nationals

Game 52 lineups: Nats at Phillies

May 30, 2016, 11:33am

PHILADELPHIA - Hello from Citizens Bank Park, where tonight the Nationals open a three-city, nine-game road trip with a Memorial Day opener against the Phillies. This, of course, is the same Philly club that shockingly swept the Nats last month in D.C., but it's not exactly playing like the same club. After winning a bunch of one-run games early in the year, the Phillies have now lost seven of their last nine games and desperately are trying to maintain a winning record. The Nationals will try...

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Ramos parlays video study with daughter into big day at plate

May 29, 2016, 9:18pm

Nationals

Ramos parlays video study with daughter into big day at plate

Wilson Ramos was playing with his 20-month-old daughter Saturday night, impressed with her ability to operate an iPad. Somehow, she managed to change the cartoon she was watching into a video clip of a certain Nationals catcher hitting a home run at Wrigley Field earlier this month. "For some reason, she was pointing it out and saying: 'Daddy! Daddy!' " Ramos said through interpreter Octavio Martinez. "Kind of like saying: 'This is you.' For whatever reason today, I took that same...

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Marty Niland: Stephen Strasburg proving he is better

May 29, 2016, 7:58pm

Nationals

Marty Niland: Stephen Strasburg proving he is better

So where are the Stephen Strasburg trolls now? A year ago, they were out in force, but a guy who was once seen by some as a first-round bust seems to have quieted them, maybe for good. Remember last year, when Strasburg was lifted from a game in Cincinnati after just one batter into the second inning with tightness in his upper back? It was the fifth straight game where he lasted five innings or fewer, and the fourth in five when he didn't make it to four. Strasburg was 3-5 with a 6.55 ERA at...

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District 34 podcast: Episode 1

May 29, 2016, 11:41am

Nationals

Don't you hate when you get stuck on the Metro and you're bored out of your mind? Or when you're stuck in rush hour traffic on the Capital Beltway and the radio is playing the same five songs over and over again? Whether you're on the Green Line going to or from a Nationals game at the Navy Yard or anywhere else around our nation's capital, you're stuck with the same old apps on your phone or no new music. Well, we have a solution for you: District 34, a brand -new podcast dedicated to...

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Opposite dugout: Phillies continue to show progress during rebuilding phase

May 28, 2016, 1:46pm

Nationals

Opposite dugout: Phillies continue to show progress during rebuilding phase

Manager: Pete Mackanin (2nd season) Record: 26-24 Last 10 games: 3-7 Who to watch: CF Odubel Herrera (.320/.427/.449 with 5 HR, 17 RBIs), 3B Maikel Franco (8 HR, 28 RBIs), 2B Freddie Galvis (17 RBIs), 1B Ryan Howard (8 HR, 18 RBIs), RHP Aaron Nola (4-3, 2.86 ERA), RHP Jeanmar Gomez (2.45 ERA, 17 saves) Season series vs. Nationals: 4-2 Pitching probables: May 30: RHP Tanner Roark vs. RHP Jeremy Hellickson, 7:05 p.m., MASN May 31: RHP Joe Ross vs. RHP Aaron Nola, 7:05 p.m., MASN2 June 1: RHP Max...

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Werth makes most of day off, launches grand slam off bench

May 29, 2016, 2:39pm

Nationals

Werth makes most of day off, launches grand slam off bench

Different players approach days off in different ways. Some like to take a full mental and physical break, and just watch the game from the dugout, available only in case of emergency. Others like to take the opportunity to work on something, maybe find what has been missing from their swing that perhaps provoked the day off. Jayson Werth has taken both approaches during his career, preferring rest when he's physically ailing but wanting to tinker when he's healthy and perhaps struggling. So...

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Belisle ready but expects to continue rehab at Harrisburg

May 29, 2016, 8:15am

Nationals

Belisle ready but expects to continue rehab at Harrisburg

Matt Belisle believes he's ready to come off the disabled list and rejoin the Nationals bullpen. The club, however, wants the veteran right-hander to continue his rehab assignment. So after three appearances at high Single-A Potomac, Belisle is now expected to head to Double-A Harrisburg. Belisle, out since April 26 with a strained right calf, pitched two innings last night for Potomac, allowing two runs on four hits (one of them a homer). He also struck out three. That came after two...

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Werth's grand slam puts exclamation point on Nats' 10-2 win

May 29, 2016, 12:36pm

Nationals

Werth's grand slam puts exclamation point on Nats' 10-2 win

Jayson Werth's most celebrated home run of his Nationals career came against the Cardinals to force Game 5 in the 2012 National League Divisional Series. Werth provided another memorable moment against the team from St. Louis on Sunday. Coming off the bench in the seventh, Werth hit his first pinch-hit grand slam to help the Nationals down the Cardinals 10-2. What a way to spend a day off. It was the Nationals' 30th victory of the season. The win got the Nats a split in the four-game series...

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Strasburg's changeup elevating his game to new heights

May 29, 2016, 2:07pm

Nationals

Strasburg's changeup elevating his game to new heights

Although Stephen Strasburg allowed a home run to Brandon Moss on a changeup, it's becoming a pitch that is another way for the right-hander to get hitters out. Strasburg arrived in the major leagues with a lethal fastball and it is still there. But it is his other pitches, like the curveball and now the changeup, that are becoming consistent out pitches that help elevate him to an elite category. "I think my ability to command my other pitches has really opened it up a little bit more,"...

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Harper, Ramos deliver during three-run rally (Nats win 10-2)

May 29, 2016, 10:57am

Nationals

Harper, Ramos deliver during three-run rally (Nats win 10-2)

The Nationals have nearly been no-hit by Michael Wacha before. They certainly didn't want to find themselves in that same boat today, so it's safe to say they breathed a sigh of relief when Michael A. Taylor broke up the right-hander's shot at history before things started to get too serious. And then it's safe to say they were downright giddy when Taylor's double in the bottom of the fourth set the table for a three-run rally that has given them a 3-1 lead. Taylor's leadoff double...

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Game 51 lineups: Nats vs. Cardinals

May 29, 2016, 6:44am

Nationals

Since the Nationals have lost only three series this season, this isn't a familiar position for them today, needing to beat the Cardinals to salvage a four-game split and avoid a 2-5 homestand. So there's a little bit of pressure on them this afternoon after back-to-back losses. The good news: Stephen Strasburg is pitching for the Nats, and he has been fantastic, with eight quality starts in 10 tries this season. In seven of those starts, he has allowed two or fewer earned runs. Five times he...

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Murphy sets new club record with 41 hits in a month

May 28, 2016, 9:00pm

Nationals

Murphy sets new club record with 41 hits in a month

It wasn't the prettiest hit he's recorded all season, and it probably should have been caught by Cardinals right fielder Stephen Piscotty, but Daniel Murphy won't complain about the second-inning single last night that gave him a new Nationals club record. That single, which came on a blooper to shallow right field that went in and out of a diving Piscotty's glove, was Murphy's 41st hit of May. And that's more hits than any player in Nationals history has ever recorded in a single...

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Zimmerman on 4-for-4 night: "I felt good for awhile"

May 28, 2016, 7:42pm

Nationals

Zimmerman on 4-for-4 night: "I felt good for awhile"

It was in a loss, but Ryan Zimmerman demonstrated again that he is coming around at the plate. Zimmerman went 4-for-4 with two singles, two homers and three RBIs in the Nationals' 9-4 setback to the Cardinals. Zimmerman has hit .387 (12-for-31) with five homers, six runs and eight RBIs the past eight games. "It felt good. Any time you do that, it always feels good," Zimmerman said. "You wish can do it in a win. For me, I just got to keep going, keep working like I always do. By the end of...

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Gonzalez down on himself for inability to give bullpen a break

May 28, 2016, 7:52pm

Nationals

Gonzalez down on himself for inability to give bullpen a break

Pitchers can live with the hits they surrender, even the home runs. What they can't live with are the walks they issue that drive up their pitch count and prevent them from reaching the game's latter innings. So when Gio Gonzalez was upset with himself following the Nationals' 9-4 loss to the Cardinals tonight, it wasn't so much because of the six runs he surrendered via a flurry of two-out hits (including one by opposing pitcher Adam Wainwright). It was because he couldn't even complete...

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Cardinals jump on Gonzalez early, go on to win 9-4

May 28, 2016, 5:55pm

Nationals

Cardinals jump on Gonzalez early, go on to win 9-4

A Nationals starter gave up a big inning early in his outing for the second straight game. Similar to Friday night, a 6-2 loss to the Cardinals in which Max Scherzer allowed five runs in the third inning, lefty Gio Gonzalez had a difficult second inning. The Cardinals scored four runs with two outs in that inning, highlighted by an Adam Wainwright two-run double. They later added a two-run double from pinch-hitter Matt Adams in the eighth and went on to win 9-4. The big problem for Gonzalez was...

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Cardinals pile up early runs off Gonzalez (Nats lose 9-4)

May 28, 2016, 4:31pm

Nationals

Cardinals pile up early runs off Gonzalez (Nats lose 9-4)

As he walked off the mound following a dominant top of the first, having struck out all three batters he faced on 15 pitches, Gio Gonzalez had the look of a pitcher primed for a big night. As he walked off the same mound following a disastrous top of the second, having allowed four runs on 40 pitches, Gonzalez had the look of a pitcher primed for a long night. Suffice it to say that things escalated quickly here at Nationals Park, where the Cardinals lead 5-2. The Cardinals rocked Gonzalez...

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Nationals hope Rendon stays red-hot after rare day off

May 28, 2016, 1:40pm

Nationals

Dusty Baker likes to plan days off for his regulars well in advance, giving them plenty of time to prepare. So there was nothing unusual about Baker's conversation with Anthony Rendon at the start of the week, during which the Nationals manager told his third baseman he'd be getting Saturday night off. "I told him Monday or Tuesday. I told him he'd be off Saturday," Baker said. "So I said: 'Give me all you've got until your day off on Saturday.' And he did." Did he ever. Rendon has...

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Game 50 lineups: Nats vs. Cardinals

May 28, 2016, 11:20am

Nationals

It's a hot, muggy Saturday here in the District, as sure a sign as we've experienced yet that summer has arrived. Which, the Nationals can only hope, means the ball is going to fly out of the park tonight. Dusty Baker has insisted all along he thinks he's got a warm-weather lineup. We saw it earlier in the week when the Nats hit five homers on another warm night. We'll see if it holds true tonight. That Nationals lineup will be facing an ace in Adam Wainwright, though this isn't the...

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Lobaton back with Gonzalez, but not because lefty didn't mesh with Ramos

May 28, 2016, 1:11pm

Nationals

Lobaton back with Gonzalez, but not because lefty didn't mesh with Ramos

Jose Lobaton will be behind the plate tonight against the Cardinals, resuming his regular battery with left-hander Gio Gonzalez.Wilson Ramos got the unusual call to catch for Gonzalez in his last start May 23 in a 7-1 loss to the Mets. Gonzalez struggled, going five innings and allowing seven runs on 10 hits, including three homers, with no walks and seven strikeouts. Nationals manager Dusty Baker said Lobaton is back catching Gonzalez, but not because because Ramos called a bad game or the...

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Baker, Scherzer take exception with ump's late timeout calls

May 27, 2016, 7:36pm

Nationals

Baker, Scherzer take exception with ump's late timeout calls

Max Scherzer likes to try to disrupt the timing of opposing batters and baserunners. He's perfectly content to hold the ball in the set position for three, four, even five seconds, hoping to catch somebody napping. Because of that, Scherzer has become quite accustomed to the opposition calling for time, stepping out of the box and hitting the reset button. And he takes no issue with any batter who does that. He did, however, take exception with plate umpire Alan Porter's decision twice during...