Game 130: Nats at Royals

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After a 7-2 victory over the Royals last night, the Nationals have now won five straight games, all on the road, and 11 of their last 15 overall. They stand above .500 for the first time since July 14 and are 12 games back in the division after the Braves' third straight loss on Saturday. That's the closest they've been in three weeks. Just when they were written off, Washington has pulled off its best stretch of the 2013 season.

Even if the Nats keep it up the division is still a major longshot, but fortunately for them, the Reds haven't been playing their best baseball either. The Nats now sit 8.5 games back from the Reds for the final NL Wild Card spot, and Washington has the advantage with their schedule. After they play the Royals today, the Nats face teams with losing records in each of their next 19 games. Conversely, the Reds play expected playoff teams in ten of their next 13, including seven games against the Cardinals.

Today the Nats look for their sixth consecutive win which would be their longest winning streak of the season. Dan Haren (8-11, 4.64) takes the mound against a club he's been very successful against in the past. Through ten career starts vs. the Royals he is 5-2 with a 2.53 ERA.

Pitching for Kansas City will be right-hander Ervin Santana who has been one of their more reliable starters this year. He holds a 3.13 ERA through 167 innings in what has been the best season of his nine-year MLB career.

Enjoy the game...

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at KANSAS CITY ROYALS
Where: Kauffman Stadium
Gametime: 2:10 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN 2, MLB.tv
Radio: WJFK (106.7 FM), WFED (1500), XM 869
Weather: Mostly sunny, 92 degrees, Wind 10 mph in from LF

NATIONALS (65-64)
CF Denard Span
3B Ryan Zimmerman
RF Bryce Harper
DH Jayson Werth
SS Ian Desmond
1B Adam LaRoche
C Wilson Ramos
LF Tyler Moore
2B Anthony Rendon
RHP Dan Haren

Game 127: Nats at Cubs

Mark Zuckerman / NATS INSIDER

CHICAGO — Hello one last time from Wrigley Field, where the weather has taken a turn for the worse. There's a fairly intense storm system making its way through the area, and it could impact the start of today's series finale between the Nationals and Cubs. Stay tuned for weather updates.

Once they do get started, Stephen Strasburg will be on the mound, making his first appearance since Saturday night's ejection in Atlanta. Strasburg, who wasn't punished by MLB for hitting the Braves' Justin Upton and then twice throwing behind Andrelton Simmons, should be plenty fresh in the wake of the shortest start of his career. How will his command be? I think a lot of people are very curious about that.

The Nationals have several lineup changes. With lefty Travis Wood on the mound for the Cubs, Davey Johnson is loading with right-handed hitters, including Scott Hairston and Tyler Moore. Ian Desmond also gets the day off. Desmond tweaked his back during BP yesterday but started the game and looked fine, only to be pulled later for precautionary reasons. Afterward, he insisted he was fine and expected to play today, but it looks like Davey isn't taking any chances.

Updates to come...

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at CHICAGO CUBS
Where: Wrigley Field
Gametime: 2:20 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, Ch. 9, MLB.tv
Radio: WJFK (106.7 FM), WFED (1500), XM 185
Weather: Storms, 80 degrees, Wind 7 mph in from LF

NATIONALS (62-64)
CF Bryce Harper
SS Anthony Rendon
3B Ryan Zimmerman
RF Jayson Werth

Happy to win ugly

USA Today Sports Images

CHICAGO — Very little about the Nationals' 4-1 victory over the Cubs Tuesday night was aesthetically pleasing. Dan Haren, feeling a bit off after making a surprise relief appearance only three days earlier, gutted his way through six innings on the mound. Ian Desmond and Ryan Zimmerman committed errors on routine plays. Baserunning mistakes were made. Rafael Soriano gave up yet another ninth-inning homer.

And then there was the Nationals' lineup, which merely put 21 men on base over nine innings, somehow managing to push only four of them across the plate. Two of them in the top of the ninth.

"Some of the ways we're finding ways to get out is unbelievable," Desmond said. "It's bound to change at some point. It did in the ninth, and hopefully we can continue to do that and hopefully it carries over."

There were no complaints from the Nationals clubhouse after this one, though. Wins have become too rare for this team, so they'll gladly take them however they can.
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Instant analysis: Nats 6, Giants 5

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Game in a nutshell: Jordan Zimmermann's evening got off to a rocky start, but the Nationals took care of their right-hander by pouncing on Tim Lincecum for six runs, five of them coming in the bottom of the fourth. Zimmermann battled through his struggles to post seven innings of one-run ball, leaving the Nationals bullpen a 5-run lead with only six outs to record. That proved more of a challenge than anyone would have liked. Ian Krol served up a homer to Brandon Belt in the eighth. Ryan Mattheus then failed to retire any of the three batters he faced, forcing Davey Johnson to summon Tyler Clippard to put out the fire. Clippard, as he so often does, came through with two huge strikeouts. Rafael Soriano gave up a run with two outs in the ninth and put the tying runner on second but got a huge catch from Denard Span to end the game and finish off his 31st save, securing the Nationals' fifth straight victory. It's only the second time this year they've won five straight (the other came in early May). They'll go for the sweep tomorrow, with a chance to get back to the .500 mark.

Hitting highlight: Yes, the five-run fourth inning (in which the Nationals sent 10 men to the plate) was mighty impressive. But so, too, was Ian Desmond's solo blast in the bottom of the second. It

Harper growing into leader for Nats

During his rookie season, Bryce Harper was brought up to help an already loaded Nationals team that was first place in their division. He was an added plus to a roster of veterans, looked at for a spark with several guys down to injury.

Fast forward to this year and Harper is one of the central figures in the Nats' clubhouse. Washington reconfigured their team to replace offense with defense and have looked at Harper to be one of the central pieces of their lineup. While they didn't necessarily need him in 2012, now he's irreplaceable.

It was a quick transition for the young star who's still only 20-years-old, but not a challenge too big. He definitely sees a difference in his role this season, and hopes to expand his place as a leader on the team moving forward.

"I was just going to keep my mouth shut for the whole year last year, just try to play my game and play as hard as I could every single day. I was truly blessed and humbled to be a part of this team last year and to be a part of it this year," he said.

Harper spoke up after a blowout loss against the Tigers on July 31, saying the Nats needed to play with more heart, from the manager down. It was a big step in the maturity of the All-Star outfielder, his first real attempt at making a public rallying cry.

1 bad pitch, 10 games back

Associated Press

DETROIT — He had dominated one of baseball's toughest lineups all night, but here stood Stephen Strasburg in the bottom of the sixth inning Tuesday night, needing to execute one more pitch in order to escape a bases-loaded jam and keep the Nationals and Tigers tied at Comerica Park.

The count was 2-1 to Alex Avila, and Wilson Ramos called for a fastball down and away to Detroit's .193-hitting catcher. Strasburg, though, misfired by a foot, leaving the 96-mph heater on the lower-inside corner, right in Avila's wheelhouse. As the ball soared toward the right-field bleachers and the crowd of 41,880 rejoiced the grand slam, Strasburg could only soak it all in, mutter a couple of things and try to recompose himself and finish his evening.

The rest of the Nationals, meanwhile, could only take a deep breath and come to grips with their latest dose of stark reality: This 5-1 loss to Detroit, combined with the Braves' lopsided win over Colorado, leaves them a full 10 games back in the NL East entering the final day of July.

"I really could care less what the Braves do," shortstop Ian Desmond said. "We're [three] games under .500. We've got to worry about ourselves. That's first and foremost. And then the rest will take care of itself."

It may not matter if the rest takes care of itself. The Nationals aren't holding up their end of the bargain, and because of it they're digging themselves into an even deeper hole.
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Instant Analysis: Nats 4, Mets 1

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Game in a nutshell: The Nationals rode some early scoring and one of Dan Haren's best starts of the season to a 4-1 victory over the Mets, their third win in their last four games. Haren was efficient right from the start and pitched the first three innings without allowing a hit. He even added a double and a run to his cause in an all around great day for the veteran starter. The Nats' offense also gave Haren some early help with two runs in the second inning off solo homers and another two in the third off a two-run bomb by Bryce Harper. Once Haren left the game after the seventh, Tyler Clippard and Rafael Soriano closed it out, working around a hour-long rain delay. After a grueling doubleheader and dramatic postgame, the Nats showed no ill effects from the quick turnaround and played one of their most complete games as a team in quite some time.

Hitting highlight: The Nats jumped out with an early lead in the win, scoring two runs in the second and two more in the third, all on home runs. The first two came on back-to-back solo shots by Ian Desmond and Denard Span. The third homer was a two-run smash by Harper in the third inning to score Haren who had reached with a double.

Harper's walkoff HR powers Nats to win

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The Nationals knew at some point they would break their six-game losing streak and finally get a win after the All-Star break. But in their wildest dreams, they probably didn’t picture it would happen like this.

Two manager ejections, three Pirates errors in the first inning, a four-run lead blown in the ninth, the First Lady in attendance, and Bryce Harper’s first career walkoff home run is all it took for the Nats to finally get back into the win column. 

Now at 49-53 on the season, the Nationals can’t take too much from what amounts to just one victory, they’re still eight games out of the division lead and have plenty of work to do to catch up. They do acknowledge, however, the feeling of a win is a nice change of pace for the first time in 11 days. 

Bench coach Randy Knorr - who replaced Davey Johnson as manager after his ejection in the fifth inning – couldn’t overstate the dramatic turn of emotions in the ninth inning of the Nats’ 9-7 win over the Pirates.

“To tell you how it feels, just walking into the clubhouse right now, you’d think we won the World Series or something,” he said. “But that’s the way the game is right now. And hopefully this carries over for us. I think we’re going to get on a roll here. I think it was a big game for us.”

Harper, Desmond get rare night off

Bryce Harper and Ian Desmond each were out of the Nationals' lineup Wednesday night, each starter given a chance to take a breath and let some nagging, minor injuries heal.

Manager Davey Johnson said Harper was getting some treatment on his left knee, though the 20-year-old outfielder hasn't been significantly bothered by the injury that landed him on the disabled list for a month earlier this season. Desmond, meanwhile, has a blister on his left hand that broke open late during Tuesday night's game.

Harper had started all 19 games since returning from the DL on July 1. Though his production (a .214 batting average, one homer, six RBI, .658 OPS) hasn't come close to mirroring his early-season numbers, he insisted his knee hasn't been a factor.

"It's been fine," Harper said. "It's felt good. There hasn't been any major swelling or anything like that. Of course you're going to have a little bit here and there, but every day it's feeling better. Hopefully it's all behind me."
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All-too-familiar result

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At the end of a brutally frustrating, brutally long and brutally hot Saturday night at the ballpark, one that concluded with an all-too-familiar-result for the home ballclub, the question seemed less to be how the Nationals lost yet another low-scoring game but how they intend to keep themselves from imploding to the point this season no longer becomes salvageable.

It's one thing to lose baseball games. It's another to keep losing them over and over and over in the same fashion, wasting brilliant pitching performances and squandering scoring opportunities left and right.

Add Saturday's 3-1, 10-inning loss to the Dodgers to the ever-growing list of candidates for "Most Frustrating Loss of the Year." Just don't expect the Nationals to succumb to the frustration and take it out on each other.

"I think we're doing fine," shortstop Ian Desmond when asked about the state of clubhouse morale. "I don't think you could do any better than what we're doing. I think a lot of teams, under the situation that we're in, would probably be a little bit more distressed inside the clubhouse than what we've been. I think we're doing a pretty good job, and I think that will pay off in the end."
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Nats who's hot/who's not - 7/10

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Record: 4-3

Runs per game: 6.0

Opponent runs per game: 4.6

Team ERA: 4.50
Team average: .298
Team average against: .281

HOT:

Jayson Werth, OF - .435 BA, 10 H, HR, 4 RBI, 6 R, 4 BB, SB

Werth may have come up short at the end of the Nats' loss on Tuesday night in Philly, but overall he had a tremendous week at the plate. The Nats' outfielder now has hits in his last six games and 10 total during that span. Werth seems to be thriving while batting fifth in the order. In the five hole he is hitting .289 this season with a .904 OPS in 11 games. He has hit primarily at second this season, but has a much better on-base percentage when he hits either fourth or fifth in the lineup.

Tyler Clippard, RP - 3 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 1 BB, 4 SO, 0.333 WHIP

Clippard continued his season of reliability this past week with three more scoreless outings, all coming late in Nationals' wins. He has still only allowed one run since the month of May and now sits with a 2.15 ERA on the year. In two games against the Padres, Clippard notched two strikeouts in perfect innings, earning his 15th hold of the season on July 5. With Drew Storen's season continuing to devolve and Craig Stammen's recent struggles, Clippard has been by far the Nats' best right-handed reliever not named Rafael.

Frustrated by an old friend

Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA — John Lannan is one of the most mild-mannered ballplayers you'll ever meet, rarely showing much emotion when he stands on the mound. His pitching performances, though, often elicit some strong reactions, usually at either extreme of the emotional spectrum.

Just ask Ian Desmond for his thoughts after the Nationals' 3-2 loss to the Phillies, with Lannan tossing eight scoreless innings to earn the victory against his former club.

"I feel like I just beat my head against the door for three hours," said Desmond, who struck out three times. "Or however long that took."

For the record, the game lasted only 2 hours, 40 minutes. It only felt longer for the Nationals, who arrived in Philadelphia flying high after busting out of their season-long offensive slump over the previous week, only to be completely dismantled by their old pal-turned-adversary.

Lannan carved up the Nationals in a performance that rivaled any other in his career. In parts of six seasons in D.C., the left-hander made 134 starts. Only once did he toss eight or more innings of scoreless baseball.
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Zimmermann, Harper are All-Stars

USA Today Sports Images

Updated at 8:50 p.m.

Bryce Harper has been elected by fans as an All-Star Game starter for the first time in his career, and teammate Jordan Zimmermann has been selected by fellow NL players to make his first career appearance in the Midsummer Classic.

Ian Desmond, meanwhile, will have to wait a bit longer to learn his All-Star fate. The shortstop is one of five NL players in the "Final Vote" competition and will need to beat out a star-studded group that includes Dodgers rookie Yasiel Puig, Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman, Dodgers first baseman Adrian Gonzalez and Giants outfielder Hunter Pence in online balloting to earn his second straight All-Star selection.

While Zimmermann's selection seemed a foregone conclusion — he entered the day with an NL-leading 12 wins and a 2.46 ERA — Harper needed a late surge in fan voting to earn the starting nod for the July 16 game at New York's Citi Field.

When the most recent balloting totals were released by MLB on Tuesday, Harper found himself in fourth place among NL outfielders, trailing Atlanta's Justin Upton by about 15,000 votes. But perhaps bolstered by his return from the disabled list and the home run he hit on his first swing in five weeks, Harper made up the difference and in the process made some history.
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Who deserves All-Star nod?

We're now about 24 hours from the announcement of this year's All-Star Game rosters, with the online voting window officially closed. So it's too late to make a last-minute push for anybody, lest they end up in the "Final Man" vote next week.

Last year, it was pretty obvious which members of the Nationals deserved to go to Kansas City, and Stephen Strasburg, Gio Gonzalez, Ian Desmond and Bryce Harper all were selected (with Desmond forced to miss the festivities due to an oblique strain that later landed him on the DL).

This year? Well, it's not quite as clear-cut. There's one, maybe two, slam-dunk choices, then several more than could go either way. Let's run through them all...

JORDAN ZIMMERMANN
The case for: Tops in the NL with 12 wins, sixth with a 2.46 ERA, third with a 0.945 WHIP, fifth with 120 2/3 innings pitched. He's

Ramos' rousing return

Associated Press

Sure, Bryce Harper's return from a five-week stint on the disabled list was going to provide a significant boost to the Nationals. Ask around the clubhouse, though, and there was just as much anticipation for Wilson Ramos' return from a hamstring injury that cost him a total of nine weeks over two separate DL stints.

"He's a statement player, and definitely somebody who's just waiting for his turn in the spotlight," teammate Ian Desmond said. "I think today he got a lot of recognition, and no one deserves it more than him."

There haven't been a ton of heartwarming moments for the Nationals so far in 2013, but the scene in the bottom of the seventh inning on Thursday — Ramos emerging from the dugout for a curtain call from the crowd of 38,221 after his three-run homer put his team in position for an 8-5 victory over the Brewers — ranks right up there with anything else.

Given all that he's been through over the last two years — a kidnapping in Venezuela, a torn ACL, this latest nagging hamstring strain — Ramos soaked in every second of it all.

"That was a happy moment, an exciting moment," he said. "I never did that before."
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Instant analysis: Nats 8, Brewers 5

USA Today Sports Images

Game in a nutshell: With the annual morning Independence Day game on tap, Davey Johnson said he hoped "the fireworks start around 11:15." Well, there were a few early sparklers, but the grand finale didn't come until nearly three hours later. It was well worth the wait. A reconfigured lineup that had Ian Desmond batting second and Jayson Werth batting sixth produced three quick runs and gave Taylor Jordan an early cushion. The rookie right-hander was solid in his second career start, allowing two runs over 5 2/3 innings. But his shot at career win No. 1 was dashed when Drew Storen served up a pair of homers in the top of the seventh, leaving the game tied at 5. Enter Wilson Ramos. In his first game back from the DL, the catcher completed a five-RBI day with a towering, three-run homer in the bottom of the seventh, giving the Nationals the lead for good. Tyler Clippard and Rafael Soriano then closed things out, capping an enjoyable morning/afternoon at the ballpark and getting the Nationals back over the .500 hump at 43-42.

Hitting highlight: Welcome back, Wilson. The oft-injured catcher was 0-for-10 on his rehab assignment, but the Nationals weren't

State of the Nats-7/1

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Team Record: 41-40 (15-15)

N.L. East Standings

Offensive Game of the Week: Ian Desmond 6/30 vs. Mets – 2-for-4, HR, 3 RBI, 2 R, 2B, SB, HBP

Pitching Line of the Week: Gio Gonzalez 6/30 vs. Mets – 7 IP, 0 ER, 3 H, 7 SO, 2 BB, 119 pitches (84 strikes)

Top Storylines

Bryce Harper’s return – The Nats have maintained their .500 pace, treading water if you will, since Harper went out on May 26. Now he comes back right as the Nats are set to play five consecutive series against teams with losing records, 17 total games. With Harper back in the lineup, the Nats’ offense should have balance and power top to bottom. They could be setting up to finally break out on offense, especially with Wilson Ramos coming back around July 4.

Hitting the halfway point on a high

Associated Press

NEW YORK — There have been plenty of days over the last three months when the Nationals don't look anything like a World Series contender, an offensively challenged, defensively sloppy bunch that has put forth way more lifeless performances this season than anybody expected.

But there have also been a handful of days — though admittedly only a few, and usually scattered about — when these Nationals do put it all together and walk away from the ballpark having every reason to believe they can go on the kind of sustained tear that defined their breakthrough 2012 season.

Today was one of those days. Whether it's a positive omen of more good things to come or just another blip in a mediocre season remains to be seen. But as they showed during a 13-2 demolition of the Mets, the Nationals do have the ability to overwhelm any opponent they face.

"We know we've got the lineup that can go out any given day and put up 15 hits and 10 runs, and it just hasn't happened," said Adam LaRoche, who ignited this offensive explosion with a second-inning homer off Zack Wheeler. "This isn't going to happen every day, obviously, but I think it should a lot more often than it has."

The season is now officially halfway complete, and the Nationals sit one game over the .500 mark at 41-40. They've hovered right at, right above or right below sea level for the last six weeks, never getting real hot, never getting real cold. But they've now won seven of their last 11 games, and tomorrow they'll get their most-important player back after a lengthy absence.
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Stuck in neutral

USA Today Sports Images

NEW YORK — Only 15 hours removed from what their manager called their "biggest win of the year," the Nationals emerged from the dugout at Citi Field again, handed the ball to a promising rookie hurler for his big-league debut, prepared to take their hacks against a struggling right-hander with an inflated ERA and perhaps finally get themselves on the sustained roll that has eluded them all season.

What transpired was an all-too-familiar sight for this team. No offense, combined with bad defense and inconsistent pitching, produced another uninspiring loss, this time by a 5-1 count to the Mets that felt like so many other losses that preceded it over the last three months.

"You can't explain it," Davey Johnson said. "It was an uplifting game last night, and today was a downer."

One step forward, one step backward. That about sums up 2013 so far for the Nationals, who have only one game remaining in the season's first half and find themselves right where they've been nearly the entire time: Back at square one.

They're 40-40, the 18th time this season they've sat at exactly the .500 mark. They haven't ranged three games better or three games worse since May 18, a full six-week stretch now of mediocrity in its purest form.

Positive momentum? The Nationals seem to be proving there is no such thing.
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"Biggest win of the year"

USA Today Sports Images

NEW YORK — Davey Johnson called it "our biggest win of the year," a sentiment shared by others inside the Nationals clubhouse.

Perhaps more significant, more than one player noted the familiar feeling that accompanied Friday night's 6-4, come-from-behind victory over the Mets, one that included several late clutch hits and then a shutdown performance from the bullpen.

"That's stuff we did last year," reliever Drew Storen said. "That's what's fun about it. That's exciting. Especially on the road here, it's a big win for us."

Indeed, this was the kind of victory that was commonplace in 2012 but has for some reason eluded the Nationals in 2013, perhaps owing to their maddeningly inept offensive numbers when a game is on the line. Entering Friday, this team was hitting a collective .203 against opposing relievers, .192 in "late-and-close" situations and a scant .151 with a .199 on-base percentage in the ninth inning.

So imagine how the visiting dugout at Citi Field felt after the Nationals went 5-for-10 with four doubles and a walk in the eighth and ninth innings against five members of Terry Collins' New York bullpen, turning a 4-1 deficit into a 6-4 victory that catapulted this club back over the .500 mark.
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