Crews Coming to D.C. on Monday

get ready for an unforgettable night of boxing Mayweather Jr versus Gotti III this Saturday night at Walters across the street from Nationals Park go to Walters dc.com and click on events to register for a $5 beer card we're driven by the search for better but when it comes to hiring the best way to search for a candidate isn't to search at all don't search match with indeed indeed is your matching and hiring platform with over 350 million Global monthly visitors according to indeed data and a matching engine that helps you find quality candidates fast ditch the busy work use indeed for scheduling screening and messaging so you can connect with candidates faster leveraging over 140 million qualifications and preferences every day indeed's matching engine is constantly learning from your preferences so the more you use indeed the better it gets join more than 3.5 million businesses worldwide that use indeed to hire great Talent fast and listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to get your job's more visibility at indeed.com bluewire just go to indeed.com bluewire right now and support our show by saying that you heard about indeed on this podcast that's indeed.com bluewire terms and conditions apply need to hire you need indeed sends it deep to Center Gilbert watches It Go Dylan Cruz with a solo Homer his first SEC Homer with the number two pick in the 2023 MLB draft the Washington Nationals select Dylan Cruz an outfielder from Al skew first pitch here he swings and crushes one deep down the left field line this one has a chance it is gone it's a grand slam for Dylan Cruz sharp wind blowing out to left field certainly helped that laser and now after confirming It's a grand slam for Dylan Cruz the second home run at the doublea level for one of the top prospects in baseball Dylan Cruz steps on the plate and another 02 swinging a Fly ball to Center Cruz is going back still going back he squares up get twisted around and he makes the catch Cruz stabbed it over his head after he got twisted around some but he didn't lose his balance and he caught it as he got to the warning track in center field good job by Cruz forer to the Belt he fires swinging a ground ball up the middle Abrams has it behind second he throws to First low y best can't pick it up and the ball game's over on a throwing air by CJ Abrams the Braves win it 3 to2 and welcome to Nash chat for Saturday August 24th 2024 along with Madson sports.com Nationals Insider Mark zerman was at truest Park in Atlanta I'm Al G host of the AL galdi podcast Friday was August 23rd it was the one-year anniversary of the stone Garrett injury do you remember that Garrett in the bottom of the seventh of a 9-1 Nats loss at the New York Yankees on August 23rd 2023 suffered a fractured left fibula and a left ankle injury he was attempting to make a leaping catch of what ended up being a home run by DJ lameu and Garrett in attempting to make this catch crashed into the Outfield wall landed on the warning track and was rolling in pain this was quite the site as you likely remember he actually caught his lower left leg in the Outfield wall his cleat actually left a mark on the Outfield wall he got carded off the field as he was being carded off the field he covered his face with a towel while he was crying uh again it was quite the scene anyway fast forward to August 23rd 2024 much happier news we on Friday afternoon had reports that the that's yes our promoting outfielder Dylan Cruz from Tria Rochester to the majors for Monday evening's game one of a three-game series against yeah the New York Yankees this time at Nationals Park funny how things work out as Yes we finally have gotten this news that we have been anticipating in the meantime the Nats on Friday night lost at the Atlanta Braves 3-2 in 10 innings in game one of a three- game series and very earily the Nats right fielder in this game on in August 23rd left the game due to injury Alex Cole left the game off getting hurt in the bottom of the second he fell down while running in on a fly out to second baseman ilaro Vargas for the third out could it be that Dylan Cruz will be promoted to the majors before Monday if in fact Alex Co is hurt more on that momentarily a lot to get to with this game on Friday evening including more maddening outs by the Nats on the base pass but also a very encouraging outing from McKenzie Gore the Nats now are 58 and 71 but Mark August 23rd has been quite the date in recent Nats history well I'll go even a little further back Al I I saw somebody mentioned earlier that it was August 23rd 2011 when the earthquake struck the Washington DC area I remember that day well I know you do as well this wasn't quite an earthquake the news that happened in the day but it was a big deal and it probably sent a few shock waves maybe through the organization and the rest of the baseball world and then what happened in the game maybe affects all of this as well this was about as newy an eventful of a day as the Nationals have had in a while and the shame of it is that even though the result of the game was really agonizing and even though nobody wanted to see Alex Co get hurt especially in that manner there actually was a lot of good positive stuff to happen over the course of the day on and off the field so this this makes it I think really A Strange Day I think one of those days that you have to separate what's going on in the immediate and what actually mattered today versus what all some of these things mean in the bigger picture because I think there are some really encouraging positive things that happened in a larger sense August 23rd also is the birthday of Sunny jurgenson he turned 90 on Friday and August 23rd is my son's birthday he turned seven on Friday so hey happy birthday a lot happening on August 23rd all right so I guess we should start with this how hurt is Alex Cole the pitch to r on the way swung on and hit in the air to shallow right Vargas going out calling for it and he makes the catch his call coming in fell down in right field and you hope he's okay has a look on his face that hopefully is just embarrassment his Spike's caught and he's hurt he can't get up he's hurt you posted about this on X after the game this obviously at least could have implications for Dylan cruser so what do we know about how Alex call is doing so when you watched it and you see him come charging in and just go down no contact at all I thought initially maybe his foot got caught in the turf and your thoughts go to oh my God Achilles injuries you're thinking all those things and he has to leave in the cart well he afterwards said that he felt something snap in his foot not his ankle he didn't know exactly what that was and he doesn't know what an Achilles rupture would feel like so he did have some concerns but he also noted that he has been dealing with some plantar fasciitis here recently and I actually did see him kind of walking through the clubhouse earlier in the afternoon with a little bit of a limp and didn't know what exactly that was but I think it turned out it was that and so he got the MRI he's still waiting for everybody to read it all and get back to him but his initial sense was actually one of optimism and I know this is going to sound counterintuitive and I'm not a doctor I did once stay at a holiday in express but that's the extent of my knowledge of these things but I have heard of this in other cases of plantar fasciitis when it's just stretched out this is the tendon sheath I think it is on the base of your foot when it's stretched out it's incredibly painful and it's kind of hard to play through and in some cases the treatment for it if it gets bad enough is to actually cut the strands and that releases them and you would think that's a bad thing but it actually makes it better and gets rid of the pain and so he's thinking and what they're telling him is that potentially what he felt was that plantar fasia kind of coming apart tearing fully instead of just being stretched and while it's very painful in the moment as it wears off it may actually allow him to heal faster and come back and it not end up being a serious thing so we don't know for sure yet but he actually was kind of optimistic after the game was standing up he had crutches with him to move around but he was able to stand and talk to us at his locker he kind of wanted to walk off the field they wouldn't let him do it in the moment so we'll see but what at least initially looked like a really really bad injury may not be nearly that bad and may not you know have quite the domino effect that we thought in the moment it could well it's going to be fascinating to see what the corresponding roster move to Dylan Cruz being promoted to the majors is because obviously there will be a corresponding roster move that will need to be made but yeah I mean let us take this in because we have been talking about this a lot Dylan Cruz is coming to the majors and I think the timing of this is so interesting as we have talked about the Nats could have promoted Cruz this past week could have promoted him for the series against the lowly Rockies chose not to do that instead the gats are throwing this guy right into the fire and I got to say I admire the Bold nature of this like this takes some hso what the Nats are doing and you know look it's a kind of thing that I guess you could say maybe might backfire but on the other hand there is going to be some real juice at Nationals Park this coming week I mean you think about the uh Tag Team Battle of outfielders that we will have in this series The NS James Wood and Dylan Cruz versus the Yankees Juan SoDo and Aaron judge this is going to be really exciting what's happening on Monday evening and moving forward Dylan Cruz uh it's been an interesting year for him right number two overall pick in the 2023 MLB draft out of LSU he per MLB pipeline is the number three overall Prospect in baseball he per Baseball America is the number four overall Prospect in baseball his overall stats for dou a Harrisburg and Triple A Rochester this season are good but not great but he for Harrisburg got off to slow start then dealt with a hamstring injury he got promoted from Harrisburg to Rochester on June 18th and he has had a great month of August for Rochester batting average of 306 on base percentage of 366 slugging percentage of 542 and it's impossible to ignore how this is so much like the promotion of James Wood where the news is leaked SL reported on a Friday afternoon and uh the major league debut ends up happening the following Monday funny how that worked out it was a carbon copy of the jameswood Revelation and ultimately decision to call him up and I was in a way kicking myself in kind of joking way for not just pre-writing the story and having it ready to go on Friday afternoon just should have assumed that this was exactly how it was going to play out we you know had a sense we we speculated that it could be coming I think the only question was would they hesitate to have him make his debut on that biggest of stages against the Yankees and Juan sto's return to National Park as a member of the Yankees but there were reasons for that and we'll see I think one of this kids biggest qualities and we're going to find out over time but I think one of his best qualities is that he really is made for the bright lights he played in as big a spotlight as there is in college baseball at LSU he went there as a highly touted Prospect and played three seasons there with a huge Spotlight on him and on the team and performed all the way through the College World Series helping them win a title and winning the gold spikes award is the best player in college baseball and I remember the night of the draft them talking about him about how that was such a thing for him in that there's no challenge he doesn't accept how he rises to the occasion so much and how he wants to be the guy with the spotlight on him and he doesn't feel that as pressure but actually as as something to strive for as as a motivator for him now I know you look at the minor league numbers we've talked about this they're they're good but not great over the last few weeks he was really hitting a lot better he's played very good defense he's been very clutch for them coming through in big spots in games we'll see I you know I've only seen him in person play some spring training games so you can't judge it on that but every sense that I get about him is that this is a big-time player who lives for the big moments and so part of me thinks that it actually makes even more sense to call him up to make his debut against the Yankees with Juan stto and Aaron judge in in the ballpark and that doing it on a lesser night with maybe 20,000 fans in the stands against the Rockies would have been less conducive to what he's looking for and you want to make a statement about where you're headed as an organization this is the way to do it James Wood and Dylan Cruz against the mighty Yankees let's go let's see it yeah and look if things don't go well it's really not that big of a deal like it's not about how he does in his debut it's not about really how he even does this week it's about how he does overall it's about how he does the rest of this season how he does in his career so you know you could argue there's really nothing to lose here if Cruz and would and the Nats do well then great it's a big- Time statement and if not you know it's really not that big of a deal given with an Nats are right now but no doubt you know this Nat season we are nothing if not truthful on this podcast this Nat season needed an injection of some juice of some adrenaline and this is going to provide that this is going to get people interested this is going to get people exced Ed and if Cruz hits the ground running which he may well do I mean the guy's got the ability to do that you're going to have I think some real oomph to the final few weeks here this Nat's regular season which would be awesome so if you go all the way back to the beginning of the Season we were kind making our predictions and talking about how we saw the season playing out I said I thought this was team was going to be better in the second half of the year than they were in the first half of the year and I based that on the idea that the roster was going to include a bunch of these young building blocks either making their debut or coming back from injury like aade cavali ultimately Josiah gray and that that infusion of young Talent was going to energize everybody and maybe push them to finish a season strong and go into the winter feeling like okay they're on the cusp now and ready to make a real move in 2025 now they wound up playing better than expected in the first half they have not played as well in the second half part of that is the regression of the pitching staff and some of of course these young stalwarts we expected to be up here either have not come back from injuries like cavali and gray or in the case of Cruz came up later that maybe I initially suspected that he would we didn't see Robert Hassel not yet Trey libum hasn't turned out to be the player they thought but the two most important young building blocks in all this are James Wood and Dylan Cruz and wood through nearly two months now has absolutely lived up to what he's supposed to be and we're now going to get five weeks of Dylan Cruz in the big leagues to find out if he can live up to what he's supposed to be I think he's different from wood in that he's not necessarily going to have the wow factor he's not going to we're not going to be talking about his exit velocities every night or 450 foot home runs but what I think we're going to ultimately see from him is a guy who just plays the game really well in all facets and consistently does it day in and day out now as you said he may struggle at some points that's natural that would be expected from anybody in this spot and he's still only a year moved from from college but just to get his feet wet over the next 5 weeks and maybe show us a glimpse of what he can be this is really important for the organization to get to the end of this year and say okay after all these years of waiting for the young talent to arrive they maybe haven't finished the job yet but a lot of them are now here at the big league level and you can now see the light at the end of the tunnel and I think Dylan Cruz is a huge part of that yeah I mean he and wood are the true foundational pieces of this rebuild like we can talk about CJ Abrams and kber Ruiz and McKenzie Gore and Josiah gray and they are all crucial pieces no doubt but if you're ranking the pieces in terms of potential Cruz and wood are one two in whatever order you want to put them in I mean let's be clear about this like these are the two guys who in theory can lead this team more so than any other players and you know you think about what the nucleus could be with Cruz and wood and Abrams and Gore if he comes through and gray if he gets back to being healthy and it is exciting to think about and again I think Nats fans needed this I think you know these last few weeks have been rough with the trade deadline and with the team struggling and with what has happened with gray and Gore and you know Abrams being so up and down Etc so to have wood doing well and now Cruz coming to the majors this is welcome and I'm pumped this is going to be exciting this coming week if I just said to you nothing else I'm not going to tell you what their record is or anything else that's happened but if I said to you when the season ends the Nationals are going to have a lineup that starts that goes 1 two three Abrams Cruz and wood would that be a successful year probably I mean you want them to be playing well of course but above all else that's where this season needed to get to eventually and I'm glad that we're at least going to get five weeks of those three guys maybe not initially but I think won't be too long before we see the three of them in some order at the top of their lineup Florida State football is back at Walter sports bar for the season the seols kickoff week zero this Saturday at noon against Georgia Tech in honor of the game being played in Dublin Jamon is treating everyone who registers to their first green tea shot on the house we're driven by the search for better but when it comes to hiring the best way to search for a candidate isn't to search at all don't search match with indeed indeed is your matching and hiring platform with over 350 million Global monthly visitors according to indeed data and a matching engine that helps you find quality candidates fast ditch the busy work use indeed for scheduling screening and messaging so you can connect with candidates faster leveraging over 140 million qualifications and preferences every day and deeds matching engine is constantly learning from your preferences so the more you use indeed the better it gets join more than 3.5 million businesses worldwide that use indeed to hire great Talent fast and listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility at indeed.com bluewire just go to indeed.com bluewire right now and support our show by saying that you heard about indeed on this podcast that's indeed.com bluewire terms and conditions apply need to hire you need indeed this episode is brought to you by Honda when you test drive the all new Ro log EV there's a lot that can impress you about it there's the class leading passenger space the clean thoughtful design and the intuitive technology but out of everything what you'll really love most is that it's a Honda visit honda.com to see offers yepez at third Ruiz at second the wi in the 2 two chaparo lines up base H left center field up the Gap Nationals are going to take the lead yepez scores Ruiz to the plate he's jogging in he'll score the throw to second is not in time it's two to1 Nationals big hit for chaparo his fifth double second and third RB's well this Nats 3210 inning loss at the Atlanta Braves on Friday night was an odd game in a lot of ways the Nats in this game did blow a 2-1 seventh inning lead the Nats lost this game despite out hitting the Braves 108 the Nats lost this game despite the Braves going 0 for n with runners in scoring position the Nats went two for eight with runners in scoring position and consider this what happened with the Nats bullpen in this game from a uh shall we say recordkeeping standpoint Eduardo Salazar did nothing wrong and yet he got charged with the loss in this game so four Nats relievers combined to allow two runs one earned in three and two3 innings Jacob Barnes allowed one run in one and two3 innings Robert Garcia got yet another big out he only faced one batter but he got the out via a swinging strikeout a three pitch swinging strikeout of the Braves number four batter Matt Olsen to end the bottom of the eight then came Eduardo Salazar who was really good but he officially allowed one run which was unearned in one and two3 innings he tossed a perfect bottom of the ninth he in a Braves one run 10th faced two batters and got two outs so he faced five batters he got 5 outs but he was charged with a run on a walk-off throwing error with him out of the game Jose a farer in that Braves what run 10th through three pitches his third pitch resulted in a grounder up the middle off the bat of Michael Harris II and shortstop CJ Abrams who did not start the game but came into the game Off the Bench beyond that Michael Harris the second grounder committed a walk-off throwing air as an Abrams one hop throw was not caught by first baseman Juan YZ and I say it that way because well no that was not a great throw by Abrams that's a throw that could have been caught and was not caught by gz whose defensive issues we have talked about so what an odd night I don't know that Eduardo Salazar is going to lose sleep over being charged with the loss in this game but that is bizarre man that you do everything right and you get charged with a run and you get charged with a loss this is the number one reason I never liked the new Extra Inning rule you can as a pitcher do everything that's asked of you retire every batter you face and still lose the game because you're having to deal with an automatic runner in scoring position and especially if you're the visiting team on the road where the home team now just has to get that guy home and you can do it with two productive outs now listen if CJ abam makes the throw or if Juan YZ makes what would have been a difficult scoop but as you said a potentially makeable scoop at first where Maybe not having this conversation and you can talk about the great job the reliever did and not be charged with a loss for it so let's be clear they lost the game because CJ Abrams could not make what was truly a routine play with two outs in the bottom of the 10th but I've always since they instituted this rule a few years ago thought to myself these are the kind of situations that can arise where it penalizes pitchers relievers for doing everything that they're supposed to do and I get it you want to shorten games it has worked in that regard and hey the Nets had their chance to get the automatic Runner home in the top of the 10th and they did not convert and that was one of their many issues with fundamentals in this game and I think the primary reason that they lost the game but I just have never liked this idea of losing a game despite doing nothing wrong as a pitcher see it's funny I take what happened with Salazar as further reason to ignore pitcher win loss records like that was my takeaway from this of man you know if you thought that pitcher win loss records couldn't be worthless enough now they're even more worthless when you see what happened with Salazar getting charge with the loss there but that was odd and yeah the Nats in this game all kinds of uh fundamental mistakes all kinds of little things that were not done well so we had the CJ Abrams walk-off throwing here we had three more big outs by the Nats on the base pants in this game uh two of the outs were made by Jacob young although you could argue one of the outs should not have been an out but Jacob young in this game has an ad starting center fielder and number eight batter two for three with a double a single and a hit by pitch he also had a stolen base so he did plenty of good things in this game but like I said two outs on the base pass young top of the third a one out Full Count opposite field double to right field despite having been down in the count at 1.12 and he had to steal a third base you love all that but he got tagged out at home on a 132 double play on a botched squeeze play with Nasim Nunes bunting young in the top of the seven one out single to left field but he was thrown out in an attempted steal of third base for the third out although young appeared as if he was safe the play though was reviewed and upheld so I don't know that we necessarily put that on young but again that was an out on the base pass and young top of the 10 uh did draw a leadoff hit by pitch the other out on the base pass by the Nats in this game came from ilaro Vargas who was an ad starting second baseman and number six batter two for four with two two out singles but Vargas top of the six off a two out opposite field single through the right side of the infield got picked off and caught in an attempted steal of second base so here we are once again talking about multiple outs made by the Nats on the base pass in a game that they lose by one run in 10 innings in a game in which the Nats actually got on base a lot with the great Chris Sale pitching now s allowed two runs in seven Innings but the NS got nine hits off sale in addition to drawing a walk off them the Nets had base runners in this game but once again ran themselves into way too many outs so that's the thing is you were in a position to beat Chris Sail and if I had told you that coming in would you have believed that they had a good chance to win this game given how much Gore had been struggling of late and how good sale has been no so on the one hand you say okay great job that they were in a position and scored a couple runs against him but on the other hand you say you've got to then actually convert when you have those opportunities and the last thing you can do in that case is run yourself into outs and I agree that the the second young one he sure looked safe they had it up on the Jumbotron here everybody's watching it including the umpires the Braves were all assuming the inning that the inning was going to continue that it was not over they were coming back onto the field and even when it was ultimately ruled Jacob young asked one of the guys like hey what's that about and the Umpire just Shrugged his shoulders like I don't know I can't do anything about that very frustrating of course but think of the situation that that occurred in he's trying to steal third with what is ultimately one out in the seventh of a tie game and Joey Gallow strikes out on the same pitch that he gets thrown out and what happens James Wood is stuck in the on Deck Circle never gets a chance to bat and the same thing happens in the 10th when Gallow hits into a double play to end the 10th James Wood stuck in the on Deck Circle so the fundamental mistakes is one thing but you're doing that and ultimately taking the bat out of the hands of your best guys who could maybe drive in the runs at some point here they need to trust the fact that they can score runs with their bats not only with their legs I understand this feeling of well we don't hit for a lot of power we got to manufacture runs we've got to do everything we can to get in position and and use our speed to do that okay you got to do it at a much higher rate than they are and if you're not doing it that rate and you are starting to get some better hitters in your lineup stop running into these outs give your guys a chance to actually hit the ball and score runs that way and that goes back to the botched squeeze why do they have to squeeze in that spot I get it it's not seem Nunes you're not counting on him to come through against Chris Sale but in with what happened there they completely gave up they're basically were saying we have no faith that we can score run a conventional way here so going to have to try to do something unconventional and it backfired in the most spectacular way possible well and that goes to this Nasim Nunes was the starting short stop for this game not CJ Abrams just like ilmar Vargas was the starting second baseman for this game not Luis Garcia Jor a team that is so lacking in offense decided not to start its top two offensive players for this season in terms of qualified players because they were scared of Chris Sail I mean that's what DAV Martinez told you guys before the game I could not understand that I really was not a fan of this from DAV Martinez well we don't want to start Abrams and Garcia because we're scared of Chris S like people were scared of Randy Johnson back in the day what kind of message is that what kind of scared timid Outlook is that I I don't get that and and what your better position with Nunes and Vargas batting what they're going to be better than Abrams and Garcia explain this to me I I really did not like that I understand the annoyance and I heard it from Plenty of fans as as well and I'm not saying that any of you are necessarily wrong to feel that way the explanation would be this isn't about putting out a lineup that you think is somehow better gives you a better chance of winning this particular game DAV Martinez isn't trying to say that Nasim Nunes has a better chance of getting hit off Chris Sale than CJ Abrams does what he's thinking and he's basing us on some experience from the past and also what the current state of both CJ Abrams and Luis Garcia is one doing really well one struggling a lot his feeling was that when you're facing a guy truly at the top of his game like Chris S who doesn't pitch like other guys do other even other lefties because of the arm angle coming from the left side all that kind of stuff that four at bats against the guy like that it's not just that you might have a rough game tonight but that it can throw you off beyond that and so for a guy like Garcia who's been red hot it could kill a good thing that he has going and for a guy like Abrams who has been struggling it can make things worse now you can agree with that disagree with that whatever you think I would just say I think Davey is thinking not just about doing whatever he can to win this one game but what he thinks ultimately is best for his two really important young players in Garcia and aons now will that have been the right decision I don't know we'll have to see and we'll never really know how that works out but this was made with a bigger picture in mind as opposed to saying this is not dve Johnson starting all righties against Randy Johnson in the playoffs because because he thought the matchups were going to help them win the game this was about protecting these two guys in the longer run yeah I would say if you're that worried about those guys getting thrown off by one game against one pitcher even a guy as good as sale then that kind of speaks to some bigger concerns like Abrams and Garcia should be good enough to deal with a sale and then still be okay after that and they need to learn to face guys like sale that's part of this growth and development process that we're in the midst of you know look Vargas had hits so I guess you could say hey it didn't blow up in Davey's face but I didn't like the messaging there and you know the ju position of this bold declaration we're debuting Dylan Cruz against the mighty Yankees that ju opposed with we don't want to start Abrams and Garcia against s because he's really good and S could throw those guys off I just to me there was a real lack of congruence with what we had on Friday with the cruise item and then the Abrams SL Garcia item the Nats two runs in this game came on one swing of the bat on Andre chaparo he is an that starting DH and number five batter one for four with a two-run double chaparo in the NS two-run fourth the two out two run double to the left center field gap for a 2-1 Nats lead despite having been down in the count at 1.12 so yeah I mean you know watching this game it was encouraging to see the NS get guys on base against s they weren't dominated by him he's had this remarkable season I give the guy credit and you know it is odd he looked very much like a fading player he had dealt with injury and he like out of nowhere it feels like has had this incredible season he's a legitimate sa young candidate and you know again two runs in seven Innings it's not like the Nats had their way with sale but the Nats put guys on base against them and just did not [Music] convert here's maybe your final report for Dylan Cruz in triaa 0 for four out of the leadoff spot as the DH did draw a walk a single for Brady house and a rough night on the mound for Jackson rutage gave up six runs in five innings his ER this season is over seven now back to the show now the one-w pitch strike three called at the knees caught him looking so the stolen base proves academic marfield a little upset on the low strike three call but Gore gets his fourth K and strands that tying run at second base the biggest bright spot for the NS in this game by far and it's kind of a shame because this ends up getting buried by everything else that happened on Friday but McKenzie Gore who had been reeling ended up having a very encouraging outing and it's not just what he did it's how he did what he did and yes it's only one start so we're not going to go nuts with this but uh right now he needs all the good outings he can get and this was a good outing against a good team Gore on Friday night was good for just the second time in 11 starts he allowed one run in six Innings but again it's how he did that he was Pitch efficient he over his six Innings threw just 88 pitches he threw a lot of strikes he issued no walks he threw 61 strikes versus just 27 balls Gore recorded four strikeouts gave up some hits gave up seven hits a home run two doubles and four singles but for the first time in a long time it was a pleasure to watch McKenzie Gore pitch he was so many things that he has not been lately this was the guy we saw for most of the first two months of the season when he looked like an All-Star and the stuff was better the command was much better and on top of that there was a a Poise and a presence I think out there that had been lacking in a while this looked like a guy who was confident out there against a good team like the Braves and so I thought this was a huge start for him and it starts in the worst possible fashion a leadoff home run by Michael Harris and you're thinking oh God here we go and no he immediately got it together he was pumping strikes 10 pitches in the first nine strikes so that was a good sign right there he kept it going the rest of the way he got into a couple of jams and got out of them by making effective pitches he didn't have those long drawn out at bats so that tells me the stuff was better the velocity was up a little bit he was able to both be down in the zone but also go up with his fast ball when he needed to and actually get some swings and misses with that it just looked like a much different pitcher and I can tell you he in talking to us after the game had a much different aura about himself which he even joked after we were done interviewing him about how it had been a while and how it was really nice in his mind to be having that kind of conversation with us again for the first time in a while so you know we got to see where it goes from here but this felt like a big step forward for him and he really needed it very happy to see Gore do well and you know you think about what was on display on Friday night Chris Sail is what we want Gore to be right a left-handed starting pitcher who is Ace who was a franchise type guy and Gore in this game was going toe-to-toe with S I mean this was a pitcher duel for a good portion of the night if not for the Dylan Cruz news if not for these outs on the base pass if not for the bizarre ending of the game we're leading with this like Gore dueled with sale on Friday night and that was awesome to see that so hopefully like you said he can build upon that James Wood in this game did have a hit wood was the Nat's starting left fielder and number two batter one for four with a single top at the fifth a two out single to right field and another extra base hit for K be Ruiz although this was uh a unique extra base hit Ruiz as an at starting Catcher And cleanup batter one for four ground rule double Ruiz in the NS a two-run fourth a two- out first pitch opposite field ground rule double what happened on this double it was a very lazy Fly ball that bounced just inside the foul line and the Braves ride Fielder Jorge Solair who has been dealing with a hamstring ailment so maybe that's why he did this but what he did was uh very casually jog toward the ball on the play and thus did not make the play and so Ruiz got a gift of a ground roll double but you know what he's been going well enough lately to where I would say he uh he deserved that double or at the very least you know you can sort of laugh at him getting that double because things are going well for him right now and he gets a gift of a hit right there yeah the way his first two months went he earned something like this one I think so I was glad to see it and even gladder after that to see Andress chaparo follow that up with a rocket 101.9 double to score both runs and make the Braves pay for that uh Sol air mistake you wish there was more of that in this game because there were more opportunities to kind of finish the deal and actually create some real damage against s and that didn't happen unfortunately but I was glad to see chaparo make him pay for it with a really good solid contact on that one game two for the NS at the Braves Saturday night at 720 Jake Iran will be the Nats starting pitcher hit us up on xnore chat you can email the show Nats chat podcast gmail.com you can find us on our website Nats chat podcast.com at which you can purchase a Nat chat podcast t-shirt all nationals radio highlights on Nat chat or courtesy of 1067 the fan for Mark Suman AML gy we thank you for listening and we'll talk to you next time on the NAT chat podcast sail fires and it's lofted in the air right Field Long Chase for Solair not getting there all that quickly the ball Landing fair and it's going to bounce out of play that'll be a double yepez didn't realize it rounding second he'll go to third I talked about Solair just having played defensively since joining the Braves he was not running after that ball hard at all and it lands about 2T fair and then bounces out of play that is a catchable Ball but again Solair is here for his Bat not his glove drinking or driving is a decision that could change your whole world things will never be the same if you ever get a DUI because legal fees and time in court are just the beginning getting into a crash is another way that your world can be turned upside down your vehicle may not be the only thing that gets damaged in that crash you can face a life-altering injury or even death but you're not the only one that can face those consequences your decision to drink and drive can permanently impact not just your world but someone else's world as well whether you injure them or leave their loved ones grieving the next time you're out drinking call A Rod shair a taxi a sober friend or a designated sober driver the only decision that will change your world for the better is the decision to call for a sober ride drive sober or get pulled over paid for by nits