day with a sore left quadriceps muscle.
Pat Valaika gets the start at first base tonight and Andrew Velazquez is the shortstop.
DJ...
Who's ready for some poutine, fastball velocities measured in kph instead of mph and the Nationals wearing their gray coloured pants inside their home ballpark?
It's Bizarro World on South Capitol Street for the next two nights. Because the Canadian government won't allow teams to travel in and out of the United States without going through 14-day quarantines, and because the Triple-A stadium in Buffalo won't be up to major league standards for another week, the Blue Jays are forced to play...
This has become a recurring theme every day during this unprecedented season: The Nationals spend the morning and afternoon dealing with major news events, then have to actually take the field to play a ballgame in the evening. So far, that has resulted in a 1-3 record. They'll try to flip that back in a more positive direction tonight in the second of four games with the Blue Jays.
Austin Voth will try to do what AnÃbal Sánchez couldn't do last night: keep Toronto's hitters in the...
As we're quickly learning, much of the morning and afternoon right now is spent dealing with serious news stories involving people's health, and then the evening arrives and we remember there's a ballgame to be played. Strange times, and I'm not sure we'll ever get used to this daily ritual.
The Nationals, after dropping two of three to the Yankees in frustrating fashion, now host the Blue Jays for four games at Nationals Park. Er, sort of. They're hosting the first two games of this...
If someone told you neither Juan Soto nor Stephen Strasburg would appear in the Nationals' opening series against the Yankees but they'd still have a chance to win the series, what would you have thought? To their credit, the Nats have given themselves an opportunity to do just that, if they can win this afternoon's finale on South Capitol Street.
The good news: They've got Patrick Corbin on the mound to make his first start of 2020. The Syracuse native and childhood Yankees fan broke a lot...
A lot has happened over the last 72 hours, only some of it having to do with actual baseball. Hopefully, though, baseball takes center stage this evening and remains there for the foreseeable future.
If nothing else, the Nationals would love to be able to play a full nine innings for the first time since October. The good news: Tonight's forecast looks much better. There's still a slight chance of storms, but nothing like we saw earlier in the week.
Stephen Strasburg was supposed to make his...
The Orioles are opening their season in Boston tonight for the first time since 1966 and they're sending out a lineup that includes Austin Hays leading off and José Iglesias batting third.
Iglesias has hit third in two career games before tonight.
Anthony Santander is slotted in between Hays and Iglesias. Chris Davis is fifth and Hanser Alberto sixth.
DJ Stewart gets the start in left field and is batting ninth.
Tommy Milone and Nathan Eovaldi are making their first career opening day...
And so it begins. The strangest season in baseball history gets underway with the strangest opening night in baseball history. The defending champion Nationals will raise a flag and a pennant and face the sport's most-storied franchise, even though it comes from the American League. It will be televised nationally, with artificial crowd noise pumped through the otherwise empty stadium's public address system.
And the Nationals' star slugger won't be in the lineup after he tested positive...
Think back, if you can, to the offseason and one of the most pressing questions facing the Nationals as they prepared to defend their title in 2020: Who was going to replace Anthony Rendon as the No. 3 hitter?
There never was a perfect answer to the question, but there were several potential answers, each earning a few weeks in the spotlight before getting replaced by another.
Remember when we thought it might be Trea Turner? Forget about his blazing speed, the Nationals shortstop really was...
It has taken an extraordinarily long time for the Nationals' exhibition finale to arrive. And yet it still feels like it sneaked up on us without notice, doesn't it? Such is life when you've had a four-month hiatus in the middle of the exhibition season, then only three games upon returning to action.
This is the last chance the Nats will get, though, before facing the Yankees for real Thursday night. So if there's anyone or anything Davey Martinez still needs to look at before then, this...
The Nationals passed their first test of the exhibition season, successfully hosting a game against the Phillies. Now they face their next important test: a road game.
It's not really a road trip, just a short bus ride up to Camden Yards and back. No overnight stay in a hotel. No flights. But there are different protocols and considerations they must follow for tonight's game against the Orioles, and at the end of the night, they'll hopefully have a better idea what they're in for once they...
And so, here we go again.
When last we saw the Nationals on the field playing against another team, their biggest concerns were whether the pitching staff would suffer from all the extra innings they threw during the postseason, whether Carter Kieboom deserved to start at third base, how much playing time Ryan Zimmerman would get and whether Joe Ross would win the No. 5 starter's job.
Those are not their biggest concerns tonight as they take the field to face the Phillies in the first of three...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - They are playing today at FITTEAM Ballpark of the Palm Beaches. As of this moment. As we've seen, these things can change very quickly.
For now, the Nationals are set to face the Yankees, with a sellout crowd expected. Friendly reminder: They may be wearing New York Yankees uniforms, but most of these guys are likely to open the season as Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees.
Nevertheless, Patrick Corbin is making the start, looking to build himself up to five innings if...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - As opening day inches closer, lineups start to look more and more legit. Well, for some teams, anyway.
The Nationals have a whole bunch of regulars playing this afternoon, including Adam Eaton, who will be the DH eight days after he had to leave a game with tightness in his hamstring. That's obviously a good sign. Eaton is batting in his customary No. 2 spot, behind Trea Turner and ahead of Eric Thames, who is the No. 3 hitter du jour. Juan Soto, Howie Kendrick,...