WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Today marks the last time we'll see Tanner Roark, Daniel Murphy and four others in Nationals uniforms for a little while. Later this afternoon, the Nats' six representatives in the World Baseball Classic are set to leave camp and join their home countries to play in the international tournament. (Along with Team USA's Roark and Murphy, Rafael MartÃn and Oliver Pérez will pitch for Mexico, Jhonatan Solano will catch for Colombia and Enny Romero will pitch for the...
JUPITER, Fla. - It's another windy day in South Florida, and just like yesterday in West Palm Beach the wind is blowing straight in from center field. Pitchers love it. Hitters and fielders, not so much.
The Nationals face the Cardinals for the second straight day, merely moving the venue 15 minutes north to Roger Dean Stadium. There aren't many regulars on the trip, but Ryan Zimmerman is in the lineup for the second straight day, this time serving as designated hitter. Clint Robinson, who...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - The Nationals play their first split-squad games of the spring today, with one team staying home to face the Cardinals while another team makes the short drive up to Jupiter to face the Marlins.
The home game features three notable Grapefruit League debuts: Stephen Strasburg on the mound, Ryan Zimmerman at first base and Pedro Severino behind the plate. Strasburg and Zimmerman's debuts were merely held back because of the long spring; Severino was dealing with a minor...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - The Nationals are on the road again today, this time facing the Astros, but surprisingly they've brought a bunch of big-name starters with them. Maybe that's because this road game is actually being played in their own home ballpark. Finally, everybody gets to reap the real benefits of a shared spring training complex.
We'll be getting a look today at six regulars - Trea Turner, Adam Eaton, Daniel Murphy, Bryce Harper, Anthony Rendon and Jayson Werth - in a batting...
LAKELAND, Fla. - Hello from Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium, spring home of the Detroit Tigers since 1966 but looking as beautiful as ever right now following a major renovation this winter. They really did a nice job modernizing what already was one of the great, traditional spring training ballparks in Florida.
The Nationals made the long drive (nearly three hours) here for today's game, their lone trip to Lakeland this spring. The lineup doesn't include many prominent names -...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - The day has arrived. Not everyone was convinced it would happen, at least not in time. But it is happening, and it's happening on time. Today, the Nationals and Astros play a game inside their new spring training stadium after years of planning and 16 furious months of construction that went right down to the wire.
"I'm very impressed, cause they've been working around the clock," manager Dusty Baker said. "Every day, I see something new. The other day I was coming...
JUPITER, Fla. - If you want to know what the real benefits of the Nationals' spring relocation are, here's a perfect example: I just drove from The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches to Roger Dean Stadium in 17 minutes. And, had I been gutsy enough to try to beat a yellow light, I might've done it in 15 minutes. That's a beautiful thing.
You should notice a difference on the field, too, as a result of these short drives, with more veterans making road trips than they did while training in Viera....
FORT MYERS, Fla. - The biggest reason the Nationals moved their spring headquarters from Viera to West Palm Beach was to avoid all the excessively long road trips that were a byproduct from training in such a remote locale. But while they will reap the benefits of that switch over the course of the entire spring, with the majority of their road games requiring a drive of 15 minutes or fewer, there do remain a couple of doozies. Like today's trip to Fort Myers, a short 2 1/2 hours west of West...
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. - No, it doesn't count for anything, there are a bunch of non-regulars in the lineup and the pitchers will be going one inning apiece. But disregard all that and just focus on the following three words: Ball. Game. Today.
Yes, the Nationals play the first of what they hope will be more than 200 baseball games in 2017 this afternoon, and while the games that are played months from now will matter far more than today's Grapefruit League opener against the Mets, it's still...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - When Dusty Baker's first lineup of the spring was posted yesterday morning, it was impossible not to immediately notice how the Nationals manager chose to align his top four hitters. The batting order: Trea Turner, Adam Eaton, Daniel Murphy, Bryce Harper.
There's certainly nothing controversial about that order. It features perhaps the fastest player in baseball leading off, a high on-base percentage guy batting second, a guy who hit .347 last season batting third and...
And so it has come to this. Game 5. Winner-take-all. One team heads to Chicago this weekend for the National League Championship Series. One team heads home for the winter, wondering what might have been. We've experienced this once before during this era of D.C. baseball. The final outcome is one that continues to haunt everyone. Tonight's result could go a long way toward pushing those bad memories aside.
This is, quite simply, Max Scherzer's game. He's rested. He's ready. He was brought...
LOS ANGELES - The Nationals today have the opportunity to do something they've never done before, not to mention something no major pro sports franchise in D.C. has done in a long time. With a victory in Game 4 of the National League Division Series, they would advance to their first National League Championship Series. In doing so, they would become the first D.C. team to reach the semifinals of its sport since the 1998 Capitals went to the Stanley Cup Final.
So no pressure today, guys....
LOS ANGELES - Greetings from Chavez Ravine, where it is an absolutely perfect day for postseason baseball in Southern California. It is expected to be 83 degrees at first pitch at Dodger Stadium.
Left-hander Gio Gonzalez is 0-0 with a 3.21 ERA in three playoff starts. In his last matchup against the Giants in 2014, Gonzalez tossed four innings, allowing two unearned runs on four hits with one walk and one strikeout.
He made it known Saturday he doesn't want to look back to his up-and-down...
The good news: There's no rain in sight today. (Not that there turned out to be much of it yesterday after Major League Baseball postponed Game 2 of the National League Division Series.) The bad news: It's cold. And it's windy. There's a stiff wind blowing from left field to right field, and it's supposed to stay that way all afternoon.
That wouldn't seem to benefit a right-handed-heavy lineup like the Nationals have, but potentially benefit a left-handed-heavy lineup like the Dodgers...
It's a gray, dreary afternoon in the District, perhaps appropriate given the mood around here after last night's frustrating 4-3 loss in Game 1 of the National League Division Series. The Nationals are basically in must-win territory today in Game 2, not a position they want to be in, but the position they find themselves in regardless.
Tanner Roark, though, is a good person to have on the mound for a situation like this. You know Roark isn't going to let the pressure get to him. And you...
The day has come at last. It's been a long wait since the Nationals clinched the National League East title 13 days ago. But this afternoon, the postseason begins in D.C. It's Game 1 of the National League Division Series, and it's as good a pitching matchup as you can get: Max Scherzer vs. Clayton Kershaw.
The two aces will take center stage and draw most of the attention in the buildup to the game, but there are other storylines to this one as well. Such as the significant presence of...
TORONTO - Michael Bourn is in the Orioles' lineup for tonight's wild card game against the Blue Jays.
Bourn is playing right field and Mark Trumbo is serving as the designated hitter.
Hyun Soo Kim is batting second against Blue Jays right-hander Marcus Stroman.
For the Orioles Adam Jones CF Hyun Soo Kim LF Manny Machado 3B Mark Trumbo DH Matt Wieters C Chris Davis 1B Jonathan Schoop 2B Michael Bourn RF J.J. Hardy SS
Chris Tillman RHP
For the Blue Jays Devon Travis 2B Josh Donaldson 3B Edwin...
And so we have reached Game 162, always a big day on the baseball calendar. This, of course, isn't the end of the 2016 season for the Nationals, who have far more important things still to come later this week. But it's officially the day to turn the page from the regular season to the postseason.
What's at stake today: Max Scherzer is going for his 20th win and perhaps one last push for Cy Young Award votes. Daniel Murphy isn't expected to play, but if he does get a pinch-hit appearance,...
It's yet another gray, dreary, rainy day here in the nation's capital. If I didn't know any better, I would swear I've been in a coma the last 12 years and MLB actually relocated the Expos to Portland instead of Washington.
As has been the case all week, the Nationals will do everything they can to try to get today's game in. The Dodgers, if you weren't up real late last night, lost 9-3 to the Giants. So the Nats still hold a two-game lead with two to play, and thus their magic number to...
NEW YORK - The Orioles will be a playoff team in 2016 with a win today and either a Blue Jays or Tigers loss tonight. Reports of their demise, again, were greatly exaggerated.
The wild card game will be played at Camden Yards if the Orioles win and the Jays lose.
The pitching continues to lead the way, with the Orioles posting a 2.90 ERA in September.
The Orioles have won six of seven since the Red Sox swept them in a four-game series.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Jonathan Schoop was...