8th Inning Rally Sweeps the Angels

0:00The end of season, Nat's Chat podcast party is on Friday night October 2nd from 7 to 9 p.m. at Walter Sports Bar, the best sports bar in Navy yard. Come eat, drink and hang out with fellow Nat's fans. As we all try to figure out who's going to be the starting shortstop on opening day 2027. Again, that's at Walters from 7 to 9 p.m. Friday night, October 2nd. For the one-one count on by Astero, here's the pitch. Swing in a fly ball on a line to right field. One of the run can he get there, reaches out, makes the catch for the out. Attacking for third as McLean throw coming into the infield. Tor Nugiaz, the second baseman, Mcler comes into score, Grissom tags and goes to third by Astero, strives in his second one of the game. A line drive, sacrifice, fly to right field. The angels of score twice in the eighth and now lead by the score four to two. Here's the one-one to B-boss. Swing in a line to left the base and throw the draw in infield. Here comes Lyle of score, the game is tied.

1:03Europe at B-boss with another clutch head. A pinch head single, a left field for the draw in field. Grimes in his 29th one of the year and more importantly, ties this game again. It's now the angels for the nationals for it. B-boss represents the go ahead and run it first. Take the young at third with two out. Three balls in a strike to cruise. Here's the pitch swing and a line drive at a left field. That's a base head. Young trots in from third to score, Dilling cruise. Muscles one over the infield, a left field on the three-one pitch. And the nationals put a sixth run on the board. They have a two-run lead. It's the national six. And the angels for his Dilling cruise drives in his 40th run of the year. Nationals fans come to their feet. No balls, two strikes, two out. Here's the pitch swing and a miss. He struck him out this time. The sweeper running away. It's Zach Nettow out on three pitches. Jackson Claire. This first major league win in this series now has his first major league save.

2:04As the nationals complete their third series sweep of the year. And the field is celebrated victory here in nationals Park. And welcome to Natschatt. I'm Al Goldie. Host of the Al Goldie podcast. I'm joined by Washington, Nationals inside on Mark Zuckerman of Natche Journal.com. He is at Nationals Park. So the wins may not have been pretty and the wins certainly came against a bad opponent, but these were wins three wins over the weekend for the Nats as they over the weekend swept the three game series against the Los Angeles Angels at Nationals Park. Three one run wins of the last of which was a six five win over the angels on the afternoon in a game in which the Nats over came a four to eight thinning deficit by scoring four runs in the bottom of the eighth. The Nats now are 70 and 81 run differential at plus three angels now. And American league worst 56 and 93 run differential of minus 76. Nice to have you with us. This installment of Natche Chat brought to us by the golf yards in Arlington, the DMV's premiere indoor golf performance club open 24 seven precision focused

3:07and weather proof visit the golf yards.com or call 7035 965234. Also, we have a website that we invite you to check out Nats chat podcast.com which you can purchase a Natche Chat podcast t shirt. Thank you to our friend Jamie copper Smith who sent us photos of him in his Navy blue Natche Chat podcast t shirt while hiking. Thank you, Jamie. Hope all is well with you. So you know, Mark, it's a funny deal, right? You look at this series. The Nats in this series dealt with plenty more in the way of bad relief pitching. The Nats in this series, I don't know if people realize this did not hit a single home run and yet the Nats swept the series some good starting pitching, some clutch hitting a good number of walks and the Nats off a run of just 12 and 28 over 40 games get a three game sweep of the angels at National Park. It's nice to have some wins for the Nats in recent days to discuss here. And some comfort behind wins three times in a row that came from behind late. And I know there was a blown save in there as well, maybe not the cleanest as you said,

4:09but still for a team that even at its best earlier this season did not show that ability to come from behind late. That was a revelation. Now how much of that is anything that they were doing versus the angels, bullpen in particular being really bad, whatever the case, you take it. This team will take whatever it can get right now. And it was nice to see them string together hits put together that kind of quality rally without necessarily having to hit the ball out of the park to do that to get just enough relief pitching to hold on. And you know, if nothing else as agonizing as this has been over the last month and a half, it is nice to see that they are still superior to some opponents that they play. They are not bottom of the league. I know that's a low bar, but the games they played at the Dodgers and the Padres, as we said, they were in them all. They led several of them. They had the chance to at least come out of that thing with a split. They held their own up until the very end of those games against some really good teams. And in this case, they were the superior team to the angels.

5:12So whatever the record may be, whatever their performance since late July has been, I think there's still a lot of stuff there to look at and say they are in the right track. They are better than the worst teams in the league. And with a few corrections here and there, they can compete with some of the better teams in the league as well. Yeah, it has been disappointing to see the home runs dry up, but seeing the Nads get all of the hits that the team got in the series, a lot of good played appearances. Like I said, clutch hits and that's did well with runners and scoring position in the series. And you know, to flip the script and do another team's bullpen dirty. I like that. That's got to feel good off having had that done to them. So often they're seasoned. So the Nads on Sunday afternoon, six runs, 13 hits, which were a triple, two doubles and 10 singles, two walks, four for 10 with runners and scoring position. The four run bottom of the eighth was terrific. We had Dalyne Lyle with an RBI triple to right center field off the outfield wall on an O2 pitch to cut the Nads deficit to four three.

6:13We had Jacob Young in that inning with a one out RBI double to the left center field gap for a five four Nads lead. We had Dylan Cruz in that inning with a two out RBI single to left field for a six four Nads lead. And also for the Nads in that inning was yet another run scoring hit for a friend, George B. Bebos, a pinch RBI single for him in that inning. If you like station to station baseball, I mean, you got a good bit of that in this game. Five hits for the Nads in that four run bottom of the eighth Dylan Cruz, by the way, OPS of 750 in this month of September. So very nice to see him doing some good things here in this a final month of the regular season. The Nads and the four run eighth. I mean, again, we've seen this happen to the Nads. So many times they in this game, you know, it's a tight game for sure. You're not really sure what to expect, you know, especially with the Nads bullpen in the game at this point. The angels have just scored two runs in the top of the eighth and for the Nads to respond as they did in that bottom of the eighth inning. That was nice and good quality at bats throughout that no flukes in there. No cheapies. They weren't drawing walks.

7:14They were actually hitting the ball hard and finding gaps. And then running the bases. Well, you had yo yo morale is scoring from first on the Dalyle and Lyle ball off the right field wall turned in the triple. You had Dorbit Beba scoring from first on the Jacob Young double coming all the way around there on that one. And then the Dylan Cruz tack on two out RBI single. I think it was really important, not just because they did give up a run in the ninth and they needed that insurance. But it showed a lack of complacency on their part. They weren't satisfied just taking the lead. They wanted to keep it going. Cruz has been a lot better here lately and to see him come through like that. I think it was important every hit certainly in that inning came at the end of a good quality at bat. Right at your Murphy ready kicks delivers swing. Driving the air to deep right center field. This is way back and his ball is off the wall. Heading for third is Morales giving the green light. Lyle's on his way to third with throw there not in time. It's a triple for Dylan Lyle.

8:19And maybe a couple guys mentioned this that like for all that struggles they had this year trying to come back late in games. Once they did it, remember they had the walkoff for the first time on the last homestand. They need to do it three games in a row here. Once you've done it, it's like, okay, we can do this like the weights off the shoulders and maybe they're playing with a little more confidence. When they get into that spot that like all year long, it's weighing on their minds. Man, we're down. We haven't shown. We've got a great line. We have not shown we can come from behind at all. They finally did it in these cases and maybe that's just a matter of getting over that hump finally. And now believing that you can do it. I mentioned who the heroes were in that a thinning also in this game. Yo, Yo Morales as the net starting first baseman and number five batter two for four RBI single and another single. He and the Nats to run six had a win out first pitch RBI single into left center field to cut the Nats deficit to two one. It is a small sample size, but his OPS at the major league level here since being brought up eight eighty nine.

9:19We're seeing some good stuff here from Yo, Yo Morales in his limited time. It's pretty good and let's acknowledge here that like he's playing maybe a little bit more than we thought. He would and how are they finding a way to do that. But actually putting under chiparo a third base. This has happened a few times now that's Blake but he's way of getting. Chapparo and Morales and obi melok or tees into the lineup at the same time and go back a few days. I asked Blake but error question about Morales and if maybe he's learned anything about him since coming up that he didn't know. And he made a point to say that a lot of us a lot of people out there were asking all year where's yo yo Morales why won't they just call him up he's done everything he needs. You know maybe where they seeing signs of him not being as good at triple eight and while there may have been some of those signs but you tear really want to make the point to say. He was good enough to be called up earlier and we would have called him up earlier we just didn't see the avenue for playing time because of chiparo being at first base as the right handed platoon. Because of Brady house obviously they wanted to make sure to give him as many opportunities as they could.

10:24They did finally call him up and now they're finding a way to get him in there so. While there may have been a question about does the organization really believe in him or not it does sound like they were impressed enough with what he did all long and Rochester to want to call him up. But they were just concerned there'd be a lack of playing time good on them for finding a way to get him in there because I think it's valuable you're learning more about what you have and. That can give you a clearer picture as you go in the next season. Morales one of four Nats players who each had exactly two hits in this game James Wood C.J. Abrams yo yo Morales and Dailin Lyle with our friend James Wood in this game so he was in that starting right fielder and upper one batter went two for four with two singles and a walk so we got on base three times we don't want to just overlook that. But by the way the first then that's had the bases loaded with one out did not score a run and part of that was this. So what in the bottom of the first rule it off walk but got thrown out on a went out builders choice ground or by yo yo Morales to angel shortstop Zach netto who throughout wood at home despite the infield not being in the infield was back and yet still would got thrown out at home he on the play did not run hard if you watch the game on nationals dot TV would got called out by the end game analyst for the game Ryan Zimmerman and you know would not running hard I mean there's no excuse for that and now you did wonder you know is he maybe not.

11:45100% you know you never know with this kind of thing late in the season et cetera well you pose the question and that's manager Blake butera during his post game press conference and would according to butera is fine also would according to butera apologize for what happened on that place or was good to hear that no he came over and you know apologize for that he just said like he was one you don't see that play happened a lot or a little infield back in the throw home netto's not twice the series but what he was like I was looking back to see who was feeling the ball and then he just like he's like I should have just had my head forward just ran hard he's he just said he was looking back to see what was happening and he couldn't go full speed and that's just a play where they have a heads up short stop and you don't see that happen very often but if you could do it over again he probably just look forward and get down on but it's not it's not injury related thing. You know I was referring to that play but really like since he's come off the I.L. there've been several of these moments usually just after he hits a ground ball whether he's running down the first baseline and hasn't necessarily looked like he was giving his all on them and certainly on that play at the plate it felt like the same thing so I asked it more of a generic way not

12:57referring to any one particular play and then the Tara mentioned that one and said that would did apologize for it essentially that never expected netto would try that throw when he was playing back well he'd already done it earlier in the series and regardless you don't never take chances with that kind of stuff if you can run hard you do and you make sure that you don't even give them that chance of throwing you out of the plate in a situation like that so good on him for at least realizing it on that moment but I want to watch him here the rest of the way because there have been a decent number of just like routine grounders that as he runs down the first baseline not saying you had to get you got to busted at 110% all the time and maybe you're going to get thrown out anyways but it does feel like sometimes he's not really going all out or giving but I just call full effort on those and it's a bad look if that is true it doesn't set a good example you're the star of the team you don't want to feel like you you know have the right to do that when others don't we know Blake be terror is already been Georgia beboss earlier this summer for not running out of ball and just on top of all that you never know what might happen in the game you know they could throw it away something can happen you could be safe there's no excuse for it so I hope that we don't see that from him anymore if he is truly healthy and nothing's going on with him from a physical standpoint you got 11 games left James just play hard that's all anybody can ask of you show that you've still got it all the way through the end set a good example for everyone else he always looks so calm right and

14:27he many times looks casual but you know you say yourself like this is just kind of who he is you know this is his personality he's not necessarily like Jacob young running into outfield walls or even like someone like Dylan Cruz or you know Adam Eaton who's now is on Angels coaching staff so like I think you do allow for some leeway plus he's a really good player so you know I think when you're that good you do get away with stuff that someone who isn't is good gets away with but yeah a moment like that cannot happen and you got to be better than that and you know franchise player corner stone player like you know take pride in who you are your position on the team and run hard he's a fast runner we know that he's got 21 stolen bases you know last episode of the podcast we're complimenting how well he's doing in the stolen base department his efficiency on stolen bases and then this game he doesn't run out a ball like that just not good and I thought it said a lot that Ryan Zimmerman was willing to say hey you know would didn't run hard right there when mr. national is saying to a television audience you know of hardcore nats fans James would just did not run hard that's not good you don't want Ryan Zimmerman calling you out no you don't and I do think

15:33it's interesting that he would be the one to do it if you think back to Ryan Zimmerman's career it was not the world's fastest runner at all but did you ever say to yourself either man Zim was busted as hard as he could on that play or man Zim was lofing it on that play you never said that he just always ran at the appropriate speed for the situation I think most people understand you can't be all out all the time for 162 games it doesn't work you're going to wear down your body it's just not going to happen but understand the situations and understand the appropriate level of hustle given whatever is happening in the game at that moment that it doesn't look out of the ordinary to anyone and it still gives you the opportunity to to advance if the defense doesn't make the play something like that I think that's a good lesson and I think Ryan Zirrin was a great example of this he was never anybody that you were just wowed by how hard he ran but you were also never disappointed in the effort from him you never said boys him wasn't running hard on that one he just

16:34always knew the appropriate speed to go on any particular play given the situation well two weeks from sunday is September 27th the 11 year anniversary of the DC strangler which was ignited by Bryce Harper not hustling right I'm not saying we're going to get that with James wood but it's kind of funny how things come up baseball season might be winding down but for golfers in the DMV the grind never stops as the days get shorter in the temperature drops finding a consistent climate control place to train becomes a massive challenge you can't let unpredictable winter weather ruin your mechanics enter the golf yards in Arlington we are the most advanced 24 seven indoor golf performance club in the area whether you are a scratch golf or looking to dial in your analytics or a weekend warrior we provide the exact same elite track man well put techno gym and ox fit technologies the touring pros use to maintain a premium uncrowded training environment our

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18:42new customer offer for initial plan to remain greater than 50 gigabytes may slow in at work is busy see terms for a limited time and make dollars get a big Mac extra value me for $8 that means to all beef patty special sauce lettuce cheese pickles onions on a sesame seed bun and medium fries and a drink we may need to change that jingle price of it to switch me very Hey it's Kelly Rowland you may not know this but I have Xima so I get how it can steal your time but why let Xima take over when you can talk to your doctor about Ebbgliss Ebbgliss lubricism ab LBKZ a 250 milligram per two milliliter injection is a prescription medicine used to treat adults and children 12 years of age and older who weigh at least 88 pounds or 40 kilograms with moderate to severe axima also called a topic dermatitis that is not well controlled with prescription therapies used on the skin or topicals or who cannot use topical therapies Ebbgliss can be used with or without topical corticosteroids don't use if you are allergic to Ebbgliss allergic reactions can occur that can be severe eye problems can occur tell your doctor if you have newer worsening eye problems you should not receive a live vaccine when treated with

19:45Ebbgliss before starting Ebbgliss tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection paid partnership with Lily respect your time ask your doctor about Ebbgliss and visit Ebbgliss.com or call 1-800-LilyRX or 1-800-545-5979 Here's voices by Astero's and a swing of flyball deep center field sending Jacob Young racing back to the warning track at the wall he climbs the wall but this one is gone into the first row of the red seats a home run for voices by Astero's and a 1-0-0-Agell's lead that's his ninth home of the year he takes a curveball out of the opposite field showing off his power So the Nats starting pitching in this series ended up being quite good when you think about what went down here Kade Cavali and game one Andrew Alvarez in game two and can we say Riley Cordilio in game three he was used as the Nats opener and he did do well this was a Jake Irvin outing and finally the Nats after some of us have been like begging for this for years with Jake Irvin who was struggle so often a first innings right try the opener strategy in a Jake Irvin game Riley Cornelio was the opener

20:51he did well he tossed two scoreless innings with four swinging strikeouts versus one walk and then Jake Irvin came into the game to serve as an ads bulk picture he officially allowed the reruns in five innings gave up just two heads they were two solo homers he also issued four walks but he also had six strikeouts it is remarkable how much the strikeout rate for Irvin has gone up here this season 76 pitches 46 strikes 30 balls so there's the what but actually think what may be most interesting is the why why now with this why now did the Nats try and open or with Jake Irvin off you know him being such an obvious opener candidate for so long so I think two things came into play in this case number one Cornelio last time out in San Diego did start the bullpen game for them and look as good as he has maybe all year long with three scoreless this is the guy who's background was as a starter they've tried to make him into reliever this year and I think they looked at that and said hmm he seemed more comfortable he seemed pretty good let's get another look at him in that role as they still try to figure out what exactly he is in the long run and it was

21:57interesting even before the game Blake Beterra acknowledging that like he's open minded to the idea of Cornelio going back to being a starter again this is somebody who has clearly good stuff and some ability and I just think it's a question of where does he best fit in so I think they wanted to see him again in that role you limited they knew it was going to be two or three innings at most but he did look pretty good the slider was really sharp so maybe that is a sign of a reason to reconsider how you are looking to Cornelio in the future the second part of the equation what made it I think possible is because they have the off day now on Monday they've been going with of course the bullpen game every fifth day they don't have a fifth starter what they've decided to do now is just for go that spot all together and they're going to have Jackson Kent start Tuesday and Kate Cavalli Wednesday against the Philly so essentially going back to a four man rotation with the off day there which means you don't have to save up all your bulk relief arms for a bullpen game on Tuesday which made more guys available which is why I think they were all right doing that with Cornelio

22:58so I think it had more to do with that than maybe specifically to Irvin and his struggles sure you want to get a look see how it goes with him pitching out of the bullpen in bulk instead of as a starter but as we know they're not going to go into next year and say to themselves hey you know what Jake Irvin you're a part of this but you're going to be the bulk guy and we're going to always use an opener for you that's not their preferred strategy they would want him to be a starter or maybe a full-time reliever if he's even on the team at all so I don't think they're learning anything new about him I think it was more let's get another look at Cornelio starting a game and also knowing they had the luxury of not needing to save up bullpen arms for a bullpen game coming up I also would think too that the Jackson Kent game on Tuesday evening could end up becoming a bullpen game given the way that things have gone with Kent so maybe the Nats have combined Jackson Kent and the bullpen game into one spot in the rotation at least for now it is interesting to the Nats on their active roster right now have 15 position players and just 13 pictures a lot of roster moves by the

24:01Nats in recent days especially regarding the bullpen the Nats on Sunday morning did announce having activated shortstop slash second baseman not seem new Nyes from the bereavement list he had been on that since Thursday when the Nats announced having recalled outfielder Andrew Pinkney from Trepley Rochester but Pinkney was not sent back down the Nats on Saturday night announced having option reliever Eddie Jean to Trepley Rochester I don't know how much we should read into all of this because we know the frequency with which the Nats make roster moves I mean I've unchecked X in the last 30 seconds maybe they've already done something to alter this but for now 15 position players and 13 pictures yeah I don't think they'll stick with that I think they felt comfortable enough with that at least for the day maybe come Tuesday they change that up again it's tempting to want to read into every single transaction they make especially with the bullpen I think we have reached a point now where it's not worth trying to decipher it that much they're trying to get through every day with whoever they think is best for that particular matchup and know that they have the freedom to send somebody down call somebody up whenever they need it my guess is they will go back to 14

25:04pictures here before long but you know it may also just be the nature of the schedule like I said off day Monday two games against the Phillies and then another off day Thursday so maybe they figure let's carry the extra position player for a few days the odds of us needing all those relievers hopefully are pretty slim and maybe they wait until Friday when they go on the road again to bring up an extra picture but I think at this point it's not worth too much delving into the Y and what exactly they're doing with these roster maneuvers except to say they're just trying to maximize whatever they have on that given day for whatever match up their facing yeah I think we've all become desensitized to the nets many roster transactions this season when it came to the bullpen in the six five win over the angels on Sunday afternoon so the Nets use two pictures beyond open a Riley Cornelio and bulk man Jake or an Eric Tolman and Jackson Claire Tolman officially allowed one run which was unearned in one inning in the angels to run eight got charged with an honor and run off a one out fielding air by shortstop CJ Abrams Abrams had another bad air at shortstop this is

26:06why this team would like to move him from being primarily a shortstop in case you're not aware of why that desire has been there but Abrams with runners on first and second went out in the game tied to two botched the fielding of a grounder by Von Grissum on a play that so should have resulted in a six four three double play now look Tolman was not blameless here he issued a walk in the inning he issued a run scoring wild pitch in the inning but that air by Abrams brutal Jackson Claire allowed one run in one inning did get the save his first career MLB regular season save so we're now up to 13 different Nets pitchers who have each registered at least one save in this regular season Sinclair top of the ninth allowed a run of giving up a lead off first pitch office that field double by Josh Low to the left center field gap but Sinclair did retire each of the angels next three batters it is basically never easy with this bullpen but enough good from the bullpen in this game to where the Nets got the win yeah they pulled it off you know crediting them for that Tolman that was disappointing a couple of walks a wild pitch in their stolen base and yes if Abrams turns

27:11that double play it changes everything and he gets out of that thing clean and he didn't but you would have liked to see Tolman who's been pretty good be just a little more effective at throwing the ball over the plate Sinclair frustrating to give up the lead off double of course but I'll tell you what we sometimes joke about the concept of pitching to the score is like this old school mindset that shouldn't be adopted but when you're pitching the ninth inning and you have a two run lead that is essentially what you are doing you are just making sure you don't give up two runs and if you give one run well so be it so you give up the lead off double forget about that guy treat it like it's a clean inning and you just need to get three out without anybody else reaching base and he did that and yes the runner came in to score but ultimately that doesn't affect the outcome he didn't let anybody else get on base he didn't let that one hit turn into potentially something bigger you know one game I'm not going to suggest that Jackson Claire has the has the it quality that you want in the late inning reliever but I did like the way he just like brushed off that lead off double and just went after the next three guys and took care of business

28:13without letting it get any worse if you care about the national league east andings the nats are no longer last in the national league east now one percentage point ahead of the New York match nats at 70 and 81 the mets at 69 and 80 so hey there is at least that and next up with an ads is a two game series against an NL East rival in the Philadelphia Phillies a game one Tuesday evening at 645 the nats have Jackson Kent as their listed probable starting pitcher for the game and game two Wednesday evening at 645 the nats have at Cade Cavali as their listed probable starting pitcher for the game this installment of nats chat brought to us by the golf yards in Arlington the DMV's premiere indoor golf performance club open 24 seven precision focused in weather proof visit the golf yards dot com or call the golf yards at 703596 5234 all nationals radio highlights on nats chat occur to see of 1067 the fan from Mark's government on Algoldy we thank you for listening and we'll talk to you next time on the nats chat podcast

29:14here's the set three two Suzuki swagger and take my film way back going going it's gone good bye game over you Kurt Suzuki has done it again big some goes Suzuki it's one of the wins of the year and if you walked out of this ballpark with a meds guard five runs to the top of the night today you blow it you