Good Morning Washington Nationals Fan,

Here are the latest headlines and analyses around the Washington Nationals and Major League Baseball for today, August 17th. My name is Haden Raymer. The Nationals beat the Red Sox last night. Let’s talk about it.

Sorry for the delay in today’s briefing as it has now become the Afternoon Briefing.

Be sure to follow The Nats Report on Twitter for all the latest headlines and more.

Leading today’s Morning Briefing: Nationals take game two against the Red Sox

The Nationals took the lead against the Red Sox in the third inning thanks to a Michael Chavis home run. Stone Garrett extended the lead with a home run of his own. MacKenzie Gore was cruising at this point, dominating a Red Sox lineup to hold them to one hit and two walks. His start ended on a groundout in the seventh because of a split fingernail that had caused a blister.

In the eighth, an Alex Verdugo single and Pablo Reyes home run tied the game. Keibert Ruiz then hit a three-run blast in the bottom of the frame to take the lead. Stone Garrett hit his second home run of the day (for his first career multi-home run game) to lead the Nationals to their 6-2 win.

This was one of the more exciting Nationals games in recent years for me. While yes, the Scrappy Nats are fun to watch and somehow manage to pull off these incredible comebacks, this game felt more significant. Those comebacks stick to the identity of the 2023 Nationals, where they grind at-bats, hit a lot of singles, and use their speed to take the extra 90 feet. This win yesterday was a much more modern baseball victory. They hit four home runs, something they have only done once this season, when they hit five against the Dodgers on May 31, and only eight other times since the start of the 2021 season, back when they still had bats like Trea Turner, Kyle Schwarber, and Juan Soto in the lineup.

The Nationals are still not contenders, but with the way they have been trending, especially CJ Abrams and Keibert Ruiz, it’s the most exciting baseball that has happened in DC since game five of the 2019 World Series.

I am going to give Stone Garrett the Nats Report Player of the Game honors here, but an honorable mention certainly goes to Ruiz and Gore. Game three is this afternoon at 4:05 p.m. and you can watch it on MASN.

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Congrats to TalkNats

The Talk Nats blog was mentioned in The New Yorker yesterday. If you want to read the piece it is linked here.

From the pages of THE NEW YORKER are a few paragraphs on the TalkNats effect. Just blown away. 💥 talknats.com/2023/08/16/fro… via @TalkNats

— Talk Nats (@TalkNats)
Aug 16, 2023

Once again, congratulations to everyone over at Talk Nats. They do a great service for the Nationals community.

Down on the Farm

The Rochester Red Wings won against the Buffalo Bison 5-4. Carter Kieboom homered, improving his OPS to .811. Travis Blankenhorn went 3-5. It was a bullpen day for the Red Wings and Amos Willingham struck out three over two innings.

The Harrisburg Senators won 4-0 over the Richmond Flying Squirrels. Jacob Young went 3-3 with a triple and two walks. Robert Hassell III doubled. Brady House and Israel Pineda got the only other hits in the game. DJ Herz, who was acquired in the Jeimer Candelario trade, threw five one-hit innings with 10 strikeouts.

The Wilmington Blue Rocks lost 5-4 against the Aberdeen IronBirds. Jake Bennett made his first start since June 24 and went two innings while allowing two earned runs. Jeremy De La Rosa went 2-4 with two RBIs. Viandel Pena got the only extra-base hit for the Blue Rocks, a double. Daylen Lile went 2-4.

The FredNats won against the Augusta GreenJackets 5-1. Dylan Crews went 2-3 with a walk. Yohandy Morales went 3-4 with two doubles. Andrew Pinckney and Marcus Brown both recorded a hit. Max Romero Jr. went 2-4. Luke Young tossed six innings with eight strikeouts. Johnathan Thomas stole his 46th base of the season. Elijah Nunez went 1-4 with a SportsCenter #2 play of the day.

Elijah Nunez’s incredible catch last night was number ✌️on @SportsCenter Top 10!

#WeAreFXBG | @Nats_PlayerDev

— Fredericksburg Nationals (@FXBGNats)
Aug 17, 2023

Featured Story of the Day

The Wander Franco Situation via The Athletic

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