Good morning to you from the nation's capital, where the Nationals and Mets will celebrate the national pastime with the traditional 11:05 a.m. Independence Day ballgame. The early start time always catches visiting teams and media by surprise, but I've always found this to be a cool tradition, and I sense fans like it as well. What better way to spend your Fourth of July than with baseball early and plenty of time afterward for barbeques and fireworks?
The Nats and Mets will be a bit...
We begin today with sad news: Longtime Washington, D.C.-based Major League Baseball official scorer David W. Vincent died Sunday evening after a long bout with stomach cancer. The Centreville, Va., resident was 67.
Vincent was a member of the Society of American Baseball Research and a founding secretary of Retrosheet, which works to collect and archive box scores and play-by-play accounts of every major league game. He had scored Nationals games since the team's arrival from Montreal for the...
ST. LOUIS - The Nationals need a win tonight to avoid getting swept by the Cardinals and dropping their sixth game in the last eight days. The good news: They have Max Scherzer on the mound. The bad news: They'll be facing Carlos MartÃnez, with something less than their "A" lineup.
Scherzer brings his league-best 2.06 ERA, 0.783 WHIP and 151 strikeouts to his hometown, looking to carry his dominant success from June into July. He has pitched quite well against the Cardinals during his...
ST. LOUIS - Hello from Busch Stadium, where it was pouring only about an hour ago but has since cleared up. And, if we are to trust the forecasters, it should remain clear the rest of the evening as the Nationals and Cardinals open their three-game weekend series.
The Nats arrive in town banged-up physically and mentally. They of course lost Trea Turner to a fractured right wrist Thursday. They also continue to wait for several key players (Jayson Werth, Koda Glover, Sammy SolÃs, Shawn...
The Nationals have an opportunity to win a series today against the defending world champion Chicago Cubs. Right-hander Joe Ross gets the call, stepping in at 4-3 with a 5.40 ERA. He opposes veteran left-hander Jon Lester (5-4, 3.83 ERA). After the game, the Nats head to St. Louis for a weekend series against the Cardinals.
Nationals second baseman Daniel Murphy is in the midst of a 12-game hitting streak. He hit a home run on Wednesday. Murphy is hitting .378 with 10 doubles, one triple, five...
Rarely do you get truly elite pitching matchups like this, with the last two National League Cy Young Award winners squaring off in a game between two very good teams.
So let's appreciate Max Scherzer vs. Jake Arrieta for what it is. And then, if you're the Nationals, hope Scherzer has yet another gem in him while Arrieta shows up hittable (as he has been more this year than in the past).
Scherzer is on a remarkable run right now; over his last six starts he has an 0.94 ERA and 69 strikeouts...
There is a distinct big-game vibe here at Nationals Park, with the Cubs in town for the first of a four-game series that promises to bring big crowds, plenty of media and (hopefully) some compelling baseball to South Capitol Street.
The opener sees Gio Gonzalez on the mound for the Nationals, looking to continue his resurgent first half and improve to 8-1. The left-hander has been brilliant at pitching his way out of jams all season, highlighted by his .107 opponents' batting average with...
MIAMI - It's a new day at Marlins Park, where the Nationals will try to rebound from last night's aggravating 8-7 loss, one that featured a host of poor performances and costly mistakes. Given how much they needed their bullpen (six total innings), the Nats will be asking for length tonight from Gio Gonzalez.
Gonzalez, the Miami native, is trying to continue his strong first-half run, one that could earn him a trip back home next month for the All-Star Game. This actually is the lefty's...
MIAMI - Hello from beautiful - oh, who are we kidding? - Marlins Park. I will say this about the Least Popular Ballpark in the National League: At least it has a roof, because it has been pouring here all day. So weather will not be a factor for tonight's opener between the Nationals and Marlins, nor for the rest of this three-game series.
Fresh off a strong weekend in New York, where they took 3-of-4 from the Mets, the Nats now face a quietly improving Miami club. These guys have won 13-of-20...
NEW YORK - The Nationals turn to right-hander Joe Ross as they look for the four-game sweep of division-rival New York Mets. Ross has been the beneficiary of 85 runs in his eight starts this season. He has enjoyed an average of 11.34 runs of support per game.
The Mets go to right-hander Jacob deGrom to salvage the final game of the series. He is 5-3 with a 4.33 ERA.
Right-hander A.J. Cole is available after right-hander Shawn Kelley was put on the disabled list with a right trapezius...
NEW YORK - Right-hander Stephen Strasburg looks to provide the Nationals with a series win at Citi Field in today's late afternoon matchup. Strasburg has a 7-4 record with a 2.64 ERA against the Mets in 13 career starts.
Despite winning the first five games this season against the Mets at Citi Field, Friday's winning pitcher Max Scherzer is taking nothing for granted in the National League East race.
"It doesn't matter," Scherzer said of the 10-plus-game lead over the Mets. "They're too...
The Nationals and Braves wrap up their series later this afternoon (weather permitting) and that means we get the latest round of Bryce Harper versus Julio Teheran.
Harper owns no pitcher in baseball like he owns Teheran. In his career, he's 15-for-33 with seven homers, 17 RBIs and a 1.720 OPS against the Braves right-hander. This season? He's 2-for-2 with two homers, five RBIs and a 5.000 OPS. Yeah, probably worth tuning in at least for those head-to-head encounters.
Tanner Roark gets the...
It's an absolute scorcher here at Nationals Park today. And if last night was any indication, the ball should be flying out of the park again. The Nationals will have to hope that unlike last night, they can hit more balls out than they give up.
So the challenge is on Joe Ross to duplicate his performance from over the weekend against the Orioles, when he struck out 12 batters. He pitched well against the Braves earlier this season, so perhaps this is a good matchup for the erratic...
Manny Machado has returned to the Orioles lineup tonight in Chicago after missing the previous four games with a strained left wrist and sore hand.
Machado is positioned in his usual third spot in the order.
Trey Mancini remains in left field, batting seventh behind second baseman Jonathan Schoop.
For the Orioles Seth Smith RF Adam Jones CF Manny Machado 3B Mark Trumbo DH Chris Davis 1B Jonathan Schoop 2B Trey Mancini LF Welington Castillo C J.J. Hardy SS
Wade Miley LHP
For the White Sox Tim...
Right-hander Max Scherzer gets the start today as the Nationals look to prevent their first home series sweep of the season. The Rangers won the first two games of the series, 5-2 on Friday and 6-3 in 11 innings on Saturday.
Scherzer has been the best in baseball his last three starts. He has compiled 24 2/3 innings, allowing just two earned runs on 11 hits with four walks and an astounding 38 strikeouts in winning three games in a row. He is 7-3 with a 2.35 ERA over 84 1/3 innings and 12...
If the Nationals want to square their weekend interleague series with the Rangers - and give themselves a chance to win the three-game set after dropping Friday night's opener - they'll need left-hander Gio Gonzalez to do the heavy lifting.
Gonzalez (5-1, 3.03 ERA) is enjoying a renaissance season, but he's fallen off a bit after a stellar April that saw him work at least six innings in all five of his starts and post a 3-0 record with a 1.62 ERA. When the calendar flipped to April, Gonzalez...
The Nationals return home from a successful nine-game West Coast road swing through San Francisco, Oakland and Los Angeles with a 7-2 record. But instead of the scheduled off-day, they've got a makeup game against the Orioles, the result of a postponement from May 11.
Technically, this will be their third series against the Orioles this season - the second season in a row that has happened thanks to inclement weather. The two-game series at Camden Yards from May 8-9 counts as one series and...
LOS ANGELES - When this long road trip through the state of California began 10 days ago, would you have taken a 7-1 record with a chance to sweep the Dodgers in today's finale? I think so.
Today's game, quite frankly, is gravy for the Nationals, who already took the first two in this series and now face Clayton Kershaw in a Wednesday matinee at Chavez Ravine. A win would be fantastic, but nobody should be complaining too much if they don't pull this one off.
Stephen Strasburg certainly...
LOS ANGELES - The Nationals already won 5-of-6 in the Bay Area to begin this road trip. They already won the opener of this three-game series against the Dodgers. And now they send Max Scherzer to the mound tonight. Not a bad position to be in, eh?
Scherzer will be looking to pick up where he left off Wednesday night in San Francisco, when he went the distance and struck out 11 to beat the Giants in dominant fashion. The ace now has 100 strikeouts in 77 1/3 innings, tops in the league and ahead...
LOS ANGELES - Hello from Dodger Stadium, which looks resplendent as ever in this, its 56th year of existence. The Nationals have made their way down from the Bay Area after going 5-1 in San Francisco and Oakland. Now they face not only the toughest leg of this road trip but possibly their toughest test of the season to date in the red-hot Dodgers.
The Nationals won't have Jayson Werth for this series after placing the veteran left fielder on the 10-day disabled list with a bruised left foot....