In this special Morning Briefing, we recap last night's Washington Nationals win thanks to Washington Catcher Yan Gomes & Pitcher Erick Fedde.
Good Saturday Morning, Washington Nationals Fans, this is a special Weekend Edition of the Morning Briefing
Today the Nationals will play two against the New York Mets. The first game will start at 1:05 pm EST, followed by a 6:05 pm EST start. Both games will be a seven-inning game. Don't forget to subscribe to GameNotes, so you are ready for both games!
With the Nationals still trailing the New York Mets in the standings, every win against the Mets is important, and the Nationals know it, we know it, everyone knows it, that is why even though it's only one win, the electricity at Nats Park last night was off the charts with 26,246 fans packed into Nationals park, the biggest crowd since 2019.
The Nationals have won 5 straight games thanks to Yan Gomes and another incredible performance by Erick Fedde. Fedde went seven scoreless innings and only gave up two hits on 100 pitches. Fedde extended pitching scoreless innings to 20, which dates back to May 11.
In his post-game press conference, Fedde talked about how last night's game was a team effort and the importance of this series against the Mets: "Just one of those games where I felt like I had a ton of help, too. Yan was phenomenal at throwing guys out. Trea made a couple of nice plays. … Plus, we're playing the first-place Mets. We all know we need to win these games." He went on to say, "a lot of my career has been called up for somebody being down. And I think this is the first time I can really say I feel like I've fulfilled that role. So for me, that's part of self-accomplishment, something I'm happy with and something I'm sure the coaching staff and everyone above was hoping for. For that to finally happen, it's nice, and I just want to continue to do that."
Over the last eight games, the Nationals starting pitching staff has only allowed six earned runs, and according to Elias Sports, that is the best stretch in Nats history. This stat is even more impressive because it isn't the normal Nationals starting rotation that has been performing well, with both Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg on the IL.
On the other side of the ball, the Nationals did have their chances to make this a not so close game. One key opportunity came with the bases loaded in the bottom of the third inning. However, Trea Turner hit into an inning-ending double play to extinguish the threat.
Over the past week, Gomes has played some impressive baseball both on defense and on offense, including a huge grand slam, a solo home run, and last night's walk-off single. Gomes' defense has included throwing out two runners he caught attempting to steal second base in last night's game.
In his post-game press conference, Gomes acknowledged the moment last night and the possibility of the Nationals getting hot at the right time: "This team knows what it takes. We've been on the big stage and everything "We know kind of the times to try to get hot. We're playing really good baseball right now. Our pitchers are doing a tremendous job. It's just that sometimes one hit does it."
Another impressive stat from last night's game noted by TalkNats.com was "that every Washington Nationals starting position player reached base safely last night except Josh Harrison who put three balls into play."
Today, the Nationals will send Joe Ross and John Lester, hoping that both of these pitchers can continue the momentum and help the Nationals further climb up the NL East standings.
"Wins are coming, wins are piling on, and we know this series that we got coming up," Gomes said, nodding to Saturday's doubleheader and the series finale on Sunday. "It's just very good vibes right now."
With the Phillies losing last night, the Nationals moved up in the standings and got closer to the Mets, which is why this series against the Mets and the next series against the Phillies is so important.
With the Nationals winning last night and the Phillies losing in a late-night game on the West Coast, the Nationals still sit in fourth place however they are 5.5 games behind the Mets, two games behind the Phillies, a half of a game behind the third-place Braves.