Now that the All Star break is over, the race for the first pick in the draft is just getting started, and it looks to be exciting. The San Diego Padres currently possess a half game lead over the Nationals, but Seattle is also close behind. In fact, all that separates the Padres from the Mariners is a game, with the Nationals sandwiched in the middle. The Nationals staunch refusal to score runs gives them......

Those Nationals went a respectable 3-3 over the last week. They took a three game set against the Orioles, a series highlighted by a thrilling 12th inning walk off homerun. Since the team has come to Washington, the Nationals are 10-8 against Baltimore. Also, the fact that Teddy earned his first race win against the Oriole Bird cannot be ignored. This year has been the first year during which it felt like a real rivalry......

With 1.8 percent of the season over, the Nationals were on pace to win a record setting 162 games. Currently, they are on a six-game losing streak, and now find themselves at the bottom of the NL East. That said, it is still too early in the season to be that worried about wins and losses, right Detroit? For example, a quick look at the standings show Baltimore, Kansas City, and Florida leading their divisions,......

It's hardly the nicest stadium, but RFK Stadium holds a venerable place in Washington sports history. Open since 1962, when it was called District of Columbia Stadium, the venue has hosted two MLB franchises, the Washington Redskins during their glory years, the most successful MLS club ever, international soccer tournaments, concerts, and on and on. It even hosted Team America! Sunday's final Nats home game, a 5-3 win over the Phillies, isn't the last......

The Nationals have left their fans in quite a quandary this year. What criteria do you use to judge this team? One perspective says that this team has already exceeded expectations and found some quality pitchers in their system, so the season is a success. And yet, this team is currently the fourth worst team in baseball and has lost 10 of their last 14 games, and are in the midst of a 4-game losing......

UPDATE (4:10pm): Nuthin! Per Barry Svrluga, the Nats passed the trade deadline without making a move, despite a flurry of late rumors. While they might make minor moves in August (like last year with Livan), they decided against moving Rauch or Cordero. Let's hope Chief's feelings aren't hurt and he strikes out Dunn for the save tonight! UPDATE (2:35pm): The Red Sox, rumored to have sought after Cordero since last winter, have reportedly filled their......

News and notes surrounding Washington's loveable cellar-dwellers: Belliard Signs Extension: Though he was widely considered the Nats most moveable commodity, he and the team agreed to a 2-year, $3.5 million extension to keep big Ron in D.C. Belliard’s versatility makes Manny Acta’s job much easier for the next few years with his ability to play multiple infield positions, his willingness to be a bench player when needed, and his veteran leadership. In the meantime, his......

On Sunday, with their 7-2 win over the Brewers, the Nats reached the All Star break and the season’s traditional halfway point. With the team on a not-quite-as-bad-as-expected 66-win pace, those of us who write about them are stuck somewhere between the building euphoria in Boston and the pitchfork and torches crowd in Cincinnati. One of the beautiful things about baseball, though, is that the long season generates plenty of moments, both incredible and pathetic,......

Prompted by the opening of online balloting for the 2007 All Star Game a few weeks ago, we recently started wondering who might represent the Nats in San Francisco (since, you know, somebody has to). Dmitri Young? The guy's hitting for a scorching .500 average over the last 21 games. But he's mired behind popular stars like Albert Pujols and Nomar Garciaparra, as well as reigning MVP Ryan Howard and Prince Fielder's 23-homer bat. Even......

Ponder this one for a minute: Now that official online voting is open, if you had to select the Nats representative for the ’07 All Star game based on the team's first 52 games, who would it be? No National appears in the top five at any position in the early voting results, which is indicative of both the nature of the voting as a popularity contest and of the Nats' subpar 21-31 record.......

If we told you that Orioles starting pitcher Erik Bedard struck out 12 Nationals batters in a thoroughly dominating performance on Sunday, you’d have expected the O’s to cruise to their third win in a sweep of their Beltway rivals. Likewise, if we told you that both Ryan Zimmerman and Austin Kearns homered and the Nats opened with a 6-0 lead on the road in Cincinnati last night, you’d have expected a first road win......

While D.C. was enjoying its glorious spring weather this weekend, the Nats were in Miami getting severely pounded by the Marlins. Many of the now-usual themes were present: big early deficits, too many walks, and baserunning blunders maligned the brief road trip. The biggest culprit, the Nats much-maligned pitching, has been adequately covered by others, including Chad Cordero's two blown saves and the disasterous outings by Matt Chico and Jerome Williams. Really, in a just......

Maybe it was the indignity of the Marlins spoiling the last Opening Game ever in RFK. Maybe it was the insufferable Aramark concessionaires, who insist that it's perfectly acceptable to run out of buns in the fifth inning of the first damn game. Maybe it's the humiliation of the long winless streak to the other presidents. There's no telling. Something, though, was terribly amiss in that giant head of Teddy Roosevelt's during the Nat's 9-2......

[Editor's Note: With the Nationals readying to begin their third season in D.C., change is constant and questions abound. Today, like last year, we take a look at the 2007 roster and all the new contributors. Next week, we’ll discuss this year’s most pressing questions with some of the Nats' best bloggers.] With the Nats preparing to head north from spring training in Viera for their third season on the Anacostia, it’s time to take......

The Washington Nationals arrived at this year's All-Star Break in ignominious fashion, suffering their fifth sweep of the season at RFK. This time, the Nats were victimized by the San Diego Padres. After a successful series against Florida earlier this week, the Nats could smell second place in the NL East. They now find themselves amid the musky odor of the division's basement. That they played the Padres so closely only adds to the......

The highly anticipated Battle of the Beltway ended its second round yesterday with the Nationals losing the weekend series to the Orioles at Camden Yards. The series concluded this year's meetings between the two teams. Looking back on this budding rivalry, it is clear that the Nats and Orioles played themselves to a stalemate. Each team won its home series by taking 2 of 3 games. Each team finds itself struggling to stay out......

The following is the first in a two part point/counterpart series by DCist Sports regarding Alfsonso Soriano and his future with the Washington Nationals. Today Matthew Bourque argues for trading him. Jeff Beam will provide the case for keeping Soriano tomorrow. When Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals landed on the 15-day disabled list with a strained oblique muscle, baseball lost its most prolific hitter. On Monday, an inconclusive MRI had experts believing that......

A win is a win, right? Sometimes it comes in the form of Wednesday night's gem: an outstanding pitching dual duel between Houston star Roy Oswalt and Washington rookie Mike O'Conner. O'Conner was great, allowing only a three hits over 6.0 innings and holding the Astros to one run on a Morgan Ensberg homer. Oswalt was even better, mowing down Nats for seven innings before finally allowing Damian Jackson to score on a balk that......

When the Nats completed the series win over their budding rivals from Baltimore last weekend, things were looking up. They'd won two in a row (and three of four), stalwart starter Livan Hernandez appeared to have returned to last year's All Star form, and Alfonso Soriano was proving why Jim Bowden coveted him so badly. The team seemed to have turned a corner on their poor start. But Momentum, she is a fickle lady.......

Just two days after Ken Griffey, Jr., and the Reds overcame a three-run 11th inning deficit to stun the Nationals' bullpen, the Braves terrorized the Nats beleaguered pen. This time, Jeff Francoeur beat Chad Cordero in grand style Saturday night to send the Nats to what was then their fourth straight loss. The Nats headed into the 9th on Saturday with a two-run lead, but the usually reliable Cordero struggled from the start. He......

You gotta give The Kid points for style. After nearly a month on the DL, Ken Griffey, Jr. returned to the Reds last night with a three-run, walk-off home run in the bottom of the 11th. Unfortunately, the Nationals were the unlucky victims of Griffey's 539th career home run. With Alfonso Soriano mired in an 11-for-58 slump and on the bench, the Nats scored three in the 11th to pull ahead 4-1. Three relievers tried......

On Thursday, the Lerners took in their first game as the official to-be-owners of the Nats, and it was a stinker. The Nats' poor play has left them in last place, and has local scribes taking a long view toward the Lerner/ Kasten team building a contender. The Nats started the week with a quick two game series in New York with the first-place Mets. And they had to do it while desperately shorthanded and......

This entry was written by DCist contributor Benjamin Kabak. With Ryan Church providing some much-needed ninth-inning heroics during the Nats' Easter Sunday win over the Marlins, the headlines nearly write themselves. Church, who struggled during Spring Training and hit even worse during his first week playing at AAA New Orleans, came up big with a two-run home run in the top of the 9th as the Nats overcame a 5-4 deficit to top the Florida......

This entry was written by new DCist contributor Jeff Beam Away from the three ring circus created by Major League Baseball, City Council, and Mayor Williams’ office, the 2006 edition of the Nationals prepares this week to close shop in Viera, Florida and head north for another season along the Anacostia. A number of roster moves via trade, promotion, and shoulder tears have changed the look of the team, so we’ve compiled a season preview......

It's been a rough spring training for the Nats, particularly where pitching is concerned, and the approaching World Baseball Classic might induce some additional nervousness for Washington fans, as Nationals' arms are put to the test. Fireballing Mets reliever Billy Wagner withdrew from the U.S. roster yesterday, allowing Nats relief pitcher Gary Majewski to step into his spot. Majewski joins closer Chad Cordero on the American team, while Washington players Luis Ayala and Tony Armas......

One of the joys of Spring Training is supposed to be taking a break from the icy darkness of wherever you're from to head south and dream of the warm summer nights that must be around the corner if baseball's begun. This winter, of course, we've all been able to keep our tans, and the kids never had to quit their stickballing in the alley, but it's still pretty exciting to think that it's nearly......

But for a few cities in flyover country the baseball season is effectively over, and the rest of the nation has turned its full attention to the gridiron. In Washington, the story is no different, this being the peak of the D.C. sporting year, and the Post is in full Skins swing, plastering banner photographs on Monday editions above war news and natural disasters. For real baseball towns, however, the offseason is an art in......

Devastating? Gut-wrenching? Demoralizing? Time to dust off your thesaurus to find the most appropriate word to describe the Nationals’ _____________ (adjective of your choice) 9-7 loss to the Atlanta Braves yesterday afternoon at RFK. No matter how you say it, this one hurt. Bad. Despite overcoming a 6-0 deficit and grabbing a 7-6 lead courtesy of a furious five-run rally in the bottom of the eighth, Chad Cordero coughed up three runs in the ninth......

On a beautiful Sunday afternoon, before the Nationals took on the Phillies at the Bobby, the RFK crowd was treated to a performance of the National Anthem by a trio of pre-teen blonds in American flag dresses which had dubbed themselves, or had been dubbed, Clique. In true Sparklemotion style they sang the anthem (and since it was Sunday, God Bless America during the seventh-inning stretch), while the scoreboard announced that their names were Ariel,......

Let's start this off with a show of hands: If you thought the Nats would sweep last night's double header in Atlanta, raise your hand. Now, everyone who thought the Nats would get swept in last night's double header in Atlanta, raise your hands. Now, the rest of you, who thought the Nats would split last night's double header in Atlanta, raise your hands. Ok, now if DCist counted correctly, most of you thought the......