For the sixth season in a row, Walters is the official bar of the Nats Chat podcast located across the street from the ballpark just off South Capital Street. Rosovon to the belt, the pitch. So we got a chopper toward third. Abrams breaks the plate, but Shad can't pick it up. And the game is tied. He tried to barehand grab and fanned on it. He won the shortstop, slipped the stupor, but that's much too late. And the nationals have tied the game. Abrams crosses the plate. Weaver delivers the time run at six to six here in the eleventh. Three balls, two strikes. Again, we pitch number eight of the advantage. Here comes Swain, a line drive, bass hit in the left center field. With Shad scores, Soto's coming home through, going to third, not in time there. Bady heads for second on the throw to third. And that's turned it into a big hit. Two runs single for Brett Bady. And the meds have played it for the twelfth. They lead at 10 to six. Next one coming in line to right center field. On the run as weaver. Can't get there. This will clear the bases with the shed heading for second base. And the meds have put 10 runs on the board. Two run double for Bichette. It's now the meds 16 in the national six. Mercy, mercy. And welcome to NASChant. I'm Al Goldie, host of the Al Goldie podcast. I'm joined by Washington Nationals inside our marks. Dukerman of natchjournal.com. He is at Nationals Park where we on Monday evening had a wild game to conclude a wild day for the Nats. A 16, seven, 12 inning loss to the New York meds at Nationals Park in Gamewood of a four game series. This was a game in which the Nats overcame a five three seven thinning deficit, but also gave up 10 runs in the top of the 12th. The game took four hours and eight minutes. The game included the Nats committing four airs. The game included the Nats starting center field or Jacob Young leaving the game due to a hit by pitch. His replacement Joey Weamer got on base five times and then he got hurt on a hit by pitch. The game included a Nats position player third baseman slash second baseman, Jorby Bibos pitching. Although the umpires at first weren't sure if Bibos was allowed to pitch bottom line. Nats and M.O.B.s 2026 regular season now are 23 and 25 are number one in M.O.B. and runs scored at 262 and are dead last in M.O.B. in runs allowed 284. This installment of Nats Chat is brought to us by shirt good owned and operated by a die hard Nats fan shirt good makes funny and local shirts such as the iconic how we Kendrick foul pull shirt check them out at shirt good HQ dot com or at shirt good HQ on Instagram and use the code Nats Chat for 10% off your order. Well also on Monday was big time news prior to the game that that's on Monday promoted shortstop slash second baseman, Seever King from double a Harrisburg, a triple a Rochester heeper M.O.B. pipeline is the Nats number eight overall prospect and we on Monday evening during the game had breaking news from Mark the Nats are promoting outfielder Dylan Cruz from triple a Rochester back to the majors Mark is crazy as this game was that news that you broke may will be the biggest item from Monday. But as we are speaking in these early morning hours of Tuesday my friend Monday was quite the day. Oh yeah and there's even more because the corresponding move if you want to call it that we still don't know exactly how it's going to shake out. But the nationals to mode in Brady House to triple a after the game and we were wondering all night. Okay Dylan Cruz coming up who's going down is this the end of the line for Joey Weemer then Jacob Young get hit by the pitch and you're thinking okay he might be going to the I.L. so that wouldn't be the obvious move to make but the X-rays on Young were negative he appears to be day to day wemer as you said gets hit by a pitch X-rays on his hand negative he's day to day so if you're not putting anybody on the I.L. and you're probably not going to to moat Joey Weemer while there's a question about his injury status it appears that the move is sending Brady House to triple a move that we did like throw out there as a possibility a week or two ago but I'm not sure I really saw that coming right now as the corresponding move I'll just say we're going to get into all this stuff there may be a lot more to come in the next 24 to 48 hours I don't know this is a simple one for one cruise for House there could be some other things at play here and I think the events of Monday is chaotic as they were probably left the national scrambling in a lot of ways to figure out exactly what it is that they're doing. Isn't it something that we get crews being brought back to the majors and potentially the corresponding roster move is another important player in this rebuild being demoted to Rochester like it's almost like a one for one just as you want to feel good about all the key pieces being at the major league level at the same time or at least more of the key pieces being together another one is being demoted to triple a Rochester that's a bus killing a lot of ways. Yeah because of the whole thought is okay here we go we're getting all the best kids up here they're all going to be in the lineup together well hold on not exactly yet obviously there's a lot to be excited about doing crews coming back to the big leagues and I think that's still the number one headline of the day but it is disappointing that it might be at the expense of another first round pick cornerstone player who got off to a good start to the season then cooled off dramatically I think had been doing a little better lately but I'm going to guess and we didn't get to talk to anyone about it because the move was announced long after we had finished our post game work I'm going to guess that they just believe he still needs some serious work in a lower pressure environment particularly the defense at third base and probably the pitch selection everything at the plate. We'll see I don't know that's a long term move they don't really have an obvious alternative I'm at the moment the guy who finished the game as the last picture on the mound might be the every day third baseman or bit Viva unless there's other stuff going on again this is all still fresh I mean maybe there are other moves to come maybe yo yo Morales is coming up as well and maybe they're going to look at him at third base I don't want to speculate too much here because there's a lot of moving parts I think but house was struggling I think there was probably a sense that kind of like they did with Dylan Cruz the industry training let's let him go work on some things in a lower pressure environment try to get himself right with the idea that he will be back at some point of course and then with Dylan Cruz made some improvements it was kind of slow it wasn't like it was off the bat wasn't great it's not like he was absolutely tearing the cover off the ball but there was steady improvement from him all the reports were that he had a good attitude about it still playing great defense good base running and they decided okay now's the time to bring him back and let's see if he can put into practice everything that they had asked of him while he was down there a triple a and maybe take a little pressure off himself and not feel like he has to be the savior for this team which it felt like a times he may have had that kind of mindset I wonder how much of the house to motion is the defense I brought this up to you on the last installment of the podcast his defense has regressed and I wonder how much of him being demoted is that but you know I don't think we should lose sight of this like this is not supposed to be what's happening with Brady House he was supposed to be the teams every day third base in this season he was supposed to be a fixture at the major league level this season and instead now he's being demoted back to triple a Rochester before the end of May with Dylan Cruz so he of course had the awful exhibition season gets demoted to triple a Rochester prior to the start of the regular season he for Rochester this season on 177 played appearances OPS 777 you look at some of the bad at ball data he lately has been hitting balls especially hard he has been chasing less which is a good sign and you know I guess we'll see but you know there is a ton of pressure here on him to do well because if he doesn't do well in this thing at the major league level then you have to say then what do you send them back down you know this time do you keep them up and just let him keep struggling like what exactly are we looking at so this is exciting but this is a big deal and there is real pressure on him to perform I you know I don't think there are any two ways about this like this time needs to be the time for Dylan Cruz at the major league level yeah I agree they're going out on a limb here and trusting that it's going to work and trusting that he is going to be able to block out that pressure and just go play which is kind of the whole idea of him going to triple A all along was hey there's probably too many thoughts swirling through your head you've got the weight of the world on your shoulders just go down there play every day and become the player that you're supposed to be and don't worry about when we're going to call you up you know the time will be right and we'll decide when that is and they decided that that time was now I'm going to guess that there'll be a very long leash here and so even if he struggles I don't think you just send him back down very quickly I don't know what that does for his confidence or how that helps anything in the long run so my guess is that they would let him struggle up here if it came to that and ride it out for a while hopefully that won't be the case hopefully he is able to put in a practice everything that he has been working on there one of the little side note to this and I know we've brought this up this is a subject that you have mentioned before with service time with him if I did my math right and don't quote me 100% on this I'm
I believe he was down there long enough that even if he's in the big leagues for the rest of the season, he will not get to two full years of service time now in the big leagues, which in theory would delay his free agency for another year. So that the time he did spend in Rochester and it works out to about seven weeks or so is essentially less than the six weeks or so that he was in the big leagues as a rookie in 2024. He ends up, if he's here the rest of the year, and I believe 167 days, one year and 167 days of service time, you need 172 for it to count as a full year of service. So he wouldn't get to two years yet, which would delay free agency. Even if he's in the big leagues consistently now from here on out, he would be delayed in free agency beyond that. And as you have pointed out all along, he and James Wood would no longer be on the same timeline. Crews would have another year after James Wood. Yeah, I think that's a big deal. Now, I don't think that that's why Paul Toboni demoted Dylan Crews, but I do think it's a nice little cherry on top of a Sunday, you know, to not have those two guys on the same service time timeline. I do think is a big deal with Seaver King. I just want to ask this. So he was drafted as a shortstop. He in the minors has been playing shortstop and second base. By the way, King did not have a good 2025 season playing for high a Wilmington and double lay Harrisburg. It's been a lot better this season. It's been good to see that King for Harrisburg this season, 165 played appearances, OPS, 989. So he's being elevated to triple a Rochester. There had been the thought that long term, he might be an outfielder, but he's not playing outfield. He's playing shortstop and a little bit of second base. Now he's at Rochester. He's on the doorstep of being called up to the majors. What do you think the thinking is right now with Seaver King in terms of the position he plays? Yeah. So if you go back to when he was drafted in 2024 or as the number 10 overall pick, the scouting department at that time was really touting his versatility. When he played at Wake Forest, he was all over the field and able to go in field, outfield, whatever you needed. And they were kind of touting that as that might be his ticket to a fast track to the big leagues that he could play all over the place. Now two things to keep in mind. Since then, he's pretty much only played shortstop as a professional five games at second base this year, but otherwise it's been entirely at shortstop. Secondly, the scouting people who made those declarations two years ago are for the most part no longer with the organization. Entirely new group now in charge that inherited Seaver King and pretty clearly they view him as a good enough shortstop to keep him there until something happens that says we should move him off that position. Now that could be his performance or it could be whatever the needs of the major league team are at the time. I don't think this is going to be a quick AAA up to the big leagues unless he just tears the cover off the ball, which he did do a AA. I'm guessing this is a longer thing and maybe even he's at AAA for the rest of the season. The thing to watch would be if he is playing really well and you're thinking he might be on the cusp of coming up, watch where he's playing on a daily basis. If they start to use him in other positions, that might be a sign that they're preparing to bring him up and have him be more of a utility guy because I don't think he would be the national shortstop in the big leagues before this year is over barring something really strange happening. Even if they traded CJA berms at the deadline, which is the possibilities we know, I'm going to guess they would move not seem new yet as to shortstop. So if Seaver King was even coming up, he might be at second base, could be at third base given what's going on with Brady House. I don't know. But he may not necessarily figure into that whole plan. I don't think he is just the obvious Arab parent to CJA berms at shortstop. I think he would really have to prove himself at AAA and over more than just a couple of months for that to happen. This episode is brought to you by Sure Good. Owned and operated by a diehard Nats fan and Maryland native. Sure Good makes funny and local shirts, hats and more. For Nats fans, they have a great embroidered hat with the half street southeast street sign. We'll always have 2019 T shirt with that iconic how we Kendrick World Series foul pole and a lot more. There's also a hat and a shirt making fun of that this copyrighted telecast baseball disclaimer you always hear plus a lot more for baseball fans DC area locals and folks with a good sense of humor. Check them out at suregoodhq.com or sure good HQ on Instagram that's s h i r t g o o d and use code Natschat for 10% off your order. Now the Mets have played it for the 12 pitch swing a line drive basic left field. Wow, coming up to get it one run of score. They'll stop Badea third. Throw goes into second. Throw on scores the fifth run of the inning. 7 in drives in his second run in as many innings and 17th of the year. It's now the Mets 11 and the national six. Alright, with this game on Monday evening. So again, a 12 inning game for which the final score was met 16, Nats 7 as the Nats gave up 10 runs in the top of the 12th. This was another game in which the offense came through. 9 runs 12 hits, which were six doubles and six singles. 9 walks four for 16 with runners in scoring position. Now that said, the Nats actually could have in should have scored even more runs. Take it to the bottom of the 7th. The Nats had the bases loaded. Nobody out scored one run, which came on a C J Abrams RBI sack fly to cut the Nats deficit to 5 4. Bottom of the 10th, the Nats had the bases loaded with one out did not score keeping the game tied at 5. So as good as the offense was again, the offense could have been even better. But of course, these days we're asking for a mountain and then some from this offense because the run prevention has been so bad. But with this game, how about this multiple Nats players came off the bench and had big game. So we mentioned what happened with Jacob Young. He is the Nats starting center fielder and number six batter drew a two out hit by pitch on his ribs. In the Nats two runs second was pinch run for by Joey Weemer who played center field went two for two with an RBI double and RBI single two walks and they hit by pitch on a hand. He got X-rays on the hand of the X-rays were negative. He said to be day to day as is Jacob Young. But Weemer off the bench productive Curtis Meade came off the bench play first base. He was productive. He went one for two with an RBI double and two walks. Meade in the Nats one run eighth had a two out opposite field RBI double to the right center field gap to tie the game at five. Also James would he is in that starting right fielder and number one batter three for six with a double and RBI single another single and a walk but also with wood in this game with some bad defense as the Nats defense was a big time issue in this game as the defense has been a big time issue in this season. Wood in this game committed two errors on the same play also had another defensive mistake. Wood in the match one run second committed two errors on one play. He got a two out opposite field single by Tyrone Taylor to right field committed a fielding error and a throwing error allowing Taylor to get to third base. The next batter Louise Torrance had a two out full count RBI double down the left field line for a one nothing Mets lead. And it's popped in the air down the right field line chasing his wood. This one's going to dunk in for a hit along the line and it's off of Wood's glove. Taylor trying for second Wood picks it up the throw there is off line. He shoots by Abrams backed up by Lyle but not in time for Taylor to go to third. Also the Mets two run fit Wood with runners on first and second caught an opposite field fly ball by Boba Shett for the first out. But Wood threw the ball to third base as opposed to second base allowing the trail runner Carson Bench to tag up from first base to second base in addition to the lead runner Louise Torrance tagging up from second base to third base and the very next pitch it was amazing how this worked resulted in a one out first pitch opposite field to run single by X net one so to through the left side for a four three Mets lead and also in that inning was a fielding air by first base and Louise Garcia Jr. A lead off opposite field grounder by Louise Torrance went right by Garcia. The play initially was ruled a single but then correctly got changed to an error. So you had good that's off fence that could have been better. You had some really bad Nats defense that ended up being costly as the defense continues to be a problem. So on a day where there was obviously a lot of really important news that wasn't directly related what happened on the field in the game. The most important things I think that happened in this game were the lack of fundamentals by the nationals and that's the defense and it's the lack of execution at the plate when there were so many opportunities to score what all they really needed was one more run at some point across all those different laid innings to win the game in a walkoff fashion or to take a lead going into the eighth or the ninth and that you could tell was really what upset Blake Puterra we've come to recognize he really cares about defense and he cares about just fundamentally sound baseball. We just we made two mistakes to be the team like this. The defense throwing to the wrong base as you point out the play by Garcia at first base. I mean it was it was an ugly looking place originally scored a single which I don't know why that was the case it was clearly an error. So we had a crowd ball the first baseman it's past Garcia trying to reach down and scoop it. not a great effort there as Garcia rather than trying to get him
in front of it, trying to reach down and overlay it, and it's only missed it. - He just didn't even move or attack that ball, the way you would ever expect a major league first baseman to do it, he just kind of stuck his glove out and hoped for the best, not good. James Wood, as we said, two errors on one play, and then throwing through to third base when there was no reason, no need to do that. You add all that up, and that'll get a manager upset. And that was certainly the case for Buttear in this one. And they played better defense for a couple of days, and then they fell right back in the same old trap in this one and absolutely cost them. And as far as the offensive execution, it's about you get a runner on third with less than one out. And you have a chance to take the lead, or even win the game, and you can't get that runner home with a good quality at that. Those are the things that I think are very difficult for them to accept when you're hitting ground balls, when you're swinging it, pitches out of the zone. I mean, there were too many to count in this game. That's why they lost the game. It really didn't have anything to do with what happened in the 12th inning. Really not much to do with what happened in the first fewings of the game. It was bad defense, and then those failed opportunities when all they needed was a fly ball, a base hit, whatever it was to get a runner in from third, and they just could not do it. Yeah, I mean, it would be nice if the pitching was halfway decent. The pitching is not good, and the pitching in this game again, big time problems. I'll go all the way here to tell you about window nations by 4 get 4 free sale. But before that, the window nation look into the future. Pitch to King is hidden the air out to deep center field chasing Rosario back way back out there in deep right center. And one hops the fence at the 405 marker. Mate scores with ease as King is to third standing in RBI triple. Window Nation has a great offer for listeners of the Natschat podcast. The buy for get 4 free sale during which you could replace all of your home's windows and get half of them for free. Plus you can get your windows with no money down and no payments or interest for two years. The sale end soon, so call 8669DNation or visit windownation.com now to book a consultation 8669. Window Nation or windownation.com to book a consultation and tell window nation that you want the deal that you heard about from Al Goldie on the Natschat podcast. And the first pitch swung on to the air to deep center. We were going back stop so you can only watch this one. Long long gone off the back wall well beyond the center field fence. A tremendous home run by Brett Bady is 30 years 18th run back and in. It was him a seven game in each drink and hits in his last. Eight out of nine. It's now the nation's three of the bets too. Jacob and was that at starting pitcher. He officially allowed three runs just one earned in four innings. He lasted for four innings. He gave a five hits which were a home run to double and three singles. He did have six strikeouts versus one walk. He threw 74 pitches, 47 strikes, 27 balls. He gave up a mammoth home by Brett Bady to center field to cut the Nats lead to three two that happened in the fourth of the home run to project it 451 feet per stat cast. Look, the Nats committed three errors during Irvin's time in the game. He did do some good things. His velocity was up. That was nice. And you know, he got hurt by the bad defense. But I mean, just for him to last for four innings, these Nats pitchers, they come into these games. And right now if you get more than four and two thirds innings, you're like thrilled about it. It's just amazing to me how frequently we are seeing Nats pitchers last for like three innings, four innings. And then the Nats relief pitching in this game. I mean, man, this ended up being something five Nats relievers and a position player, Jorby Bibos officially combined to allow 13 runs ten earned in eight innings. PJ Poole and officially allowed one run in one inning. He gave up that two run single by one. So do Mitchell Parker was good. He allowed one run in three innings. He gave up a solo homer by Boba Shett or Landel Revolta was good. He tossed a perfect top of the ninth on just nine pitches. Gus Vorland allowed one run, unearned in two innings. By the way, he committed an error committed a throwing air on a pick off attempt and then came that 10 run 12 packed and sholts officially allowed seven runs six earned in a third of an inning. And Bibos officially allowed three runs in two thirds of an inning. What was the confusion with Bibos and whether he could pitch the confusion was believe it or not, the Washington Nationals knew the correct rule and the umpires did not. You are allowed in extra innings to use a position player regardless of the score prior to extra innings. There is a requirement of a 10 run deficit earlier in the game or an eight run deficit later in the game. But once you get to extra innings, you can do whatever you decide you need to do. Blake but you tear knew that. That's why he brought Bibos in and none of the four umpires on site seemed to know that that was the rule. They had to call New York headquarters. They took a long time before New York was satisfied that that was okay as well. Really not a good look for all of them. And you know, we asked Blake to tear like how confident we said very confident. We're all in the press box scrambling to look up the rule to make sure we weren't mistaken by it. But no, that's the rule. It was a bad look for the umpires. And you know, there's that moment where packs and sholts is walking back out to the mound. And you're like, there's no way this is going to happen. Now if somehow they didn't allow the switch to take place, Blake but he said he would not have allowed packs and sholts to throw another pitch. It was very frustrating. Yeah. I mean, just the optics of it, of course. And then also like possibly having to ask sholts to come back on the mound like it's just all of it. I told them like we're not asking some of the pitch to come out here. Like we'll do whatever we have to just in terms of health injuries. Like just count that happen. This was his third straight day on the mound. They would have done something weird like putting him in the outfield. If the idea was he can't come out of the game because they were using the DH something or other, they would have just stuck somebody else out there to finish it and put sholts in the outfield. In the end, they were confident they didn't have to do any of that. The umpires finally figured it out. It didn't come to that. But that's a bad look for the umpires, of course. Just a bad look in general at what was such a tight competitive close game for it to end up as really a mockery there at the end. That wasn't a good look for anybody. I would say this though, I think that's actually a really good look for Blake butera. And for the Nats, they knew the rule. You know, and all this talk about old Blake butera, he's so young. He's never done anything past the lowest levels of a minors. And here he is knowing something that the umpire and crew did not know. I actually think that makes Blake butera look quite good. Sholts and would end up being that 10 run, 12 gave up five singles issued in intention to walk a beboss in the inning gave up two doubles and two singles. It's hindsight and I know so much as match a base but revolta tosses a perfect top of the ninth on just nine pitches. The Nats next off day isn't until a week from Thursday. Shouldn't revolta have pitched more than one inning with him working that perfect top of the ninth so quickly. I mean, again, I know I know a lot of this is match a base but we've seen this a few times here lately where you see a reliever do well and you're like, he could have got another inning and he's not asked to go another inning. Yeah. And I think it ties in with this idea of how much do you value the matchups in the moment and trying to win that game versus understanding what do we need to have tomorrow still available to us. And I think that's part of the equation. I would even go all the way back to the decision to pull Jake Irvin one batter into the fifth. And I get it. He didn't look great. The pitch count was getting up there a little bit. But if he could somehow get you through the fifth inning, that at least sets you up a little bit better. There was a domino effect from pulling him that kept going on the rest of the game. And really, this is a domino effect of all these games here lately where the starter is not going deep or where they're using an opener and purposely limiting Michaelis or lettel and then using a starter in relief as a bulk guy like Andrew Alvarez. The situation they got into in this game, they technically had three pitchers available still in the bullpen. It was Andrew Alvarez. He had just pitched, you know, he had two days rest and he's a starter and you're not going to bring him back like that. You had Brad Lord who pitched 27 pitches in one inning on Sunday. I think we talked about that him not coming back for another inning. And then you had Richard Love Lady who was the opener on Sunday and through 27 pitches as well. And I think that's what I'm trying to do. I think that's what I'm trying to do. to AAA Rochester. This installment of "Natch Chat" brought to us by Shirt Good, owned and operated by a die-hard Natch fan. 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