District Daily: Washington Nationals News 4/12
By Pablo Roa
Apr 4, 2014; Washington, DC, USA; Washington Nationals relief pitcher
Aaron Barrett(30) throws during the ninth inning against the Atlanta Braves at Nationals Park. Mandatory Credit:
Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports
As you try to recover from last night’s brutal loss to the Braves, checkout some great Washington Nationals articles from around the web:
Williams not shy to call on Barrett in big situations
ATLANTA — Nationals manager Matt Williams has a lot of confidence in reliever Aaron Barrett.
In the Nats’ 7-1 victory over the Marlins on Thursday, Barrett replaced lefty Jerry Blevins in the eighth inning and faced the dangerous Giancarlo Stanton, who represented the tying run. It took six pitches before Stanton struck out on a devastating slider to end the inning.
“It’s given me a little bit of confidence that [Williams] is putting me in those types of situations,” Barrett said. Read full article here.
Understanding the Bitter Rivalry Between Nationals and Orioles Fans
WASHINGTON (CBSDC) – The Washington-Baltimore rivalry has never been greater than when both the Nationals and Orioles were in the playoffs two years ago, when the boundaries seemed to be clearly defined, and borderline fans of both finally had to choose a side once and for all.
Prior to that watershed moment, it seemed okay to call yourself a Nationals fan, the team from your actual hometown, while still rooting for the Orioles on the side.
The nuance of this longstanding is the key to understanding its longevity. Read full article here.
Nationals broadcasters let cliches, homerism get in way
(Jesse Spector, Sporting News)
When we’re not at the game, we’re watching on TV, and broadcasters shape the way that we see baseball. This season, Sporting News will be reviewing the work done in booths across MLB, and this time it’s the Washington Nationals on MASN.
Bob Carpenter gets Thursday’s broadcast going by telling viewers that there may be more swings early in counts because it’s a day game after a night game, while F.P. Santangelo informs everyone that “good teams take two out of three, great teams sweep.” Carpenter responds that he knew Santangelo was going to say that and he wanted to set up his partner, so even the cliché is clichéd for this broadcast, which does not engender a lot of hope for what is to come.
There’s a Jayson Werth highlight package that includes his walk-off home run in the 2012 playoffs, and Santangelo says, “we’re not going to talk about what happened next,” which is the kind of thing that I say when talking about the 1999 game between Penn and Princeton at the Palestra, when I was a freshman in college and the Quakers took a 29-3 lead, then wound up losing, 50-49. The difference is that I’m not a broadcaster, and while every Nationals fan knows that the Cardinals won Game 5, someone tuning in for the first time would have no idea why Santangelo is avoiding the subject. Let’s just say that Vin Scully wouldn’t act like Game 6 of last year’s NLCS never happened. Read full article here.