Drew Storen stood in front of his locker wearing his grey undershirt with red sleeves.
He looked at the floor, paced around the Nationals clubhouse a bit, then came back to his locker. Veteran infielder Mark DeRosa walked over and gave Storen a hug and a few words of encouragement. Starter Gio Gonzalez followed, as did general manager Mike Rizzo.
Storen stared at the ground a bit more, playing at the carpet with his toes. Plastic sheets were pulled up above the lockers towards the ceiling. A...
With two outs in the top of the ninth, Daniel Descalso and Pete Kozma delivered back-to-back RBI singles and ending the Nationals' magical season. One day after earning the Game 4 win, Drew Storen served up four runs in the ninth to allow the Cardinals beat the Nationals in the most heartbreaking way possible, to win the National Legaue Division Series. St. Louis will now face San Francisco in the National League Championship Series.
Here's a roundup of what other media outlets are saying...
Thoughts as the League Championship Series get started:
* The Orioles need a big-game, season-saving pitcher, ala the Yankees' CC Sabathia. The Orioles' pitching depth is nice, but a Sabathia-type pitcher would be ideal. Sabathia beat the Orioles twice in the Division Series, once with 120 pitches and another with 121. This offseason, the Orioles should sign Nate McLouth and renegotiate with Mark Reynolds - maybe two years and $11 million instead of picking up the one-year option. The...
The Nationals' season came to a quick end in the ninth inning of Game 5 of the National League Division Series.
But if you look back at the past couple of seasons, there is no way this team would have had a chance to be one strike away from the National League Championship Series without the bat and glove of Adam LaRoche at first base.
LaRoche put up career numbers in 2012, smacking 33 homers and 100 RBIs in helping the Nationals to 98 regular season wins and a the National League East...
Drew Storen was handed a 7-5 lead in the ninth inning, but the Nationals' 25-year-old closer allowed four runs to give the Cardinals a 9-7 lead heading to the bottom of the ninth.
Storen allowed a double to Carlos Beltran leading off the ninth, then retired the next two Cardinals hitters and got two strikes on Yadier Molina to bring the Nationals to within a strike of the National League Championship Series.
He then walked Molina and David Freese, loading the bases for Daniel Descalso....
It looked like Gio Gonzalez was on cruise control.
He'd faced just one over the minimum through the first three innings, had struck out four and was having no trouble pounding the zone with both his fastball and dazzling curve.
Then the Game 1 Gio Gonzalez returned.
We remember that Gio Gonzalez - the one who couldn't find the strike zone, handed out walks to anyone who was willing to take one and forced the Nationals' bullpen into action in the early innings.
Staked to a 6-0 lead after...
The Nationals needed just seven pitches to send the Nats Park crowd into a frenzy and to deliver a massive body blow to the Cardinals.
Adam Wainwright, who struck out 10 and gave up just a single run in his Game 1 outing against the Nats, gave up a double to Jayson Werth to open the bottom of the first, a shot ripped down the left field line to get things started.
Bryce Harper, who had gone just 1-for-18 over the first four games of the series, then crushed a triple off the center field wall,...
If the Nationals win tonight and get their way to the National League Championship Series, Jordan Zimmermann will get the ball for Game 1.
Nats manager Davey Johnson said today that Zimmermann would be his guy to open the NLCS on Sunday, this after working a perfect inning of relief yesterday and striking out all three hitters he faced.
Like Zimmermann yesterday, Edwin Jackson will be available in relief tonight because it's his throw day. Unlike Zimmermann yesterday, however, Jackson will...
The Nationals have announced their lineup for the decisive Game 5 of the National League Division Series, and it's the same one that's faced the Cardinals throughout the series. Well, save for the starting pitcher - Gio Gonzalez, in this case.
For the Nationals against the Cardinals' Adam Wainwright:
RF - Jayson Werth
CF - Bryce Harper
3B - Ryan Zimmerman
1B - Adam LaRoche
LF - Michael Morse
SS - Ian Desmond
2B - Danny Espinosa
C - Kurt Suzuki
P - Gio Gonzalez
It's already pretty chilly...
Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper has not been able to get on track in the National League Division Series against tough St. Louis pitching. He has gone 1-for-18 in four games with a double in Game 2.
He has struck out six times.
Harper is a perfectionist and focuses more and more when he struggles. Manager Davey Johnson said before Game 5 that may not be the best strategy.
"With Bryce, when he doesn't do something spectacular, he tries harder," Johnson said. "And trying harder is not...
A few Nationals players said after Wednesday's Game 3 loss that if they could just force a Game 5, they felt like they had the advantage.
Gio Gonzalez, a 21-game winner this season who posted a 1.35 ERA in his final six regular season starts, would take the mound for the Nats in that Game 5 with a chance to pitch them to the National League Championship Series.
Well, here it is. The Nats did what they needed to do last night to force a game today to decide the National League Division...
What does Jayson Werth remember about his game-winning, walk-off home run off Lance Lynn in the bottom of the ninth inning, a homer which gave the Nationals new life in the best-of-five National League Division Series and let them play one more day?
Not a whole lot.
"It's almost like I blacked out," Werth said after the game. "A Will Ferrell moment."
The pieces Werth does remember are brief flashes.
The 2-2 curveball from the hard-throwing Cardinals reliever that bent just out of the...
Through three games of the best-of-five National League Division Series, the Nationals' bullpen was used early and taxed late. You got the feeling that the relief crew really didn't get to show what it was really made of after 27 innings.
But in Game 4, that all changed. Eight strikeouts in three innings effectively capped the St. Louis offense with the score tied.
And it helped lead to a 2-1 Nationals win over the Cardinals, as Washington survives to play another day. Game 5 is set for...
When Ross Detwiler reached for his phone after tonight's game, he had 83 text messages waiting for him.
Good thing he won't be needed to pitch for at least another few days. His fingers might be numb for a while if he plans on getting back to everyone.
Detwiler took the mound tonight needing to pitch the game of his life. He did just that.
He's had more impressive stat lines this season. But Detwiler's effort, given the circumstances, should put this outing up there on the list of best...
Before yesterday's must-win Game 4, reliever Michael Gonzalez, one of the Nationals' veteran leaders, walked past Jayson Werth and asked him how he was feeling.
"I said, 'I feel like I want to play tomorrow,' " Werth said. "And we get that chance."
They sure do. The Nationals will play a Game 5 tonight in prime time, a decisive game that will send either them or the Cardinals home for the winter.
The Nats wouldn't be in this spot today if not for one of their best-played games of...
After a heartbreaking 8-0 loss in Game 3 of the National League Division Series to the Cardinals, the Nationals bounced back nicely for a 2-1 win in Game 4.
Pitching has been the Achilles heel for the Nats all postseason, but starting pitcher Ross Detwiler provided some stability to the pitching staff. Though the Nats never had a hit with a runner in scoring position, Jayson Werth hit the game-winning home run in the bottom of the ninth with no outs. With the win, the Nationals forced a Game...
After Chad Tracy grounded out to end the eighth inning and leave the score tied at 1-1 in Thursday's National League Division Series Game 4, a friend turned to me and asked, "Deep down, in your heart of hearts, you really wanted a walkoff, didn't you?"
Who would want anything else?
Didn't every one of the 44,392 screaming, red-clad Nationals fans packed into Nationals Park want one? How could everyone watching on TV, listening on the radio or rooting for the Nats in any way, shape or...
The Nationals, who didn't give the home fans much to cheer about in a Game 3 loss in the best-of-five National League Division Series on Wednesday, more than made up for that Thursday night.
The crowd was smaller - only 44,392, just the third-largest in Nationals Park history - but it finally got a chance to erupt when Jayson Werth hit a walk-off homer into the Cardinals' bullpen in left field for a 2-1 Nationals victory.
Werth noticed a distinct difference in the stands Wednesday afternoon...
Before each game, Ian Desmond goes through a pregame drill that's part intense practice, part comfortable ritual. He grabs batting practice pitcher Julian Martinez, renowned as the best fungo hitter among the Nationals' field staff, and gets him to slap short pop flies to shallow left field.
Just past third base. Along the left field line. To the no-man's land beyond shortstop and not quite into the beginning of left-center that's hard for anyone to cover.
"I practice it every day,"...
With the game tied 1-1 after six innings and Ross Detwiler done for the day after a stellar outing in the biggest game of his life, Nationals manager Davey Johnson has made an interesting decision.
Instead of going to his bullpen and calling on Ryan Mattheus, Craig Stammen or one of his other right-handed relievers to work the seventh, Johnson is going to Jordan Zimmmermann, his Game 2 starter.
Today is Zimmermann's throw day, and Johnson said he wouldn't hesitate to use him if Detwiler got...