Washington Nationals

Confront his fear of walls? Check (video here). Hit an opposite field home run? Check (video here). Make a great sliding catch in the eighth? Check (video here). Hurt his knee again on that catch and scare the crap out of Davey Johnson late in the game because of said knee? Check ("It’s a little swollen." said Harper after the game). Score the eventual game-winning run on an Ian Desmond single with his helmet flying off? Check (video here). Write "Pray 4 OK!" on the brim of his cap? Check (video here). Hold a baby? Check (Photo via his sister). The only thing Harper didn't do yesterday was untuck his shirt like Rafael Soriano after a must-win game (seems odd to say that in May). Still, all is apparently forgiven between Harper and Raffy. West Coast trip from hell ends 4-6. Nats 4 1/2 back of the Braves in the NL East. (Screencaps via MLB.com, MASN/TV) Befriend Nats Enquirer on Facebook. Follow on Twitter. Related articles Rafael Soriano rips Bryce Harper for miscue Bryce Harper runs into Dodger Stadium wall, leaves game shaken up and bleeding... Bryce Harper and Johnny Manziel hug it out at Petco Park Bryce Harper on that triple over his head: "I don't want to hit the frickin' wall full-on." Video: Bryce Harper's new GEICO commercial

Bryce Harper admitted Tuesday night to a specific kind of vulnerability, and Wednesday afternoon another deep flyball and another looming wall tested it. On Tuesday night, Gregor Blanco smashed a ball over his head that could have been the final … Continue reading →

USA Today Sports ImagesBryce Harper clubbed his 12th homer of the season during yesterday's win.Contrary to the mythology that has been constructed around him, Bryce Harper actually is human. He has flaws as a baseball player. And he even makes mistakes every once in a while.Here's the thing, though, about Harper and those mistakes: When he does make one, he learns his lesson and inevitably gets it right the next time around.We've seen it throughout his brief tenure with the Nationals, and we certainly saw it multiple times during a just-completed, 10-game road trip during which Harper experienced what felt like a season's worth of highs and lows.He crashed into the wall at Dodger Stadium, nearly decapitating himself and severely banging up his body. This led to all sorts ofRead more »

SAN FRANCISCO - Before this three-game series between National League powers, Washington Nationals star Bryce Harper took to Twitter to express his excitement about facing the Giants in a ballpark that he called one of his favorite places to play. Read more Bryce Harper news

Stephen Strasburg's tenth start of the season began with a 31-pitch, 16-strike bottom of the first Tuesday night in AT&T Park in which he gave up two hits and two walks but no runs. The one run the San Francisco Giants did score on the Washington Nationals' 24-year-old starter came in a 13-pitch second. Gregor Blanco singled to left to start the inning and scored from second two outs later when Angel Pagan drove him in. The run got the home team within one after Ryan Zimmerman and Ian Desmond had given the visiting Nats a 2-0 lead in the top of the first against Giants' starter Matt Cain. Strasburg's catcher, Kurt Suzuki, caught Pagan stealing in the next at bat after the Giants' outfielder's RBI single, and the Nationals' starter retired 14 of the next 16 batters he faced, including ten straight to end his start after seven innings of work in which he gave up five hits, three walks and the one earned run while recording seven Ks. Strasburg threw 108 pitches overall, 77 over his final six innings of work after the long first, but the lead he handed the Nats' bullpen was blown in the ninth and the Nationals lost the fourth-straight game when Yunkesy Maya gave up a Pablo Sandoval walk-off blast in the bottom of the tenth. "Stras had a rough start and threw a lot of pitches early, but gave us a good strong seven innings and we were in a position to win that and we didn't win it. It's tough." - Davey Johnson on squandering Stephen Strasburg's strong outing "We didn't get the hits when we needed to," Davey Johnson told reporters after the loss. The Nationals had their chances to add to their lead throughout the game, but after scoring twice early, they failed to add on over the next nine innings in AT&T Park. "When we had the table set and had the right guys up there," the Nats' skipper said, "we just didn't get it done and then we didn't hold them. Stras had a rough start and threw a lot of pitches early, but gave us a good strong seven innings and we were in a position to win that and we didn't win it. It's tough." Had it not been for the long first, Johnson said afterwards, he might have let Strasburg go deeper into the game than he did. "If he hadn't struggled the first couple of innings," Johnson said, "I think he had over 40 pitches or something after two. I probably would have even gone further with him, but he pitched a great game, set up for our pen and our pen just didn't hold it." "His velocity was good, his stuff was good, he mixed and matched three plus pitches in the strike zone for the most part," Nats' GM Mike Rizzo told 106.7 the FAN in D.C.'s Holden Kushner and Danny Rouhier on Wednesday morning, "and really kept a hot-hitting, very good lineup in check and certainly gave us a chance to win the ballgame, which is what we expect our starting rotation to do each and every night out there. We just couldn't close the deal out for him, but it was good to see him in command of a ballgame, go deep into a game when we really needed it." "His velocity was good, his stuff was good, he mixed and matched three plus pitches in the strike zone for the most part, and really kept a hot-hitting, very good lineup in check." - Mike Rizzo on Stephen Strasburg vs the Giants Strasburg threw 29 two-seam fastballs (18 for strikes; 62.07%), 37 four-seam fastballs (23 for strikes; 61.26%), 23 changeups (13 for strikes; 56.52% w/ six swings and misses) and 19 curves (8 for strikes; 42.11%). The changeup was filthy, but the fastball command wasn't there early as both the Nats' GM and Strasburg discussed. "He was spraying his fastball a little bit," Rizzo said on The Mike Rizzo Show, "and [he] had to battle through some long, leverage pitch type of innings and got through it and really pitched extremely well for us. And like I said, he did exactly what we expected him to do, is give us a chance to win and we were set up to win the ballgame, we just couldn't close the deal out and we lost another tight one." Your br

Nats southpaw Gio Gonzalez pitched brilliantly in San Francisco on Wednesday, and the Nationals denied the Giants a sweep of their series, winning in ten innings off of an Ian Desmond single. The team needed a pick-up after Tuesday night’s now-controversial debacle, and Gonzalez provided it. Gonzalez gave up only four hits and struck out [...]

We'd be remiss if we didn't post something about the t-shirt Dan Haren made for Nats pitchers featuring the pic of Steve McCatty in that 1984 issue of Playgirl, which officially blew up and became a "thing" on Tuesday: Haren got T-shirts of McCatty's Playgirl shot made today. "UNTUCK" on back. "Utter joy," Clippard said. "This is the best day of my life." — Adam Kilgore (@AdamKilgoreWP) May 21, 2013 Anyway, there's Gio above (Photo of TV via @NatitudeProblem) in a shot from Nats Xtra on MASN before Wednesday's Nats-Giants game. Sleeves cut off, too. Meanwhile, a pretty nice little outing for Gio on Wednesday: 7.1 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 5 K, 116 pitches, 73 strikes. Should've been good enough for the win, but, you know, these are the 2013 Nats. Befriend Nats Enquirer on Facebook. Follow on Twitter.

SAN FRANCISCO — Washington Nationals trainer Lee Kuntz approached Davey Johnson in the ninth inning of a 1-1 game Wednesday, informing the manager that Bryce Harper’s left knee was sore. View full post on Yahoo! Sports – MLB – Washington Nationals News

A reporter asked Washington Nationals' manager Davey Johnson how much his team needed Wednesday's road trip-ending win over the San Francisco Giants, which stopped a four-game losing streak. "We've needed them all," the 70-year-old skipper said, "We just take them one day at a time, but it's a good ballclub over there. They've got a good bullpen and they kept matching up with us and our guys battled and [Ian Desmond] got a big hit and I loved seeing it. It seems a long time coming." The hit Johnson's referring to was, of course, the Nats' shortstop's tenth inning RBI single that gave the visiting Nationals a one-run lead over the Giants in AT&T after Washington had blown a 1-0 lead in the home-half of the eighth. "They kept matching up with us and our guys battled and [Ian Desmond] got a big hit and I loved seeing it. It seems a long time coming." - Davey Johnson on Nats' 10th inning win in AT&T Desmond's single to right scored Harper from second after the 20-year-old outfielder doubled with one down in the top of the first extra frame of the second-straight extra inning game in the series in San Francisco. A night after a loss which he blamed on his own inability to catch a game-tying ninth-inning triple by the Giants' Gregor Blanco, Harper came back with a 2 for 5 finale on Wednesday in which he scored each of the two runs the Nationals managed to score. Harper hit a solo home run (his 12th of 2013) to left field off Madison Bumgarner in the top of the sixth, then put the Nationals on top again after they'd blown the lead his bat provided. "Before we went out to the field I think in the ninth inning, the trainer came over and said, 'Bryce hurt his knee again.' And I said, 'I don't want to hear it. Please don't tell me that.'" - Davey Johnson on Bryce Harper's swollen knee in AT&T And he apparently did it on a balky left knee. "It was a shocker," Johnson said, "Before he went up there -- before we went out to the field I think in the ninth inning, the trainer came over and said, 'Bryce hurt his knee again.' And I said, 'I don't want to hear it. Please don't tell me that.' And I looked at Bryce and said, 'Can you go?' And he said, 'Yeah. I'll go. I can go.' Then he got the big hit in the next inning. But I couldn't imagine having to take him out. I'm down to one player, running one player short on the bench anyway and having to take out [Harper] would have been all I can take." Harper apparently hurt the knee again on a line drive to right by Hunter Pence in the bottom of the eighth. With two runners on and the game tied at 1-1 following Buster Posey's RBI single off Drew Storen, Pence lined to right and a charging Harper made a sliding catch on the knee he injured running into Dodger Stadium's right field wall last week in Los Angeles. "He banged it up," Davey Johnson said, "And it was swelling up, and I said, 'We'll fix it tomorrow." Davey Johnson And Ryan Zimmerman On Bryce Harper Bunting Photo © Jason A. Watson/Getty Images Harper's home run was his first hit in 11 at bats going back to his second AB against the San Diego Padres in the finale of the previous series in Petco Park. Harper ended the road trip 5 for 21 with a double and two home runs. On the season, the second-year major leaguer now has a .288/.383/.612 line with seven doubles, a triple and 12 home runs in 41 games and 164 plate appearances, over which he's drawn 22 walks and struck out 27 times.

Via Fangraphs (click to embiggen) Not too shabby: Gio Gonzalez (+42.3%) goes 7.1 IP, striking out 5 and walking 2. He gives up 1 ER on a walk who comes around to score after he exits in the aeyth. SYSTEMS ACTIVE: Bryce Harper (+23.8%) jacks a oppo solo shot to put the Nats ahead in the 6th (+18.8%). He also hits a one-out double in extras (+11.6%). Uh-oh: Drew Storen (-22.7%) walks one and lets one of Gio's runner score to tie the game in the aeyth. RAAAAAAR! Tyler Clippard (+11.7%) fans two while keeping it tied with a scoreless 9th. Clutch (if that existed): Ian Desmond (+31.9%) singles in the go-ahead run in the 10th (+33.2%). Forget yesterday, untuck today: Rafael Soriano (+16.6%) keeps the ball in the yard to get the save.Gio has a strong outcome, the bullpen overcomes a minor hiccup, and Bryce Desmond comes through again.