After the Rays intentionally walked Adam LaRoche before Danny Espinosa, Espinosa delivered the final blow in the sixth inning, breaking the tie. The Nationals went on to win the rubber game of the series 5-2.

The move to walk LaRoche in front of Espinosa made sense to the Rays. Espinosa hit the decisive double from the left side, where he’d only been hitting .188.

“I definitely take it personal in a sense that, I want to get ’em. I want to make them pay for what they’re doing.”

Gio Gonzalez struggled early, throwing 50 pitches over the first two innings but was able to pitch into the sixth inning and earned his ninth win. After Gonzalez left the game, Craig Stammen entered to pitch the seventh and issued a leadoff walk. After two walks, Johnson brought in reliever Michael Gonzalez.

Not to be outdone by Stammen, Gonzalez also issued a walk, thus loading the bases. Johnson then brought in Ryan Mattheus, who reached a full count before he was able to get the job done, striking out Will Rhymes with two outs to leave the Rays stranded.

» Continue reading “Nationals have last laugh; take 2 of 3 from Rays”

Last night’s game between the Nationals and Rays came and went without incident or any carryover from pine tar gate. Stephen Strasburg, the team’s ace played stopper again and the Nationals snapped a four game losing streak winning 3-2 against the Rays. Even with the pine tar incident and war of words slowly fading from memory, it seem like it’s getting out of hand now. And about Twitter. Or Tweeter, if you’re Davey Johnson.

“I don’t want to get in a shouting match with Joe. I looked him up on the Internet and found out he has a Tweeter, so he can get to more people than me,” Johnson told the media.

While Davey took a route to lay relatively low and end the verbal war, Maddon had his own ideas about Twitter. Or Tweeter. Now which one is it, now?

“Most men have Tweeters. I would never use my Tweeter to an unfair advantage,” Maddon refuted.

Um, well take that as you will.

The only thing that could have made Davey Johnson’s ‘Tweeter” media session better is if he found a way to work in ‘that’s a clown question, bro.’ But the Nationals still have to play the Rays one last time tonight.

Check out the compilation video from CSNWashington. And after tonight, the Nationals won’t have to see the Rays for a very long time, hopefully. (Unless it’s in the postseason.)

Game time is 7:05 at Nationals Park.

Third base umpire Chris Guccione takes Joel Peralta's glove with the "foreign substance" to the umpire's room.

The Nationals and Rays may not exactly be sworn enemies, considering they’re in completely different leagues and see each other every few years. However, considering the pine tar shenanigans that occurred last night and the comments that followed afterwards, I doubt either team is willing to go on a bonding retreat or something of the sort.

After last night, baseball’s code and ethics are suddenly thrown into the spotlight in DC and in the baseball world. Yesterday, in the bottom of the eighth inning, Tampa Bay Rays reliever Joel Peralta came in to pitch. Before Peralta, a former National, even threw a pitch, Davey Johnson asked umpire Tim Tschida to check Peralta’s glove.

After Tschida checked Peralta’s glove, the glove was confiscated and Peralta was ejected for what Tschida said was a “significant amount” of pine tar in his glove. In the end, it seems to have worked out for the Rays. Reliever Jake McGee was called to pitch in place of the ejected Peralta and retired all three Nationals in order. The Rays went on to win the ballgame 5-4.

Now the glove is en route to New York to be checked by Major League Baseball, but this is far from over. After the game Rays manager Joe Maddon had a few thoughts of his own about what transpired.

» Continue reading “What’s a little pine tar between enemies?”

Oh, the good decisions the Nationals have made in recent years.  One of them was clearly dumping Elijah Dukes, who seems to keep getting himself into trouble in the dumbest possible ways.

During a routine traffic stop, Dukes got a little paranoid.  Apparently, he had a small bag of marijuana in his possession. BUT NOT FOR LONG!

In a definitively idiotic act to try to hide the evidence, Dukes ate the bag of weed. I repeat: he ate. A bag. Of weed.  Naturally, he was subsequently arrested for a lot more than an average traffic violation. And he was freakin’ out…man.

From the Washington Post:

Dukes was charged with drug possession, tampering with physical evidence, possession of drug paraphernalia and three counts of driving with a canceled or suspended license.

He was not, however, cited for watching “Super Troopers” one too many times.

» Continue reading “Ex-Nat Elijah Dukes Thinks He’s A ‘Super Troopers’ Extra, Gets Arrested”