Phillies southpaw Cliff Lee threw eight complete innings of five hit baseball and held the Nationals to just two runs, and the Phillies came away with an easy 4-2 victory over Washington at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. Lee’s victory was his ninth of the year against just two losses.

“Lee came right after us and threw a lot of first-pitch strikes. I mean, he came right after us — really hard stuff,” Nat’s skipper Davey Johnson said. “He cut the fastball a little bit . . . You have to tip your cap to Mr. Lee. He pitched one heck of a game.”

Lee’s performance overawed that turned in by Washington’s own lefty, Ross Detwiler, who turned in a six inning seven hit performance. The big bats for Philadelphia were Michael Young (who was 3-4), and second sacker Kevin Frandsen, who rapped two RBIs, both of them on a game deciding single in the bottom of the sixth.

The Nationals remain upbeat about their prospects this season, but are asked after every win and loss when they will start to play consistently. Wednesday night was no different, particularly given the fact that the Atlanta Braves dropped two games to the New York Mets in Atlanta.

“We need to get on a roll,” right fielder Jayson Werth acknowledged after Tuesday’s loss. “You got to have start rallies, winning streaks. Usually, that’s how you create an identity. That’s how you mash together, that’s where chemistry comes from.”

(more…)

The Washington Nationals beat themselves on Sunday, but they had help: Cleveland’s Corey Kluber wiggled out of numerous Nationals’ scoring opportunities, throwing eight innings of seven hit baseball, as the Indians went on to defeat Stephen Strasburg and the Washington Nationals, 2-0.

The Nationals had a chance to score against Kluber early, in the fourth inning, when they had runners on first and third with one out; but Adam LaRoche, Jayson Werth and Ian Desmond struck out to end the threat. In the sixth inning, the Nationals had runners on first and third with one out and also couldn’t score. The Nationals left 21 runners on base.

Give credit to Kluber. “I tell you what, that guy that threw for them today … the stuff that he had, that’s probably top-five stuff that we’ll see all year,” Jayson Werth said of the Indians’ pitcher. “He had some really good stuff. Especially when he had to make pitches, he even stepped it up a little bit.”

The game marked the return of starter Stephen Strasburg from the disabled list and he pitched well: he threw five complete innings and gave up a single hit, while striking out four. “He was a little bit rusty and didn’t have his command, but I thought he settled in pretty well,” skipper Davey Johnson said.

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: Anthony Rendon continued his hot hand on Sunday, with a 3-4 day. He’s been a spark for the Nationals since being recalled and is handling his chances well at second. Jayson Werth is also back in stride: he was 4-10 in Cleveland . . .

The Nationals pull into Philadelphia to face a Phillies’ team that is on the verge of deciding whether to sell, or hope for a seven or eight game winning streak. Doing that would put them back in contention for a Wild Card spot, but the Phillies have struggled all season . . .

(more…)

Anthony Rendon’s top of the 9th inning home run provided the Washington Nationals with a late inning come-from behind 7-6 victory over the Indians in Cleveland on Saturday night. It was Rendon’s first major league homer, and followed an eighth inning pinch hit home run from Chad Tracy that tied the game at six.

“I don’t even know how to explain it. It felt good, I guess.” Rendon said after the Nationals’ victory. “I thought the ball was in play because I saw it drop. But I didn’t know it went into the bullpen. I thought it was still on the field.”

The Washington victory followed a Friday night disappointment, where the Nationals were only able to produce two hits. Last night Washington’s bats came alive, sparked by five home runs: from Ryan Zimmerman, Jayson Werth, Ian Desmond, Tracy and Rendon.

The Nationals needed the win, particularly since starter Jordan Zimmermann had a tough time against Cleveland’s hitters, who victimized the power righty with six earned runs in just five innings. What was even more unusual was that Zimmermann failed to hold an early 5-0 Washington lead.

“I felt terrible all night. Everything I threw was up in the zone. I wasn’t getting ahead of guys. I was 1-0, 2-0,” Zimmermann said of his outing. “Obviously, I had to come with the fastball then. Even when I didn’t come with the fastball, it was up in the zone. When those guys give me five runs, I’ve got to be able to lock it down and get us the win.”

As has happened lately, Washington’s bullpen stepped in to give the Nats’ hitters a chance to win the game. Craig Stammen, Ian Krol, Drew Storen and Rafael Soriano provided four innings of one hit, no run baseball, with Soriano picking up his eighteenth save.

(more…)

The Nationals came from three runs down to take the second game of a day-night doubleheader, beating the Twins last night at Nationals Park, 5-4. It was the first time the team had rallied from three runs behind all season. After the victory, the Nationals headed to Colorado, where they will begin a three city nine game road trip.

“This was huge, we really needed this,” shortstop Ian Desmond said after the Nationals had swept the Sunday twin bill. After posting a 7-0 blowout on Sunday afternoon, the Nats continued to scorch Twins’ pitching with ten hits, scoring single runs in the first, third, fifth, sixth and seventh innings.

“It was a good feeling when you’re behind and you keep chipping away, you don’t give up. This was probably our best ballgame,” center fielder Denard Span told reporters after the win. “Normally early on in the season when we would get behind, we would just fold and give away at-bats. [Today] we just kept fighting and having good at-bats.”

The key to victory in the second game, however, was not simply the hitting, but the bullpen’s continued ability to keep their opponents out of the scoring column. After a rocky outing from Nathan Karns, Craig Stammen pitched two innings of hitless ball to allow the Nationals to get back in the game.

The offense responded by mounting a comeback that was sparked by a Denard Span triple in the 6th (which scored Anthony Rendon — tying the game), and by back-to-back doubles (from Adam LaRoche and Ian Desmond) that put the Nationals on top to stay in the bottom of the 7th.

In this game, at least, the victory proceeded as the Nationals intended: with Tyler Clippard, Drew Storen and Rafael Soriano pitching the 7th, 8th and 9th innings. Tyler Clippard got the win, Drew Storen notched his eighth hold and Rafael Soriano accounted for his sixteenth save.

(more…)

It seems like forever, but the last time the Nationals won this big was against the Orioles, back on May 29. On Sunday, in the first game of a day-night doubleheader, the Nationals finally broke their bats loose for a 7-0 pasting of the Minnesota Twins, the first time they’d scored that many runs since beating the O’s 9-3.

The seven run outburst backed yet another top-notch outing from Nats’ righty Jordan Zimmermann, who held the Twins to just two hits while pitching seven complete innings. Ian Krol and Xavier Cedeno pitched the 8th and 9th innings in completing the shutout.

Zimmermann is now 9-3 with a 2.00 ERA on the season, but has been perfect at Nationals’ Park since losing to the Pirates at home in May of 2012. It is likely that Zimmermann might have been able to throw a complete game, but he ended the 7th inning having thrown 111 pitches, 77 of them for strikes.

The Nats outburst, meanwhile, was paced by two hits from newbie Jeff Kobernus, two hits from Jayson Werth and Adam Laroche, a 3-4 day from Ian Desmond — and three RBIs from new second sacker Anthony Rendon. The Nationals victimized Twins’ starter Scott Diamond, who wasn’t able to make it out of the 5th inning, when the Nationals put five runs on the board.

Diamond, a second year Twins’ southpaw gave up seven runs in all (with six of them earned) on ten hits. Diamond entered the game with his ERA at 4.82 on the season, but he left in the fifth inning with his ERA at 5.19.

The Nationals are now 30-31 on the season and have climbed back into second place in the National League East, the result of a 9-1 Philadelphia loss at the hands of the Brewers.

A Ryan Doumit single in the 11th inning off of reliever Craig Stammen gave the Minnesota Twins an extra innings 4-3 win at Nationals Park on Saturday, sinking the home towners to two games under .500. The Doumit single deepened Washington skipper Davey Johnson’s sense of frustration over the Nats inability to score.

Stammen was the seventh reliever used by Johnson on Saturday, and the only one of the seven to give up a run to Minnesota. The slate of relievers followed another good but not great outing from southpaw Gio Gonzalez who threw six complete innings while, unusually, giving up four walks.

Despite the walks, it’s hard to imagine that Gonzalez could have given his teammates a better chance to win. He threw 114 pitches, 75 of them for strikes. But frustration set in for Gonzalez when he walked batters, and he showed it on the mound. He remains stuck at just three wins for the season.

Washington’s bullpen was surprisingly effective, particularly given the new faces that now populate it. Fernando Abad, Drew Storen, Tyler Clippard, Rafael Soriano, Erik Davis and Ian Krol all contributed on Saturday, holding the Twins scoreless in four complete innings of work.

Washington’s line-up, meanwhile, was again ineffective against a starter that they should have hit — but couldn’t. Minnesota’s Kevin Correia threw into the 7th inning, while registering seven strikeouts. “We got some hits, but didn’t string them together,” Washington first sacker Adam LaRoche said following the loss. “We need to start getting three and four in an inning, pushing some guys across.”

(more…)

With one-third of the season now in the books, the Nationals on Tuesday made the decisions that many of their fans wanted, and many had predicted, sending relievers Henry Rodriguez and Zach Duke to the minors — and Danny Espinosa to the disabled list.

To fill their spots on the national league roster, the team recalled Anthony Rendon from Triple-A and brought reliever Ian Krol up from Double-A Harrisburg. The Nationals also activated Jayson Werth, whose bat they desperately need.

Espinosa is expected to rehab (both his shoulder and his wrist), before returning to the club. “He is a tough guy. He reminds me of myself,” manager Davey Johnson said. “He is playing with a bad shoulder, he is playing with a broken wrist. He needs the rest.”

But General Manager Mike Rizzo made it clear that it’s unlikely Nats fans will see Espinosa anytime soon. “We finally put Danny on the disabled list to clean up all the wrist questions that we had, and for him to rehab and then go down to the Minor Leagues, with a healthy wrist, go down there and work on the mental side of hitting,” he said.

Injury or not, the message is that Espinosa has played himself out of a job, and this morning’s Bleacher Report said that it’s time for Washington to “see what Rendon can do” at second base — adding that the Nats don’t have “a second baseeman on the stat list this season (Espinosa and Steve Lombardozzi) hitting above .231.”

An uncertain coda might well have followed these moves, as Washington continues its struggles. But just hours after announcing the team shake-up, the Nats responded by notching their first walk-off win of the year, a come-from-behind 3-2 victory over division rivals New York.

While the Washington victory didn’t result in a win for starter Jordan Zimmermann, it lifted the Nationals one game over .500 and made a hero of Steve Lombardozzi. Lombardozzi’s sacrifice fly in the 9th inning scored Adam LaRoche, after the Nationals loaded the bases on Mets’ reliever Bobby Parnell.

(more…)