Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats The Washington Nationals got on top and stayed on top with a wire-to-wire win last night in Oakland. Today, the two teams wrap-up their season in a rubber game matchup, and the final time the Nats will play in the Oakland Coliseum. After an 11-K performance last night by MacKenzie Gore over his 5.0 scoreless innings and 90-pitches, the bullpen only gave up one-run in the remaining 4.0 innings of work to seal the win. The Nats got 2-hit games from CJ Abrams, Luis Garcia Jr., Riley Adams, and Jacob Young. The team was a poor 2-for-12 in RISP spots last night, and ..read more

Photo by Alec Geis for TalkNats The Washington Nationals were down to their final swings in the 9th inning by a score of 1-0, and received a gift from Jesse Winker in the form of a game-tying home run that erased a possible shutout and took away an L from starter Jake Irvin who pitched six brilliant innings, surrendering just one run. Winker had a 4-4 day, and was the clear star for the Nats along with Irvin who notched the first quality start of the season for the Nats. Unfortunately, the Nats were 0-10 in RISP spots and could not score any other runs in the game. Once again, consistency was ..read more

Photo by Professa Lea for TalkNats The Washington Nationals went from San Francisco to a short trip across the bay to Oakland. With Oakland’s planned move to Sacramento before landing in Las Vegas, this could be the final series for the Nats in the Oakland Coliseum. The Nats are coming off of a nice series win in San Francisco. They have a chance to get above .500 in this series, and as they say, it all begins with a Nats’ win tonight. The team made the expected roster move adding Amos Willingham as an extra arm in the bullpen as they decide what to do with a starter that could be needed on Mo ..read more

Photos by Abbie Headington for TalkNats In one game yesterday, James Wood matched Eddie Rosario‘s hit total for the season, and then Wood beat his home run total in his final at-bat before the rains cut Thursday’s game short in the 8th inning. Wood was a triple shy of a cycle yesterday as he faced Toronto’s No. 1 prospect in lefty Ricky Tiedemann who is also the top left-handed pitching prospect in baseball. The cycle is known as a quirky feat because Wood’s results yesterday were much better than hitting a home run, triple, double, and a single in one game. Wood cranked two home runs, a doubl ..read more

Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats The Washington Nationals already had Joan Adon with the team yesterday. They said he was there as part of the taxi squad. Well, was that really the whole truth? Today we found out that Adon would be pitching tonight as Josiah Gray was scratched and placed on the 15-day IL with a right elbow/forearm flexor strain retroactive to April 6. Has Gray been pitching through pain? His 14.04 ERA after two horrific starts was painful for anyone watching as well as worrisome that something was physically wrong with Gray. For a player who has never been on the IL before, he ..read more

Photo by Daniel Watson for TalkNats The Washington Nationals flew to San Francisco last night in their new American Airlines Airbus A321-253NX that is all decked out in first class luxury. San Fran is their first leg of this West Coast swing in Oracle Park. After this series against the Giants, the Nats will then go across the bay to Oakland, and next week on Jackie Robinson Day, the Nats will finish up in Los Angeles to play the Dodgers. Depending on what happens in the Mets game and the Phillies game, we will see if the Nats are in second, third of fourth place later tonight in the NL East a ..read more

Photo by Alec Geis for TalkNats Some might point to the addition of Sean Doolittle to the Washington Nationals coaching staff as a reason for optimism. Others believe that the only way to go was up. But so far, it has been a mixed bag of results for the Nats’ pitching staff in nearly two turns through the starting rotation. The stats and the W/L record say the Nats are a bad team — but don’t be so quick to judge. The Nats starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 6.85 for 29th in MLB. Obviously sample sizes are miniscule at this point, and nothing to brag about there. T ..read more

Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats The Washington Nationals find themselves in the middle of the NL East in third place and a disappointing 2-6 record. They desperately needed some wins in this series, and lost the first two games of this series — leaving today as a salvage game. Once again, the team will be without CJ Abrams in the starting lineup after he jammed his hand on second base in a slide on Friday. Your top Washington Nationals on the FanGraphs’ WAR leaderboard are Abrams, Luis Garcia Jr., and Jesse Winker all at +0.3. How can Abrams go from +0.5 to +0.3 without playing? The extreme b ..read more

Photo by Marlene Koenig for TalkNats Life throws you curveballs beyond your control. In normal life, retirement is synonymous with old age. In baseball terms, the mid-30’s is a very common point for a player to retire. When Stephen Strasburg opted-out of his original contract extension with the Washington Nationals, and subsequently signed a 7-year, $235 million deal after the 2019 season, his retirement would have been at some point after the 2026 season. But health issues from thoracic outlet syndrome clearly made an early baseball retirement a reality — sooner than later — and that day came ..read more

Photo by Andrew Lang for TalkNats “I’m not a pitching coach…but” were not words spoken by Jim Hickey of the Washington Nationals. Those are words of my own confession. Hickey actually holds the title of pitching coach. We’ve heard his manager, Dave Martinez, say over and over that Josiah Gray must establish his fastball to be effective…and that is great in theory. But in reality, Gray has to pitch to zeroes, and be efficient in doing so with his best stuff. You also have to accept who you are as a player, and what you do well — and what you don’t. Yesterday, Gray gave up 6-runs over 4⅓ innings ..read more