Game 113 lineups: Nats at Mets

Game 113 lineups: Nats at Mets
For months, the Nationals found themselves chasing the Mets in the National League East, and because they ultimately weren't able to gain enough ground in the division race, their leaders decided it was time to undergo a mass rebuild. Since then, what's happened to the Mets? They've gone in the tank as well, losing nine of 11 and turning a four-game lead in the NL East into a 2 1/2-game deficit that now sees them trailing both the Phillies and Braves. It's too late for the Nats to take...

With Soto sitting again, Bell returns to roots in right field

With Soto sitting again, Bell returns to roots in right field
Five years removed from his last appearance there in a game, and one month since he began getting early-afternoon reps there, Josh Bell is finally making his official return to the outfield. Bell, who has exclusively played first base since 2017, will start in right field this afternoon when the Nationals wrap up their weekend series against the Braves at Truist Park. It's a move that has been in the works for a while, with manager Davey Martinez hoping to find a way to get both Bell and Ryan...

Game 112 lineups: Nats at Braves

Game 112 lineups: Nats at Braves
Last night was a good night for the Nationals. Not only because they won, 3-2, but because the guys who made the win possible are front-and-center members of their rebuilding effort. Josiah Gray struck out 10 over five impressive innings. Mason Thompson struck out a pair during a scoreless inning of relief. Riley Adams blasted the game-flipping homer with two outs in the top of the ninth. And Kyle Finnegan shut the door on the Braves with a 1-2-3 bottom of the ninth. So, what's next? Well,...

Soto out of lineup again, MRI on knee is negative

Soto out of lineup again, MRI on knee is negative
Juan Soto is out of the Nationals lineup for the second straight day with a right knee contusion that required an MRI this morning to be sure the injury wasn't more serious. Soto, who hurt himself while taking a secondary lead off second base in the ninth inning of Wednesday's game at Nationals Park, has been taking part in some pregame drills in Atlanta prior to each of the team's last two games. But manager Davey Martinez said the club wasn't ready to take a chance putting him back in the...

Game 111 lineups: Nats at Braves

Game 111 lineups: Nats at Braves
The Nationals aren't playing winning baseball right now, not anything close to winning baseball. They enter tonight's game in Atlanta having dropped five in a row and 23 of 32 overall. So the focus, of course, turns to individual performances, especially those who figure into the club's long-term plans. So tonight we get an opportunity to watch one of the key building blocks again: Josiah Gray. The 23-year-old right-hander, one of the key prospects acquired from the Dodgers for Max Scherzer...

Soto-less Nationals drop fifth straight (updated)

Soto-less Nationals drop fifth straight (updated)
Take a Nationals lineup already depleted by the trades of Trea Turner, Yan Gomes, Josh Harrison and Kyle Schwarber, then remove Juan Soto from the equation, and what do you get? Well, you get this: The Nats were held to five hits (two of them in the ninth inning with the game already out of reach) by the Braves during an 8-4 loss tonight at Truist Park. Already having a tough go of things one week after selling off just about every prominent veteran on their roster at the trade deadline, the...

Soto not in Nats lineup after tweaking knee Thursday

Soto not in Nats lineup after tweaking knee Thursday
Davey Martinez arrived in the visitors' Zoom press conference room in Atlanta shortly before 5 p.m. today and immediately was asked about Juan Soto's status for the Nationals' series opener against the Braves. Martinez, while insisting he's not significantly concerned about his star slugger's right knee, made it clear he was hesitant to put him in tonight's lineup. "I'm at 50-50 right now, I really am," Martinez said. "Unless he comes in and says he's feels great, we might do...

Game 110 lineups: Nats at Braves

Game 110 lineups: Nats at Braves
The Nationals are in a tough spot right now, and if you didn't already know why, here's some evidence: In eight of their last 12 games, they've held the lead going into the ninth inning. And they've only emerged victorious in three of them. So on one hand, even the rebuilding, inexperienced Nats are still putting themselves in a position to win more than they lose. But they're not actually winning more than they're losing. Quite the contrary. They've lost 22 of their last 31. That's the...

Game 107 lineups: Nats vs. Phillies

Game 107 lineups: Nats vs. Phillies
Games like last night, when a recently acquired prospect makes his debut, are about the future. Games like tonight, when a struggling veteran takes the mound yet again, are about something else. Patrick Corbin is part of the Nationals' future, but that's only because his contract dictates it. He's signed for three more seasons and still owed $82 million. He's not going anywhere. So the Nats need Corbin to figure out how to be an effective pitcher again, something he hasn't been since the...

Should the Nats have locked up more of their own stars?

Should the Nats have locked up more of their own stars?
It started with Jordan Zimmermann and Ian Desmond, who departed after the 2015 season. Then came Bryce Harper following the 2018 season. And, of course, Anthony Rendon a few months after they won the 2019 World Series. The Nationals, an organization that long prided itself on developing its own star players, has seen nearly all of them depart once they reached free agency. There have been two notable exceptions over the years: Ryan Zimmerman and Stephen Strasburg. Each was a high first-round...

Zimmerman endorses rebuild, contemplates his future

Zimmerman endorses rebuild, contemplates his future
Ryan Zimmerman knows what it's like to be part of a rebuild. Even if the specific details have faded from his mind over the last 12 years, the longest-tenured player in Nationals history remembers taking the field every night in 2009 on a 103-loss club that featured only a handful of players who would actually stick around long enough to be part of the club's first division title three years later. But what Zimmerman - and the Nationals, by extension - experienced this week was completely...

Game 104 lineups: Nats vs. Cubs

Game 104 lineups: Nats vs. Cubs
At the end of an emotional 36-hour stretch for a completely gutted Nationals roster was this perhaps unexpected fact: The Nats not only beat the Cubs on Friday night, they also picked up a game on everyone in front of them in the National League East. They're now 6 1/2 games back of the Mets. No, the front office isn't suddenly regretting their decision to trade away eight veterans in the first step of an acknowledged franchise rebuild, but the guys who do take the field every night the rest...

Turner leaves after positive test, Hand closes out win (updated)

Turner leaves after positive test, Hand closes out win (updated)
As if this week's events - and the prospect of events still to come - hadn't already left the Nationals and all who observe them on edge, here now was the sight of Trea Turner departing tonight's game in Philadelphia after scoring on Josh Bell's top-of-the-first homer. Given the date on the calendar and the organization's July freefall, it wasn't inappropriate to immediately wonder if Turner had just been traded. Then, as replays of his trip around the bases began to be shown, it seemed...

Game 99 lineups: Nats at Phillies

Game 99 lineups: Nats at Phillies
Just how dire has the Nationals' predicament become? Well, consider the following ... The Nats are 5-15 this month. That's the worst 20-game stretch this team has experienced since June/July 2018. And prior to that, it hadn't happened since 2010, the last time the franchise lost 90 games in a season. What does that mean? Well, there are 64 games now left. The best 64-game stretch in club was 44-20, which came (not surprisingly) during the 2019 season. If the current Nationals somehow go...

Game 98 lineups: Nats at Orioles

Game 98 lineups: Nats at Orioles
Needing a win to prevent a three-game sweep by the Orioles at Camden Yards, the Nationals today turn to a most unlikely pitcher to halt a three-game skid, secure a win in the season series against the Birds and provide some momentum heading into a four-game series in Philadelphia that could make or break Washington's campaign. Righty Paolo Espino (2-2, 3.00 ERA) is 2-1 with a 2.63 ERA in six starts this season, morphing from a journeyman to a trusted resource out of necessity. The 34-year-old...

Orioles blasts upend Lester in 5-3 loss (updated)

Orioles blasts upend Lester in 5-3 loss (updated)
Though Davey Martinez may rely on a "Go 1-0 every day" mantra, the unspoken subtext of the Nationals manager's repetitive refrain is that his team must take care of business by asserting itself against weaker competition. Seeking to prove to general manager Mike Rizzo that they are contenders instead of pretenders, the Nats came to Camden Yards hoping to have their way with an inferior Orioles club in a weekend interleague series. Suffice it to say that it hasn't quite worked out as the...

Big names rise to occasion, rally Nats to victory (updated)

Big names rise to occasion, rally Nats to victory (updated)
If they're going to make their move over the next week and a half and convince their general manager he should buy at the trade deadline, the Nationals are going to have to win games on the shoulders of their stars. That's what Mike Rizzo said this afternoon in discussing how his roster, depleted by injuries, could still find a path to contention in a wide-open National League East. "The more your core guys get hurt, the more pressure is put on your star players," Rizzo said in a pregame...

Nats hammer Marlins behind Lester's arm and bat (updated)

Nats hammer Marlins behind Lester's arm and bat (updated)
They knew the schedule was about to ease up. They just needed to get through a daunting 14-game stretch against the National League West's three contenders, sandwiched around the All-Star break, and then hope the tide would begin to turn once they had a chance to start facing lesser competition. And if tonight's 18-1 thrashing of the last-place Marlins is a sign of things to come, the Nationals might just have another run in them. And Jon Lester might not have to worry about his immediate job...

Soto carrying Home Run Derby success into second half

Soto carrying Home Run Derby success into second half
It was supposed to be a joke, the notion that the Home Run Derby might actually fix Juan Soto's swing after a first half that saw the Nationals slugger pound baseballs into the ground and fail to elevate them into the air. But Soto himself suggested he thought the idea had some merit. And when he promptly eliminated fan favorite Shohei Ohtani in the first round of the exhibition last week at Coors Field, it started to gain some momentum. And now, following a blistering weekend at the plate for...

Escobar's ninth-inning hit caps emotional win for Nats (updated)

Escobar's ninth-inning hit caps emotional win for Nats (updated)
At the end of a weekend dominated by tragic events that occurred outside Nationals Park, the energy level inside the ballpark was understandably down. Some of that had to do with circumstances out of the home team's control, but some of it also had to do with the performance that team had put forth against a Padres club that clearly looked superior throughout the series. A wild, back-and-forth affair that saw the Nationals blow the lead, then retake it, then blow it again left everyone in the...