Amanda Comak covers the Washington Nationals for The Washington Times.
By Amanda Comak — Published September 14, 2011 Comments
When Drew Storen struck out Lucas Duda late Tuesday night, he earned his 36th save of the season and the Nationals' 69th victory of the 2011 season. With 15 games to spare, this year's version of the Nationals has matched the win total of their immediate predecessors. If they can win even one more game over the next two weeks, they'll be, numerically, better than they were last year.
By Amanda Comak — Published September 13, 2011 Comments
The news on Corey Brown's infected right knee didn't get any better on Tuesday as the rookie outfielder underwent possibly season-ending surgery to help clear it out after the Nationals medical personnel felt it was not progressing in the right direction.
By Amanda Comak — Published September 13, 2011 Comments
Needing just one more win to match their 2010 total, Nationals manager Davey Johnson is sending a more traditional lineup out behind Chien-Ming Wang in the Taiwanese right-hander's first game in New York since leaving the Yankees after the 2009 season.
By Amanda Comak — Published September 13, 2011 Comments
As the Nationals get set to watch Chien-Ming Wang make his return to New York tonight, a few odds and ends...
By Amanda Comak — Published September 13, 2011 Comments
Ross Detwiler was mad. He spent three innings throwing anything and everything he could at the New York Mets 10 days ago and nothing worked. Everything was high, nothing was well-located, nothing was executed the way it should be, save for one pitch he got a ground-ball out on. The rest of them piled up for six earned runs in a short amount of time and a Nationals loss. If there was any better way for Detwiler to get over it than what he did Monday night, you'd be hard-pressed to find it. He was effective, efficient and nearly unhittable for 5 2/3 innings of work. He sandwiched a walk and a hit around 17 straight outs, including 12 in a row from the second through the sixth.
By Amanda Comak — Published September 12, 2011 Comments
The Nationals arrived in New York Sunday night one rookie lighter after leaving outfielder Corey Brown behind in Washington. Brown, who pinch hit for Stephen Strasburg in the bottom of the third inning on Sunday, is dealing with an infection in his knee
By Amanda Comak — Published September 11, 2011 Comments
Late Saturday night, long after almost all of his teammates had left the Nationals' clubhouse following the team's latest loss, Nationals manager Davey Johnson found second baseman Danny Espinosa alone inside the video room.
By Amanda Comak — Published September 11, 2011 Comments
Stephen Strasburg's second major league start in his road back from Tommy John surgery lasted one pitch longer than his first start, and two fewer innings
By Amanda Comak — Published September 11, 2011 Comments
Ryan Mattheus stood on a mound for the first time since Aug. 25 Sunday morning at Nationals Park, throwing his first bullpen session since being placed on the disabled list on Aug. 26. Mattheus was pulled from the game on the 25th, the second appearance he was removed from in the span of a week, because of injury conc
By Amanda Comak — Published September 10, 2011 Comments
When Brad Peacock arrived at spring training earlier this year, he was a minor leaguer with 437 2/3 innings of work under his belt and only 38 2/3 of them at a level above Single-A. He was a former 41st-round draft and follow pick of the Nationals' from 2006 with a career ERA that sat mostly in the fours. Saturday afternoon, he stood in the Nationals clubhouse having been told that, sometime in the next week he'd make his first career major league start, and, to top it off, the Nationals had named him their Minor League Pitcher of the Year.
By Amanda Comak — Published September 10, 2011 Comments
When Stephen Strasburg took the mound Tuesday night, it was with a strict 60-pitch limit and very little wiggle room. He worked around that four-inning expectation by being so efficient he had 12 pitches to spare on his max when the fourth inning ended.
By Amanda Comak — Published September 10, 2011 Comments
John Lannan, with nine wins on the season, has a chance tonight to achieve his first-ever 10-win season. It would be just the sixth 10-win season in Nationals' history. To get it, he'll have a pretty standard Nationals lineup behind him with just one rookie call-up in it: Chris Marrero at first base.
By Amanda Comak — Published September 10, 2011 Comments
It's been a busy week for both Steve Lombardozzi and Brad Peacock. It started with a big league call-up and major league debuts for both. It ended with being named the Nationals Minor League Player of the Year and Pitcher of the Year, respectively.
By Nathan Fenno — Published September 9, 2011 Comments
The week's unceasing rain snarled traffic, flooded roads and forced Davey Johnson to reshuffle his pitching rotation.
By Nathan Fenno — Published September 9, 2011 Comments
The Nationals' top five picks from this year's draft -- signed for a collective $16.5 million -- are among the 52 players on the Washington Nationals' instructional league roster released today.
'Your papers, please' must never be heard in America
