District Daily: Gonzalez and Williams Clear the Air, Desmond in Exclusive SS Club With Third 20/20
By Pablo Roa
Good morning DoD readers! Start off your Sunday with some great Washington Nationals articles from around the web in our District Daily! And yes, the Magic Number to clinch the NL East is 6!
Gonzalez, Williams clear the air after Gio pulled
NEW YORK — There were some tense moments between manager Matt Williams and left-hander Gio Gonzalez during the Nationals’ 4-3 loss to the Mets on Friday night.
Gonzalez pitched 6 2/3 innings, allowing four runs (three earned) on six hits and striking out seven. But he wasn’t happy when Williams took him out of the game with two outs in the seventh, and he expressed his displeasure by slamming the ball in Williams’ hand. Read full article here.
Desmond in exclusive SS club with third 20/20
NEW YORK — Nationals shortstop Ian Desmond set a personal milestone in Saturday night’s game against the Mets, as he reached the 20/20 (homers and stolen bases) plateau for the third straight season.
Desmond joins Hanley Ramirez, Jimmy Rollins and Alex Rodriguez as the only shortstops in Major League history to go 20/20 at least three times. Read full article here.
In Denard Span and Anthony Rendon, Nationals finally have a 1-2 punch
(Thomas Boswell, Washington Post)
The sneaky Washington Nationals have crept up all season until they have become the highest-scoring team in the National League, excluding the mile-high Rockies. The Nats haven’t done it with glamorous power bats in the heart of their order, the kind of belters who often find themselves in MVP discussions. No Nat was among the top 20 in slugging entering Friday night’s games.
Yet Adam LaRoche, Ian Desmond and Jayson Werth ranked fifth, seventh and 13th in the league in RBI. As a group, they have driven in 45 percent more runs than you would predict for an average group of big leaguers in the same number of plate appearances. Good hitters, great results: How does that compute?
The answer is hiding in plain sight, right at the top of the lineup, in the Nos. 1 and 2 spots that have been poison to the Nats until this season, when they have become a boon. Read full article here.