Blog post

July 17, 2026 [LINK / comment]

American League shuts out the National League

As things turned out, the 2026 All-Star Game was over almost as soon as it started. The National League's starting pitcher Christopher Sanchez (of the Philadelphia Phillies) gave up 3 singles and 2 walks in his one inning on the mound, giving the American League a quick 3-0 lead. That was a big surprise, given that Sanchez has a record of 11-2, with a 2.62 ERA and 144 strikeouts. Hardly any NL players reached base In the 8th inning, Miguel Vargas (White Sox) hit a solo homer to pad the lead, and the AL won it, 4-0. It was the first shutout in an All-Star game since 2013, when the AL beat the NL, 3-0 in Citi Field.

Of the three Washington Nationals who played in the ASG, only the pitcher Foster Griffin had much to brag about. He got three quick outs in the 5th inning, including 2 strikeouts. C.J. Abrams struck out in both of his at-bats, and James Wood struck out the only time he was up to bat. Among the former Nationals, neither Bryce Harper nor Kyle Schwarber (playing in their home field in Philadelphia) reached base in their 3 combined at-bats, while Juan Soto at least hit a single in one of his 2 at-bats.

This was the first All-Star game to be played in Citizens Bank Park, which is in its 23rd year of operation, an unusually long waiting period to be granted the honor of hosting an ASG. Among all MLB stadiums built since 1989 (Skydome / Rogers Centre), the next longest waits were for Chase Field and Great American Ballpark, 13 years in both cases. [Actually, New Yankee Stadium has yet to host an All-Star game either, and it is now 17 years old; that's because the original Yankee Stadium hosted the 2008 ASG.] Perhaps they wanted to have the All-Star game coincide with the observance of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, which was signed in Philadelphia.

The official All-Star Game logos for the years 2005 (Detroit), 2008 (Bronx, New York), 2009 (St. Louis), 2012 (Kansas City), and 2018 (Washington). For some reason, I often seem to visit MLB stadiums either in the same year, or one year before or after, the All-Star Game is played there. Other such cases: 2001 (Turner Field, 2000), 2017 (Marlins Park), 2023 (Dodger Stadium, 2022), and 2023 (T-Mobile Park),

Just how good are the Nationals?

The Washington Nationals have greatly exceeded preseason expectations, maintaining a record of over .500 until just before the All-Star break, and racking up superior statistics in most key offensive categories.

As for individual performances, I would be remiss not to highlight some of James Wood's slugging achievements this year. In the week before the All-Star break, he was named the National League player of the Week, in recognition of all his home runs. (He has a total of 28, tied for fourth in the majors.) In addition, he has hit TEN lead-off home runs this year, leading the majors and one ahead of Shohei Ohtani. He has a decent shot at tying or breaking the MLB record of 15 lead-off homers, set by Kyle Schwarber in 2024. (Data from screwball.com.) I am reminded of Schwarber's historic run of home runs in June of 2021. (See my July 1, 2021 blog post.) Wood also leads the majors by far in runs scored: 89, compared to 68 for Bryan Reynolds of the Pirates. He ranks second in OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging): his .985 is just behind Yordan Alvarez of the Astros (1.059) and just ahead of Juan Soto of the Mets (.975).

Finally, a shout-out to some individual achievements: Nasim Nunez leads the majors with 34 stolen bases, over a third of the Nationals' total. Luis Garcia Jr. has 68 RBIs, tied with "Uncle" Ben Rice for third in the majors, and C.J. Abrams has 67.

This might be a good time to recall what a fantastic deal the Nationals got when they traded Juan Soto (and Josh Bell) to the San Diego Padres on August 2, 2022. In return they got three players who are now top-notch regulars: Mackenzie Gore (P), C.J. Abrams (SS), and James Wood (OF), plus three others including Robert Hassell, who was just traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates.

For the second half of this month, everything depends on whether the pitching staff can improve sufficiently in order for the Nationals to resume their winning ways and grab one of the wild card spots. (On Facebook recently, a fellow Nats fan chided me as "delusional" for thinking that the Nats might actually be postseason contenders. I know it's a lot to hope for, but without high hopes, what the #&@+% is the point of being a sports fan???) One reason for elevated hopes is that the Nationals rank very high in terms of the ease of their remaining 2026 schedule: their opponents' aggregate win-loss record ranks 20th out of the 30 MLB teams. Meanwhile, the Mets' have the toughest schedule, ranking first! Maybe that explains the rumors that Juan Soto and other players might be traded away as the big deadline approaches.

[UPDATE: In a few minutes the first pitch will be thrown in Sutter Health Park, as the Sacramento Athletics host the Washington Nationals in a three-game interleague series. The Nats are beginning a six-game western road trip, and will visit Denver, Colorado from Monday through Wednesday. Cade Cavalli is the starting pitcher for the Nats tonight, to be followed by Zack Littell and Foster Griffin. It's a truly pivotal moment for the Nats' 2026 season.]

More stadium page updates

During this week I have continued updating the format and content of several stadium pages, focusing this time on the mid-Atlantic and northeastern states. I needed a definite plan of action to tackle this project, and I pondered either going by alphabetical order (referring to the Stadium lists page) or chronological order (referring to the Stadium statistics page). I finally decided to go on a state-by-state and region-by-region approach, mainly because most of the stadium pages have links to stadiums in the same city or area, and this links are usually reciprocal. In choosing that option, I found myself checking a U.S. map over and over, which was tedious. (Call me lazy.) I realized that having a map of MLB stadiums and cities would be handy, so I created one! I will probably either put that map on an existing web page, with interactive "rollover" features showing the names of each city's stadiums, or perhaps create a new page with a geographic focus.

MLB stadiums and cities. Showing all current and past concrete / steel stadiums used in MLB for at least one year.

I changed my mind and decided to include Buffalo's Sahlen Field, since the Toronto Blue Jays used it for the equivalent of almost a full season: July through September 2020 as well as May and June in 2021. All those months add up to most of a full year of baseball.

For the record, I would like to state that ALL of the work on updating the page formatting and content are being done with good old-fashioned HTML coding skills and my graphical editing craft, NOT "Artificial Intelligence"! The same thing applies to as well as ongoing updates to stadium diagrams, which will be the next phase of my web site refurbishment endeavors.

World Cup: the final matches!

The championship match of this year's World Cup will be played on Sunday in "New York-New Jersey Stadium," which is the temporary name of MetLife Stadium, home of the NFC Giants and AFC Jets. Unfortunately, the air in that area (and in much of the northeastern U.S.A.) is filled with smoke from wild fires in Canada and some north central states. Defending champion Argentina will face Spain, in a sort of rematch of the 1810 war of independence led by General San Martin. On Saturday, England will face France (the runner-up four years ago) for a chance to claim third-place honors. That match will be played in "Miami Stadium," better known as "Hard Rock Stadium," home of the AFC Dolphins.