Washington Nationals: Home runs come raining down on Monday

It was a cold and wet day at Nats Park on Monday. But the Washington Nationals weren’t dampened and smacked three home runs in a 7-3 win.

It’s been a tedious theme in September for the Washington Nationals with a lot of rain coming down. And their series with the Miami Marlins started exactly the same way, with rain throughout the game.

Despite the weather, the Nats bats were able to take advantage of the windy conditions to steer balls out of the park. The team hit three long balls on the day, and that was the driving force behind the 7-3 win.

Anthony Rendon got the home run party started with a loopy drive that initially looked like a routine fly ball. They all count though. Then rookie sensation Juan Soto made it back-to-back homers with one of his own into the visitor’s bullpen to put his team 6-1 up.

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Then in the very next inning, Matt Wieters joined in with another bomb into the Marlins’ bullpen that definitely seemed a little wind-assisted. Again, they all count and Wieters dinger may have been the final dagger for the Marlins and killed them off in this game.

There is even more rain and wind on the way for the last two games of the series, but hopefully, the rain should ease up in the other two games. Pulling out a couple more wins would mean a huge step towards a seventh straight winning season, which seems like the last thing worth playing for at this point.

Bryce finally notches his first 100 RBI season

Even in a “down year”, Bryce Harper keeps knocking off achievements all season long, including recording his first season with 100 RBI. It came on a sac fly in the fourth inning that allowed Adam Eaton to scamper home from third.

The closest he had ever come to the feat in his career was his MVP season back in 2015 when he narrowly missed out by getting 99 RBI. He also likely would’ve hit that landmark last season if he didn’t suffer the horrific injury that caused him to miss 42 games in a probable MVP season, so it’s nice for him to check that box in his career.

The next milestones up for Harper will be the 100 run mark and to get to 35 home runs. With a series against the Colorado Rockies a the notorious Coors Field, he’ll certainly have a chance to boost his stats even further.

Strasburg ineffective but limits the damage

When you first look at Stephen Strasburg‘s line after the game, you may think it was rain shortened. In reality, he was far from his best during this outing on Monday night but he did manage to restrict the damage.

Strasburg finished with four innings of work, allowing three hits, four walks, and just one run while striking out five. The right-hander needed 100 pitches to slog through the game, including a 38-pitch first inning that set the tone.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t go deep enough into the game to get his 10th win of the season. He’ll now have one last chance in Colorado against the Rockies to get to double-digit wins for the sixth time in his career.

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The Washington Nationals have their ace going on Tuesday with Max Scherzer aiming for his 18th win of the year. He’ll be up against Jeff Brigham in a game that could secure a late series win for the Nats.

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