The Morning Briefing: August 8

Good morning, Washington Nationals fans.

Here are the latest headlines and analyses around the Washington Nationals and Major League Baseball for today, August 8.

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Welcome to the Morning Briefing!

Leading this Morning's Briefing: It Could Have Been Worse

In his last start on Friday, Giants lefty Blake Snell threw a no-hitter, the first of his career (and in fact, the first complete game of his career). Given that the Nationals were recently no-hit and lead the majors in times being shut out (thirteen), there was a non-zero chance that the singular feat of consecutive no-hitters, first achieved by Reds pitcher Johnny Vander Meer in 1938, could be replicated. Fortunately for all involved, Juan Yepez dispensed with all that by legging out an infield single in the first inning, and the Nats (and Snell) did not have to play for very long with history looming over their heads.

Last Game Out

The eventual 7-4 loss last night to the Giants really turned on the visiting half of the third inning, when seven San Francisco batters came to the plate and forced Jake Irvin to throw 27 pitches while scoring two runs, despite just one ball being hit hard (and that was the third out of the inning). The inning started with Irvin making a fantastic bare-handed grab and throw on a bouncer up the third-base side, followed by a pop-up to CJ Abrams on the next pitch for two innocuous outs. Lamont Wade singled on a pop-up down the left field line that James Wood should have taken charge of but didn't, Heliot Ramos singled on a ball that didn't leave the infield grass, Michael Conforto flared a ball that died a step in front of a hard-charging Jacob Young, and Matt Chapman beat out a bouncer to third base. That extended sequence caught up to Irvin over the next two innings as a tiring Irvin left some pitches up for Mike Yastrzemski, Ramos, and Chapman to drive out of the ballpark. The Nats only managed one run after the third inning and that was that. The series finale starts at 12:45 today in an effort to get it in ahead of some rain, since these teams won't have a chance to meet again.

Nationals Headline of the Day: What Olympic Sport Would You Play?

MLB's Jessica Camerato asked several of the Nationals what Olympic sport appeals most to them and got some fun responses. Jake Irvin (water polo) might be blown away by how difficult treading water in that sport is, even though he said it "looks impossible."

Down on the Farm

Thanks to a Tuesday rainout, Rochester played a doubleheader yesterday, and the two newest Red Wings both showed out and made their cases for getting promoted soon. Infielder José Tena, acquired from the Guardians as part of the Lane Thomas trade (Cleveland has a surplus of middle infielders and the Nats had ...something less than that before the deadline, shall we say?) went 5-for-8 with three doubles, a long home run, and a walk while playing second base in the first game and third base in the second game. Andrés Chaparro (late of the Reno Aces), meanwhile, who played both DH and first base, went 2-for-8 with a walk, but both hits went real far, the first one almost to the I-190 onramp beyond left field and the second just to the right of the 404 sign in straightaway center. Trey Lipscomb and Travis Blankenhorn should be looking over their shoulders right now.

Featured Baseball Story of the Day

Their 21-game losing streak finally ended, but the White Sox mercifully ended the tenure of manager Pedro Grifol after 279 games this morning, with Grifol's record an unfathomably bad 89-190 (.319 winning percentage). As Jake Mintz noted on Baseball Bar-B-Cast last week, if your team is going to be terrible (and the White Sox were built to tank), you at least need a good vibes guy as the manager, and Grifol was most certainly not that. Here's hoping he draws the right lessons out of this fiasco (one of which should not be "make a big show about not watching the only solar eclipse that will be visible in the US for twenty years because we're too focused on winning").

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