After three long months, it's deadline day (maybe)

After three long months, it's deadline day (maybe)
Major League Baseball's lockout began three months ago. Three long months. And the reason those three months have felt so long was the fact we knew all along there was little chance of anything getting done until owners and players faced a real deadline with real pressure. In other words, the postponement of opening day. Well, three long months later, we've finally arrived at deadline day. Maybe. In MLB's eyes, today is the deadline. Commissioner Rob Manfred has made it painfully clear the...

Can Soto topple Harper for NL MVP honors tonight?

Can Soto topple Harper for NL MVP honors tonight?
Wednesday night, we saw a former Nationals star come up short in a bid to win another major end-of-season award. Tonight, we could see either a different former Nationals star or a current one win the biggest award of all. The National League MVP will be announced around 6:25 p.m., and the names of the two frontrunners are as familiar as they get around here: Bryce Harper and Juan Soto. (Fernando Tatis Jr. also was named a finalist, but the Padres shortstop is widely expected to finish third...

Game 162 lineups: Nats vs. Red Sox

Game 162 lineups: Nats vs. Red Sox
Well, here we are. It's Game 162, the end of a long and winding and eventful but ultimately disappointing baseball season in the nation's capital. If someone told you on opening day everything that would transpire over the ensuing six months, would you have believed it? Probably not. There is, however, meaningful baseball to be played today on South Capitol Street. Perhaps not so meaningful for the Nationals, but critical to the Red Sox, who enter the day tied with the Yankees atop the...

Game 161 lineups: Nats vs. Red Sox

Game 161 lineups: Nats vs. Red Sox
The Nationals put up a fight Friday night against the Red Sox, but couldn't convert a few golden opportunities with runners in scoring position and wound up losing 4-2. In the process, the Red Sox moved a step closer to clinching a spot in Tuesday night's American League wild card game. Their magic number is at two entering the day, so they're in with a win and losses by the Blue Jays (who play at 3:07 p.m.) and Mariners (who don't play until 9:10 p.m.). It's up to the Nats to try to delay...

Game 160 lineups: Nats vs. Red Sox

Game 160 lineups: Nats vs. Red Sox
We have arrived at last at the final homestand of the season. Three more games to wrap up what undeniably has been a season most everyone around here wants to forget. But first, there are three games to play against a team that very much needs to win as many of these as it can. The Red Sox enter play tied with the red-hot Mariners for the second wild card berth in the American League, two games behind the Yankees, one game ahead of the Blue Jays. There are all kinds of scenarios that could play...

Game 159 lineups: Nats at Rockies

Game 159 lineups: Nats at Rockies
It's the final road game of the season for the Nationals, who haven't exactly thrived away from home in 2021. They enter today's matinee at Coors Field with a 30-50 record on the road, though if they win it'll only be the fifth-worst away record in club history, the 2006, 2008, 2009 and 2010 teams having been worse. It's also the final start of the season for Paolo Espino. Who could've imagined the way this played out for the journeyman right-hander? Summoned way back in mid-April for an...

Game 158 lineups: Nats at Rockies

Game 158 lineups: Nats at Rockies
By any measure, it's been a miserable season for Patrick Corbin. The left-hander enters tonight's start at Coors Field with a 9-15 record and 5.92 ERA. A bad outing in this one, and he might just complete one of the worst seasons by any big league starter in a long time. The last pitcher to lose 16 games while posting an ERA over 6.00: Jason Marquis of the 2006 Cardinals (a team that actually won the World Series). So, Corbin would certainly like to avoid reaching both of those thresholds...

Game 157 lineups: Nats at Rockies

Game 157 lineups: Nats at Rockies
We have reached the final week of the season, which makes this the final road series of the season. The Nationals are at Coors Field for the first time since April 24, 2019. Things have changed just a bit since then. That day, Aníbal Sánchez took the loss and fell to 0-3 with a 6.00 ERA. Matt Adams was the cleanup hitter. Jake Noll batted seventh. Wilmer Difo batted ninth. Trevor Rosenthal gave up three runs on two hits, a walk, a hit batter and three wild pitches. Now, a completely new...

Game 154 lineups: Nats at Reds (updated)

Game 154 lineups: Nats at Reds (updated)
What's this, a winning streak? By the Nationals? Why, yes, it is. Three in a row by manager Davey Martinez's bunch after Thursday night's 3-2 victory over the Reds in Cincinnati. It's the club's first three-game winning streak since Aug. 17-20. These guys haven't won four in a row since June 27-30, which brought them to their high point of the season at 40-38 thanks to Trea Turner's third career cycle. Things have gone just a little bit downhill since then, I suppose you could say. But...

Game 153 lineups: Nats at Reds

Game 153 lineups: Nats at Reds
The Nationals have finally completed the National League East portion of their 2021 schedule. They played all 76 required games against the Braves, Mets, Phillies and Marlins, going a combined 30-46 along the way. (Not great, obviously.) So what's left on the slate? Three series against non-division opponents: the Reds, Rockies and Red Sox. It begins in Cincinnati with a four-game series that opens tonight. The Reds are trying to hang on the race for the final NL wild card berth, a wild race...

Game 152 lineups: Nats at Marlins

Game 152 lineups: Nats at Marlins
It's been a while since the Nationals last won a series. How long? How about Aug. 17-18, when they swept the Blue Jays in a two-game series in D.C. They haven't won a three-game series since July 30-Aug. 1 against the Cubs. That's a long time. Tonight, though, the Nats have a chance to end that streak if they can beat the Marlins in their series finale and follow up Tuesday night's 7-1 victory with another. It's also an opportunity for Josiah Gray to turn his season back around. The rookie...

Game 151 lineups: Nats at Marlins

Game 151 lineups: Nats at Marlins
It's Rematch No. 2 tonight in Miami, and this time the dueling starters have the same name. Yes, for the second time in a week, it's Josh Rogers versus Trevor Rogers, and who doesn't get excited for that? The first showdown between these two left-handers occurred last Wednesday in D.C., with the Nationals' Rogers tossing five scoreless innings and the Marlins' Rogers allowing only one run over four innings. Things completely fell apart after that, though, especially on the Nats' side of...

Game 150 lineups: Nats at Marlins

Game 150 lineups: Nats at Marlins
If you feel like you've seen the Nationals and Marlins play each other enough already this season, well, join the club. Alas, there are three games remaining on the head-to-head schedule between these two division foes and those will be taking place over the next three nights. When they wrap things up Wednesday night, the Nats will have faced the Marlins 19 times for the season, but nine times over the previous month. That's a lot. And the result of this series in Miami could go a long way...

Game 149 lineups: Nats vs. Rockies

Game 149 lineups: Nats vs. Rockies
The Nationals are not a good baseball team. Sorry to put it so harshly, but it's impossible to ignore that fact at this point. And they haven't just been bad since the trade deadline; they already were headed well in that direction a month prior to it. They've now played 70 games since July 1, and their record across that span is a dismal 20-50, worst in the majors. It also matches the worst 70-game stretch in club history, previously achieved only by the 2008 and 2009 teams. Those two...

Game 146 lineups: Nats vs. Marlins

Game 146 lineups: Nats vs. Marlins
The nexus of the universe stands at the corner of South Capitol Street and Potomac Avenue SE this afternoon, where both the Nationals and Marlins will be sending left-handed pitchers to the mound named Rogers. OK, so this is hardly cosmos-bending stuff, but it is a funny little quirk about the matchup for today's series finale at Nationals Park. Josh Rogers gets the start for the Nats, his third since his promotion from Triple-A Rochester. And he's been pretty good in each of his previous two...

Game 145 lineups: Nats vs. Marlins

Game 145 lineups: Nats vs. Marlins
The Nationals avoided the ignominy of being no-hit for the first time Monday night, but let's be honest: Even if it happened, it would've come against a worthy foe in Sandy Alcantara, an All-Star who was in peak form in the series opener. Tonight, they face a highly touted, but far less accomplished opponent in Jesús Luzardo. Yes, the same Luzardo the Nationals drafted and then traded to the Athletics in the Sean Doolittle/Ryan Madson deal. The same Luzardo who was traded to Miami this...

Game 144 lineups: Nats vs. Marlins

Game 144 lineups: Nats vs. Marlins
Would you believe we're down to the final three weeks of the season? Yep, tonight the Nationals begin a six-game homestand with the Marlins and Rockies. After that, they're on a three-city road trip to Miami, Cincinnati and Colorado. And then they come home for the final series against the Red Sox. And that's it. Time flies when you're having fun. Or something like that. The Nats will be hoping to actually win this series from the Marlins, a task that proved too difficult the last time they...

Game 141 lineups: Nats at Pirates

Game 141 lineups: Nats at Pirates
If you're interested in silver linings, here's one for you: The Nationals are done playing the National League's division title contenders for the season. Yep, they're wrapped things up against the Braves, Phillies, Mets, Brewers, Giants and Dodgers, and though there are still series remaining with the wild card contending Reds and Red Sox, the worst of the schedule is now behind them. And that could be significant, because of this fact: The Nats finished a dismal 22-55 against those six NL...

Game 140 lineups: Nats at Braves

Game 140 lineups: Nats at Braves
The Nationals gutted out a 4-2 victory Wednesday night in Atlanta, thanks to 8 2/3 innings from six relievers who were thrust into overtime duties after Sean Nolin was ejected eight pitches in for throwing at Freddie Freeman. Where does that leave them for tonight's series finale at Truist Park? Well, first and foremost, they need innings from Erick Fedde. That's a big ask for a guy who needed 80 pitches just to get through three innings against the Mets last weekend. Not to mention a big ask...

Game 137 lineups: Nats vs. Mets

Game 137 lineups: Nats vs. Mets
At long last, the Nationals and Mets wrap up their five-game holiday weekend series, not to mention their 19-game season series, this afternoon. These two teams have been playing each other way too much lately. In fact, 11 of the Nats' last 25 games have come against the Mets. I think I speak for everyone who has had to cover or watch all these games when I say: Thank God. As for today's finale, it's Patrick Corbin on the mound, trying desperately to put together a quality start and perhaps...