It has been a tough couple of weeks that has stretched into a difficult month for Nationals slugger Bryce Harper.
But in Thursday's 4-2 win over the Orioles, Harper displayed some of the technique and strategies manager Davey Martinez wanted to see from his most important player. Martinez felt if Harper was put back in the leadoff spot, where he worked earlier in the season, that it would play a part in him working counts a bit more and seeing more pitches.
Before Thursday's game, Martinez...
Among the plethora of compliments bestowed upon Juan Soto in his first month in the big leagues, perhaps this latest one from the mouth of his manager tonight is most meaningful.
"He's got unbelievable poise," Nationals manager Davey Martinez said, "no matter what the situation is."
Martinez already knew that before Soto stepped to the plate in the bottom of the eighth tonight, the Nats' game with the Orioles on the line, and watched the 19-year-old deliver the two-run double that...
When the Nationals really needed to deliver a late rally to pull out a close ballgame, they turned to Bryce Harper to set the table and Juan Soto to drive him in.
Hey, these are strange times in the nation's capital. What used to work can't be counted on to work anymore. Sometimes you've got to try something different.
Davey Martinez did just that tonight, moving the slumping Harper to the leadoff spot in the hopes he would draw more walks and not worry about driving in runs, then moving...
Brandon Kintzler and Jeremy Hellickson each have passed significant throwing tests in the last few days and now are set to face minor league hitters this weekend in a final tune-up before returning to the Nationals' active roster.
Kintzler threw a bullpen session Wednesday, his first since going on the disabled list with a flexor strain in his right forearm. The reliever focused on throwing fastballs during that mound session, so he'll do another round Friday and focus on his off-speed...
Following their 3-0 loss to the Orioles on Wednesday, the Nationals have now been shut out four times since June 10.
With the offense searching for some consistency, Nationals manager Davey Martinez decided to put Bryce Harper back into the leadoff spot in Thursday's series finale against the Orioles, something he tinkered with earlier in the season when Adam Eaton and Anthony Rendon were out of the lineup.
Martinez said the main reason was to try to jump-start Harper, who has hit only .125...
When the Nationals were rolling offensively, it was their power that separated them from other teams.
But recently the offense has stagnated, evidenced by a lack of home run production. As MASNsports.com's Mark Zuckerman tweeted tonight regarding the Nats' power numbers, the Nats have been outhomered by 18 in June.
#Nats have been out-homered 27-9 this month. That's a bit of a problem.
-- Mark Zuckerman (@MarkZuckerman) June 21, 2018
That trend repeated itself again early in their series...
The Nationals look for the series win against the Orioles tonight after Wednesday's rain-delayed 3-0 setback.
Nationals manager Davey Martinez is mixing up the lineup again: Bryce Harper is leading off and Juan Soto gets the shot at the cleanup spot, making his first career start there. Michael A. Taylor returns to the lineup and is batting sixth.
Right-hander Max Scherzer (10-3, 2.06 ERA) opposes Orioles right-hander Kevin Gausman (3-6, 4.48 ERA). Scherzer has lost two starts in a row. His...
Juan Soto reached the big leagues in near-record time because of his supremely advanced offensive skills. The Nationals knew his defensive skills in the outfield weren't on par at this point, but they figured that would come with time.
Now that Soto appears to be here to stay, though, the Nats are trying to give him a crash course in some fundamentals in left field. It hasn't necessarily paid off yet, but they hope it does soon.
Wednesday afternoon, long before the rest of the team took the...
The Nationals scored nine runs last night, so you can understand why Davey Martinez is going with the same lineup tonight (aside from a swap of catchers, and of course pitchers). That does mean, however, that Michael A. Taylor is again on the bench, despite the fact he's 12-for-22 with a .600 on-base percentage and 1.236 OPS the last two weeks.
That lineup is going up against right-hander Andrew Cashner, one of the Orioles' big offseason signings who like the rest of the team has been...
The diehard few who decided to wait out a 2-hour, 43-minute rain delay tonight at Nationals Park were rewarded for their patience with an offer from the club to move down to the best seats in the house for the final five innings of this game.
By night's end, you couldn't help but wonder if those fans would happily have remained in their original nosebleed seats in exchange for a more inspiring offensive performance from the home team.
Alas, that's a lot to ask for right now out of a...
With a major line of storms approaching from the west, the Nationals and Orioles got underway on time tonight, both clubs fully aware the odds of nine innings being played before the rain hit were dubious.
And so this may have become a race to get five innings in, ensuring this would be an official game in the event it could not be continued. Which made Mark Trumbo's second-inning blast all the more significant for the Orioles.
Trumbo's two-run homer off Gio Gonzalez gave Baltimore a quick...
There has been no more productive hitter on the Nationals roster over the last two weeks than Michael A. Taylor. Since June 6, he's sporting a monstrous .545/.600/.636 offensive slash line, tops on the roster in each of those categories.
So why has the hottest hitter on the team started only six of the team's 12 games during this stretch, none of the last three?
The answer involves a combination of recent matchups with opposing pitchers, the emergence of Juan Soto as an offensive force in his...
Nearly all of Adam Eaton's tenure with the Nationals has been spent trying to get comfortable, whether that was in the form of assimilating into a new roster and clubhouse last season or twice trying to get back into daily action after missing significant time due to injury.
It's an ongoing process, but through it all the dynamic outfielder has remained a consistently productive hitter.
Eaton has now played 40 total games for the Nationals the last two seasons combined, with major knee and...
Right-hander Jefrey Rodriguez didn't fare as well in his first major league start for the Nationals as he did in his first outing in Atlanta, but there were still some positive moments.
"It definitely felt better, more normal for me," Rodriguez said through team interpreter Octavio Martinez. "I've always been a starter so that first outing for me in the big leagues I came out of the bullpen that was a first time for me. But today I was able to take my time, prepare myself a little better...
Michael A. Taylor has been absolutely on fire of late. The man who was once under the Mendoza line has raised his batting average almost forty points in just over two weeks. It's phenomenal what Taylor has been able to do this month.
At the beginning of June, Taylor was hitting just .204 and struggling mightily in just about every aspect offensively. But since the calendar turned, Taylor has become a new hitter. This month, in 14 games (nine starts), Taylor has hit a sizzling .429, scored...
Right-hander Kelvin Herrera arrived at 3:30 p.m. eastern time into Washington, D.C. Six hours later, he recorded his first hold as the Washington Nationals came back to beat the Orioles, 9-7.
He recorded three outs on six pitches: getting Jonathan Schoop, Danny Valencia and Trey Mancini in order.
"I saw velocity, which is what you see," shortstop Trea Turner said. "I've seen him pitch for a while now, not all the time, but I watched that 2015 World Series when they won, and he's...
The hits finally came, in rapid succession, both from guys who have been hitting recently and from guys who haven't been doing it for a while.
And then after turning the rest of the game over to their newly reconfigured bullpen, the Nationals looked like the best version of themselves again, outlasting the Orioles for a 9-7 victory that ensured a small bit of history for the home club.
Having now beaten their Beltway rivals in all four head-to-head meetings in 2018, the Nationals ensured their...
Just when it looked like they were getting healthier, the Nationals found out today they're losing another key regular for some time.
Matt Adams, who while trying to bunt Friday in Toronto took a pitch off his left hand, has been diagnosed with a fractured left index finger and placed on the 10-day disabled list.
The Nationals aren't offering any firm timetable for Adams to return, but he won't be able to swing a bat until the facture is completely healed, and only after that will he be able...
Former Royals closer Kelvin Herrera arrived at Nationals Park and into his new clubhouse and was quickly welcomed by a pair of former teammates in relievers Tim Collins and Ryan Madson.
Herrera had spent all eight seasons of his career in Kansas City, so when he first heard the news, he had to take a step back.
"Yeah, it was very quick," Herrera said through team interpreter Octavio Martinez. "They let me know about 6:20 p.m. (local time). It was unexpected for me and everything happened so...
Tonight the Nationals open a three-game set against their beltway rivals to the North, the Baltimore Orioles. The Nats swept the Orioles in three games at Camden Yards to close out May and have won five in a row dating back to 2017.
Trea Turner got the scoring going with a solo homer in the second inning. The homer to left-center was off of Orioles starter David Hess, and was Turner's eighth of the season. It was Turner's first homer since June 3 against the Dodgers.
The Orioles answered back...