Nats Chat

The Nats outlasted the 1st place Dodgers in extra innings for a 7-6 victory on Saturday afternoon following a 4+ hour rain delay. Mark & Al wonder if Jake Irvin is sneakily the best story of the franchise's season after he threw another solid outing on the mound. His ERA is at 4.20; which is a far improvement from when he last faced LA in late May (5.67 ERA). (13:40) Lane Thomas returned after sit...

The Nats lost 8-5 on Friday night vs. the visiting the Dodgers, but that was hardly top of mind locally. Mark & Al sift through all the busy back drop currently involving the organization as it seemed like there was an endless avalanche of news reports involving the Front Office during Thursday's day-off. (04:00) As for the game, MacKenzie Gore struggled and only lasted 4 IP as he returned from th...

The Nats ended their 6 game skid by edging past the Mets 3-2 in a Wednesday evening walk-off victory. Al & Mark start with Jacob Young's decisive single over New York as he owns an 8 game hitting streak; which commenced shortly after his MLB debut. (07:20) CJ Abrams swiped 2 more bases and joins rare franchise territory with 40+ stolen bases on the season (Trea Turner 2x, Alfonso Soriano). The mos...

The Nats lost 11-5 to the visiting Mets on Tuesday; in a game in which they immediately trailed by 4 runs. Mark & Al sing a familiar song, which is recapping a rough outing by Patrick Corbin. He has now given up 30 homers this season and the only NL pitcher who has allowed more this season is his teammate Trevor Williams (33). (13:00) Andres Machado immediately gave up a homer to Pete Alonso upon...

The Nats were swept for the third time this season by Miami and on Sunday they fell 6-4. Mark & Al note the 5th consecutive loss and that they finally will get an off-day on Monday. (04:00) Josiah Gray had a short outing and had a nightmarish opening inning. This included allowing a solo HR, issuing 3 straight walks, and jawing at Jacob Young at the end of the frame for misplaying a fly ball in th...

The Nats rough stretch continued as they were flattened 11-5 by the Marlins on Saturday afternoon. They have dropped 6 of their past 7 and are a wretched 2-10 this season vs. the Marlins. Mark & Al though begin with the big organizational news that came pregame as Johnny DiPuglia, veteran Director of International Scouting since 2009, is resigning from his position. Is this related to the ongoing...

The Nats lost 8-5 in extras on Friday night to visiting Miami for their 5th defeat in the past 6 games. Adding additional insult to the evening is that the Mets beat Seattle to move back in front of Washington by a half game. Al & Mark recap the 11 inning defeat; which required 6 IP by 6 different relievers. (17:15) The Nationals slugged 3 dingers on Friday and one of them came from Travis Blanken...

The Nats successful August (17-11) came to anti climatic conclusion as they lost 6-1 on Thursday night in the series opener vs. the Marlins. Al & Tim discuss the struggling offense; which only scored 1 run in the past 2 games. The lineup was dealt a tough blow pregame as Lane Thomas was a late scratch due to back tightness. (14:10) Joan Adon allowed 5 runs in as many innings and gave up 9 hits alo...

The Nats long winning road trip ended with a thud as they were shutout Wednesday afternoon in Toronto. Mark (From Canada) & Al note this end a string of 5 consecutive series victories. The offense was no match for Chris Bassit, who only allowed 3 hits in 8 IP. (08:00) CJ Abrams was 0 for 4 in the loss Al points out the surprisingly disappointing numbers for the young SS in August. His .229 average...

The Nats held off Toronto 5-4 for a dramatic win against the AL Wild Card contender. Mark (From Ontario) & Al begin with the bullpen that clung on to the lead, but allowed 3 runs in 4 IP. Kyle Finnegan loaded the bases with no outs while nursing a 2 run lead, but was able to emerge with his 25th save of the season. (12:30) The Nationals hit a pair of homers on Tuesday night for all of their offens...

Josiah Gray's rough August continued as he only lasted 2 innings in Monday night's 6-3 loss at Toronto. Al & Mark (From Canada) recap Gray's gruesome start and what seems to be wrong with his pitching mechanics. This month in five starts, the right hander's ERA is at 8.84 with 17 walks issued. (17:30) CJ Abrams had a very electric evening (error aside) as he had a trio singles and also stole 3 bas...

The Nats came up short in their sweep attempt as they fell 2-1 on Sunday afternoon in Miami. Al gets you up to speed on the catching situation as Riley Adams started every game this series while Keibert Ruiz has been out of the starting lineup since taking a foul ball to the mask on Wednesday in New York. It is important to note that Ruiz did pinch hit and minor league catcher Drew Millas will joi...

Facing a 2-1 deficit in the top of the 9th, the Nats rallied to come away with a 3-2 win in Miami. Al, always a pragmatic one, wonders if a .500 season is in play, believe it or not. They would need to go 20-12 over the final stretch to meet the threshold. Washington is now two games ahead of the last place Mets. (07:30) Jacob Young pinch ran in his MLB debut and scored the tying run. Young was a...

The Nats beat the Marlins 7-4 and later on Friday night the Mets lost to lift Washington into solo possession of 4th place in the NL East. Al & Mark are astonished by yet another Joan Adon start that saw a No Hit bid make it into the 6th. (10:00) Carter Kieboom continues to take advantage of his opportunity as he homered for the 2nd time this week. This does to be his last chance to make it within...

The Washington Post broke the news on Thursday that Stephen Strasburg will officially retire as opposed to waiting out the full duration of his 7 year deal. Mark (From The Bronx) & Al marvel at just how busy the Nats news cycle has been ever since heading to Williamsport. The Little League attention, Dylan Crews to AA, Davey Martinez extension, Stone Garrett injury, and now the Strasburg news in j...

The Nats were routed on Wednesday night 9-1 at Yankee Stadium in an affair where Aaron Judge hit a trio of homers. Mark (From the Bronx) & Al begin with Stone Garrett needing to be carted off the field after his leg ran into the outfield wall. Garrett was seen covering his face with a towel in the immediate aftermath. (14:40) MacKenzie Gore did not pitch well in this game and allowed 6 runs in jus...

The Nats began the 3 city road trip on the right foot as they edged the Yankees 2-1 on Tuesday evening for their 20th victory in the past 30 games. Mark (From the Bronx) & Al recap Josiah Gray's strong outing in Yankee Stadium that lasted 6 IP. It is by far his best start this month and his ERA currently sits at 3.82. (10:30) Hunter Harvey struck out both Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton during h...

Sunday was a special day in Nationals history and it was punctuated with a 4-3 victory over the Phillies at the Little League Classic in Williamsport, PA. Mark (From Historic Bowman Field) tells Al about the unique itinerary, which lasted the entire day and night. (07:10) The Nats jumped all over Zack Wheeler for 4 runs in the opening inning and then the bats went silent after that. Was Wheeler ti...

The final score is uglier than it looked, but nonetheless the Nats lost 12-3 to Philadelphia, despite nursing a 3-0 lead entering the late innings. Al recaps Cory Abbott's nightmarish 8th inning where surrendered 8 runs to the Phillies to put the game well out of reach. The fatigued bullpen forced Davey Martinez to stick with Abbott, but immediately afterwards Abbott was sent down to AAA. (14:45)...

The Nats held on to defeat the Phillies 8-7 on Friday evening in Navy Yard. Mark & Al take note of the atmosphere at the Ballpark as the lively crowd saw the Nationals counter the Phillies' 6 run top of the 4th with a half dozen runs of their own. One week after being no hit by Michael Lorenzen, Washington knocked him out after just 3.1 IP. (10:30) Stone Garrett continued his hot month at the plat...

The Nats hung on 10-7 over Boston to take the series rubber match on Thursday afternoon. Mark & Al put in perspective what the victory symbolizes as they won their 55th game of the season, which equals last year's output with forty games still remaining. Washington has won 6 of their past 8 series and are 6 games over .500 since the All Star Break. (11:30) The offense broke out against Chris Sale...

The Nats topped the Red Sox 6-2 on Wednesday evening in D.C. Al & Mark begin with MacKenzie Gore who had an excellent outing cut short due to a cut nail on a finger on his pitching hand in the 7th inning. Davey Martinez minimized the long term effect of it afterwards, calming the worries of the fans. (12:30) The Nationals clubbed a quarter of home runs from 3 different players in the victory. Keib...

Josiah Gray's rough August continued on Tuesday as his start ended after just the 3rd inning in the Nats lost 5-4 to the visiting Red Sox. Mark & Al scratch their heads as Gray's post All Star Break is nowhere near how his season began. Davey Martinez afterwards harped on the fact that Gray needs to rely more on his fastball. (19:00) The resurgent bullpen pitched well in defeat as they threw 6 sco...

For the 3rd time since the All Star Break, the Nats pulled off a weekend series sweep. This one came in epic fashion as they trailed 7-2 to begin bottom of the 9th and the affair ended with the unlikeliest of bench players coming through with the walk-off hit in Jeter Downs. Mark & Al collect their breath and then analyze all that went into the comeback victory as Downs was in the game late to rep...

The Nats rallied against Oakland on Saturday for a 3-2 victory that abruptly concluded with a Keibert Ruiz lead-off homer in the bottom of the 9th. Al & Tim dive into Ruiz's hot month; where he is slugging .605 so far in August. It was Ruiz's 16th HR of the season, good for 6th most among NL catchers. (08:30) Lane Thomas was a late scratch in the starting lineup, but came through as a pinch hitter...