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June 19, 2025 [LINK / comment]

Nationals' miserable slump ends, thanks to James Wood

The long Nationals nightmare (i.e., an 11-game losing streak dating back to June 7) came to a merciful end in Washington this afternoon. In the bottom of the 11th inning, with two outs and the Nats trailing the Colorado Rockies 3-2, budding superstar James Wood hit a 2-run walk-off home run. It was the first such feat of his career, and the first by any Nationals player in almost two years! (The last time was on August 12, 2023, when Keibert Ruiz propelled the Nats to a 3-2 victory over the Oakland Athletics. That's from the soon-to-be-updated Washington Nationals BIG moments page.) It was actually Wood's second two-run homer of the game. And that's how the Nats' awful 11-game losing streak came to an end, as the Nats prevailed, 4-3.

James Wood, standing at second base after hitting an RBI double in the bottom of the ninth inning in the game against the San Francisco Giants on May 25. He would have been the game-tying run, but the game ended two outs later.

With those two home runs today, Wood now has 20 home runs for the season, threatening to break all sorts of team records for a rookie's first full season. (He was called up to the majors on July 1 last year.) He is a shoo-in to become an All-Star this year, and his pitching team mate Mackenzie Gore likewise is expected to receive the honor. The Mariners' young slugging phenom Cal Raleigh current leads the majors in home runs with 27, just ahead of Aaron Judge (26) and Shohei Ohtani (25).

The Nats had a very encouraging 15-12 win-loss record in the month of May. On the final day of the month (in Phoenix) they set a team record (and tying NL record) by scoring 9 runs before the first out was made in the 1st inning, and then one more before the D-Backs came to bat. The last such feat in the National League was on August 13, 1948, by the Phillies. In the AL, the Red Sox scored 10 runs before the first out on June 27, 2003. The D-backs' starting pitcher Brandon Pfaadt was replaced after the seventh run scored, and the reliever Scott McGough didn't do much better. The D-Backs gradually narrowed the gap, but the Nats held on to win, 11-7.

After that mini-triumph, the Nats expected to continue surging toward the .500 mark as June began, but instead they suddenly fell into the proverbial abyss of doom. The Nats lost their final game in Phoenix, as the D-Backs averted being swept, and then back in Washington the Nats lost series to both the first-place Chicago Cubs and the Texas Rangers, in both cases 2 games to 1. Disappointing, but no big deal.

Then followed an unusual three-game road trip (June 10 - 12) against the Mets at Citi Field in New York. If there was a "defining moment" during this slump, it would have to be the first game of that series. Mackenzie Gore had yet another fine outing, going six innings, and this time he had some run support: Nathaniel Lowe and C.J. Abrams both hit home runs. Hopes were high for an upset win against the first-place Mets. But with a score of 4-2 and two outs with a runner on first in the in 8th inning, Kyle Finnegan took the mound, and things fell apart. Juan Soto (a former National!) hit an RBI double and then scored on a single by Pete Alonso, thus tying the game, which went into extra innings. The first batter in the bottom of the 11th, Jeff McNeil, drove in the winning run from second base, and that was that. The Nationals had been SO close to an upset win over the daunting division-leaders, but instead lost, 5-4. The Nats were shut out 5-0 in the second game and failed to score until the ninth inning of the third game. That's when the Nats staged a big rally, scoring 3 runs, only one behind the Mets, and had runners on 2nd and 3rd with only one out. It was another golden opportunity to defeat their first-place rivals, but Jose Tena and Keibert Ruiz both grounded out to end the game.

Next came a home stand against two last-place teams: the Miami Marlins and the Colorado Rockies, who did not win their 10th game of the year until June. No problem, right? WRONG! After a two-hour rain delay on Friday the 13th Mitchell Parker was terribly ineffective and got replaced in the 4th inning, his shortest outing of the year. James Wood, who had been slumping in early June, homered and helped the Nats narrow the gap, but they still lost to the Marlins, 11-9. On Saturday the Nats' bats were mostly quiet, and their 2-run rally in the 9th inning fell just short. Final score: 4-3. On Sunday, it was another lackluster batting performance, and the home team lost again, 3-1. Another series sweep, and eight losses in a row, surpassing their seven-game losing streak in early May.

On Monday the woebegone Colorado Rockies came to town, and the Nationals had a 4-3 lead going into the 9th inning. But once again, closing pitcher Kyle Finnegan flinched when the going got tough: two Rockies batters homered to give their team a 6-4 lead, and the Nats failed to respond in the bottom of the 9th. That was just awful. On Tuesday the Rockies had a 3-1 lead going into the 7th inning, when they exploded with 6 runs, charged to relievers Cole Henry and Jackson Rutledge. That pretty much put the game out of reach, but the Nats staged a 4-run rally in the bottom of the 9th to narrow the gap a bit. Final score: 10-6. Wednesday's game was quite a pitchers' duel, as neither team scored until the 6th inning, but the Nats ended up losing again, 3-1. That bleak sequence of events set the stage for today's heroics, described in the first paragraph above.

Will Davey Martinez get fired?

After the game against Miami last Saturday, Manager Davey Martinez denied that the team's coaches were responsible for the Nationals' continual failure to perform. "It's never on coaching," he declared. This created a bit of a scandal, as described in the Washington Post. Under normal circumstances, the combination of repeated losses and seeming to blame the players might get a manager fired. Is Davey's job at risk? Probably not. Unfortunately, the Nats' owners do not seem particularly concerned about the team's losing record. They are content with mediocre attendance figures, while charging the highest prices for beer in the major leagues. (I paid $16.99 for a jumbo-sized Stella Artois when I was there on May 25.) In short, the "rebuilding" effort seems to be half-hearted at best, and there's not much chance of getting a new manager (or better players) any time soon.

Tomorrow the Nationals take a cross-country flight out to Los Angeles to begin a ten-day road trip that includes one off day. The Nats' ace pitcher Mackenzie Gore (who leads the National League in strikeouts, with 119) will go up against aging future Hall-of-Famer Clayton Kershaw.

ICE blocked at Dodger Stadium (?)

The Nationals will arrive in an atmosphere of distrust and turmoil, as the streets of Los Angeles are still being patrolled by National Guard troops and U.S. Marines, following confrontations with ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents earlier this month. Today the Dodgers front office announced that ICE agents would not be allowed into Dodger Stadium, or the surrounding parking areas. There were reports that ICE would seek to detain illegal immigrants working at the stadium, but details of what actually happened today are still sketchy. See NBCNews.com.

New name: "Daikin Park"

Last November the Houston Astros' owner Jim Crane announced that Minute Maid Park would be renamed "Daikin Park" for the 2025 season, as reported by KHOU.com and other media outlets. (A video of the announcement is at MLB.com.) The naming-rights contract has a 15-year term, and Minute Maid will continue sponsoring activity at the ballpark, but on a lower scale. Somehow I missed this news until the beginning of this season, but I did at least update the Minute Maid Park page with the new name.

Unlike some other recent name changes, this one seems to be quite legitimate, as the Daikin Comfort Technologies Corporation (based in Japan but with North American headquarters in Houston) has a long, stable history. Given the enormous air conditioning system in the Astros' stadium (which I vividly recall from two years ago when I saw a game there on a 100-degree day), the partnership certainly makes sense. (NOTE: "Daikin" rhymes with "liken.")

The water tower at the Daikin plant in Verona, Virginia.

Baseball, NASCAR style?

Somebody in the MLB offices thought it would be fun to play a baseball game in a NASCAR stadium. And so, this August 2, the Atlanta Braves will "host" the Cincinnati Reds in a spectacle that will surely make a big splash in the Appalachian region. With some of the NASCAR and Indy racetracks having seating capacities well above 100,000, that idea strikes me as a bit absurd, but the Bristol Raceway in northeastern Tennessee is smaller than most. [CORRECTION: It is small in terms of track length, but actually one of the largest in terms of seating capacity: 146,000. See NBCSports.com. That article omits Indianpolis Motor Speedway because it is privately owned and therefore not obliged to report its capacity, but the unofficial capacity there is over a quarter million.] Virginia Tech and Tennessee played a football game there a [few years ago, in September 2016]. If the Dodgers could use the absurdly-big L.A. Memorial Coliseum as a home for four years, why not? Read all about it at bristolmotorspeedway.com. I suppose this means that I'll have to do a diagram, but the scale will have to be drastically reduced in order to fit on a normal size web page.

But wait, they used to play baseball at what used to be a race car track in Mexico! At Foro Sol, now known as Estadio GNP Seguros. Apparently it is used exclusively for musical events nowadays.

May 30, 2025 [LINK / comment]

Nationals bounce back from bad slump

After losing six of their first seven games this season, the Washington Nationals bounced back with a four-game winning streak and then played so-so for the next month or so. They managed to win at least one game in each of ten consecutive series. Surprisingly, the took two of three games from the world champion L.A. Dodgers from April 7 to 9, thanks in large part to three home runs by future superstar James Wood.

In slugger-friendly Coors Field on April 19, Dylan Crews hit two home runs, while Josh Bell and James Wood also homered. Mackenzie Gore struck out 13 batters that day, but the bullpen faltered for the umpteenth time this year, and the Nats barely escaped with a 12-11 victory over the Rockies. In the second game of the Sunday double-header (a schedule switched necessitated by snow on the preceding Friday), the Colorado team registered one of their very few wins so far this year. At an abysmal 9-48, the Rockies are currently on track to do even worse than the Chicago White Sox did last year (40-121).

Another good sign was when the Nationals split the four-game series at home with the New York Mets from April 25 to 28. In the first game, James Wood knocked in the game-winning run on a single, the Nats' first walk-off win of the year. In the April 27 game the Nats were behind 6-1 after two innings, but starting pitcher Mitchell Parker put three zeroes on the scoreboard, partly redeeming himself. The Nats stormed back with a 5-run rally in the 7th inning, capped by a 3-run homer by Riley Adams. In the bottom of the ninth, the Nats rallied again and caught a break when the Mets fumbled an infield hit by Luis Garcia, allowing C.J. Abrams to score the winning run, as the Nats came back to get an 8-7 win. Jubilation in D.C.! The Mets (then with a multi-game lead in the NL East) were not amused, and got their revenge the next day, drubbing the Nationals by a score of 19-5.

In the early game of a doubleheader at home on May 6 (made necessary by a rained-out Friday game), the Nats prevailed over the Cleveland [Guardians], thanks to another James Wood home run. But for some reason, they then they went into a tail spin, losing the next two games to the Guardians to begin a seven-game losing streak. Then they were swept in three games straight by the St. Louis Cardinals to wrap up the home stand, and then lost 3 of 4 games to the Braves in Atlanta. All four of those games were close, low-scoring affairs that could have gone either way. C.J. Abrams homered in two of the games that the Nationals lost.

And then, inexplicably, things started going the Nationals way again when they went to Baltimore on May 16. Somehow the Orioles kept wasting run-scoring opportunities, getting only 3 runs on 14 hits. The Nats won it, 4-3. As a sign of frustration on the part of the front office (now headed by billionaire David Rubenstein), the Orioles' manager Brandon Hyde was fired on Saturday before the next game. In that game, the Nats scored 6 runs in the 1st inning, and went on to win, 10-6. The Sunday game was little different, with a final score of 10-4. And thus, the Nationals swept the Orioles in Camden Yards*, a most unusual occurrence.

Next, the Nationals traveled to Atlanta, where they beat the Braves in both games. (The game scheduled for May 21 was rained out, and will be made up in September.) In the Thursday game, recently calleld-up Robert Hassel III (replacing Dylan Crews, who is on the injured list due to a strained back muscle) got two hits and scored what turned out to be the game-winning run.

I was at the final game of the series against the San Francisco Giants last Sunday, May 25, and hopes were high for a series win. (The Giants had shut out the Nationals 4-0 on Friday, and the home team returned the favor 3-0 on Saturday.) The weather was perfect, if a bit on the cool side, and my friend Dave Givens and I treated ourselves to upscale second-deck seats that provided great views of the players. (You can read all about the game at washingtonpost.com.) Most of the game was disappointing, but in the bottom of the ninth, the Nationals rallied with doubles by C.J. Abrams and James Wood. (In between them, Josh Bell popped out on the first pitch.) The atmosphere in the stands instantly turned electric, but then Nathaniel Lowe struck out. He had sliced what would have been a game-tying line drive down the left field line, but it went just foul. The last batter was Alex Call, who has often provided clutch run support as well as defensive hustle, but this time he popped out to the right fielder to end the game. And so, the Nats fell short, 3-2.

Nationals Park in the [bottom] of the 9th inning on May 25, just after James Wood hit an RBI double to make the score 3-2. In the batter's box is Nathaniel Lowe.

After resting on Memorial Day (when there really should be a ball game in Our Nations's Capital), on Tuesday (May 27) the Nats began a western road trip in Seattle, where they were clobbered 9-1 by the Mariners. Then they bounced back with a 9-0 victory on Wednesday (helped by four home runs) and achieved an awe-inspiring triumph on Thursday. After Mackenzie Gore threw 9 strikeouts over 6 innings he was in line for the win, but then the bullpen let him down (once again), and it was tied 2-2 after 9 innings. The Nats retook the lead in the top of the 10th, however, thanks to a long RBI sac fly by rookie Daylen Lile. That ball almost went over the fence, and sparked a huge rally! The Nats went on to score 7 runs, capped by a 3-run homer by Josh Bell, who had been slumping terribly until recently.

Tonight in Phoenix the Nats scored twice in the first inning, but quickly found themselves behind 4-2, as starting pitcher Jake Irvin was uncharacteristically sloppy. It was kind of a crazy back-and-forth affair in which the Nats pulled ahead in the latter innings and then won it, 9-3. With a record of 27-30, the Nats have now moved ahead of the Atlanta Braves in the National League East Division, taking the third place spot. How about that!!!

* Camden Yards is changed

The Orioles decided to partly undo the big enlargement of left field in Camden Yards which they did in 2022. Most of the extra space in the outfield has been removed, replaced by a deck area designed for kids to go chasing home run balls. And so, I made a minor update to the Camden Yards diagram.

Washington Nationals page update

The Washington Nationals page has been updated to include changes to the roster for 2025, game data for April 2025 (wins, losses, and attendance), and the Nationals' historical head-to-head matchup win-loss records, from 2005 through 2024. There are also miniature photos of most of the new players such as Michael Soroka (P), Amed Rosario (3B), and Nathaniel Lowe (1B). Once I update that page with complete May data in the next couple days, it will be seen that the Nationals had a winning record for the month: either 15-12 or 14-13, depending on whether they beat the Diamondbacks tomorrow. I thought it would be interesting to extract from the head-to-head matchups table the data for the National League East Division opponents. I just noticed that the Nationals have never played against any of their divisional rivals in a postseason game.

* "MIA" (Miami) used to be "FLA" (Florida) until the Marlins' new stadium was built in Miami in 2012.

Nationals' winning percentage graph 2024.

Little by little, I have also been updating several other pages, such as the ones detailing chronologies and MLB franchise information. [Notable changes of the recent past include the temporary relocation of the Oakland Athletics to Sacramento (see below), the acquisition of the Baltimore Orioles by David Rubenstein last year, and the passing of Cleveland Guardians owner Larry Dolan. His son Paul has inherited most if not all of the franchise.]

New diagram: Sutter Health Park!

Just like I did for George M. Steinbrenner Field earlier this year, I came up with a preliminary diagram for Sutter Health Park, where the erstwhile Oakland Athletics have taken up temporary residence in Sacramento, while a new stadium for them (presumably) gets built in Las Vegas. At the beginning of the 2025 season in late March, I stated an intention to get this one done "in the next week or so." Obviously, I am behind schedule once again. The grassy slope behind the bullpens in right field is a nice aesthetic touch, but it should be noted that the supposed seating capacity of 14,000 includes 3,000 "sitting room only" seats out there. The actual capacity is more like 11,000, about the same as George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa.

Anyway, there are a number of similarities between the temporary home fields of the Rays and the Athletics, owing to the fact that they are mere minor league ballparks. The dimensions along the foul lines and to the power alleys are 10-15 feet greater in the Sacramento ballpark than the one in Tampa. In addition, there is a lot more room behind home plate at this ballpark.

Still pending: diagrams of London Stadium, Gocheok Sky Dome [in Seoul], Estadio Alfredo Harp Helu [in Mexico City], whatever they are presently calling the ballpark near Disney World in Orlando, and perhaps more.