nationals

Nationals select left-hander Tim Cate

June 04, 2018, 7:51pm

The Washington Nationals selected collegiate left-handed pitcher Tim Cate with their second-round selection (No. 65 overall) in the 2018 First-Year Player Draft. Nationals President of Baseball Operations and General Manager Mike Rizzo, and Assistant General Manager & Vice President of Scouting Operations Kris Kline made the joint announcement. Cate, a 6-foot-1, 186-pound junior went 5-4 with a 2.91 ERA (17 ER/52.2 IP) in 11 games (seven starts) for the University of Connecticut. He...

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Worst-case scenario plays out for Nats bullpen in loss to Braves

June 03, 2018, 1:56pm

Nationals

Worst-case scenario plays out for Nats bullpen in loss to Braves

ATLANTA - Davey Martinez and his staff prepare for every conceivable scenario before they take their positions in the dugout for any given ballgame. And so they had concocted a plan this morning for what truly amounted to a worst-case scenario in today's series finale against the Braves: an early departure by Jeremy Hellickson. That plan was going to include Jefry Rodriguez, summoned from Double-A Harrisburg this morning, providing maybe two or three innings of relief only three days after an...

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Nats suffering from depleted lineup of free swingers

June 03, 2018, 5:49pm

Nationals

Nats suffering from depleted lineup of free swingers

ATLANTA - It's easy to look at Sunday's 4-2 loss to the Braves and place blame at the arms of Shawn Kelley and Tanner Roark, who surrendered the two late home runs that turned a one-run lead into a two-run defeat. Not that those two right-handers don't deserve some criticism for their failure to keep the ball in the park at the most critical points of the game, but all of this would be moot if the Nationals did something seemingly simple during the game: score another run. Let's be honest...

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Nationals select right-hander Mason Denaburg

June 04, 2018, 6:12pm

Nationals

The Washington Nationals selected prep right-handed pitcher Mason Denaburg with the No. 27 selection in the 2018 First-Year Player Draft. Nationals President of Baseball Operations and General Manager Mike Rizzo, and Assistant General Manager & Vice President of Scouting Operations Kris Kline made the joint announcement. Denaburg, a 6-foot-3, 190-pound right-hander, went 5-1 with a 1.27 ERA (5 ER/35.1 IP) in eight starts during his senior season at Merritt Island (Fla.) High School. He...

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Marty Niland: Ken McMullen draws birthday love from D.C. fans

June 04, 2018, 4:49am

Nationals

Marty Niland: Ken McMullen draws birthday love from D.C. fans

Washington baseball fans still love Ken McMullen. The former Senators third baseman's 76th birthday was June 1, and there were dozens of likes and comments on a post recognizing the occasion on two D.C. Baseball History Facebook pages. The post included a photo of McMullen wearing a Senators uniform, in a fielding pose and wearing a batting helmet. McMullen came to the Senators in the same seven-player blockbuster that brought Frank Howard to the nation's capital, and McMullen flourished...

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Expect Nats to go for arms early in MLB's First-Year Player Draft

June 04, 2018, 2:37am

Nationals

Expect Nats to go for arms early in MLB's First-Year Player Draft

The Nationals look to stockpile their team for the future as the 2018 First-Year Player Draft gets underway tonight. The club has the No. 27 and No. 65 selections in the first two rounds. According to Baseball America, the Nationals will have a bonus pool of $5,603,800 to work with, which ranks 27th in allotted monies league-wide. Due to the team's on-field success in recent campaigns, they have selected in the lower half of each first round: Erick Fedde (18th, 2014), Carter Kieboom (28th,...

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Overtaxed pitching staff suffers 4-2 walk-off loss to Braves

June 03, 2018, 12:27pm

Nationals

Overtaxed pitching staff suffers 4-2 walk-off loss to Braves

ATLANTA - After going 14 innings on Saturday, after watching Jeremy Hellickson depart with an apparent hamstring injury in the first inning today and then after watching the Braves rally to tie the game late, the Nationals reached a point late this afternoon where the need for their series finale to end was about to become more important than the need to win. That point didn't quite arrive, but it came close. The Nationals were forced to send Tanner Roark to the mound for the bottom of the...

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Murphy not ready for season debut yet

June 03, 2018, 9:04am

Nationals

ATLANTA - The Nationals don't know yet when Daniel Murphy will make his season debut, but they seem to have conceded it won't come at the start of this week's homestand. Murphy, who has spent the last week playing six rehab games for Double-A Harrisburg, is scheduled to be back in Washington on Tuesday to be evaluated by doctors and meet with club officials. Despite some initial hope he might be ready to be activated by then, manager Davey Martinez suggested today that won't happen. "I...

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Hellickson out after two batters with hamstring injury (Nats lose 4-2)

June 03, 2018, 10:11am

Nationals

Hellickson out after two batters with hamstring injury (Nats lose 4-2)

ATLANTA - After watching their bullpen throw seven perfect innings during Saturday's 14-inning win, the last thing the Nationals needed was to have to turn to their relief corps early today. Which is exactly what happened after starter Jeremy Hellickson departed only two batters into the bottom of the first with what appeared to be a hamstring injury. Hellickson hurt himself trying to make a leaping catch of Mark Reynolds' high toss on Ozzie Albies' grounder to first. The ball caromed off...

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On the dominant pitching that made Saturday's win possible

June 02, 2018, 9:37pm

Nationals

On the dominant pitching that made Saturday's win possible

ATLANTA - A lot happened during Saturday's 5-3 14-inning victory for the Nationals. Obviously, Max Scherzer's pinch-hit single and scamper around the bases to score the go-ahead run drew much of the attention and rightfully so. But this game also would not have been won by the Nationals if not for a brilliant pitching performance against a Braves lineup that has been among the most productive in the majors this season. Gio Gonzalez authored another quality start, allowing three runs in seven...

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Scherzer ignites 14th-inning rally to propel Nats over Braves

June 02, 2018, 4:11pm

Nationals

Scherzer ignites 14th-inning rally to propel Nats over Braves

ATLANTA - All afternoon and into the evening they were searching for somebody, anybody, to deliver the hit that would break their moribund lineup out of its slumber. Who knew the answer wasn't any of the Nationals' position players, but rather their ace? Max Scherzer - yes, Max Scherzer - delivered the one-out single that got a 14th-inning rally jumpstarted, then raced all the way around the bases to score on Wilmer Difo's triple to the gap in right-center, the run that ultimately propelled...

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Game 58 lineups: Nats at Braves

June 03, 2018, 6:57am

Nationals

ATLANTA - It's another scorching hot and humid day here at SunTrust Park, where the Nationals and Braves wrap up their four-game series, the Nats trying to salvage a split after yesterday's dramatic 14-inning victory. To do so, they're probably going to need some effective work from their bullpen again today, though that group was taxed yesterday and has a new face in it today. Tim Collins, who did not appear in the game, has been placed on the paternity leave list and has left town to be...

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Gonzalez cruising, Adams departs early (Nats win 5-3 in 14)

June 02, 2018, 1:21pm

Nationals

Gonzalez cruising, Adams departs early (Nats win 5-3 in 14)

ATLANTA - Gio Gonzalez is authoring another gem. Juan Soto and Michael A. Taylor have supplied some early offense, but the Nationals will have to play the rest of today's game without cleanup hitter Matt Adams. Adams departed in the middle of the fourth inning with an apparent injury. He fouled a ball off his foot in the top of the frame before flying out to left field. The Nationals do not provide in-game injury updates, so Adams' abrupt exit will be something of a mystery for a few more...

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Scherzer wins another NL Pitcher of the Month award

June 02, 2018, 10:44am

Nationals

Scherzer wins another NL Pitcher of the Month award

ATLANTA - It doesn't rank with the back-to-back Cy Young Awards he owns, but the back-to-back National League Pitcher of the Month awards Max Scherzer now owns could help his cause to win a third straight Cy Young. Scherzer was named NL Pitcher of the Month for May this afternoon, this honor coming on the heels of his comparable award following an equally dominant April. The Nats ace went 4-0 with a 2.21 ERA and 63 strikeouts in six starts in May, numbers deemed by voters to be better than the...

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Game 57 lineups: Nats at Braves

June 02, 2018, 8:31am

Nationals

ATLANTA - The Nationals have scored two runs in this series and have been shut out on four total hits over the last 15 innings. That's not good. This is a lineup that, given the injuries and young players filling in on a regular basis, has been very hit-or-miss over the last month. It'll need to swing back into the hit category today if these guys want to avoid a third straight loss to the first-place Braves. On paper, the matchup against Brandon McCarthy looks like a better one for the...

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Saturday morning odds and ends

June 01, 2018, 9:33pm

Nationals

ATLANTA - Some odds and ends to get you going on this Saturday morning before the Nationals and Braves return for a 4:10 p.m. game at SunTrust Park ... * The bottom of the seventh last night, in which the Braves scored all four of their runs, obviously was the decisive inning of the game. How rare, though, was that outburst against Stephen Strasburg? Extremely. Though many longtime fans will recall how Strasburg used to struggle in Atlanta, the right-hander had completely reversed that...

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Strasburg's one mistake costs Nats on night Braves made none

June 01, 2018, 7:23pm

Nationals

Strasburg's one mistake costs Nats on night Braves made none

ATLANTA - Stephen Strasburg felt like he made only one mistake, a curveball down in the zone but over the plate to Dansby Swanson with two outs in the bottom of the seventh. Then again, one mistake was all it took for the Nationals to drop tonight's game to the Braves, who rode a two-hit shutout from Mike Foltynewicz to a 4-0 victory and a second straight win to begin this weekend's National League East showdown. "We couldn't get nothing going," manager Davey Martinez said. "Our guy was...

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Four-run seventh dooms Nationals in 4-0 loss to Braves

June 01, 2018, 6:10pm

Nationals

ATLANTA - For six innings they dueled, Stephen Strasburg and Mike Foltynewicz posting up zero after zero, neither willing to give in on a muggy Friday night at SunTrust Park. Somebody, though, had to give in at some point. That somebody was Strasburg. And that point was the bottom of the seventh, the decisive frame that turned a brilliant pitchers' duel into a 4-0 Nationals loss to a young Braves team that can only feel emboldened after taking the first two games of this big weekend...

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Return of key players could impact lineup (Nats lose 4-0)

June 01, 2018, 2:35pm

Nationals

Return of key players could impact lineup (Nats lose 4-0)

ATLANTA - The Nationals outfield received a boost today with Brian Goodwin's return from the disabled list, and another boost is likely coming next week when Adam Eaton expects to return from his ankle surgery. All of which leaves Davey Martinez facing some questions about how he intends to divvy up playing time among, in theory, five outfielders with only three positions to fill. Goodwin was activated off the DL this afternoon, the injured left wrist that sidelined him more than seven weeks...

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Game 56 lineups: Nats at Braves (Goodwin activated)

June 01, 2018, 12:02pm

Nationals

Game 56 lineups: Nats at Braves (Goodwin activated)

ATLANTA - The threat of rain halted Nationals batting practice Thursday night but didn't impact the game. We may not be as fortunate tonight, with storms all around the area threatening to cause problems not only before tonight's scheduled 7:35 p.m. game but also the early portion of the game itself. As always, stay tuned. When they do play, the Nationals will send Stephen Strasburg to the mound. Strasburg was brilliant in his previous start against the Braves this season, tossing eight...