Nats ready to look at young players

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CHICAGO — The Nationals never thought this would be the case in a season with the highest of expectations, but they are preparing to start looking at more young players over the next six weeks at the expense of a few veteran regulars.

Manager Davey Johnson said he plans to give Tyler Moore more starts at first base down the stretch, perhaps going so far as to platoon the 26-year-old at first base with veteran Adam LaRoche.

"I'm not in the position I'd like to be in, but there is a necessity to look at some guys," Johnson said. "And we'll be doing that. I mentioned the other day that Tyler Moore has to get some at-bats, some regular at-bats. And I'll be doing that with some other guys. I'm not going to go into naming them, because that's gonna happen on a daily basis. It's not gonna be a set plan."

Johnson also said rookie right-hander Tanner Roark could get a chance to move into the rotation, perhaps swapping spots with Ross Ohlendorf, who makes his return from the disabled list tonight.
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Instant analysis: Nats 4, Cubs 2

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Game in a nutshell: After a blowout loss on Monday night against their least-effective starter, the Nationals turned to their best pitcher to stop the bleeding and author a gem. Who would have imagined a month ago Jordan Zimmermann would fit the first description while Dan Haren would fit the latter? Obviously, it's been a strange season for the Nationals. Behind yet another dominant start from Haren, they put themselves in position to beat the Cubs. They had to scratch and claw their way to four runs, but that was enough, with Drew Storen and Tyler Clippard each retiring the side in the seventh and eighth and Rafael Soriano navigating his way through a shaky ninth to earn the save. So the Nationals avenged Monday night's 11-1 loss. They also gained a game on both the Braves and the Reds, who each lost.

Hitting highlight: It's been a chore for the Nationals to score runs. It never comes easy. And it certainly didn't tonight, though they somehow cobbled together enough key hits at the right

DL stint brings end to Jordan's season

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ATLANTA — The Nationals placed Taylor Jordan on the 15-day disabled list with a lower back strain, an injury that will lead the organization to enact its plan to shut down the rookie right-hander for the rest of the season.

Jordan pitched six strong innings Friday night against the Braves, allowed two unearned runs, and didn't note any physical ailments afterward, but manager Davey Johnson said the pitcher mentioned a problem with his back several days earlier and mentioned it again late Friday.

The Nationals had been planning all along to shut down Jordan before season's end, restricting his workload in his first full season back from Tommy John surgery. After Friday's start, his total innings count for the year (majors and minors combined) stands at 142.

Jordan won't be given an opportunity to add to that number this

'Do I have to starting yelling at people?'

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After the Nationals were swept by the Atlanta Braves, capped by a bullpen collapse in their 6-3 loss on Wednesday, several Washington players took on a bit of a different tone in describing the team’s current situation. Jayson Werth, in particular, spoke of a broader context, of how the losses are piling up and it may be time to starting thinking about the future. 

Manager Davey Johnson was asked on Friday if there is a sense of resignation in the clubhouse, if the NL Wild Card and division are so out of reach it’s now time to look towards next season. 

He disagreed.

“There’s no resignation in that room over there, certainly not with me,” he said. “It’s probably more frustrating for me because I keep searching and thinking what I can do to make it easier for guys to perform. If I could figure out why guys, some veteran players are having subpar years for me, I would be all over it.”

He did, however, acknowledge the direction of the franchise as a whole, the central point Werth was trying to make. 

“They’re still learning, there’s still room to grow,” Johnson said. “Everybody likes where the organization is at, likes the talent pool. There’s a small margin between winning and losing. We’ve had some problems in the bullpen, guys struggling off the bench, having some other guys not getting going, all those things add up.”

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Nats acquire Hairston for Pineyro

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Updated at 10:30 a.m.

In the market for some time for a veteran, right-handed-hitting outfielder to bolster their bench, the Nationals late last night acquired Scott Hairston and a player-to-be-named from the Cubs for minor-league right-hander Ivan Pineyro and another player-to-be-named.

The club officially announced the trade this morning, and Hairston is expected to be in uniform tonight when the Nationals open a four-game series in Philadelphia.

Hairston, 33, fills an obvious need for the Nationals, who have struggled to get production both from their bench (reserves are hitting a collective .174 with a .516 OPS) and against left-handed pitching (.215 batting average, .612 OPS) this season. The journeyman outfielder owns a career .813 OPS against left-handers, though that number has fallen to .684 this year.

The Nationals figure to use Hairston as a pinch-hitter late in games while giving him an occasional start against lefties, hoping he can

Nats who's hot/who's not-7/3

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Record: 3-3

Runs per game: 5.3

Opponent runs per game: 3.8

Team ERA: 3.09

HOT:

Stephen Strasburg, SP - 0-0, 1.29 ERA, 2 ER, 9 H, 12 SO, 14.0 IP

Strasburg has seen the worst run support of any starter in the majors this season and it's not even that close. On Tuesday he turned in another fantastic start, but came away with a no decision. Against the Brewers he pitched seven scoreless innings and struck out eight, lowering his season ERA to 2.24. That's the fifth best mark in the majors and should put Strasburg into prime position for his second All-Star selection, regardless of his record.

Gio Gonzalez, SP – 2-0, 1.35 ERA, 2 ER, 12 H, 11 SO, 13.1 IP

Gonzalez, much like Stephen Strasburg, has quietly recovered from an uncharacteristic start to the season. After sitting with a 4.20 ERA

Moore recalled, Haren placed on DL

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The Nationals' roster replacement for an injured Dan Haren won't be another pitcher, at least not yet. The club recalled outfielder/first baseman Tyler Moore from Class AAA Syracuse, giving manager Davey Johnson another bat for the start of this week's series against the Diamondbacks and perhaps some insurance in case Jayson Werth isn't ready to return from a groin injury.

Moore returns to D.C. after a 12-game stint with Syracuse, hitting .178 (8-for-45) with two doubles, two homers and eight RBI. Demoted earlier this month after a wretched start to his season — he hit .158 with two homers in 38 games — the 26-year-old hoped to get his swing back on track in the minors.

The Nationals probably would have preferred to keep Moore in Syracuse a bit longer, but they could suddenly find themselves needing another right-handed outfielder on their big-league roster after Werth had to depart Sunday's game with a tight groin.

Werth said he hoped the injury wasn't serious and that he might be able to return tonight, but the Nationals don't want this seemingly minor injury to turn into something far more damaging the way

Nats option Moore to Syracuse

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After Sunday’s doubleheader against the Twins, the Nats optioned first baseman Tyler Moore to Triple-A Syracuse in order to keep Chris Marrero up with the big league club. Marrero was brought up as the team’s 26^th man for the two-game set.

Moore heads to the minors for the first time this season after posting a .158 average with 36 strikeouts through 38 games this season. He was struggling with inconsistent at-bats, making just 21 starts and coming primarily off the bench. Moore thrived in the role last season with ten home runs and 29 RBI in 75 games, but could not carry over the same success this season.

“I had a talk with him,” manager Davey Johnson said. “We just need to get him some playing time.”

“I don’t want to waste that just talent sitting around, I’d rather have him (get) some playing time. He’ll be back soon. He’s an outstanding player.”

Nats supply Karns with offensive firepower

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Adam LaRoche and Tyler Moore combined to hit three homers in the Nats' win.

Adam LaRoche could tell Nathan Karns was a tad nervous to make his big-league debut when he noticed the right-hander's jersey was soaking wet. This was while Karns was still in the dugout, having yet to face his first major-league batter.

"Like he walked through the shower before he even took the mound," LaRoche said. "That was fun. I'm sure his world was spinning real fast."

Knowing their rookie starter — who only 24 hours earlier was preparing to face the Class AA Akron Aeros — was in a bit of a fog, the Nationals came up with the best possible plan to ease a young pitcher through that pressure situation: They went out and scored a ton of runs.

Behind four homers — two by LaRoche, plus back-to-back shots by struggling Tyler Moore and Roger Bernadina — the Nationals pounded the Orioles and rookie Kevin Gausman into submission, cruising to a 9-3 victory before a boisterous crowd of 35,664 that waited out an 81-minute rain delay to see the two promising right-handers go head-to-head.
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Instant analysis: Nats 9, Orioles 3

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Nate Karns allowed three runs over 4 2/3 innings in his big-league debut.

Game in a nutshell: The evening began as a highly touted matchup of young right-handers, Nate Karns and Kevin Gausman, but was more notable by night's end for the Nationals' rare offensive explosion. Karns did what he needed to do, churning out 4 1/3 solid innings before tiring in the fifth. Gausman, though, was roughed up by the Nationals for three runs in the first, then four more in the fourth before he was knocked out. Adam LaRoche crushed two homers, and Tyler Moore and Roger Bernadina went back-to-back in a rare display of firepower from the reserves-turned-starters. Needing 4 2/3 innings out of his bullpen, Davey Johnson got quality work out of Zach Duke (who was credited with the win), Drew Storen, Tyler Clippard and Fernando Abad. So the Battle of Beltways is now even at 1 game apiece, heading into Phase 2 the next two nights at Camden Yards.

Hitting highlight: The Nationals have been begging, pleading for their bench players to produce with several starters injured. On this night, Moore and Bernadina finally delivered. Back-to-back. Moore,

Lineup leads Zimmermann to 8th win

Jordan Zimmermann has pitched as well as anyone in baseball through the season's first two months, and more often than not the Nationals have needed it. Only once during his previous six starts had Zimmermann's teammates provided more than three runs of support.

So imagine how the right-hander felt when he looked up at the scoreboard at Nationals Park after five innings Friday night and saw a "5" listed next to the home team's name.

"Definitely nice to get a five-run cushion tonight and kind of put it on cruise control," he said.

And cruise Zimmermann did, churning out seven quality innings against the Phillies and riding the rare run support to a 5-2 victory that made him the NL's first 8-game winner.
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How much more rope for Espinosa?

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After going 0-for-4 last night, Danny Espinosa is hitting .175 for the season.

There's no shame in being shut out by Clayton Kershaw, so it's tough to be overly critical of the Nationals after they were overwhelmed by the Dodgers ace last night during a 2-0 loss in Los Angeles.

Truth be told, several members of the Nats lineup put together some really impressive at-bats against Kershaw, from Ryan Zimmerman's 3-hit night to Adam LaRoche and Eury Perez fouling off pitch after pitch from the lefty late, driving up his pitch count to the point manager Don Mattingly had no choice but to pull his starter (at 132 pitches) with two outs in the ninth.

But in the bigger picture, the Nationals still aren't putting together enough quality at-bats on a nightly basis. Zimmerman and LaRoche certainly appear to be coming along after slow starts, Ian Desmond has been solid and Bryce Harper has carried this club offensively through much of the season's first six weeks.

But there are a couple of major holes in the lineup right now, and the biggest of them all is occupied by Danny Espinosa.

Bench struggles hurting Nats

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Chad Tracy is 8-for-44 as a pinch-hitter over the last calendar year.

The critical decision in yesterday's demoralizing loss to the Cubs — Davey Johnson pinch-hitting for Gio Gonzalez in the bottom of the seventh with his team ahead 1-0 — was a produce of the manager seeking an insurance run and trying to give his bullpen some breathing room.

In principle, that notion makes some sense. But it requires some consistent production from those bench players who would be asked to pinch-hit in that situation. And right now, the Nationals aren't getting much production at all from their reserves.

When Chad Tracy struck out to lead off the bottom of the seventh yesterday, Nationals pinch-hitters fell to 7-for-48 on the season, a .146 batting average. Even more alarming, Nats pinch-hitter have yet to drive in a single run so far in 2013.

That comes in stark contrast to the numbers the Nationals produced off the bench last season. Pinch-hitters batted a collective .288 with four homers and 26 RBI in 2012, one of the most-productive units

Harper out of lineup again

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Bryce Harper watches last night's game from the dugout.

His big toe still in pain after a procedure yesterday to remove an ingrown toenail, Bryce Harper is once again out of the Nationals' starting lineup for this afternoon's game against the Cubs.

Harper hoped to return today after missing the series opener, but his toe hasn't healed quite enough yet.

"Harp's still a little tender, and he wanted to wait until he hit on the field," manager Davey Johnson said. "If it's that tender, I'm not starting him. So he's not in the lineup."

With Harper and Jayson Werth (who was officially placed on the 15-day disabled list today) sidelined, Johnson is forced to again cobble together a makeshift outfield that includes Tyler Moore in left field and Roger Bernadina in right field flanking Denard Span.
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Early jam, late fireworks

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Tyler Moore rounds the bases after his eighth-inning homer.

PITTSBURGH — Gio Gonzalez stood on the mound at PNC Park in the bottom of the first inning, the afternoon off to as bad a start as the Nationals could possibly have imagined.

Bryce Harper had been ejected after arguing a check-swing call in the top of the inning. Starling Marte had crushed Gonzalez's very first pitch into the left-field bleachers. Ryan Zimmerman had committed another throwing error on a routine grounder. And now the bases were loaded with nobody out, the Pirates threatening to blow this series finale open before the Nationals would even know what hit them.

The situation was ripe for disaster, especially for an emotional pitcher like Gonzalez, who has been known to let a bad situation turn worse. Experience, though, has taught the 27-year-old lefty how to better handle such situations.

"When you get older, you get a little more experience, you start figuring out things, little-by-little," he said. "I think a younger me would have probably spiraled out of control and tried to be too much or tried to do too much."

Instead of trying to do too much, Gonzalez did only what he could do: Take back control of this ballgame. He wriggled his way out of that first-inning jam, then dominated the rest of the way to lead the Nationals to a hard-earned, 6-2 victory over Pittsburgh.
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Double Steel

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Ryan Zimmerman scores the winning run in the top of the ninth.

PITTSBURGH — They'd given themselves scoring opportunities all afternoon, but with a lineup that continues to sputter along through the season's first month-plus, the Nationals had to resort to their bag of tricks to produce the game-winning run in Saturday's 5-4 squeaker over the Pirates.

A double steal? In the top of the ninth inning? Of a tie game? With Ryan Zimmerman and Adam LaRoche on the basepaths?

"I would have thought those were the last two guys who were going to steal," said Tyler Moore, who was standing at the plate at the time and had no advance knowledge what was about to happen.

Hey, whatever it takes to manufacture a run. After Zimmerman and LaRoche shocked all 29,975 people inside PNC Park — most notably Pittsburgh reliever Tony Watson — Moore delivered the sacrifice fly that brought Zimmerman home and gave the Nationals a much-needed victory on a day in which Stephen Strasburg was better but still not at his best.
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Moore makes most of rare start

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Tyler Moore recorded two hits in a rare start last night.

MIAMI -- Tyler Moore has been an accomplished hitter his entire baseball career, in high school, in college, in the minors and last season as a rookie with the Nationals.

So it may sound surprising to hear that Moore admittedly began to doubt himself when he opened this season 0-for-8 with four strikeouts. It's not surprising to hear that those doubts led to some bad habits at the plate.

"Yeah, I'm sure you press a little too much," he said. "Sometimes I feel like I take two swings on one pitch. You press and you want to get a hit so bad, and most times it doesn't work out. The more you get to calm down, the more you square it up."

Imagine Moore's relief last night. Presented with his first opportunity to start a game this year, he delivered a pair of early hits, including a double, and drove in three runs to help spark the Nationals to an early lead and eventually a 10-3 victory over the

Instant analysis: Nats 10, Marlins 3

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Jordan Zimmermann dominated the Marlins to improve to 3-0 this season.

Game in a nutshell: Honoring the victims of today's attack in Boston with a moment of silence before first pitch and honoring Jackie Robinson by having everybody in uniform wear No. 42 for the night, the Nationals and Marlins played tonight what in the grand scheme certainly felt like an insignificant ballgame. But play they did, and the Nationals used the opportunity to take out their frustrations from a weekend sweep at the hands of the Braves. They jumped all over Wade LeBlanc, scoring four runs in the first, two more in the third, two more in the fourth and another two in the fifth to open up a 10-0 lead. That was far more support than Jordan Zimmermann needed. The right-hander cruised early on and was given the opportunity by Davey Johnson to go the distance for the first time in his career. He wound up with his first complete-game victory in the big leagues, dispatching the Marlins on 103 pitches.

Hitting highlight: It hasn't been a banner couple of weeks for Ryan Zimmerman, who in addition to committing three errors in the field entered this game with a .220 batting average and zero homers.

The challenge of keeping the bench fresh

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Tyler Moore and others could have a tough time getting at-bats this year.

LAKELAND, Fla. -- There's a good side and a bad side to fielding a talent-laden lineup with regulars who all deserve to play every day. The good side: That deep lineup is capable of putting up big numbers on a daily basis. The bad side: It leaves precious few opportunities for reserves to get enough at-bats to stay fresh.

For a veteran like Chad Tracy, who has modeled himself into one of the game's best pinch-hitting specialists, it's not that big of a deal. But for young bench players like Tyler Moore and Steve Lombardozzi, it can be more complicated.

So, is it going to be tough to keep all those guys fresh when there aren't obvious opportunities to work them into the lineup?

"Yes. If everybody's doing the things I know they're capable of doing, yes," manager Davey Johnson admitted. "But it's what they pay me to do: Try to keep them all sharp."
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Beltway Baseball: Reader questions

In our final Beltway Baseball segment of the week, Chase Hughes and I answer your questions on Tyler Moore, Wilson Ramos and the chemistry inside the Nationals' clubhouse. Thanks to everyone who submitted questions, and sorry we couldn't answer them all. Enjoy the segment!