Nats Win to Enter Memorial Day at .500

Walters is open late and a great spot to watch the final rounds of the NBA and Stanley Cup playoffs. Walters Sports Bar and Restaurant is located just across the street from Nationals Park. Olsen at third, Albeza's second, Harris at first. Shapiro stays in on the grass at first. Mead is backed up a bit of third. Here's the pitch. Smain at ground ball to short, Abrams has it to second for one. Nudius to first for two, a double play. And Griffin survives a bases loaded jam here in the fourth inning. Lopez sets. Woodoff third, the kick in the pitch. Swing and a line driving to right field. Going to be amazing. Wood will score. Garcia turns and holds it first. And White getting the throw in to second base. It's a line drive single to drive and a run. The national is now lead by the score of 2-0. Walters coming set. Bases loaded two out. Two balls, two strikes. Bottom of the name. The kick, the pitch. Swing and a broken bat, squirmer right side. Peel the bike, Garcia. He clips the revolving recovery in time and a curly W's in the box. Walters with a little leap crossing after the bang. He spikes the baseball and goes to green Cape Verweez in front of the mound. He secures the same by getting a Cunyada broken back ground into the right side. A curly W in the box, the Nationals take a series from the first place. Braves in Atlanta. And welcome to Natchet. I'm Al Goldie, host of the Al Goldie podcast. I'm joined by Washington Nationals insider Mark Stokerman of Natcheternal.com. He is at Truis Park in Atlanta with the Washington Nationals just one, a three game series at the National League leading Atlanta Braves. A two-one win at the Braves on Sunday. And again, that included two rain delays that totaled one hour and 50 minutes. But this off a two-nothing win at the Braves on Saturday as the Natch won the series with some outstanding pitching. And the Natches realistically could have swept the series. Remember the loss was a 5 4 11 inning loss at the Braves on Friday night. And so here we are on Memorial Day. The first of the three holiday checkpoints in an MLB regular season. And we just so happen to now be exactly one third of the way through this regular season for the Natches 54 games down 108 games to go. And wouldn't you know the Natches are 27 and 27 and are in second place in the National League East nine games behind the NL East leading Braves. Yes, the Braves still are 36 and 18. But still the Natches on Memorial Day are 27 and 27 and are in second place in the NL East. Let that sink in. Raise your hand if you expected that. Not bad for season number one of a restarted rebuild. The Natches do process doing quite well. This installment of Natches shot brought to us by Mason Calviss. He's always doing well. He's the top legal recruiter in Washington DC. Mason has been with us since our first season. You can reach him at 2024863535. A tremendous bounce back outing by starting pitcher Foster Griffin. A tremendous two out save by reliever Orlando Reboul to a big pinch or BI single by Luis Garcia Jr. And Mark is this series not the high point for the Natches since the rebuild started with the fire sale in July 2021. Can we say that is it wrong to say that a new high point in these rebuilding seasons for the Natches has been reached. Yeah, I think so because of who they beat and how they beat them. The fact that we're not just in April or even early May, but you've reached Memorial Day with a 500 record. As you said, that's not a position they have been in throughout this process. The Braves had only lost one other series this year and had not lost a series at home this year. And the Nationals are the one who does it to them and did it with tremendous pitching. If you had said, okay, then that's going to win some slug fest and beat the Braves 8 to 7 a couple of times. I would have thought that was maybe plausible to beat them to nothing to one on back-to-back days. That is what really stands out to me because we know this is not the way this pitching staff has done things so far this year. And it's not the way the offense has really worked for the most part. So to do it that way against this team in this ballpark two months into the season, yeah, I think you can say that this is the high point so far. Now, hopefully there's even higher places to go from here. But every time they have some kind of success like this against tough opponents and they play as well as they did, it only boosts their confidence. It only makes them feel more like this is sustainable and that this is who they can be. I know there's a long way to go and would it shock me if they fall apart at some point? No. As you said, Memorial Day is one of those checkpoints and usually you get to this point, you start to have an idea of what a team is and what it isn't. They're 500. Maybe they're exceeding expectations somewhat, but maybe not as much as everybody would have thought. And from a bigger picture standpoint, you think about the new regime and, you know, Nats fans have been going through these rebuilding seasons for way too long and it's like, should we have faith in this new regime? Should we not? One time we'll ultimately tell, but when you think about what is being done here with the payroll, which is not exactly sky high with the talent pool, which, you know, as best as we can tell is not exactly, you know, in the upper echelon of M.O.B. For this team to be at 500 and to be in second place in the division, albeit a division that beyond the first place team hasn't been all that impressive. I just don't think you can say enough good things about that. And the process right now, it feels like, hey, these guys Paul Taboni, Ani Kalambi, Blake but Tara, the coaching staff, et cetera, know what they're doing and they're getting the most out of this roster. I don't know that there's any doubt about that. So the pitching and the thing with the braves, of course, is a Lee offensive team. Like the braves are arguably the best offensive team in M.O.B. and yet the Nats won the two games in this series via pitching this two one win at the braves on Sunday, foster Griffin. So good. So good. And what was a bounce back outing for him six shut out innings six strikeouts versus one walk. He gave up three hits, which were a double and two singles. He issued a hit by pitch. He threw a lot of strikes 90 pitches 60 strikes 30 balls. We talked about the last two outings and okay, very good was Griffin. Overs first eight outings last two outings. Not so good. A 15 one loss at the Cincinnati Reds on May 14th. Nine runs formed a third innings a nine six win over the New York meds at Nationals Park. This past Tuesday evening five runs in five innings, even though there was some good stuff from Griffin in that outing bottom line with five runs in five innings. He had allowed 14 runs in nine in a third innings over his last two outings. He goes out there on Sunday against again, a great offensive team six shut out innings. This was the foster Griffin who we saw Overs first eight outings. 100% and let's remember he faced the braves previously this year. So this was I believe only the second time so far that he's faced the same team a second time this season. So there's that element to it and what he did so well in this one. If you look at his strike zone plot, everything is on the edges of the zone. There's barely anything over the heart of the plate and that's a sign that he was really locked in. He said especially that outer corner against right handed hitters, he was using that to his advantage. Yeah, especially the outside corner, right? I feel like I had my back door stuff going pretty good. I know when I kind of have that early, it's probably going to be a pretty good day, but I was still able to keep going throughout the game and the next beats. Of the six strikeouts, four of them are looking and those are on pitches that are just catching the edge of the plate. And so I think that's really when he's cooking, that's where he wants it to be. That's what he's effective at doing. So I thought that was important. The fact that he gave them six innings and held on as long as it could and then the rain came and who knows maybe he would have gone a little further if not for that rain delay, but it actually timed out well from the Nats standpoint. If he has to depart this game earlier or they have to go through the whole thing like the day before Jake Irvin where he's got to stay warm during the rain delay, who knows how that goes. It really worked out about as well as they could have hoped with him and he definitely got himself back on track and should have us thinking about him again in a positive light as somebody who can sustain this not somebody who just had a nice, you know, first six weeks of the season. He cannot say enough good things about the Nats starting pitching in this series. You go through each game, the 5 4 11 inning loss on Friday night. Remember the Nats used an opener. Technically they're starting pitcher in that game. No runs, Richard Love Lady, the reliever who tosses the squirtless bottom of the first. But the bulk man, Miles Michael is he comes into the game and is great five shut out innings on just 66 pitches. The two nothing win at the braves on Saturday. Jake Irvin really good to leave the game due to entry and there's news on him will get to that. And in this game, I've started the game that resumed pitching in the game after a 41 minute rain delay, five scoreless and hitless innings seven strikeouts versus one walk. And now what foster Griffin did in this to one win on Sunday six scoreless innings six strikeouts. One walk. You look at the Nats rotation pitchers over the team's last four games. Foster Griffin, Jake Irvin, Miles Michael, this kid Cavali, the Nats actually put this out on Sunday evening on X. A rotation ERA over those four games 0.78 25 strikeouts versus three walks. We're not talking, you know, Mac Sturzer, Steven Strasburg and, you know, Patrick Corbin, he was at his best. Like what we're seeing here. from a pitching standpoint lately is just superb. And they were a booted grounder in the ninth inning away from back to back shutouts. And I did not realize this was the case. They haven't done that as a team since 2015 pitch back to back shutouts. And they were that close to doing it. And again, to do it against the braves of all teams. And with this pitching staff who is not the 2015 pitching staff by any means, it's been great to see. And when we talk about the process and the work that this coaching staff and front office has done, I think we have to start looking at how they have improved this pitching staff from where it wasn't April to where it is now that's both the rotation and the bullpen. They are so much better and have done it for I think enough time now to say that this isn't just a hot week or something like that. They have been considerably better. You know, a lot of ways across the board from a pitching standpoint, I can't help but think that they're working with them. And that's what their job is to help these guys get better. And just because they got off to a bad start to the season doesn't mean it has to stay that way the rest of the season. I want to give credit to them for how they have helped some of these pitchers flip their season around here over the last say three, four weeks perhaps. Simon Matthews, Sean Doe, little the rest of that coaching staff is at release of the pitchers doing such a good job. And you mentioned that that's bullpen four Nats relievers on Sunday combating to allow one run in three innings. Andrew Alvarez again delivering all this guy does is deliver when called upon one and a third scoreless innings. Alvarez now has the following stats at the major league level over these last two regular seasons nine games, including five starts. He already a 250 whip 1.08 strikeouts per nine innings of nine. So with a Nats relief pitching in this game, Gus Varlind officially allowed one run in two thirds of an inning. He retired to each of the two batters he faced in the bottom of the eighth did give up back to back singles to begin the bottom of the ninth got charged with a run off what went down with Richard Love Lady pitching. He officially tossed a third of a scoreless inning. He in the braves one run ninth face three batters got just one out. But part of that was a fielding air by second baseman, not seem new news. The kick in the two two swing in a ground ball to New Year's and second he boots it gets away from all hands are safe for the run scores. He committed a fielding air with runners at the corners, went out. Nats holding a to nothing lead botched the fielding of a ground or by Eli White allowing a run to score. Love Lady then issued a one out walk of Hassong Kim to load the bases and so Orlando Revolta was brought into this game with the bases loaded one out and the Nats clinging to a two one lead. Now remember Revolta pitched in game one of this series did not do so well. Although he overall has done well and he in this game did really well. He retired each of the two batters he faced for quite the two out save and the bullpen coming through what a job by Revolta. And again, I do go back to Andrew Alvarez. What a job by him. And you know, I mentioned the news with J. Gervin. He now is on the 15 day entered list. And that's announced that move on Sunday. A right shoulder strain. The corresponding roster move was the Nats recalling a reliever in PJ Poole from Triple A Rochester. What happens in Irving's next turn in the rotation is going to be interesting. So there's that. But there's also what this bullpen did in this game. Yeah. And I think it's a good microcosm of the way that Blake butara and everybody how they're managing this right now. They're saying we're going to do whatever we have to do. Try to win today's game and then we'll figure out the rest after that because I was thinking myself, okay, maybe they don't use Alvarez. They hold off. Maybe he takes over Irving's spot. Then he comes into the game in the seventh and thinking, well, maybe he just goes one inning and that could, you know, still set him up to be fine by the time that Irving's spot comes up again. And then he comes back out to start the eighth thing and now everything's out the book. And I really think they are managing this day to day putting together whatever they have to try to win a game and then figure it out after that and just not allowing themselves to think too far ahead. And maybe you could say that's a little bit risky to do that. But it's working to the extent that they are throwing everything they've got in an attempt to win games and they've managed to go 27 and 27 as a result using love lady for the third straight day. He opened on Friday. He closed on Saturday and he almost closed on Sunday. And if Nunez makes that play, it would have been a game ending that will play. By the way, it was originally called a single which made no sense to me change to an air. It was a hundred miles an hour off the bat. And as we'll discuss that infield was not in pristine condition after all the rain. So maybe give Nunez a little bit of a pass on that. But boy, it felt like when that happened that that was the beginning of the end. And they were going to blow it. But you know who the fireman is right now on this team. It's Orlando Rebalt. I feel like every time he pitches the bases are loaded. And I know it didn't work out Friday night. But more often than not, he has been able to come through in those spots. And I think what he has shown here is an ability to take the highest pressure situations that there are and treat it just like any other situation. You don't see any emotion from him. You don't see him appearing to let the moment become too big for him. He goes after hitters attacks him gets ahead in the count. He gets a huge strike out for the second out. And then has to cover first on the ground ball to the right side for the final out among all the slop over there. I really like what he's doing. And like more and more, I'm thinking myself, this guy may have the combination of the stuff and the intestinal fortitude to be pitching some really important innings later in games, maybe even as an official closer. He overall has been good. The bullpen lately, like you said earlier, has been good. Hey, are you a law firm partner or associate looking to transition to a new firm because of compensation? If it sounds like you, you should explore the lateral market and give Mason Calfys a call. Mason is the top legal recruiter in the Washington DC area. He has been a Natschat podcast advertiser since the beginning of our show to find the best law firm out there for your future career called Mason Calfys today, 202-486-3535. Overall positive, you know, shoulder strain. We got a good medical team here, though, how may take care of it and then be back as soon as possible. Yeah, I mean, I think it's a little bit of good and bad, right? Like, no going to IEL, but it's also something not too concerning that we think will be a minimum IEL stay. For now, obviously, we'll monitor the next few days and see how he's feeling coming out of this, but thoughts are that obviously going to merge and we got about as good news as we could regarding Irving and this next turn in the rotation. So the Nats next series is against another first place team in the American League Central leading Cleveland Guardians. Now Irving's turn in the rotation would not come up in that series. The games for the Nats in that series, game one Monday evening, 610, Zach Latel, game two Tuesday evening, 610, Kate Cavali, game three Wednesday afternoon at 110 miles, Michael, listen, as is always the case now, we say that these are probable starting pictures with the Nats. The Nats also have some off days coming up. At last, we're going to get back to the Nats having some off days, including one coming up this Thursday. What do you think the team is thinking with Irving's next turn in the rotation? Or maybe that's thinking that could change by the day. And so it's almost kind of silly for us to speculate what the team is thinking right now. Yeah, I was just going to say that like we all throw some possibilities out there, but that does not mean that's the way it's going to go or that they even know for sure how it's going to go. You mentioned the off day. I think that's important here. That happens to fall on Thursday, which would be Irving's day. So they could in theory just skip that turn, keep everybody else on normal rest. And then the spot doesn't come up again until the final game of that homestand against the Marlins. That's like next Wednesday. So that could buy them some time if they choose to go that way. I think they would also make a lot of a sense to have Andrew Alvarez take over that spot. We'll see if the work that he did Sunday changes that but it probably doesn't he would still have again like five days until he would need to pitch again with the off day. So that probably could work out fine. I think the other important thing here to note about Jake Irving himself is yes, he's on the 15 day I out. It's a shoulder strain, but he and the team are really calling this the best case scenario. The MRI did show the strain, but they feel like it's minor enough that he's going to take two days off and then attempt to throw again on day three. And you know, we'll see how that goes. If he has any more lingering issues, they will pull him back and not try to push it at all. But if he does feel okay after throwing, they'll ramp him up from there. And maybe this isn't much more than the 15 days to begin with. For him. So I think they feel like he spoke up as soon as he felt something in that game may have helped himself out by doing that by allowing them to catch this right away. Time will tell there's still plenty of steps. He's got to take between now and then pitching in a game again. But they certainly were bringing a sigh of relief for what could have been a pretty bad situation. They feel like this is about as best cases it could have been. I mean, how often does a pitcher go on an injured list and the plan is for him to be shut down from your two days before he starts throwing again. I feel like you never hear that. And yet that is the case with Jay Gervin. Yeah. So he'll be down today and tomorrow from throwing and then I'll start throwing the next day. So plan on him feeling good when he starts throwing, but we won't know until then. By the way, each of the next four Thursdays is an off day for the Nats May 28th, June 4th, June 11th and June 18th. So the Nats have some nice off day regularity coming up here with these and next four Thursdays scheduled to be off day. The funny thing about the Nats winning two out of three games at the Braves over Friday through Sunday is that the Nats offense in this series actually wasn't that good. The offense did not have a single game that you would call, you know, like a prototypical great game for the 2026 Nats, who of course have been so good offensively. The Nats in each game struggled against the Braves starting pitcher. It's not like the Nats got to the Braves rotation in this series, but the Nats found a way to win this series. And that is maybe as encouraging as anything that the Nats can win a series against a really good opponent without the offense leading the way. The offense has led the way so often this season really did not lead the way in this series. You look at what the Nats did offensively in this two one win at the Braves on Sunday. Just two runs, just six hits, which were a double and five singles. Now the Nats did work four walks and did go three for eight with runners in scoring position, but the Nats did not do much against the Braves starting pitcher, Martin Perez. They allowed one run in five and two thirds innings, but something that we did get in this game was another big pinch hit. We have talked about that's doing so well in the pinch hitting department so far this season. Luis Garcia Jr. coming off the bench to pinch it and play for a space. He went one for one with a pinch RBI single Garcia in the Nats one run eighth, a pinch two out RBI single to right field for a two nothing Nats lead. The Nats all the run in this game coming via an RBI single by not seeing Nunez. He didn't have that aforementioned error, but Nunez as an at starting second baseman and number eight batter one for four with an RBI single in the Nats one run fit had an opposite field RBI single to right field for one nothing Nats lead. The Nats lately have not been doing especially well in runners in scoring position situations. At least though you get those two singles from Nunez and Garcia and that proved to be enough amazingly in this one at the braves. I have them unofficially at four for 34 with runners in the scoring position over the last four days and they've won two of those games. So that tells you how good the pitching has been. The Nunez hit was huge under the circumstances. They get first and third nobody out in the fifth. It's a scoreless game as we've discussed just a really weak hitter at the plate and because of that and because the runners it was Daly and Lyle on third and Jacob Young at first. I'm thinking to myself Blake butar is going to put a play on here. This is a squeeze. This is a double steal. This is something along those lines to try to at least get one run home and no instead he let Nunez swing away and what did he do line drive base hit to right to bring home the run and I asked Nunez about it afterwards and he laughed and he said that when he came back to the dugout and everybody said good job. He said to Blake butar thanks for letting me swing away. Oh I told him a dugout. So I was like they told me good job and I was like appreciate you for letting me swing it because he knew himself that that may not be the kind of spot that they would normally trust him to do that. So good on Nunez. I know it's been such a struggle for him often offensively but when he does contribute it's been significant in a lot of ways whether it's hits like that or as we know running the bases everything else. So I was glad to see that worked out and yes Garcia really important pinch hit there. Also credit to James Wood he drew the lead off walk and then he stole second to put himself in position where he could score two batters later on the single that was a huge insurance run. So not a lot of clutch hitting obviously from them in this series or over the last four days credit to their pitching staff you would hope that the offense gets a little more back on track and starts hitting the way they have they've been very streaky when it comes to this stuff I hear this all the time from fans like oh my god we're lead the league and run score but we're terrible with run and scored position. Their average run runs score position is actually higher than their average in any other situation but it does feel like they go through these slumps sometimes over several days where it looks like they can't do it and I think there's a collective feeling about that just like there's a streak everybody kind of gets hot together at the same time I think everybody gets cold together at the same time sometimes like that and the more that you're struggling to produce in clutch situations the more pressure guys start putting on themselves when they come up to make it happen and so as much as they can they just need to treat these situations all the same and forget about the magnitude of it and just give the good quality of that they have for the most part this year. CJ Abrams had the big game on Friday night and it's going hit list the rest of the series James would did get on base a bunch in the series but did not have an extra base hit in the series and yet the Nats won this series again I just think that that's so encouraging that they could figure out ways to win you know without being great offensively without the two big guys in Abrams and would you know having like dynamic series although again would got on base a ton and it's interesting with wood number one batter in each game in the series but a different starting spot in each game in the series D H game one right field game to left field game three and you know that's the kind of thing I suppose we need to get used to here but you know nice to see something like that where would can be deployed in a variety of ways and still be impactful from a standpoint of getting on base so much. Yeah we'll see how much that continues I got to say I feel like he's made so many strides in right field and he still doesn't look as comfortable and left there's a play early in this game that he kind of gave up on a sinking liner that I thought he had a real play and he just let it fall in front of him and I don't know if that's a left field versus right field thing or just in general him being tentative out there but there is a difference I think we've seen it he is much better in right than left and I understand that you would say well Dylan Cruz is a better outfielder in general so he should have the higher priority to be in right I wonder if it might be better for James Wood to stick in one spot and maybe have Cruz be the guy who can move around to any of the three outfield spots. You know part of what has happened with Dylan Cruz is that it has prevented the nats from at the major league level developing a rhythm developing a routine with how they use wood and Cruz defensively and we've always wondered about how that might go with Cruz spending so much time at Triple A Rochester this season we didn't really get a chance to see how that might go and so I wonder how much of what's happening right now is the nats at the major league level trying to figure out how they want to use Cruz and wood when both guys are at the major league level at the same time. I'll go all the here to tell you about window nations by 4 get 4 free sale but before that the window nation look into the future 2024 out of Wake Forest. It's a fly ball to right has some carry to it back is eating looking up and this ball is off the wall. It's going to clear the bases as King is into second with the bases clearing a double window nation has a great offer for listers of the nats chat 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 and soon so call 8669DN or visit window nation dot com now to book a consultation 8669 window nation or window nation dot com to book a consultation and tell window nation that you want the deal that you heard about from Algoldy on the nats chat podcast. He works from the wind up the old one. Lyle fouls one back into the screen to this point there hasn't been much of a breeze the rain falling straight down but any shift now we start to get wet now they're going to call on it. Interesting they let him throw two pitches and there's been no real change in the rain oh yeah and now they're going to call for the tarp what they knew this was going to happen why they why did they even start the inning so Fente is delivers two strikes and at 6 0 6 Ron culpa calls for the tarp that I do not get it all and culpas are better and umpire and it's not easy and now it's raining hard why even start the inning they could have had the tarp out and on the field now it's raining very hard as they unroll the tarp. All right to the rain this two one win at the braves on Sunday was a glorious day from an ad's perspective but man did the braves butcher this game from a rain perspective we had two rain delays that totaled one hour and 50 minutes a 22 minute delay at the start of the game and an 88 minute delay after two pitches in the top of the seven now you could argue that the problem started before a single raindrop ever fell the game originally had a scheduled start time of 4 10 p.m. instead of the usual 135 p.m. start time for a Sunday home game why we had the 4 10 start time not sure. We also could argue I certainly would that with the forecast the braves should have been proactive and moved up the start time a lot of teams do this you know you have a game starting later in a day in which rain is expected you go from 4 10 to you know 110 or 130 or 210 whatever you want to do but move the start time up the braves did not do that there also was and you noted this on X and this cracked me up the 22 minute delay to the start of the game came despite no rain falling so why the start of the game was delayed by rain it never quite made sense and then there was and we also this the unpowering crew waiting way too long to call for the in game delay as the plane conditions became ridiculous and I know that Blake butera in his post game session with you guys was not shy about talking about the plane conditions. Yeah there's a lot to get to with this let's start at the front end of it as you said 4 10 game and look I understand it's hard to forecast this stuff you don't know for sure all weekend it was like spotty you have out of nowhere big thunderstorm and then it would disappear and another one come up. So I understand that it's hard to figure out exactly the timing of things, but as you've noted, some other teams have moved up start times in an attempt to beat the rain at the very least, knowing that there was a shaky forecast and that it's getaway day. It would seem to me, announce you moved up to 135, whatever, and then if it doesn't happen, you can't start to four. Well, that was the plan all along anyways. It just gives you more options. As it turned out, it rained some in the morning, but between noon and whatever time the first there, about 5.45 or something like that, there wasn't a drop. So they very easily could have played the entirety of the game and the team could have been on their way to Cleveland before any of the mess happened. The first delay to start the game, they were going through the full pregame routine on the scoreboard, they sang the national anthem. They did everything, but as I'm watching this, I'm thinking myself, where are the starting pictures? They're not out there, they're not stretching. It's too close to game time for this to happen. They must know that the game is not going to start on time and sure enough at 405, five minutes before the first pitch, they finally come on and say that the first pitch will be at 430. And I can understand they looked at a forecast and saw, well, it looks like there may be a system coming through, we don't want to take a chance and start the game and have to stop, but that's great, that's proactive, but it never was necessarily any of that. So now you've delayed it even more. And then of course, the heavens opened up later on. Everything up to that point, I'm putting on the brave. And again, I understand there's only so much you can do about the weather, but there were things they could have done proactively to try to put themselves in a better position than they were. Once we get to that point, where it's coming down pretty good and this is the end of the sixth and fostering difference gets to the final out, they come off the field and you're thinking, okay, that's it, let's just, let's pull the tarp right here. The head ground keeper came out, met with Ron Copa, the crew chief, he was showing him his phone, I'm sure he's showing him whatever the radar is saying, and the ground crew was ready, they're at the right, like, okay, we're gonna do it and they waved them off. No, we're gonna continue. So they start the seventh inning, two pitches later, it is coming down so hard that they now have to call for the tarp and as a result, shockingly, the infield got so drenched that they couldn't pull the tarp all the way across, it got stuck, waterlogged. This is the reason you have to be proactive with these things. So the entire first baseline is now just a quagmire. And look, God bless the ground crew, they were doing the best job they could. They were just finding anything they could that resembled a tarp or plastic and covering up that first baseline. I tweeted some photos of it, it was not pretty. At that moment, I'm thinking myself, that's ballgame. And that's gonna win one nothing in six innings. They're not gonna fix this field, there's no chance. Well, they waited it out and after about a half hour, the rain did clear, they pulled the tarp, they started working on it and they worked really hard at it. Eventually Blake Butterer came out of the dugout with two of the umpires and he walked all around the first base area, testing out the dirt, the quality of it. And I'm thinking myself, he's gonna tell them, I'm not putting my players out here, this is not safe. We saw this several years ago in Philadelphia. There was a mishap and they couldn't play in Davey, was like, I'm not putting my team out there in the field, they had blow torches, they wanted to cancel the game. Butterer said, he saw it, he tested it out, he said, you guys did a great job, this field feels safe enough in my estimation, let's go ahead and do it. - The job they did, it was in good condition. I went out there and I was shocked with how firm everything was and felt like it was safe spots to play. - Now I did hear from a few players after the game, said the conditions were not great. And the infield was clumpy, not real smooth. Again, I don't know if that had to do with the new Nia's air or not. - Yes, the dirt was like rough and patchy way. Hey, everybody was playing on it, it just came to me. (laughs) - But it was not great conditions and that final play of the game, the Bouncer to First with Luis Garcia and then Rebalt to cover. They pulled it off, but I'm thinking in my head, oh man, we're gonna be writing about how they blew the game because the field was so sloppy. So in the end, tons of credit to the grounds crew, it was a thankless job, they worked very hard, they got it to the point that it was playable. I'm looking at the umpires for not calling that delay soon enough and I'm looking at the braves for everything that led to it getting to that point. It just felt like they were determined to play this game at the time that they had announced and it backfired against them. - Yeah, it's a funny spot for the Nats, right? Because the Nats have their own history when it comes to handling rain at Nationals Park. But with the braves did on Sunday, it just did not make a ton of sense. And again, I do think this goes back to be proactive with these start times, be aggressive and you'd rather be airing in the direction of being too aggressive than being too passive, I think, with these rain delays. So move the start time up. I mean, this was a perfect opportunity to do that because it was a later than normal start time for a Sunday game. And yeah, Ron Copa, perhaps, owes all of us a mea Copa for the way that he handled this. But the Nats get the win. The Nats get the series win. We certainly don't want to lose sight of that. And what a season the Nats are having so far. 27 and 27 and in second place as we have arrived at Memorial Day. This installment of Nats Chat brought to us by Mason Calpis is the top legal recruiter in Washington, DC. You can reach them at 2024863535. All Nationals, Radio Highlights on Nats Chat are courtesy of 1067 The Fan. For Mark Sturkerman, I'm Al Galdi. We thank you for listening. We'll talk to you next time on the Nats Chat podcast. And we're going to leave you now with something special. A scouting report on the University of Virginia's AJ Grasia. He is an outfielder. He is a possible first round pick for the Nats. In the 2026 MLB first year player draft, this report on Grasia comes to us from Greg Medea, who covers the UVA sports for the daily progress. And by the way, if you are into college baseball, as you likely know, the bracket for the NCAA men's baseball tournament comes out at noon on Monday. So enjoy. And we'll talk to you next time on the Nats Chat podcast. Oh, Grasia turns on it. Grasias it to right. Field looking up. It bangs off the wall. Becker cruises into score on the RBI double from AJ Grasia. This is Greg Medea, the Virginia beat rider at the daily progress in Charlottesville, helping out the Nats Chat podcast with a look at a potential draft candidate for Washington this year in Virginia's center fielder AJ Grasia. Washington has the 11th pick in this year's draft. And the last time the Nats took a first round they're out of Virginia. It worked out really, really well for Washington, taking Ryan Zimmerman all the way back in 2005. Anyway, Grasia is a 6'3, left-handed hitting outfielder transferred to Virginia from Duke last offseason. He followed his head coach Chris Pollard, who took the UVA job following long-time former Cavalier Skipper, Brian O'Connor's departure from Mississippi State. And Grasia, when his move to Virginia, he was build as a guy who could immediately impact the lineup and so far, that's mostly been the case. He's got a 462 on-base percentage. And really the strength of Grasia's approach in the batter's box is his eye discipline. He is very disciplined at the plate. He does not chase. He does not go after pitches out of the strike zone. And it really speaks to his 36 walks to only 30 strikeouts at this point in the college season. It's late, right? Late in the college season. And he talked to his coaches. And then I'll tell you, it'd be hard to find another college player with his good of eye discipline as Grasia has when he's at the plate. Sometimes, you know, just as a baseball observer, you want him to swing the bat maybe a little bit more because he can make impact, right? He's got 12 homers, 10 doubles. He is powerful, big and strong. And sometimes you want him to swing the bat a little bit more, especially when a team needs runs. But his eye discipline, I think, will serve him well as he goes forward into the professional ranks. And as the pitching and the level of pitching increases throughout a potential climb through the minor leagues toward the major league. He plays in a defensive, plays a clean center field. He's not the fastest athlete, but he digs great angles and touches everything in his direction. He could shift to a corner if he's asked to do so by whatever club drafts him. He can certainly play any of the three outfield positions. Again, this is Greg Medea, the daily progress in Charlottesville for anything on the hoos follow along at thedailyprogress.com. That's baseball, football, basketball. Well, whatever I was going on at UVA, you can follow along at dailyprogress.com. There are 162 games in the major league-based ball season and the players have a saying. Every team is going to win 54 games. Every team is going to lose 54, to what you do with the other 54 games accounts.