By Dan Zaudtke
Hey, remember Opening Day? Stephen Strasburg pitched seven solid innings, and Sammy Solis and Blake Treinen retired all six batters they faced. Blake made both Justin Bour and Marcell Ozuna look dumb with some nasty filth. Those were good times. It was also the last time the bullpen went without giving up an earned run, before holding the Phillies scoreless before Daniel Murphy’s walk-off.
After a 4-2 loss to the Phillies Saturday, a group of Nationals and company witnessed an exhausting double OT Capitals loss in Game Two of their series against the Toronto Maple Leafs Saturday night. The boys were undeniable there, despite significantly less evidence of the outing than previous team adventures to Caps games and significantly fewer cowboy hats.
It’s obviously early in the season — small sample size and all that — but there are some Nationals who have clearly started the season hot and others… who have not. So let’s pick a couple Nats who are hot right now, and some who are not and figure out if they will stay that way.
This morning, Max Scherzer confirmed to Grant Paulsen of 106.7 The Fan that he and the Nats would be attending Saturday’s Washington Capitals Game 2 against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Daniel Murphy put a ball into the left field corner in the tenth inning against deposed Phillies closer Jeanmar Gomez, allowing Bryce Harper to dig his way from first to score the winning run. In typical Bryce fashion, he lost his helmet on his way from third to home, where he was greeted by one-man-dog-pile Jayson Werth.
The Washington Capitals are gearing up for the playoffs, and apparently, so is Adam Eaton. Adam posted this well-staged picture to Instagram on Wednesday afternoon. B-man, as Adam calls his son, is clearly ready for the Caps to get past the second round this year.
For right now, the Washington Nationals will miss Trea Turner. On Monday, the young shortstop was added to the 10-day disabled list after suffering a hamstring injury in Philadelphia on Saturday.
If you’re reading this, you’re surely aware that the Nationals’ bullpen has been very bad this year. To put it empirically, Nats relievers have allowed 18 runs in 20 1/3 innings this year, or a 7.98 ERA. That’s awful!
Guess what’s back. Back again. The recap’s back. Tell a friend. (It’s the recap, the off-field recap is back).
