The Washington Nationals were baseball’s biggest disappointment in the first half of the 2018 season, putting together a 48-48 record after being projected to win around 95 games and easily win the NL East.
Well, things aren’t looking much better through one game in the second half.
The Nats lost 8-5 to the Braves on Friday night in DC, and Stephen Strasburg had a rough return to the mound after not pitching since June 8 due to a shoulder injury.
Strasburg allowed eight hits, two walks, and six earned runs over 4 2/3 innings. And when Strasburg was removed from the game, he got into what appeared to be an argument with teammate Max Scherzer.
https://twitter.com/SportsGuyTweets/status/1020472092037349376
Maybe there’s a motivational/supportive thing going on here between two competitive teammates and friends or something, but that video doesn’t look great, and you know Strasburg wasn’t in a good mood after his outing.
The loss moves the Nationals to 6.5 games behind the Phillies and 6 games behind the Braves in the NL East. There’s still plenty of season left and the Nats are incredibly talented, but they probably can’t afford to fall much more in the standings, especially when they’re chasing *two* teams.
Update: Here are some tweets and quotes postgame on the incident.
Martinez far later than usual for his postgame press conference. Some kind of meeting happening.
— Chelsea Janes (@chelsea_janes) July 21, 2018
Scherzer and Strasburg met with Martinez in his office for 15 minutes or so postgame. Strasburg on what happened: “Part of family. You have to be in the family (to know).”
— Chelsea Janes (@chelsea_janes) July 21, 2018
Martinez, Strasburg and Scherzer all met after the game. Martinez described it as productive, said both guys are taking ownership of this team, will be good with each other moving forward.
— Mark Zuckerman (@MarkZuckerman) July 21, 2018
Dave Martinez: “This stuff happens. I've been on teams where guys wanted to choke each other."
— Jorge Castillo (@jorgecastillo) July 21, 2018
slapsy maxie is a loose cannon