The Morning Briefing: September 16

Good morning, Washington Nationals fans.

Here are the latest headlines and analyses around the Washington Nationals and Major League Baseball for today, September 16.

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Welcome to the Morning Briefing!

Leading this Morning's Briefing: First Two-Homer Game for Wood

It had been a minute since James Wood hit his first pulled home run in Philadelphia a couple of weeks ago, but yesterday afternoon he visited the Red Porch area twice, hitting 861 feet worth of home runs in the fifth and eighth innings. It was his first multi-homer game, but hopefully not his last.

Last Game Out

The Nats wound up needing all of those 861 feet of home runs, as they just managed to squeak out a 4-3 victory to wrap up their season series with the Marlins 11-2 (boy, what a change from the last couple of years, huh?). In addition to Wood's two bombs, Jose A. Ferrer notched his first career save in the ninth, although he did allow an RBI groundout for the final margin. MacKenzie Gore got the dub in his 30th start of the season, which was also a milestone for him. After a rough first inning involving over 30 pitches, Gore settled in to pitch six innings, only allowing one unearned run.

Nationals Headline of the Day

Jessica Camerato's writeup of yesterday's game at MLB.com nods to all three milestones for young Nats who are presumably part of the core of the next contending team in these parts.

Down on the Farm

The FredNats won the first game of the best-of-three Carolina League championship series against the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers, with Kevin Bazzell, Seaver King, Cristhian Vaquero, Brenner Cox, and Nate Ochoa Leyva all playing key roles in the game. The FredNats now get to head home with Alex Clemmey pitching tomorrow, with Travis Sykora loaded for a game three if necessary.

Featured Baseball Story of the Day

For Athletic subscribers, Jayson Stark's year-end column about all the wild and wacky stuff that happened this past season is always a good read.

Former National of the Day

All of you Immaculate Grid fans out there should be very familiar with Edwin Jackson, who pitched two tours of duty for the Nats (2012 and 2017) among his MLB-record fourteen (!!!) different franchises. The road map: Dodgers, Rays, Tigers, Diamondbacks, White Sox, Cardinals, Nationals, Cubs, Braves, Marlins, Padres, Orioles, Nationals again, A's, Blue Jays, Tigers again. As a Nat, E-Jax threw 260.2 innings over 44 starts with a 4.32 ERA and 1.270 WHIP. He retired after the 2019 season.

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