The Nats players were pretty emotional after the loss to the Cubs knocked them out of the playoffs, as one could imagine. First baseman Ryan Zimmerman, the longest-tenured National, reflected on what felt like an abrupt end to a winning campaign. The Cubs came back from a 4-1 deficit to beat the Nats 9-8 in Game 5 of the National League Division Series Thursday night, winning the series 3-2. Chicago faces the Los Angeles Dodgers Saturday night in Game 1 of the League Championship Series. The...

Most of them had been through this at least once before, some twice, a select few three times. The Nationals have grown accustomed to - and, quite frankly, tired of - standing inside a dead-silent clubhouse late at night following an agonizing loss in the National League Division Series and trying to make sense of it all. They did it after the ninth-inning fiasco against the Cardinals in 2012. They did it after a poorly played series against the Giants in 2014. They did it after a dramatic...

With the Nationals leading 4-3 in Game 5 of the National League Division Series against the Cubs, the fifth inning started off well for Max Scherzer in his first relief appearance of the postseason. Scherzer recorded a pair of outs. But then the trouble started. The Cubs' Willson Contreras singled. Then Albert Almora Jr. singled. The hit that changed the game came next from Addison Russell, who laced a double that hugged just inside the bag at third and down the line. Contreras and Almora...

Bryce Harper swung and missed for strike three and Cubs catcher Willson Contreras tossed his glove and mask and joined a hug-fest of gray uniforms around closer Wade Davis on the pitcher's mound at a shocked Nationals Park. The Cubs beat the Nationals 9-8 to win their National League Division Series in five games. After the game, the Cubs headed to Los Angeles to get ready for a rematch with the Dodgers for the National League pennant. The Cubs are going to their third consecutive National...

It is just one stat, but not a bad one to look at for any hitter - OPS. That is on base percentage plus slugging added together. Anything .800 or above, as we know, is a strong number. The high 700s are not too shabby. Among qualifying hitters, there were 37 players in the American League that posted an OPS of .800 or better this year. That list includes two Orioles, as Jonathan Schoop was 22nd at .841 and Trey Mancini was 26th at .826. But for this blog, I expand that a bit and will compare...

If the Nationals were going to finally do it, if they were going to cast aside their reputation for coming up short when it matters most and at long last win a postseason series, they were going to have to blast their way through some major obstacles. The defending World Series champs were tough enough to beat. But in Game 5 of the National League Division Series, the Nationals were left to try to beat themselves, committing one costly gaffe after another during a 4 1/2-hour marathon that...

A team that loses 19 of its final 23 games to finish in last place, and has 10 potential free agents and a handful of stars entering the final year of their contracts, is bound to be faced with plenty of questions. They come in all shapes and sizes. The questions and the players. Let's tackle a few of them this morning. The questions, not the players. Is Tim Beckham a leadoff hitter? The Orioles opened the season with Seth Smith batting first, his career .344 on-base percentage making him the...

That wasn't the first inning Gio Gonzalez would have wanted to begin Game 5 of the National League Division Series. Jon Jay led off with a double and went to third on wild pitch. After Kris Bryant struck out, Jay came home on an Anthony Rizzo grounder to Daniel Murphy. It marked Rizzo's sixth RBI of the series. Albert Almora Jr. singled and Addison Russell was walked to load the bases. Jason Heyward grounded out to first baseman Ryan Zimmerman to end the threat. The Cubs managed one run...

It's Game 5. There are no ifs, ands or buts. It's all hands on deck. Throw all your stat sheets and conventional wisdom out the window. It's your best versus mine. It's win or go home. Do or die. The Nationals and their loyal fan base are no strangers to this dire situation. We all know what's at stake, having now been here in three of Nationals' four playoff appearances. Win and advance to the first National League Championship Series in club history and the first league/conference final...

Through four games of this National League Division Series, the Nationals have scored a grand total of 12 runs on 16 hits. For the arithmetically challenged, that's an average of three runs on four hits per game. That's not good. Throughout it all, though, Dusty Baker has stuck with the same eight batters in his starting lineup. The order changed for Game 4, but the names remained the same. And they'll remain the same for tonight's do-or-die Game 5. Which means Jayson Werth is again...