The Nationals

Nats Come Home to Beat Mets 4-2

A crowd of 30,714 welcomed the Washington Nationals home for their first game since clinching the 2014 National League East crown on Tuesday night. And – as a “thank you” of sorts – starting pitcher Tanner Roark led his team to a 4-2 win over the New York Mets.

Roark threw 86 pitches and 58 strikes in 6 1/3 innings pitched while giving up two runs on five hits and striking out one batter in his fifteenth win of the season. The only trouble he truly encountered were the first three hits he gave up – they were all doubles.

New York scored first in the fifth inning off a pair of those doubles. Second baseman Wilmer Flores led off the inning with a double and proceeded to score off a one-out double his by outfielder Kirk Nieuwenhuis. But thanks to a hot-hitting Adam LaRoche, the Nats answered back in the bottom half of the inning.

Continue reading

The Nationals

Fister Remains Dominant, Nats Beat Mets 7-1

The Washington Nationals showed the New York Mets what dominant pitching and a productive offense is capable of on Wednesday night when right-handed starting pitcher Doug Fister led the Nats to a 7-1 win over New York. Fister’s delayed start on the season may have slowed him up slightly in the beginning but he’s now 11-3 in 2014 with signs of slowing down.

Fister gave up six hits and struck out seven batters over seven and one-third innings pitched. He threw 101 pitches (69 strikes) and gave up one unearned run in the eighth inning after cruising through the rest of the game. Fister was so efficient on the mound that the game itself only lasted two hours and thirty one minutes. And these days, a sub-three hour game is rare, so that was a gem in and of itself as well.

Continue reading

Sports Fix, The Features

Gonzalez Lacks Command, Mets Beat Nats 5-2

Inconsistency and lack of command haunted the Washington Nationals’ left-handed starting pitcher Gio Gonzalez on Saturday while they faced the New York Mets in D.C. Gonzalez gave up seven hits, five runs, two walks, and one homerun threw 84 pitches (48 strikes) while striking out four in the Nats’ 5-2 loss to New York. Continue reading

The Daily Feed

Nats Crumble Versus Mets in an 11-3 Loss

A little class never hurt anyone
courtesy of Jano Silva DC

Starting pitcher right-hander Dan Haren had an incredibly rough night on Saturday when the Washington Nationals lost to the New York Mets 11-3. Haren lasted 2 and 2/3 innings and threw 57 pitches (41 strikes). The Mets managed nine hits and seven runs off Haren and struck out three times.

Despite a turnaround from his performance earlier this season, Haren seems to have struggled in his past two starts. But the loss isn’t in Haren’s hands entirely. Continue reading

Sports Fix

Nats Beat Mets 3-2 in Their First Walk-off of the Season

8955398796_cce936be93_z

Photo Credit: Patrick Pho

The Washington Nationals were three outs away from a one-run loss against the fourth place New York Mets on Tuesday night but Steve Lombardozzi saved the game by hitting a walk-off sacrifice fly into the glove of Mike Baxter in left field. His sacrifice fly sent first baseman Adam LaRoche around to score. Washington beat New York 3-2 in their first walk-off victory of the season.

The Nats may have won the game but it was night in which the their offense continued to struggle. Manager Davey Johnson’s lineup managed four hits before their three-hit ninth inning rally. They were lucky enough to score early on a solo home run hit by shortstop Ian Desmond off right-handed pitcher Jeremy Hefner in the second inning — Desmond’s eighth home run of the season — but that’s the only run they’d tally up until the ninth inning.

Continue reading

The Daily Feed

Zimmermann Stays Steady, Nats Beat Mets 4-3

Photo courtesy of afagen
Nats pitcher Jordan Zimmerman
courtesy of afagen

If you’re looking for consistency then look no further than RHP Jordan Zimmermann. The Nationals’ third starter in the rotation secured his seventh victory of the season Wednesday night with a 4-3 Washington win against New York, pushing him to a winning record of 7-6 thus far. This is the first time Zimmermann’s had a winning record since his 2009 rookie season.

His biggest struggle of the season is one that’s been out of his hands though. Run support behind his pitching is bellow average when compared to the rest of the rotation. The Nats average 3.95 runs with Zimmermann on the mound and 4.16 runs a game.  Zimmermann was 2-2 with a 3.56 ERA against the Mets in nine career starting appearances before last night and has worked at least 6.0 innings in all 19 starts this season. Continue reading

Sports Fix

Nats Beat Mets in Extras, Bryce Harper Gets His First Walk-Off Hit

Photo courtesy of Rukasu1
Debut
courtesy of Rukasu1

What appeared to be a quick and easy game for Nationals starting pitcher Jordan Zimmermann ended up being one of the most exciting extra-inning games of the 2012 season when Bryce Harper hit his first career walk-off – a single – to left field in the bottom of the twelfth inning aginst the New York Mets. Washington won 7-6 after battling through a four hour and fifteen minute contest and it was brutal.

Over the course of the night, both teams’ benches and bullpens were depleted to the point where position players would have needed to fill the role on the mound. Nats fans were treated to not just one but two starting pitchers on the mound including Zimmermann and Ross Detwiler – Detwiler ended up with the win, by the way, with two innings of work in the game.

What seemed to hold up the Nats eventual victory was Mets starter Chris Young who made his season debut, leaving men on base, and failing to come through in the clutch several times over before finally executing a combination resulting in runs scored. Young was effective, only giving up six hits and two earned runs of the three earned by Washington early on while throwing 52 strikes in 75 pitches.

Zimmermann posted similar numbers on the night lasting six total innings and giving up five hits, two runs, no walks, five strikeouts and two homeruns. That’s what hurt him – giving up two homeruns in the sixth inning with the lead – bringing the score to 3-2 in favor of the Nats.

Washington didn’t lose the lead in the sixth (they lost that honor in both the eighth and tenth innings) but that was the start of what ended up being a twelve-inning game. Coach Jim Lett’s bullpen got a full-group workout in during the game when Manager Davey Johnson started calling them over to the mound in the seventh inning.

Left-hander Tom Gorzelanny threw a scoreless seventh before Stammen gave up two runs in the eigth after inheriting a runner from Sean Burnett’s stint just two batters earlier. Tyler Clippard walked the leadoff batter in the ninth before retiring the side.

Once the game got to the eleventh, though, Johnson stuck with Detwiler and the Nats managed enough offense to win it. Michael Morse – who got his first hit of the season, a double in the fourth, since returning from the disabled list – did it again in the twelfth to leadoff and eventually scored on a passed ball at the plate. Then, as the story goes, 19-year-old phenom Bryce Harper recorded his first walf-off hit with a single to left field. Jesus Flores scores. Nats win 7-6 and resume their place atop the standings in the National League East.

The Daily Feed

Chien-Ming Wang Returns to Mound, Washington Loses 8-5

Photo courtesy of
‘PRE’
courtesy of ‘MissChatter’

The audience: 30,114 in paid attendance.

The critics: an overflowing Press Box with Taiwanese media swarming.

The stage: Nationals Park in Washington, D.C.

The Man of the Hour: Chien-Ming Wang

When right-handed starting pitcher Chien-Ming Wang was acquired by the Washington Nationals in 2010, many wondered if he would have a successful recovery following surgery on a capsule in his right shoulder.

Wang, who won 19 games each in 2006 and 2007 for the New York Yankees, missed the rest of the team’s championship season in 2009 due to injury. Friday night was his first night back on a Major League mound.

It was a shaky start but Nationals manager Davey Johnson admitted he was impressed with what he saw despite Wang allowing four runs, four singles, and a leadoff walk to the first five batters he faced. Continue reading

The Daily Feed

Burnett Implodes, Mets Beat Nats 6-3

Photo courtesy of
‘9TH’
courtesy of ‘MissChatter’

At the start of Wednesday’s game between the Nationals and Mets in Washington, the Nats bullpen had a 3.29 ERA. When compared to the 2010 equivalent that posted the fifth best bullpen ERA in Major League Baseball at 3.35, that 3.29 is an improvement. But after left-handed reliever Sean Burnett’s ninth inning collapse, the Nats bullpen ERA became nothing more than a number.

The Nationals entered the ninth inning up 3-2 and went on to lose the game 6-3 to New York. Washington’s left-handed starter Tom Gorzelanny went into the contest looking for his first win of the season but was left with a no decision.  Continue reading

The Daily Feed

Ramos hits a couple dingers but Nats dropped by Mets 6-4

Photo courtesy of
‘2ND’
courtesy of ‘MissChatter’

There is only so much that Wilson Ramos can do for the Nats. He catches pitches, he does not pitch. He has one bat, not eight. His glove is made for catching fastballs, not tracking down dying quails in the outfield.

Yet, he did what he could on Tuesday night for the Nats in a 6-4 losing effort to the Mets in the first of a three-game set at Nationals Park. He hit two home runs, had an RBI single and fielded his position well when New York went small ball bunting. His 3-4 night raised his average to .378 and the dingers were his first two of the year along with the first multi-home run game of his young career.

Continue reading

The Daily Feed

Yunesky Maya Makes His Debut

Yunesky Maya / Photo by Cheryl Nichols / Nationals News Network

The Mets must hate Willie Harris. Well, maybe not hate. They just didn’t like him for all of one minute in the sixth inning on Tuesday night when he broke up Dillon Gee’s no-hitter with a lead-off solo shot to the centerfield bleachers.

What was supposed to be a duel between two young pitchers debuting on the same night turned out to be a one-sided show.  Gee, 24, wasn’t a head-turner per se, but the Mets lineup made him look way better than the Nats’ Yunesky Maya for the first two innings.

One day after a 13-3 offensive pounding of New York must have left the Nationals tired. Poor Maya. The sleepy bats in this 4-1 loss couldn’t wake from their sweet slumber. Continue reading