Chris Marrero, playing his first game this season with the high Single-A Potomac Nationals, smacked the game-deciding single with two outs in the second inning Friday night, as Potomac downed the Salem Red Sox 5-4 in Woodbridge, Va.Marrero went 2-for-3 in Game 1 of the doubleheader and did not play in Game 2.He had played two games in low Single-A Hagerstown earlier this week. After getting hit by a pitch on his thumb in that first game, Marrero took a day off and then returned Thursday. He went 1-for-3 in that second game with a double.Team doctors checked out the thumb, and he was good to go. Marrero was then moved up to Potomac, where he was the designated hitter Friday. Marrero had not played in a professional game in almost eight months as he recovered from a torn hamstring suffered in winter ball. A shoulder issue slowed his progress in early May until he finally returned this week.With his play last September in Washington, manager Davey Johnson had envisioned Marrero as a potentially important right-handed bat off the bench for the Nationals this season. But the hamstring injury delayed those plans.Chad Tracy is out with a right adductor strain, and he was a potent left-handed bat who could play first base. Tyler Moore is back with the big club and is a right-handed power bat who can also play first base and the outfield. Marrero offers another solution as a right-handed bat, first base substitute and utility hitter off the bench. Hopefully the three hits in the last two days are a good indication that Marrero is back fully healthy and that he can get to the point where he could be that option. Now after serving as the DH Friday, the next step is to get Marrero in the field and see how the hamstring and shoulder absorb the test on defense.
BOSTON - He might not be thrilled about it - or happy about it at all - but Bryce Harper will be on the bench for today's series finale against the Red Sox.
Manager Davey Johnson has decided to give his 19-year-old outfielder a day off to ease some tightness in his back. Johnson had bench coach Randy Knorr and a trainer come to him and inform him that Harper has been receiving treatment on the back, and with Harper having played in all of the 37 games the Nationals have played since his...
BOSTON - There was a time not too long ago when the Nationals' middle infield defense was considered a liability.
OK, their defense as a whole was a liability, with the team leading the majors in errors in both 2009 and 2010. But up the middle, the Nats struggled mightily.
This season has been a different story. Ian Desmond and Danny Espinosa have been exceptional defensively, making the routine plays and the fancy ones, as well.
Today, both guys flashed the leather, with Desmond ranging...
BOSTON - He might not be able to lay down a sacrifice bunt in a key spot, but Roger Bernadina can rip a go-ahead, ninth-inning RBI double to break a tie and give the Nationals a 4-3 win.
What an interesting ballplayer.
Bernadina's huge double off Alfredo Aceves with two outs in the ninth inning scored Bryce Harper from first and gave Washington a one-run lead in the ninth.
Harper came on as a pinch hitter with one out, and drew a five-pitch walk off Aceves, laying off three straight...
BOSTON - The Nationals have been punchless against Red Sox starter Jon Lester today, putting up just one run and three hits through six innings.
Would things be different if Bryce Harper was in the lineup? We'll never know.
We do know that without their top hitter (it's still a little unbelievable that a 19-year-old is the Nats' best position player right now) the Nats haven't been able to get anything going today.
Their 2-5 hitters are a combined 0-for-11 with six strikeouts, three of...
BOSTON - Since getting called up to the majors on April 28, Bryce Harper had started all 37 games that the Nationals had played.
That streak ends today.
With the Nats looking to earn the sweep of the Red Sox, Harper will get the first day off of his major league career. Roger Bernadina will start in center, with Tyler Moore in left and Xavier Nady in right.
Johnson said after Thursday's game that Harper had been dealing with some "tenderness" in his back, and there was a chance that the...
BOSTON - For the ninth time this season, the Nationals put up five hits or fewer and still won.
This is what happens when you have the level of starting pitching, and pitching in general, that the Nationals do.
Gio Gonzalez and four Nats relievers combined to hold the potent Red Sox lineup in check today, allowing just two runs and five hits in a 4-2 Washington win.
Gonzalez gave up just two hits through six innings, but he allowed three of the four hitters he faced in the seventh to reach...
BOSTON - Bench coach Randy Knorr joked before today's game that the Nationals have rarely had a game this season where they've been leading big in the late innings and could calmly roll to a win.
The 10-2 victories this season have been very few and very far between.
A 4-2 win might put more strain on the bullpen - and the manager - but it is still a win. And the Nats will gladly take today's 4-2 win over the Red Sox.
Adam LaRoche hit a solo homer, Michael Morse drove in a run with an RBI...
BOSTON - One of the Nationals' team buses got stuck in some heavy traffic in downtown Boston today.
It just so happened to be the bus carrying manager Davey Johnson.
The skipper didn't arrive at Fenway Park until sometime around 2:45, less than 90 minutes until first pitch. As a result, bench coach Randy Knorr handled today's pregame session with reporters.
What a treat that must've been for him.
It was a little bit surprising to hear Stephen Strasburg say last night that he's been...
BOSTON - In the second inning of today's game, I looked down at the stat sheet beneath my scorebook here in the press box.
Gio Gonzalez's 2012 numbers jumped off the page and smacked me in the face.
The lefty entered today with a 7-2 record and a 2.31 ERA on the season.
I obviously knew Gonzalez has been exceptional this season. After all, he was named National League Pitcher of the Month for May. But the stats Gonzalez has posted this year have been fantastic.
They've only gotten...
For whatever reason, last night was as loose and joyous I've seen the Nationals' clubhouse after a game this season.
Maybe it was the fact that they had just thoroughly out-played one of baseball's most tradition-rich organizations in that team's own house. Maybe it was the manner in which the game was won, with the Nats shooting line drives all over Fenway Park and getting fabulous starting pitching and highlight-reel defense. Maybe it was the glimpse-into-the-future performances of...
BOSTON - With right-hander Daisuke Matsuzaka on the mound for Boston, Steve Lombardozzi is back in the leadoff spot. Gio Gonzalez (7-2, 2.31 ERA) will take the mound, and Michael Morse will DH for Game 2 at Fenway Park.
Rick Ankiel will be in the starting lineup today, making the first time he's gotten a start since May 29.
For the Nationals:
LF Steve Lombardozzi
RF Bryce Harper
3B Ryan Zimmerman
1B Adam LaRoche
DH Michael Morse
SS Ian Desmond
2B Danny Espinosa
CF Rick Ankiel
C Jesus...
If you had read that headline two years ago, would you have thought I was headed for a mental ward?
How the tables have turned.
All Stephen Strasburg did tonight was strike out 13 hitters over six innings of two-run ball, allowing just four hits and retiring 11 in a row at one stretch. All Bryce Harper did was go 3-for-5 with a home run, a double, a walk and three RBIs.
I'm no scout, but I feel like those two have bright futures ahead of them.
"That was fun watching," manager Davey...
After being selected by the Nationals in the first round of the First-Year Player Draft, I'm told Lucas Giolito received a congratulatory text message.
That text was from none other than Bryce Harper.
Quite a classy, veteran-like move by the 19-year-old former first-round pick, if you ask me, welcoming the 17-year-old Giolito to the organization.
At right is a picture of Giolito taken last night and passed along by the right-hander's high school coach, Matthew LaCour. Apparently when...
BOSTON - A career-high 119 pitches.
A stretch of 11 straight hitters retired.
A span of 12 outs in which 10 were strikeouts.
A ridiculous 13 strikeouts in six innings.
A K of Kevin Youkilis to get out of a bases-loaded jam in the sixth.
Yeah, it was an eventful evening for Stephen Strasburg.
The Nationals' ace put up a double-digit strikeout performance for the fifth time in his career, and tonight's 13 strikeouts is the second-most he's recorded in a game. The highest Strasburg...
BOSTON - File this in the "duh department," but Tyler Clippard is the Nationals' closer.
That's been perfectly clear considering the way manager Davey Johnson has handled his team's save opportunities since he announced he was going to a closer-by-committee two-and-a-half weeks ago. The Nationals have had five save chances, and all have gone to Clippard.
But today, for the first time, Johnson actually referred to Clippard as his closer. The Nats' skipper also said that Brad Lidge, who...
BOSTON - The Nationals seem to be enjoying their time in Beantown.
Through four innings tonight, the Nats have six extra-base hits - five doubles (two of which are from Danny Espinosa) and a home run.
They lead 6-2, having put up three runs in both the third and fourth innings, and seemingly everything Red Sox lefty Felix Doubront serves up is getting smoked out to the gaps.
The hardest-hit ball of the night came off the bat of (who else?) Bryce Harper, who absolutely demolished a Doubront...
BOSTON - Literally as soon as I stepped foot in the press box at Fenway Park, the grounds crew pulled the tarp over the infield.
I'm pretty excited to be here for this series (my first time at Fenway in a professional capacity), and I'm not going to let Mother Nature rain on my parade.
Actually, they're only calling for a brief thunderstorm here shortly and then possibly another sprinkling later on. Nothing too big, it seems.
With the Red Sox throwing two lefties this series and having...
Chris Marrero, recovering from a torn hamstring, played two games with low Single-A Hagerstown this week.
Now he is headed to high Single-A Potomac, according to club sources.
It was the first baseman's first pro action since he tore his hamstring in winter ball. His recovery was slowed a bit this year because he also had to battle shoulder soreness, spending more time in extended spring training.
The right-handed hitter finally returned to the field for two games with the Suns this week,...



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