William World News William F. Yurasko's blog v.14 – Nats, Penn State, Redskins, greater DC , travel, more

Since I last blogged about the Washington Nationals, they finished 6-5 on a western swing, splitting with the Arizona Diamondbacks (lots of HBP on both sides), losing 2 of 3 to the San Francisco Giants and taking 3 of 4 from the San Diego Padres. They are about halfway through an odd stretch of schedule [...]

Washington Nationals starter John Lannan entered yesterday’s game against the Philadelphia Phillies having never beat them in 14 starts. He had a 0-10 record against them dating back to 2007. His debut, when we learned that he was an American hero was his only game against the Phillies the Nats ever won. He was ejected [...]

If the Washington Nationals want to be America’s team, like Drew Storen suggests…

…they ought to learn how to spell. John Lannan’s name got misspelled again, according to Nationals Journal, The Post.
Of course, LANNAN has never beaten the Philadelphia Phillies, so maybe this LANNEN guy will do better? #amiright
UPDATE: He did do better — first [...]

Washington Nationals starter John Lannan flirted with disaster early, but emerged relatively unscathed, thanks in part to poor Pittsburgh Pirates baserunning. In situations like this, it is best to let the hometown paper describe it — here are some choice quotes:
There is aggressiveness on the basepaths, and there is outright foolishness.
Unfortunately for the Pirates, they’ve [...]

Okay, Washington D.C. area high school/college drama departments, I have a call to action for you. I’m sure some of you are thinking about doing Damn Yankees one of these years, but you need to reboot it. I suggest that you modernize it a little, make it Damn Phillies. It would not require much to [...]

The Washington Nationals just had another interesting weekend, beating the reigning World Champion San Francisco Giants 3 out of 4 times in a wraparound series. DC got strong pitching every game of the series with Jason Marquis getting a complete game shutout on Friday night, John Lannan taking a hard-luck loss on Saturday because the [...]

WASHINGTON, D.C. — They say that you may see something new in every baseball game.* That was the case yesterday, as the Washington Nationals hosted the San Francisco Giants. The visitors walked 9 Nats and hit 3 of them with pitches, but only gave up a run. The Giants played with fire throughout the game [...]

The reverse lock could not make it two in a row.
John Lannan pitched one of his better games against the Philadelphia Phillies, but for the Washington Nationals starter, 3 runs (2 earned) over 6 innings. It wasn’t enough though, because Roy Halladay held the Nats scoreless through 8. The Nats got it going in the [...]

I have gone back and forth on the Washington Nationals this offseason. They improved 10 games in 2010, despite a disappointing starting rotation. This season, the best part of 2010’s rotation, Stephen Strasburg, is recovering from Tommy John surgery. However, I expect the rotation to improve even without Strasburg. I expect a bounce-back season from [...]

THOMAS BOSWELL: As spring arrives, reality dawns for Nationals – The Post
The headline for this column ought to be “Reality dawns for Tom Boswell.” Remember his earlier columns from the spring when he was superhappyfoamfingeredfanboy? Well, that is gone, because Boswell is seeing the Washington Nationals for what they are — a team with a [...]