Nationals Lose in Beantown

The Washington Nationals' two-game winning streak came to an end tonight with a 6-3 loss

to the Red Sox in Boston.

The game started with a bang for the visiting team as the National’s James Wood led off the

top of the 1st with his 21st home run.

That lead didn’t last long as the Red Sox tallied three in the bottom of the inning courtesy of

a three-run homer by Willson Contreras (his 18th) after singles from Ceddanne Rafaela and

Wilyer Abreu. Caleb Durbin added a solo shot later in the inning (his 2nd) for a 4-1 Boston

lead.

Boston added a run in the bottom of the 2nd on a sacrifice fly from Wilyer Abreu scoring

Tsung-Che Cheng. The first three Boston hitters in the 2nd all singled, loading the bases. 5

1 Sox.

Boston added another run in the bottom of the 3rd after Anthony Seigler's lead-off

double. He later scored on a sac fly off the bat of Carlos Narvaez. Sox up 6-1.

The score stayed 6-1 until the top of the 6th when C.J. Abrams knocked in two runs with a

double, scoring Andres Chaparro and Keibert Ruiz who had both singled earlier in the

inning. That made it 6-3 Boston. Unfortunately, that’s the way the game ended.

This was Boston’s fifth win in a row.

Ranger Suarez won his 4th game of the year going 6 innings giving up 3 earned runs while

striking out 8 Nationals.

Miles Mikolas had a rough outing for the Nats giving up 6 runs and 9 hits in 7 innings. His

record dropped to 2-7.

Washington fell back to .500 with a 43-43 record. The Red Sox are currently sitting at 37

and 46 after their victory but have won 7 out of their last 10 games.

On the injury front, the Nationals placed relievers Mitchell Parker and Richard Lovelady on

the injured list today, just adding to their pitching woes. As we know, relief pitching has

been a nagging issue for Washington, with 25 blown saves so far this season and a

combined ERA of 5.02. Incidentally, the 2021 Nationals hold the MLB record with 37 blown

saves in a season, an unwanted record that was later tied by the 2024 White Sox.

The MLB trade deadline isn’t until August 3rd, but it’s not too early for the speculation to

begin. The Nationals certainly know what they need to do to improve their playoff chances.

The Nationals and Red Sox play game two tomorrow at 7:10 ET in Fenway Park.

Dave’s Dime…It’s history time...again

A couple days ago we talked about the Washington Senators and all that happened to the

franchise from 1961 to 2005. I thought it might be interesting to go back a few decades to

where it all began.

Once upon a time…

The Washington Senators were one of eight original franchises that made up the American

League in 1901. We’ll just list them here as they were first known. Out of these eight

teams, the Detroit Tigers franchise is the only one to never change its name or move to

another city.

1. Baltimore Orioles

2. Boston Americans

3. Chicago White Stockings

4. Cleveland Blues

5. Detroit Tigers

6. Milwaukee Brewers

7. Philadelphia Athletics

8. Washington Senators

Washington’s franchise was originally called the “Senators” from 1901-1904. They changed

their name to the “Nationals” in 1905 after a horrid 1904 season in which they lost 113

games. Most fans and sportswriters continued to call them the “Senators” but that wasn’t

their official name. The team eventually went back to their original “Senators” moniker in

1956 just a few years before relocating to Minnesota in 1961.

When the Montreal Expos relocated to Washington D.C. in 2005, they called themselves

the “Nationals” again partly because the Texas Rangers still owned the legal rights to the

name “Senators” even after relocating to Dallas from Washington in 1971. If you took the

time to closely read this paragraph, you might be thinking to yourself “huh?” and you’d be

right.

The original Senators, starting in 1901, went on to post a losing record in each of their first

11 seasons. Things finally began to look a little brighter a few years later due to a baseball

icon by the name of Walter Johnson.

Walter Johnson, also known as “the Big Train”, played his entire career with the Senators

from 1907 to 1927. He later served a few years as their manager from 1929-1932.

His pitching statistics are quite remarkable. Walter won 417 games (2nd all-time) and lost

279 (4th all-time). His earned run average was an unbelievable 2.17 (7th all-time). He racked

up 3,508 strikeouts (10th all-time) and pitched 110 complete game shutouts (the most

ever). Let that last stat sink in for a moment…Today’s current leader in career complete

game shutouts is Justin Verlander with 7.

The Big Train was also quite a hitter. His career batting average was .235. He actually

hit .433 in 1925, a record for his position. He was 37 years old and nearing the end of his

career when he accomplished that amazing feat. His 547 career hits are best all-time for a

full-time pitcher.

Walter actually played a big part in the Senators only World Series championship in 1924,

when they defeated the New York Giants in seven games. Walter started two games in the

series, losing both. But he did make a relief appearance in game seven, holding the Giants

scoreless through four innings and earning the win on a walk-off bad hop grounder to third

by Earl McNeely. (Now there’s some hard-core baseball trivia for you. You’re now ready for

your appearance on Jeopardy.)

This would be the Senators only World Series victory during their time in Washington.

I’m certainly beginning to realize that Major League Baseball is filled with a plethora of

fascinating, unusual, and quirky historical facts. But that’s just a small part of what makes

our favorite sport America’s Pastime.

I could go on forever but my wife and dog are giving me the skunk eye because I keep typing

and won’t turn off the kitchen light. Time to rejoin the family.

Take care,

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