The Nationals return home for an extended stay at Nats Park, with the next nine games scheduled for home and four straight against the Marlins starting tonight.
It has rained all day in the D.C. area, but they are hoping it will dissipate enough to get tonight's game in. Right-hander Max Scherzer (12-5, 2.21 ERA) takes on George Mason product left-hander Chris O'Grady (2-1, 5.40 ERA).
The Nats are coming off a stirring series victory in Chicago against the defending champion Cubs, highlighted...
Manager Dusty Baker confirmed that right-hander Stephen Strasburg made it through his bullpen session Sunday very well.
Strasburg has been on the disabled list with a right elbow nerve impingement retroactive to July 24. He has missed a couple of starts and this week will miss his third turn in a row.
Pitching coach Mike Maddux on the Strasburg bullpen session work Sunday: "Good, went real well, threw a good bullpen."
Maddux estimated Strasburg threw around 31 pitches during the bullpen...
CHICAGO - There's nothing like experience, and Erick Fedde made sure to take what he learned from his major league debut last week and apply it to Sunday's start against the Cubs.
For example: Trust his entire repertoire, not just two of his four pitches.
"The first game, I felt like I really got away from my breaking ball, and just turned into a two-pitch pitcher," the right-hander said. "Today, I got to all four of my pitches and stayed with them throughout the game and kept guys...
CHICAGO - There was no trophy presentation inside the cramped visitors' clubhouse at Wrigley Field this afternoon, no champagne celebration, no extra-loud music to distinguish this from any other game the Nationals have won this season.
Maybe that says more about this team than anything else. Had they whooped it up and made a big deal out of a 9-4 victory over the Cubs - thrilling as it was - and the clinching of both this weekend series and the season series from the defending World Series...
'90s night is coming to Nats Park on August 11 as the Nationals take on the Giants! Over the past two seasons, the Nats have put on successful '80s-themed nights where fans, players and on-air personalities dressed in '80s-themed costumes, making for a radical night at the game. This season, the Nats have decided to change up the decades and go with a '90s-themed night full of feathered bangs and spiky hair, Air Jordans, Tamagotchis, all the cartoons and your favorite entertainment from the...
Manager: Don Mattingly (2nd season)
Record: 52-57
Last 10 games: 6-4
Who to watch: RF Giancarlo Stanton (36 home runs), LF Marcell Ozuna (26 homers, 87 RBIs), 2B Dee Gordon (40 stolen bases), CF Christian Yelich (24 doubles, 9 stolen bases), C J.T. Realmuto (.306 average), Brad Zeigler (6.10 ERA, 2 saves)
Season series vs. Nationals: 5-4
Pitching probables:
Aug. 7: LHP Chris O'Grady vs. RHP Max Scherzer, 7:05 p.m., MASN Aug. 8: RHP Vance Worley vs. RHP A.J. Cole, 7:05 p.m., MASN Aug. 9: LHP...
The dog days of August are proving to be a grind for the Nationals, playing .500 ball in their past 10 games. But while they endure this rough patch of injuries and a sometimes sputtering offense, they are laying valuable groundwork for the postseason.
Let's face it, with a 13-game lead in the National League East and none of the other teams playing even .500 ball, it's extremely likely the Nats will win their fourth division title in six seasons. While this might be the most exciting team...
CHICAGO - They trailed much of the afternoon, unable to string together much against Jon Lester and unable to keep Willson Contreras in the park. But the Nationals knew they still had a chance if they could: 1) keep the game close, 2) get Lester out and get into the Cubs bullpen and 3) get to their own new bullpen trio.
Wouldn't you know they managed to do all three, and thanks to that - with a huge assist from Matt Wieters' biggest blast of the season - the Nationals walked out of Wrigley...
CHICAGO - Dave Jageler has spent the last 11 1/2 years broadcasting Nationals games in vivid detail on the radio, so there is a natural comfort level he has found along the way. A comfort level he hasn't fully felt over the last week as he has continued to broadcast Nationals games, just in the entirely different medium of television.
"I've done over 2,000 games on the radio," Jageler said. "You just do it. It's your routine. It's every day. And this is so different because I've done it...
CHICAGO - Erick Fedde has come out throwing strikes again. And so far, that has produced better results for the Nationals rookie than in his first career start.
Taking the mound seven days after he was roughed up by the Rockies for seven runs in four innings, Fedde retired the first five Cubs batters he faced today, three via strikeout. The bottom of Chicago's lineup strung together three straight two-out singles to produce the afternoon's first run, but the rookie right-hander bounced back...
CHICAGO - It's a big day at Wrigley Field, if you care about things like head-to-head records against big-name opponents. The Nationals and Cubs have not only split this weekend's series so far, they've also split the season series. Yes, each team has won three games. And so today's finale will settle that score. (And if, by some chance, the two teams wound up tied at the end of the season, that would determine home-field advantage for a theoretical playoff series.)
Given the stakes, the...
CHICAGO - Matt Wieters, by his own admission, isn't the type to argue with umpires very much. Certainly not to the extent he risks ejection.
But every once in a while, the Nationals catcher feels like he needs to make a point. Usually when it comes to balls and strikes. And so when he felt it was necessary in the bottom of the sixth Saturday afternoon, he let plate umpire Chad Whitson know it. And then was forced to watch the rest of the Nationals' 7-4 loss to the Cubs from the clubhouse.
It...
CHICAGO - That the Nationals "had action" - as Dusty Baker likes to call it - several times late in today's 7-4 loss to the Cubs speaks to their ability to rarely be out of a ballgame, even one that felt like an uphill climb from the outset.
Then again, with a couple of well-placed pitches in a couple of key situations earlier, the Nationals might not have found themselves trying to finish off a comeback but instead a wire-to-wire victory.
In the end, the Nats' attempted rallies against the...
CHICAGO - A disastrous first inning from Edwin Jackson left the Nationals trying to climb their way out of a significant hole nearly from the get-go this afternoon at Wrigley Field. But every time they made some progress and nearly got their heads back up to ground level, the Cubs pushed them back down the hole and made them start all over again.
The end result: a 7-4 loss on a long and often frustrating afternoon at the Friendly Confines, setting up a rubber match Sunday afternoon, not only to...
CHICAGO - As the Nationals cobble together their rotation for the rest of the weekend, they can take solace knowing they should head into next week with the situation much more stable.
Max Scherzer, who hasn't pitched since departing with neck spasms before the second inning Tuesday night in Miami, threw off the bullpen mound at Wrigley Field this morning and is preparing to start Monday against the Marlins in Washington.
Gio González, who officially was placed on the paternity leave list...
CHICAGO - It is a spectacular summer day on the North Side, with not a cloud in the sky, a nice cool breeze blowing from the northwest and temperatures climbing into the upper 70s by the time the Nationals and Cubs take the field for the second game of their weekend series.
The Nats originally had Gio Gonzalez penciled in for this start, but he has officially been placed on the paternity leave list and is back in D.C. for the birth of his second child. Erick Fedde has officially been recalled...
CHICAGO - Daniel Murphy likes to hit at Wrigley Field. That's something he has established over his entire career, and especially in the last few seasons.
Murphy isn't alone in taking pleasure from stepping into the batter's box inside the Friendly Confines, which has been a hitter's haven since the iconic bleachers were constructed in 1937. But the Nationals second baseman goes beyond the norm here, as evidenced by his astounding numbers.
Over the course of his career - including playoffs...
CHICAGO - Tempting as it is to just hand the final three innings of a ballgame over to his new trio of experienced relievers, Dusty Baker also knows he can't overdo it on Aug. 4, in the first game of a weekend series against the defending World Series champs, with two fill-in starters taking the mound the next two afternoons.
So Baker didn't hesitate to send Tanner Roark back to the mound for the bottom of the seventh today at Wrigley Field, with his Nationals leading the Cubs by three runs...
CHICAGO - The Nationals' formula for beating the Cubs this afternoon? A couple of Daniel Murphy blasts. A quality start from Tanner Roark. And eight outs from their trio of new relievers.
Dusty Baker couldn't have drawn it up much better.
Murphy's two early homers gave the Nationals the lead, Roark then preserved it with 6 1/3 strong innings and then Brandon Kintzler, Ryan Madson and Sean Doolittle combined to finish off an impressive 4-2 victory in the opener of this big weekend series...
Nationals center fielder Michael A. Taylor (oblique) continues his rehab tonight with the high Single-A Potomac Nationals at Winston-Salem. He is expected to start in center field.
He took Thursday off. Taylor has hit in three games for the P-Nats, going 2-for-7 (.286) with two intentional walks, two strikeouts, two runs and a stolen base.
Potomac manager Tripp Keister says there is a back story to the pair of intentional walks, which relates to the rivalry between Lynchburg and his club. The...