Lowlighted by a bases-clearing triple against a five-man infield in the Braves’ four-run 8th, Atlanta doubled up Washington 8-4 to hand the Nats their second straight Grapefruit League loss. Ace Stephen Strasburg breezed through two scoreless innings in his first spring-training start, needing just 15 pitches to get six outs, one by way of the …
Ross Detwiler’s campaign to retain his No. 5 slot in the rotation got off on the wrong foot as the Yankees tagged the 2007 1st Rd. pick for four runs in the second inning in a 4-2 win over the Nationals. Detwiler retired the side in order in the 1st, but couldn’t get out of …
Offseason acquisitions Doug Fister and Jerry Blevins made their Nats spring debuts as the DC nine bested the Miami Marlins, 10-3 on Sunday afternoon. Fister gave up a run on two hits and a walk and struck out two over the first two innings. Blevins pitched a scoreless 9th, giving up a walk. The win …
The only true contest in this game was determining which was worse — the sloppy play on the field or the unseemly call on the radio. Somehow, the Nationals didn’t lose despite committing a week’s worth of errors in one inning while the Braves scored nine times to take a 14-6 lead at the game’s …
Michael Taylor lived up to the hype this week, smacking an RBI triple to right-center in the top of the 9th to complete Washington’s comeback for a 5-4 Nats win over the Mets in the 2014 Grapefruit League opener. The three-base knock gave Manny Delcarmen the win for a scoreless 8th in which the bullpen …
Finally. Unlike football, it never feels like this has begun too soon. I don’t believe expectations this year for the big Nats are as outsized as they were a year ago, but the enthusiasm remains the same. I’d like to think that 2013 may have parsed the 2012 bandwagon fans, but then I read some …
Folks, just a quick note to assure you that we’re still here, hating on the weather and waiting for the games (and spring) to start on Friday. There’s not much for me to pass along that I’m not sure that you’ve already seen. This is the week where the beat writers discover the guys we’ve …
The Lobaton trade aside, it’s been a pretty quite month for minor-league transactions, but let’s get caught up anyway. Since the end of January, the Nats have signed the following players to minor-league contracts: C Koyie Hill RHP Luis Ayala RHP Josh Roenicke 2B Drew Rossi Hill spent part of 2012 with Syracuse, batting .163 …
With eight days to go before spring training games begin, I’ll pass along couple more top prospect lists that were issued this week to help pass the time. The first comes from MLB Draft Insider, a site run by Chris Crawford, who also writes for ESPN: 1. Lucas Giolito, RHP 2. A.J. Cole, RHP 3. …
The lovefest for the Nationals’ top pick in 2012 continues as Lucas Giolito was named as the No. 21 prospect on Baseball America’s 2014 Top 100 Prospects List. As you might have already guessed, Giolito was the sole National to make the list. Last year, it was three as Anthony Rendon (30), Giolito (67), and …