The Morning Briefing: August 29

Good morning, Washington Nationals fans.

Here are the latest headlines and analyses around the Washington Nationals and Major League Baseball for today, August 29.

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Welcome to the Morning Briefing!

Leading this Morning's Briefing: A Quintessential Goat Rodeo

The bottom of the eighth featured the single worst base running play I have ever seen in my life, quite possibly including the kickball games I run in PE with my fourth and fifth grade classes. With Joey Gallo on first and Juan Yepez on second, José Tena did what he seems to do every other time up, which is rifle a ball toward the fence, in this case directly over Aaron Judge's head. Gallo, remembering that Judge has caught everything within a couple feet of the wall this week, tagged responsibly, while Yepez, who could maybe see better that Judge was not going to catch the ball, took off. Ricky Gutierrez, coaching third, had two runners coming almost simultaneously and threw up mixed signals, and a rundown ensued. Watch this:

The most egregious part? After creating the mess in the first place, Gutierrez threw up his hands in disgust and checked out of the play, walking towards the Yankees dugout and giving up on the very much live situation that then turned into a double play. It was disgraceful coaching and showed up the players. But hey, anytime you have a chance to extend coaches mid-season, you gotta do it!

I'm sorry. I'm a coach myself (almost 25 years at the middle school, high school, club, and college levels across six different sports) - I know how hard of a job it is. Giving up on your players in full view of everybody like this is flat unacceptable no matter whether you're coaching kids or pros.

Last Game Out

Despite the Nationals' best efforts to recreate the famous "Babe Herman play" from August 15, 1926 (where three Brooklyn Dodgers wound up sharing third base, leading to the joke "Hey, the Dodgers have three men on base!" "Oh yeah, which base?"), they beat the Yankees 5-2 to take the series, and here is where I bury the lede by noting that Dylan Crews led off the bottom of the first with his first career home run. It was an eventful evening, okay?

Nationals Headline of the Day:

Down on the Farm

Bobby Barrels homered for the second consecutive game for Harrisburg, which is a nice development, as did T.J. White for Wilmington, and Jorgelys Mota is quietly off to a good start in his second exposure at low-A as a teenager in a crowded Fredericksburg infield (they have four and a half legitimate prospects - one is also a catcher - for three spots).

Featured Baseball Story of the Day

We're big fans of Céspedes Baseball BBQ here at The Morning Briefing, so here is Jake Mintz's top 25 free agents this winter, over at Yahoo! Sports.

Former National of the Day

The last Nat to get their first career home run leading off the game? Steve Lombardozzi, the cult favorite utility infielder and local product (Atholton HS in Columbia, MD) who played three seasons for the Nats before getting shipped to Detroit with Ian Krol and Robbie Ray in a trade for Doug Fister. Lombo hit .264/.297/.342 in his 257-game Nationals tenure.

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