Nationals Journal: August 24, 2008 - August 30, 2008
An encounter with the wall
If any Nationals player has performed well enough this season to earn an exemption from criticism, it's Jesus Flores. In May, the 23-year-old came up from Class AAA Columbus, filled a void created by injuries and merely went about proving...
By
Chico Harlan
|
August 30, 2008; 7:07 PM ET |
Permalink |
Comments (97)
Save & Share:
Tonight's lineups from Nats Park
Atlanta Anderson - 8 Blanco - 7 C. Jones - 5 McCann - 2 Infante - 6 Prado - 3 B. Jones - 9 Johnson - 4 Reyes - 1 Washington Hernandez - 4 Guzman - 6 Zimmerman - 5...
By
Chico Harlan
|
August 30, 2008; 3:26 PM ET |
Permalink |
Comments (12)
Save & Share:
The minor league report
Mainly, this morning, I wanted to post Bill Gluvna's weekly minor league report. (It's the penultimate edition; Gluvna tells me he's already gone to work on the grand finale, due out Sept. 12, and I'm imagining something neighboring on the...
By
Chico Harlan
|
August 30, 2008; 11:31 AM ET |
Permalink |
Comments (13)
Save & Share:
Shawn Hill update
Today, Shawn Hill was in Pensacola, Fla., for an evaluation on his right elbow by orthopedist James Andrews. The results of that evaluation are... well, incomplete. But somewhat encouraging. Andrews will soon conduct a scope on Hill's elbow, and that's...
By
Chico Harlan
|
August 29, 2008; 9:14 PM ET |
Permalink |
Comments (25)
Save & Share:
Tonight's lineups
The Nationals played around with their 40-man roster today, outrighting two pitchers who've both had bullpen stints in the big leagues this season -- Brian Sanches and Chris Schroder. Both will remain with their current team, Class AAA Columbus, but...
By
Chico Harlan
|
August 29, 2008; 4:05 PM ET |
Permalink |
Comments (22)
Save & Share:
The talent of Elijah Dukes
You must grant Elijah Dukes this much. The man puts his goals in hard-to-reach places. When he returned from the disabled list on Wednesday, he did so with one number in mind: Twenty. Yes, twenty. That's how many homers Dukes...
By
Chico Harlan
|
August 29, 2008; 8:49 AM ET |
Permalink |
Comments (74)
Save & Share:
Guzman hits for cycle
Sorry for not getting this up on the blog earlier, but from the moment Cristian Guzman hit his cycle tonight, I was in frantic re-write mode, ripped up a story that was all about the good stuff Washington had already...
By
Chico Harlan
|
August 28, 2008; 11:34 PM ET |
Permalink |
Comments (16)
Save & Share:
Shawn Hill: Out for season; will visit Dr. Andrews tomorrow
Just as part of the standard housekeeping, one media member today asked Manny Acta about the progress of pitcher Shawn Hill, who was due to return (after recovering from a long, mysterious forearm injury) in mid-September. Acta's response, when asked...
By
Chico Harlan
|
August 28, 2008; 6:36 PM ET |
Permalink |
Comments (43)
Save & Share:
Lineups from Nationals Park
Just one note, along with tonight's lineups. In the last two games, the two Washington starters, Collin Balester and Tim Redding, have earned wins. Tonight John Lannan tries to make it three wins in a row for Nats starters. Not...
By
Chico Harlan
|
August 28, 2008; 3:29 PM ET |
Permalink |
Comments (25)
Save & Share:
Eckstein joins staff
One day sure produced plenty of thread to play with. Ryan Zimmerman hit his first home run yesterday since May 17. The Nats won their second consecutive one-run game against a team in (formerly in?) the playoff chase. They defeated...
By
Chico Harlan
|
August 28, 2008; 8:07 AM ET |
Permalink |
Comments (123)
Save & Share:
Dodgers pregame (plus a Manny wig and vintage Maddux)
The lineups, folks. Also, I just got off the field, where a gang of reporters nearly confused Jim Bowden with Manny Ramirez. Bowden wore long, thick dreadlocks -- a la Manny -- underneath a Nationals cap. Plenty can be said...
By
Chico Harlan
|
August 27, 2008; 6:08 PM ET |
Permalink |
Comments (46)
Save & Share:
Narrow lead, high drama
As Stephen Hunter wrote in the Post's Style section yesterday, even losing baseball is sometimes worth all the effort and woe -- so long as you know the right reasons to care. Now I'm not trying to channel Hunter here,...
By
Chico Harlan
|
August 27, 2008; 8:10 AM ET |
Permalink |
Comments (68)
Save & Share:
Welcome back, Elijah
Elijah Dukes should be at Nationals Park for tomorrow's game after being brought up from Class AAA Columbus. It was sort of easy to see the writing on the wall with this when Austin Kearns's injury was announced earlier today....
By
Chico Harlan
|
August 26, 2008; 11:34 PM ET |
Permalink |
Comments (21)
Save & Share:
MLB's replay
As mentioned, Major League Baseball will be implementing replay starting Thursday. Lots of people were talking about it, mainly becuase the media dopes like myself wanted to know everyone's opinion. (I've never heard the phrase slippery slope uttered so many...
By
Chico Harlan
|
August 26, 2008; 7:57 PM ET |
Permalink |
Comments (12)
Save & Share:
Dodgers pregame
The lineups, folks. Oh, and a quick note about tonight. Remember the last time Derek Lowe faced the Nationals? It looked something like this: 8 INN, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K. Buckle up. Oh, and another quick...
By
Chico Harlan
|
August 26, 2008; 6:03 PM ET |
Permalink |
Comments (1)
Save & Share:
Kearns to DL; out 2-4 weeks
The Nationals this afternoon placed RF Austin Kearns on the disabled list, retroactive to August 25, with a stress fracture of his left foot. Kearns is expected to miss two to four weeks. The release the team just issued mentioned...
By
Chico Harlan
|
August 26, 2008; 3:45 PM ET |
Permalink |
Comments (53)
Save & Share:
About three things
About an injury (or many): For the off-day feature, I tried to touch on the basic question that fans have been asking all season. That is, what the heck happened with all these injuries, and could any of them have...
By
Chico Harlan
|
August 26, 2008; 7:40 AM ET |
Permalink |
Comments (99)
Save & Share:
Against the best
Even before yesterday's game, we knew that the Nationals struggle with dominant pitchers. There's no real shame in that, of course; pitchers prove dominance not just by reliably beating a few teams, but by reliably beating most teams. Still, the...
By
Chico Harlan
|
August 25, 2008; 7:50 AM ET |
Permalink |
Comments (86)
Save & Share:
Rebuilding the bullpen
I was talking a few days ago to a scout who was assigned by his major league team to spend five days watching the Nationals. By the time we got to talking, this scout had watched four of those designated...
By
Chico Harlan
|
August 24, 2008; 2:09 PM ET |
Permalink |
Comments (36)
Save & Share:
Lineups from Wrigley
Honestly, look at last-minute plane tickets. If you can fly direct from Reagan to O'Hare in the next 20 minutes, do it. Land here, grab a cab and get to Wrigley; it'll be worth your while. The temp is about...
By
Chico Harlan
|
August 24, 2008; 1:36 PM ET |
Permalink |
Comments (4)
Save & Share:
