Luis García, Jr. came off the bench and hit a pinch hit home run to spark the Nationals’ comeback in a 9-3 win over the Blue Jays last night... OFFENSIVE WOES ... THEN LUIS GARCÍA, JR.: Joey Meneses went 4 for 30 (.133/.133/.167) with a double and five Ks on the Nationals’ seven-game road trip to Miami and Texas. Jesse Winker went 4 for 27 (.148/.233/.259), hitting one home run, and taking three walks while striking out eight times in 30 plate appearances. Keibert Ruiz started 5 of the 7 games, and went 2 for 18 (.111/.200/.278), hitting a home run, taking a walk, and striking out three times ..read more

Former Nationals’ coach and, for three games, manager now part of coaching staff for the Polish national team... WARSAW, Poland – “I’m the winningest manager (by percentage) in Nationals’ history,” said John McLaren, with a grin, sitting in the lobby of an upscale hotel minutes from Old Town Warsaw. It is a glorious spring morning in the Polish capital, a city of about 1.8 million whose World War II horrors are always just around the corner and enough to scare any hardened historian. But McLaren – a baseball lifer who turns 72 in September – has come to the “New York City of Eastern Europe” i ..read more

Notes and quotes on the Nationals’ 7-1 loss in the finale in the Rangers’ home... MITCHELL PARKER IN TEXAS: Mitchell Parker, in his third start in the majors, dealt with some adversity, but handled it well. Parker gave up leadoff and one-out singles and a base-loading walk in the first inning of the outing last weekend in Miami, then threw a wild pitch which allowed a run to score. A second walk, his first two in the majors, after he’d struggled walking batters in the minors, loaded the bases back up, but he got out No. 3, and held the opposition to the one run over four innings, in an 82-pit ..read more

Notes and quotes from the Nationals’ 1-0 win over the Rangers in Arlington, TX. MAGICIAN: Trevor Williams retired the side in order in the first inning last night, but given a 1-0 lead to work with in the top of the second inning of the second of three with the Texas Rangers in Arlington, TX, the starter surrendered three straight singles, as the home team loaded the bases with no one out. A weak grounder to third and an out at home, a foul-tip strike three, and a groundout over to short followed as Williams worked his way out of the early jam. Washington’s starter stranded two, two-out walks ..read more

Notes and quotes on MacKenzie Gore’s start against the Rangers, and the Nationals’ loss in the series opener... CJ ABRAMS’ WORLD: Going into last night’s series opener in Arlington, TX, CJ Abrams had reached base safely in 15 straight games, with a .317/.414/.700 line, five doubles, three triples, four home runs, and eight walks in 70 plate appearances over course of the on-base streak, and hits in 14 of the 15 (reaching via HBP on an 0 for 3 night in his only hitless game in that stretch). Abrams homered (7) and walked twice in the series finale in Miami on Monday night, and his manager, Dav ..read more

Notes and quotes from the Nationals’ sweeeeep!!! SWEEP THE LEG FISH, JOHNNY!!!: As noted in Washington’s pregame notes for the series finale in Miami, the Nationals went into the fourth of four with the Marlins in loanDepot park looking for the four-game sweep, which, if they completed it, would be the, “... first four-game sweep since [September] 23-26, 2019 vs. Philadelphia,” which was actually, “...a five-game sweep due to a doubleheader on Sept. 24.” “Washington’s only other four-game sweep of [the] Marlins was Sept. 18-21, 2014 at Miami,” the club added. As manager Davey Martinez told re ..read more

Notes and quotes on the Nationals’ comeback win over the Marlins in Miami... SENZEL BOMBS: Nick Senzel hit a career-high 13 home runs last season, one more than he hit as a rookie in 2019, with 9 of his 13 home runs off of left-handed pitchers, and a .347 AVG with a .619 SLG in his at-bats against lefties on the year. Senzel, 28, had a rough start to his first season in D.C., breaking his thumb before the first game of the year, but he was heating up in recent days, with three homers in four games. Manager Davey Martinez decided to move Senzel up to second in the lineup for the 3rd of 4 with ..read more

Scott Taetsch-USA TODAY Sports Your home of the world-famous Washington Nationals GameThreads, brought to you since 2007 under the current management here at FBB... Hello. We’re back again for more Washington Nationals baseball. YESSSSSSS!!!!!! And as we did last season, and the year before, we are going to set up one GameThread for the entire 2023 2024 season and we’re going to be leaving it up all summer, so you will know where to go when you want to talk to your fellow Nats fans during the games. We’re going to park this post on the front page (in the No. 2 spot, see pic below) and leave it ..read more

Notes and quotes on the Nationals’ second win in a row in the Marlins’ home... WINK AND A NOD SLAM: Jesse Winker started the day hitting .345 against right-handed pitchers in the first month-plus (19 for 55, with five doubles, a home run, and seven talks vs RHP on the year), but he struck out on three pitches/a two-strike foul-tip first time up against Miami Marlins’ right-hander Edward Cabrera in the top of the first, then K’d looking in a six-pitch at-bat in the third inning. In his third trip to the plate, the bases were loaded with one out in a 2-1 game in the visitor’s favor, after the N ..read more

Notes and quotes from Washington’s series opener in Miami... NO OFFENSE: Davey Martinez’s club went 4 for 20 with runners in scoring position and 23 left on base in the three-game set with the Los Angeles Dodgers in Nationals Park, losing all three games, prompting Washington’s manager to talk after the sweep was complete about the need to get their offense back on track. “We’re struggling right now offensively as a whole. We can’t put nothing together,” Martinez told reporters after the series finale in the nation’s capital. “We got to get our offense going again. We’re playing well, playing ..read more