Werth keeps on crushing (Nationals eke out 8-7 win)

Werth keeps on crushing (Nationals eke out 8-7 win)
In his second at-bat tonight, Jayson Werth smoked a ball 400 feet to straightaway center. It died at the wall, and White Sox center fielder Alejandro De Aza brought it in for a loud out. In his third at-bat tonight, Werth took a shorter path to the seats. He crushed the first pitch he saw from Jake Peavy - a 90 mph two-seam fastball - deep into the left field bleachers. The two-run shot gave the Nationals a 4-2 lead, which they hold after six innings of play. Werth now has three home runs in...

Adam Dunn: "It's great to be back"

Adam Dunn: "It's great to be back"
Nationals fans will have to wait at least a few innings to give Adam Dunn a true welcome back to D.C. After all, this is interleague play, and Dunn isn't the most skilled defensive player out there. With no designated hitter in the lineup and the visiting White Sox having Paul Konerko already locked in as their first baseman, Dunn won't be starting in his return to Nationals Park. Still, Dunn, who played in D.C. from 2009-2010, is happy to be back in the district, getting a chance to see...

Gonzalez battling himself this time out (Nats take the lead)

Gonzalez battling himself this time out (Nats take the lead)
Gio Gonzalez threw 91 pitches over six shutout innings in his season debut last week, but he seems like a different guy tonight. It's taken the Nationals left-hander 84 pitches to get through four innings against the White Sox, as he's walked two, allowed three hits and had trouble putting Chicago hitters away. Gonzalez needed 33 pitches just to get through the top of the first, and his mental miscue brought in the first run of the ballgame. With the bases loaded and a 3-2 count on Alexei...

Interleague play might favor Nationals at home against White Sox

Interleague play might favor Nationals at home against White Sox
Interleague play may be exciting for the fans, but it causes some alterations and uneasiness for players, especially this early in the season. However, some players embrace National League versus American League match-ups in small doses because it mixes the schedule up a bit and adds a little flavor. This season, with the Astros moving to the American League and the formation of three five-team divisions in each league, there's an interleague game every day. The Nationals would appear to have...

Updates on LaRoche, Soriano and more

Updates on LaRoche, Soriano and more
Davey Johnson and Bryce Harper took a little field trip this afternoon, heading down to City Hall to be honored by the D.C. Council with ceremonial resolutions. Johnson, the 2012 National League Manager of the Year, and Harper, the 2012 NL Rookie of the Year, received their resolutions, presented by council member Vincent Orange. "It was good. I'm glad to see they're doing some work down there," quipped Johnson, when asked about his afternoon. Johnson's resolution listed him as five...

LaRoche returns, Dunn absent from White Sox lineup in return to D.C.

LaRoche returns, Dunn absent from White Sox lineup in return to D.C.
After missing the last two games with tightness in his back, Adam LaRoche is back in the lineup tonight for the Nationals' series opener against the White Sox. Including yesterday's off-day, LaRoche had three days to rest his ailing back, which initially tightened up on him late in the Nationals' series against the Marlins last week. The cold weather at Nats Park likely contributed to the discomfort. He told reporters Sunday that he was feeling better and apparently has been cleared to give...

Getting defensive

Getting defensive
Today's day off for the Nationals comes at a pretty good time. Not only does it allow Adam LaRoche, who sat out the last two games, a chance to rest his sore back a bit more prior to tomorrow's series opener with the White Sox, but it also gives the Nats a chance to enjoy some down time and put their three-game series in Cincinnati behind them. Even though they took one of the three games against the Reds in the weekend set, this was a series the Nationals will be hoping to forget. The...

Nats starting to catch on

Nats starting to catch on
I've decided that I would like a montage of moments from my life set to "One Shining Moment" and played at my funeral. I'm not sure whether I'm kidding or not. Is that weird? I don't care. Now I just have to get to work on creating some actual shining moments. I'm not sure me sitting on my sofa eating nachos will cut it. If you haven't yet seen how the Rangers-Rays game ended last night, take a look. Yikes. Just a bit outside. Nationals manager Davey Johnson knew going into the...

Ted Leavengood: A long season's early lesson

Ted Leavengood: A long season's early lesson
The Nationals' home opener in 2012 was against the Cincinnati Reds. They won three of the first four at Nationals Park to set up a truly successful first month and got the season rolling toward 98 wins. The Reds didn't like that movie and let Washington know they will be playing a very different role this year. The Reds had the second best record in the National League last year, winning 97 games. With Shin-Soo Choo at the top of their order, they are going to be even better. Choo's...

HBO "Veep" Selina Meyer to race Nationals' Racing Presidents

HBO "Veep" Selina Meyer to race Nationals' Racing Presidents
On Tuesday, April 9 the Washington Nationals Racing Presidents will welcome the mascot of Vice President Selina Meyer, star of HBO's hit comedy series "Veep" as a guest competitor in the GEICO Presidents Race. Meyer will make her appearance at Nationals Park to promote season two of VEEP, which premieres on HBO on Sunday, April 14. Earlier today, Vice President Meyer accepted an invitation to partner with Teddy to challenge George, Tom, Abe and Bill in the first presidential relay of 2013....

Rubber game goes to the Reds

Rubber game goes to the Reds
Stephen Strasburg wasn't at his sharpest, the Nationals' infielders made a couple of more defensive miscues and the bats went silent after the second inning. Put it all together and it's a 6-3 loss to the Reds, giving Cincinnati the series win. After a big second inning, highlighted by Kurt Suzuki's three-run homer to left, the Nats had just three hits and four baserunners the rest of the way. Suzuki doubled with one out in the ninth, his third extra-base hit of the day, but the...

Patrick Reddington: An Expos fan at home in D.C. on opening day

Patrick Reddington: An Expos fan at home in D.C. on opening day
The closest I ever came to a sense of community as a fan of the Montreal Expos was when I would travel from my home in Johnson, Vt., where I lived after attending college in town, across the border in Richford, Vt., through Canadian farmland and small farming communities to Autoroute des Cantons de L'Est across the Jacques-Cartier Bridge to Rue Notre Dame East, down the Boulevard Pie IX to the Stade Olympique on Rue Pierre de Coubertin. There with the 10,000-15,000 fans who still showed up for...

Marty Niland: How will Nats respond to getting roughed up?

Marty Niland: How will Nats respond to getting roughed up?
It was a tough weekend for the Nationals. After a glorious opening series against Miami that included back-to-back shutouts, the Nats found the going much tougher on the season's first weekend in Cincinnati. They lost two of three to the Reds, including a 15-0 thumping on Friday night - the most lopsided loss since the team moved to Washington in 2005. Their first series loss in the magical 2012 season did not come until a sweep at the hands of the Dodgers in the final series of April. If...

Nats' catchers continue to crush Reds pitching (Nats trail as Strasburg leaves)

Nats' catchers continue to crush Reds pitching (Nats trail as Strasburg leaves)
In their last four at-bats against Reds pitching, the Nationals' catchers are 3-for-4 with three home runs and six RBIs. Wilson Ramos did some damage yesterday, crushing two homers in the Nats' 11-inning win. In his first at-bat today, Kurt Suzuki got the Nats on the board in the second inning, taking a 1-1 slider from Johnny Cueto and smoking it out to left for a three-run shot. Suzuki has his first hit of the 2013 season, and the Nats have a tie ballgame. It's 3-3 midway through the...

LaRoche sits for a second straight day

LaRoche sits for a second straight day
Adam LaRoche is out of the Nationals' lineup for the second straight day. LaRoche, who has been dealing with some tightness in his back since late in the Nationals' series against the Marlins earlier this week, will not play in this afternoon's series finale against the Reds. Chad Tracy will play first base and hit in the No. 5 hole in LaRoche's stead again today. With the Nats having a day off tomorrow, manager Davey Johnson likely wants to give LaRoche three full days to rest his back...

Much to digest from yesterday's dramatic extra-inning win

Much to digest from yesterday's dramatic extra-inning win
The first two games of this Nationals-Reds series sure have been plenty interesting. First, the Reds put up two touchdowns and a two-point conversion on the Nats on Friday night in a 15-0 drubbing. Sorry, I feel bad even bringing that one up again. Yesterday's game was far more competitive and far more dramatic. The Nationals jumped out to a 5-1 lead, only to see Drew Storen and Rafael Soriano each allow two runs to leave the game tied after nine. In the top of the 11th, two home runs in a...

Desmond redeems himself with clutch homer (Nats win a thriller)

Desmond redeems himself with clutch homer (Nats win a thriller)
It had been a pretty rough afternoon for Ian Desmond. The Nationals shortstop committed two errors in today's game against the Reds, both of which led to unearned runs. Desmond had gone 0-for-4 with a strikeout in his first four trips to the plate. He and the rest of the Nats watched as a 5-1 lead became a 5-5 tie. But Desmond redeemed himself for his early-season struggles with a clutch solo home run that was crushed into the upper deck in left, breaking an 11th-inning tie and giving the...

Ramos making his mark in return to Cincinnati (Soriano blows the save)

Ramos making his mark in return to Cincinnati (Soriano blows the save)
Prior to today, the last time Wilson Ramos was on the field at the Great American Ballpark, he wasn't able to walk off under his own power. Ramos tore the ACL and meniscus in his right knee last May 12 in a game against the Reds, a devastating injury that knocked the Nationals' young catcher out of action for the remainder of the season and led to months of grueling rehab. Now fully healthy, Ramos has replaced that nasty memory with a much more positive one. Ramos crushed a two-run homer...

Harper homers again (Detwiler dancing out of trouble)

Harper homers again (Detwiler dancing out of trouble)
The Nationals left the bases loaded in the second. No matter. Bryce Harper got them on the board an inning later. Harper crushed the first pitch from Reds right-hander Mike Leake, an 87 mph cutter on the inner half, out to right for a two-run homer. The ball got out of the Great American Ballpark in the blink of an eye. It's Harper's third home run of the season. He's accounted for 60 percent of the Nationals' longballs so far this season. The Nats now have a 2-0 lead midway through...

Tracy replaces LaRoche in Nats lineup

Tracy replaces LaRoche in Nats lineup
The good thing about the Nationals having a 1:10 p.m. first pitch today is that last night's 15-0 drubbing at the hands of the Reds is quickly pushed into the background. No need to stew on that one through the afternoon. The Nats will get back out there in just a few hours and will start fresh. There's one change to manager Davey Johnson's lineup outside of the normal catcher swap and Ross Detwiler being inserted into the pitcher's spot for the first time this season. Adam LaRoche will...