The Nationals have had a comfortable lead in the NL East for some time now, and that ended up being important once the injuries started to pile up. Max Scherzer, Jayson Werth, Trea Turner, and Bryce Harper were all on the disabled list at the same time, and the first of those two returned to the Nats on Monday night. While Harper remains a ways off, Turner will rejoin Washington on Tuesday to face the Marlins.
The 1st-place Nationals just got a lot healthier
Tuesday’s Say Hey, Baseball looks at the return of a few Nationals, the Astros and Rangers playing at Tropicana Field, and even more Mets injuries.
Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images
Werth made his presence felt, launching a homer in his first game back from the foot injury that has had him on the disabled list since June. He’s also a bigger return than he would have been a year ago, as pre-injury Werth actually was hitting: His line has him with a positionally adjusted 127 OPS+ as a left fielder. Scherzer picked up right where he left off two weeks ago before landing on the DL with a neck injury, tossing seven innings of one-run ball while striking out 10 to slow the surging Marlins.
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This put the Nats 13 games up on second-place Miami: They didn’t need Scherzer and Werth to come back just yet, not when the Dodgers have the whole home-field advantage thing all but wrapped up despite the date on the calendar. Having those two back is pretty all right just the same, though, and the same can be said for the return of Turner.
The 24-year-old shortstop wasn’t tearing up the league like he did during his stint as a rookie in 2016, but his .279/.322/.422 line is still above average for a shortstop, and his return will allow the team to use Wilmer Difo as a utility player more often instead of as a regular. Now the Nats just have to hope Harper not only returns before the postseason, but is still mashing when he does.
- All those Giancarlo Stanton trade rumors swirling around new ownership are going to vanish if he keeps on mashing and the Marlins keep on winning.
- It didn’t help the Blue Jays defeat the Red Sox in the end, but that’s not Kevin Pillar’s fault: This catch is absolutely incredible.
- The Astros and Rangers will play their three-game series at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg instead of in Houston because of Hurricane Harvey.
- And also, if the rumors are correct, it’s because of the Rangers, who declined to swap home series with the Astros to make it all work.
- Astros starter Lance McCullers is not thrilled about that particular Rangers decision.
- The Cardinals Matt Carpenter will donate $10,000 to Hurricane Harvey relief for every home run he hits for the rest of 2017.
- MLB and the MLBPA are jointly donating $1 million to Hurricane Harvey relief as well.
- Meanwhile, Jim Crane and the Astros organization are donating $4 million to the crisis in their backyard.
- The Mets run of injuries continues unabated, as Yoenis Cespedes’ season is now over thanks to his hamstring.
- That might not be all, either, as David Wright’s rehab was shut down due to shoulder pain.
- Baseball is fun! Rubik’s Cube time trials in the stands while at a baseball game, though? Possibly too much fun.
- Charlie Manuel threw some good-natured shade at the Phillies on Twitter.
- The Yankees are eventually going to have to make a real decision on Aroldis Chapman.
- Rhys Hoskins is hitting homers even faster than Stanton, and while it won’t be a permanent feature of his game, he’s still giving Phillies fans something to cheer for.
- The Hardball Times tries to make the case for eliminating the DH. I’m staunchly pro-DH and an immovable object on the matter (much like my preferred kind of DH), but YMMV.
- Russell Carleton looked at the idea of being more aggressive to generate additional power.
- The Red Sox were the first team to discover Rafael Devers...when he was 14. Once again, a Mr. Show sketch holds up.
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