Nats survived roller coaster to begin season, now can settle in

Nats survived roller coaster to begin season, now can settle in
The Nationals flew home from St. Louis on Wednesday night, owners of a 3-6 record. It's not a record anyone is going to brag about, nor should it be, but neither is it a record anyone should be afraid to acknowledge. Given all they've been through already during a roller coaster couple of weeks to begin the season, 3-6 hardly feels like a disaster. The Nats were missing nine major league players during their opening three-game series against the Braves. And perhaps the three most important...

Nats ride Ross' zeros, Zimmerman's homer to victory (updated)

Nats ride Ross' zeros, Zimmerman's homer to victory (updated)
Nine games into a season that already has featured a roller coaster of emotional highs and lows, the Nationals have plenty of questions that still need answering, particularly within a rotation that was built to carry this team. Stephen Strasburg and Patrick Corbin did not look good during this just-completed road trip. Jon Lester is still trying to build his arm back up after landing on the COVID-19-related injured list. Here, though, is one starter nobody in a Nats uniform needs to be worried...

Nats go with Turner-Soto combo atop lineup for first time in 2021

Nats go with Turner-Soto combo atop lineup for first time in 2021
Davey Martinez has mentioned more than once his interest in batting Juan Soto second at times, and his interest in batting Victor Robles ninth at times. For today's series finale in St. Louis, the Nationals manager decided to try out both in those spots. With an early-afternoon matchup against Cardinals veteran Adam Wainwright, Martinez wanted to get his two best hitters as many at-bats as possible and give them a chance to get on the board early. So it's Trea Turner leading off with Soto...

Game 9 lineups: Nats at Cardinals

Game 9 lineups: Nats at Cardinals
As bad as things went Tuesday night in St. Louis, the Nationals still woke up this morning with a chance to win the series and come home with a 3-6 record in spite of everything that's happened to this team. Maybe it's grasping at straws, but it feels like a win today would go a long way toward boosting everybody's mood. To pull it off, the Nats will need another solid start from Joe Ross, who tossed five scoreless innings against the Dodgers in his season debut. Ross should be good to build...

Harrison glad to be active, glad to be an everyday player

Harrison glad to be active, glad to be an everyday player
Josh Harrison had been through this before. Sort of. Upon signing with the Nationals shortly after opening day in 2020, the veteran utility man had to wait several days for his intake screening test - a test he says initially was lost - to be processed before he could actually join his new team. "I had to stay in my room a few extra days 'cause my test got lost," he said during a Zoom session with reporters Tuesday. "So I've been in this situation before, not as long as this one was. But I...

Questions about Strasburg abound in blowout loss (updated)

Questions about Strasburg abound in blowout loss (updated)
The red flags appeared to be there right from the get-go. Stephen Strasburg's first pitch of the night was a 91 mph fastball. There were more of them throughout a first inning that saw one ball leave the yard, then plenty more in the tortured innings that followed. Strasburg clearly didn't seem to feel right. That seemed obvious based on the numbers - eight runs allowed, five batters walked, three homers surrendered, two or three miles per hour reduced on all of his pitches - but also on what...

Lester to throw simulated game, Harris not on mound yet

Lester to throw simulated game, Harris not on mound yet
The Nationals' lineup and bench are now complete with Monday's activation of Josh Bell, Kyle Schwarber and Josh Harrison. The Nationals pitching staff, however, is still not at full strength and won't be until two veterans - Jon Lester and Will Harris - are ready to make their season debuts. Each is making progress toward that goal, but it appears each still needs some more time to get there. Lester, who was among the nine major leaguers who had been in quarantine after either testing...

Game 8 lineups: Nats at Cardinals

Game 8 lineups: Nats at Cardinals
If it worked last night, might as well see if it works again tonight, right? The Nationals liked what they got from their finally full-strength lineup in the opener of their series in St. Louis, so manager Davey Martinez is sticking with the same one through seven hitters in tonight's game at Busch Stadium. The only change among position players: Alex Avila is behind the plate instead of Yan Gomes. It's Avila's Nats debut, and in the process he becomes the team's fourth different starting...

On Fedde's turnaround, Castro's RBIs and Hand's pitch count

On Fedde's turnaround, Castro's RBIs and Hand's pitch count
The 2021 debuts of Josh Bell, Kyle Schwarber and Josh Harrison, and the effect they had on the Nationals lineup, were the dominant storyline to Monday night's game. But this 5-2 victory was made possible by several other players and several other developments worth exploring a bit deeper ... * Fedde's 180 After Erick Fedde was rocked by the Braves in his season debut five days earlier, who saw this coming? The right-hander completely reversed course against the Cardinals, allowing just one...

Newly activated regulars deliver late to end skid (updated)

Newly activated regulars deliver late to end skid (updated)
It was appropriate - probably wise - to temper expectations when the Nationals emerged from visitors' dugout tonight in St. Louis and for the first time in 2021 had their entire lineup active. As much as everyone hoped Josh Bell, Kyle Schwarber and Josh Harrison would make an immediate impact, logic suggested it was too much to expect in their first game of the season after being stuck in COVID-19-related quarantine. And for a few innings, that was indeed the appropriate sentiment. The three...

All Nats personnel cleared, most were vaccinated today

All Nats personnel cleared, most were vaccinated today
Josh Bell tried to hit miniature Wiffle balls coming at him in all sorts of directions from a pitching machine. Kyle Schwarber used a virtual reality mask to take swings against simulated pitches only he could see. Both did whatever they could to follow their Nationals teammates through the season's first week while stuck at home in quarantine. "It wasn't ideal," Schwarber said. "But you still have to make the best of your time. And I still wanted to make sure I was all the way in tune - I...

Game 7 lineups: Nats at Cardinals

Game 7 lineups: Nats at Cardinals
For the first time in 2021, the Nationals will field their full starting lineup. Now it's up to that reinforced unit to actually produce and help end a five-game skid. Josh Bell, Kyle Schwarber and Josh Harrison all were activated from the COVID-19-related injury list today and all three are in manager Davey Martinez's lineup for the series opener against the Cardinals at Busch Stadium. Bell will hit cleanup and provide protection for the already-red-hot Juan Soto, with Schwarber behind him...

Bell, Schwarber and Harrison activated, Lucroy designated

Bell, Schwarber and Harrison activated, Lucroy designated
The Nationals activated Josh Bell, Kyle Schwarber and Josh Harrison from the COVID-19-related injured list and will have all three veterans available for tonight's series opener in St. Louis. Bell, Schwarber and Harrison were cleared to return today after completing their league- and city-mandated protocols. All had been quarantined since mid-to-late last week after either testing positive for COVID-19 or being deemed close contacts to someone else who did. Manager Davey Martinez hasn't...

Three players could be in St. Louis, but Lester needs more time

Three players could be in St. Louis, but Lester needs more time
The Nationals are hoping their four remaining quarantined players will be cleared by Monday, and there's a chance Josh Bell, Kyle Schwarber and Josh Harrison could be with the club for the start of their three-game series in St. Louis, though Jon Lester is going to need more time to build his arm back up before he pitches in a big league game. "Until we have clearance, I don't know anything yet," manager Davey Martinez said today at Dodger Stadium during his pregame Zoom session with...

Depleted Nats now face physical, psychological challenges

Depleted Nats now face physical, psychological challenges
The Nationals have for the last 72 hours been in what Mike Rizzo referred to as "crisis management mode." Every moment the longtime general manager has been awake since learning one of his players tested positive for COVID-19 has been spent trying to coordinate contact tracing, trying to figure out who's healthy and who isn't healthy and trying to figure out which 26 players ultimately are going to take the field on opening day (whenever that is). "That's often the way that this job is,"...

Lester, Corbin both pitch as Nats try to figure out order

Lester, Corbin both pitch as Nats try to figure out order
A manager has two goals on March 28: Get everybody who still needs work enough work before camp ends, and make sure everybody's healthy when the charter plane takes off in 24 hours. Davey Martinez took solace in both regards following the Nationals' 11-3 win over the Cardinals today in the penultimate game of the Grapefruit League season. His heart did skip a beat momentarily when Josh Harrison (just named the opening night second baseman) was struck by a pitch in the left hand, though...

Lineups: Nats vs. Cardinals in West Palm Beach on MASN

Lineups: Nats vs. Cardinals in West Palm Beach on MASN
We've reached the final stretch at last. Two more days, two more exhibition games before the Nationals break camp and head north for good. And after Saturday's events, there suddenly isn't much left for them to decide before opening day. The swath of transactions they made during the off-day essentially set the 26-man roster. Unless they acquire another infielder or reliever before Thursday, the opening night lineup is almost certainly going include both Starlin Castro and Josh Harrison, the...

Lester and Ross effective, Castro suffers minor cramp

Lester and Ross effective, Castro suffers minor cramp
That the Nationals blew a three-run lead to the Cardinals with two outs in the bottom of the ninth today in Jupiter, Fla., was not of any real significance. Of far more consequence on this late March afternoon were the mostly positive pitching performances of Jon Lester and Joe Ross, who combined to record all but two of the game's 27 outs. And for a brief while, the most important development of the day might've been Starlin Castro's unexpected departure after he appeared to tweak something...

Lineups: Nats vs. Cardinals in West Palm Beach

Lineups: Nats vs. Cardinals in West Palm Beach
It's crunch time now, the final week of camp, when big decisions need to be made. And for the Nationals, there may be no bigger decision to make than at third base. All winter and all spring, they have made it clear Carter Kieboom is their guy, so much so that to date they hadn't had Starlin Castro or Luis García take grounders at third, just in case. Well, take a look at today's lineup against the Cardinals and look who's at third: Castro. We'll be hearing from manager Davey Martinez...

Parra debuts, Zimmerman slugs, Suero dominates

Parra debuts, Zimmerman slugs, Suero dominates
It was a spring training game, three at-bats and five innings in left field in Jupiter, Fla. Gerardo Parra had done something along those lines hundreds of times in his career. And yet this one felt different. Some 17 months removed from the last game he played in a Nationals uniform, the veteran outfielder wasn't just going through the motions when he took the field Monday. "I feel emotional inside," he said during a Zoom session with reporters afterward. "Really, really...