Tag Archives: Miami Marlins

Pitching matchup – game 140

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Though it took about six hours to complete and required a two-hour and 33-minute rain delay, the Washington Nationals (86-53) rallied to beat the Miami Marlins (62-78), setting up this afternoon’s rubber match. Nationals outfielders Jayson Werth and Corey Brown were the heroes of the day, driving in the tying and game-winning runs, respectively.

“We had a nice little rain delay. I got a little massage, changed clothes, had a chicken salad and then we tied it up,” Werth said. “It was well-written.”

Now, on the heels of two extra-innings games and news that Stephen Strasburg has been shut down effective immediately, the Nationals will try to take the series – and the season series for the first time since 2007 – as they battle veteran right-hander Ricky Nolasco. Right-hander and birthday-boy himself, Edwin Jackson, will take the mound for the Nationals. Continue reading →

Pitching matchup – game 139

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Last night, Stephen Strasburg took the mound at Nationals Park in what is expected to have been his last home start of the season. Prior to the first pitch, manager Davey Johnson noted that there would be no limits imposed on the young right-hander and that the game flow would ultimately dictate his outing, which it certainly did.

Strasburg only managed to pitch three innings, allowing the Miami Marlins (62-77) to jump out to an early 5-2 lead in their eventual 9-7 extra-innings loss.

For Strasburg, who insisted his struggles stemmed from a lack of fastball command, the short outing might net him another home start, as Johnson offered a cryptic answer when asked whether it could affect his innings limit.

“It might,” Johnson said.

For now, the Washington Nationals (85-53) will have to focus their attention on the second game in their three-game set with the Marlins. They will face veteran left-hander Mark Buehrle, who will be opposed by Nationals left-hander and recent consistency extraordinaire, Ross Detwiler. Continue reading →

Pitching matchup – game 138

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Last night – in a game where stellar play from Jordan Zimmermann and Kurt Suzuki was overshadowed by two bench-clearing, bullpen-emptying altercations – the Washington Nationals (85-52) completed a four-game sweep of the Chicago Cubs. More than enough has already been said about the evening, including this adrenal-gland-inciting quote from Nationals reliever Michael Gonzalez. As such, I must move on to tonight’s three-game series opener with the Miami Marlins (61-77), a game that will almost assuredly garner more attention than last night’s.

Tonight, Jacob Turner and the Marlins are in town to take on Stephen Strasburg and the league-best Nationals in what will be Strasburg’s penultimate start of the season and his final at home. To predict the atmosphere at Nationals Park will be buzzing would be foolhardy. It should be nothing short of electric. Continue reading →

Nationals notes

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Washington Nationals right-hander Edwin Jackson deserves all the attention today.

Sure, Bryce Harper hit his third home run in two games and Jayson Werth hit his first since May 5, but Jackson was nothing short of brilliant as he led the Nationals to an 8-1 win over the St. Louis Cardinals – their second straight after a five-game losing streak.

It may have taken 123 pitches, but Jackson finished the night having tossed eight dominant innings, allowing just one unearned run on four hits while walking two and striking out 10. It was the seventh time Jackson struck out 10 or more batters in his career and the second this year.

But as much as Jackson accomplished on the mound, his efforts elsewhere did not go unnoticed.

After grounding into a fielder’s choice in the bottom of the sixth, Jackson slid hard into second, breaking up a double play and allowing Danny Espinosa to add another run.

Yes, Jackson deserves all the attention. And he will garner much of it. But for now, here is a look at some of the bigger stories that developed this week and some that you may have missed. Continue reading →

Johnson, Harper speak on ejection

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Welcome to today’s “Quote of the day,” or what would have been titled “Quotes of the day” had I not decided to go with the attention-grabbing headline that I did.

By now, you have heard about the Washington Nationals’ 8-4 win over the Miami Marlins, which served to snap a five-game losing streak last night. You may have also heard about Bryce Harper‘s amazing multi-home run game, which included a great catch and an even greater throw home to keep Marlins second baseman Donovan Solano from scoring in the bottom of the eighth inning.

Or, perhaps you have yet to hear about any of this. If that is the case, you have probably been overwhelmingly occupied, as expected, with Harper’s ninth-inning ejection, a first for the 19-year-old rookie. You can read all about the incident right here. You can also check out the video, courtesy of MLB.com.

After the game, Nationals manager Davey Johnson was asked about the ejection and offered an interesting alternative for putting passion on display.

“Come inside the runway and break a bat over your head or something,” Johnson said.

Fortunately, Harper has another, more mature plan.

“I just need to stop getting pissed off and just live with it,” Harper said. “I just need to grow up in that mentality a little bit. Try not to bash stuff in and things that I’ve always done my whole life. Those need to change.”

That’ll do Bryce, that’ll do.

The passion of the Bryce

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Much can be said about Bryce Harper, the Washington Nationals’ rookie sensation, and much of it would probably be fairly accurate. But no matter what is said, or how one feels about the 19-year-old, no one can deny the passion with which he plays the game – unless, of course, one mistakes that passion for immaturity.

It would be an easy mistake to make for sure. Behind the broken bats, broken blood vessels and tossed batting helmets, there is a fervent young player that does not quite understand how to express himself. As such, he acts out in ways that one would expect a teenager to act out – immaturely.

Bryce Harper

Harper arguing a strike call with home plate umpire Angel Hernandez. Pat Sullivan/AP

Harper’s most recent brush with passion, and the play that will almost assuredly garner much of today’s media attention, came in last night’s slump-busting 8-4 win over the Miami Marlins. Continue reading →

Pitching matchup – game 129

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Yesterday was another day, another loss for the Washington Nationals (77-51), who last night dropped the first of a short two-game series with the Miami Marlins (59-71) to extend their losing streak to five games. It was also a tough outing for right-hander Stephen Strasburg, who struggled with command as he surrendered a career-high seven runs and tied a career-low for strikeouts with just three through five innings pitched. The loss was also enough for manager Davey Johnson to call a team meeting, something for which he is not typically known. Presumably, Johnson is hoping that the meeting will spark new life in a recently sluggish lineup. They will need it tonight as they send left-hander Ross Detwiler out to face Jacob Turner, the Marlins’ new 21-year-old rookie. Continue reading →

Pitching matchup – game 128

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The weekend was not kind to the Washington Nationals (77-50), who were swept in a three-game series by the Philadelphia Phillies and extended their losing streak to four games. That is the big story. The bigger story is Nationals’ right-hander Stephen Strasburg and his impending shutdown. After making 25 starts and tossing 145 1/3 innings, Strasburg is only expected to have a handful of remaining starts for the Nationals before he is shut down as part of his Tommy John surgery rehabilitation plan.  One of those starts will come tonight when Strasburg and the Nationals begin a two-game series with the Miami Marlins (58-71) – a series that could prove to be a potential turning point in the Nationals’ season. Looking to keep the Nationals in the loss column will be Marlins right-hander Ricky Nolasco. Continue reading →

Sweep, split or be swept – a turning point for the Nationals

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Despite having played well for nearly the entire season, both the media and fans of the Washington Nationals point to a July 20 affair with the Atlanta Braves, a game that saw the Nationals lose in 13 innings after leading 9-0, as a sort of catalyst for the team. They highlight the series as a turning point for the Nationals even though the team entered the series with a record of 53-37 and a .589 winning percentage.

Since that series, the Nationals have posted a record of 24-13, good for a .649 winning percentage. And while they have certainly played better since gift-wrapping the largest lead in franchise history and handing it to a divisional rival, is the team’s performance really representative of a turn-around? Probably not.

The thing is, the Nationals were already playing well up until that series. Sure, the July 20 game marked a distinct lapse in performance, but all it really represented was a change from playing well to playing better.

Now, as the Nationals head into a short two-game series with the Miami Marlins, a series that comes on the heels of a four-game losing streak, they sit on the cusp of what could potentially be a true turning point – for better or worse. Continue reading →

Is the NL East a two-team race?

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Before getting to the topic at hand, let us travel back nearly a week to the beginning of the Washington Nationals’ four-game series with the Atlanta Braves, a divisional rival that was – and still is – hot on the Nationals’ heels with just a 3.5 game deficit for first place in the National League East.

The series was lauded by the media as the most important series of the year so far for the Nationals, as it presented a grand opportunity for the Nationals to gain significant ground on a serious threat for the pennant.  Conversely, a sweep would have seen them fall to second place in the division and left them 0.5 games behind the Braves.

After surrendering a 9-0 lead, the Nationals lost the first game of the series in an extra-innings game that would dishearten this pessimistic fan and stir up the image of the Hindenburg disaster. Losing the second game in the series, despite a marvelous effort by right-hander Edwin Jackson, proved to do nothing but maximize the insecurities regarding a team that was not supposed to win until, at the earliest, the 2013 season.

Ever the resilient team, the Nationals took the final two games of a series that could have ended disastrously and held their lead in the NL East at 3.5 games. The next three games, however, served as the catalyst for this idea of a two-team race. Continue reading →