The Nats Craft Beer of the Week

SweetDCSports is taking a little bit of a detour from traditional summer brews with this beer in honor of a somewhat dismal week from the Nationals.  This week's beer comes from Deschutes Brewery in Bend, Oregon and it is their Black Butte Porter.  Do not let it's dark color fool you. This beer is surprisingly easy to drink and goes down smooth, with just the right hints of coffee and chocolate to give it a wonderfully unique roasted flavor.  At 5.2% ABV and a light, creamy body it is a wonderful addition to any summer barbecue, and it is surprisingly affordable for a beer that comes from so far away.  It's dark color outlines a week for the Nationals that saw a little bit of ups, mostly downs, rain delays, and time travel.

 The Nats went back to the future as they made up a game last Monday against the Yankees that got rained out after 5 innings on May 15.  Technically those stats retroactively count for May 15, so Juan Soto hit his first major league home run 5 days before his official major league debut.  Wild stuff.  Fortunately that home run proved to be the difference as the Nats were able to win that game, and Soto continues to be a terror within the Nats lineup.  Soto hit .360 this week with an OPS of 1.14, which includes an OBP of .500 due to his 7 walks this week compared to only 4 K's.  Soto is even gaining the respect of pitchers as he was intentionally walked to load the bases on Sunday night against the Phillies in tied game in the 8th.  Daniel Murphy made them pay for that with a go ahead two run single, and Michael Taylor drove in Soto on the following at bat to take an 8-6 lead that the Nats would not relinquish.  Soto also joins Trea Turner and Anthony Rendon as the Nats whose OPS were above 1.00 this week, with honorable mention going to Michael Taylor whose OPS was a .970.

Speaking of Rendon, pop some Black Butte Porters for the guy who single-handedly carried this team through the week with eye popping numbers. He hit .448 this week with 3 HR's, 7 RBI, an OPS of 1.36 that includes a slugging percentage of .896.  The guy is getting it done, especially in the absence of Bryce Harper and Daniel Murphy, but signs are pointing to those two coming around.  Murphy has 4 RBI in his last two games, and although Bruce only hit .240 this week, all of his six hits were doubles and he managed to have 3 RBI from the leadoff/second spot in the lineup.  Here's hoping those numbers increase for both Harper and Murphy, because if they can round out into form I pity the pitcher who has to face the Nats' 1-6 hitters, and Wilmer Difo is proving that he is not as easy of an out this week hitting .307.  While things may be looking up, there are a number of things that are keeping the Nats perpetually three games behind the Braves.

The Nats' woes this week start with the pitching, and send some Black Butte Porter to the bullpen who had major innings duty this week.  The Nats bullpen threw for a combined 30.1 innings of baseball and had a combined ERA of 4.15, with Sammy Solis contributing the lion's share of 5 earned runs in 3.1 innings.  Newcomer Kelvin Herrera was solid in his first relief appearance, but allowed 2 runs in the 8th to break a 3-3 tie on Saturday.  Let's just hope that is just not being familiar with the National League hitters.  The starters also had their foibles, with Tanner Roark giving up 6 earned runs in only 4.1 innings of duty. In fact, in is last 4 starts Roark's WHIP is a 1.83, meaning that he is allowing two base runners per inning over the last 4 games.  Not good.  But all the Nats starters were not that great, as no Nats starter was able to garner a win this week.  Jefry Rodriguez pitched in two unlikely wins as he gave up 9 earned runs in 9 innings this week, but the Nats were able to win both of those games.  Maybe he has an effect on the hitting, because outside of those two games the Nats batted .218 with an RISP average of .102 (4 for 39) this week.  The Nats could not give any run support to likes of Scherzer or Gio, and the main culprit is Pedro Severino.

With Matt Wieters out, Severino has been the guy at catcher but mainly because he is a warm body that takes up space.  Severino is a ripe 3 for his last 42 at bats (yes you are reading that right) with only 3 walks, 1 RBI, and he is 1 for 9 with runners in scoring position.  Compare those numbers to Spencer Kieboom who is 4 for his last 15 with 5 walks, 1 RBI, and he has scored 2 runs and it may be time to give the catching duties to Kieboom even if there are concerns about defense.  Severino has been a black hole over the last three weeks, and if the upper part of the order is going to get on base and create offense they need someone at the bottom to keep it going.  Here's to Kieboom getting more of the starts this week as Wieters continues to rehab.

The Nats squandered a home stretch as they will be on the road this upcoming week.  They have two games in Tampa with Gio and Max on the hill, and then they fly back north to face the Phillies for a four game series that will have major implications for the NL East standings as the All-Star Break approaches.  Hopefully the trio of Fedde, Roark, and Rodriguez can pull it together this week so the Nats can keep pace with the Braves.  Rodriguez's starts have been especially entertaining, so grab a couple of Black Butte Porters as you cheer on the Nats this week.

The Nats Craft Beer of the Week

This week's craft beer come from the Brawling Bear Brewing Company located right here in Maryland.  It is their Low Blow Blonde Ale, and it is the perfect compliment to watching baseball in the summer.  The beautiful golden color belies a crisp and refreshing beer that one would expect from a blonde ale.  What is unexpected is the malt undertones that gives this beer a wonderful flavor that is a welcome detour from the never ending dross of IPA's that show up at this time.  Low Blow also packs a little bit of a punch at 6% ABV, which is higher than a normal blonde ale, so please drink responsibly. 

Responsible drinking may have proven to be a difficult task this week as the Nationals went 1-4 and fell 3.5 games behind the Braves for the NL East lead.  This futility was fueled by a number of firsts for the Nats pitching staff.  Max Scherzer lost his second consecutive game on Saturday, which was the first time he had lost two consecutive games in over three years.  Justin Miller finally gave up his first run of the season in a 6-5 loss to Toronto, and Ryan Madson gave up his first home run on Sunday in over a year.  Unfortunately it took 5 minutes for Madson to give up another home run as the Blue Jays went back to back off of Madson in the 8th inning to break a 6-6 tie and send the Nats home without a win in their trip to the great white north.  Speaking of home runs, Nats pitching gave up 12 home runs this week, and they have given up 19 home runs in the last 11 games.  That is not a good recipe for success, and something the Nationals need to clean up going forward.  The Nationals' pitching firsts this week were a little depressing, but the hitting firsts were a little more joyus, even if it did not translate into many wins.

This week saw the return of Daniel Murphy to the lineup, and while he went 2 for 20 at the plate this week that second hit drove in a run on Sunday and it looks as if he is getting back into form.  Juan Soto made some firsts this week as well.  Soto hit two home runs against the Yankees on Wednesday making him the youngest National to ever hit 2 home runs in a game, and he is the youngest player to have a 4 RBI game since 1975.  Those two home runs also gave Soto his second consecutive week where his OPS was above .900 (.981), and while his batting average is nothing special over that same time frame (.264) he is proving to be the Nats' main producer of extra base hits.  If Soto was the extra base hit man then Michael Taylor and Adam Eaton were the ones that padded the Nats' average.  Taylor went 6 for 10 this week and had four stolen bases, and Eaton went 6 for 18 with an RBI.  Anthony Rendon also did a little bit of everything as he went 5 for 18 (.277), he had an OBP of .333, and he was 2 for 4 with runners in scoring position.  Speaking of runners in scoring position, who has had the most RISP at bats for the Nationals over the last two weeks?  That's right, it is Wilmer Difo. Difo has had 17 at bats over the last two weeks with runners in scoring position, and with those opportunities he has only mustered 2 hits and one RBI.  It may be time for Davey Martinez to move Taylor down to the 7-8 spot and have Difo hit earlier in order to drive in more runs.  Difo's struggles, though, are nothing compared to the Nats' biggest hole in the lineup this week.

Bryce Harper continued his hitting woes as he went 1 for 16 (.063), no RBI, and 8 strikeouts.  In fact, Harper has struck out 16 times over his last 38 at bats.  Luckily he was able to draw three walks, and get hit by two pitches, this week to make his OBP not suck, but Bryce is watching his $400 million pay day slowly slip away.  Hopefully he can get back on track this week as the lowly Orioles come to Nats Park for a three game series.  Following the O's are the Phillies as the battle for second place in the NL East will take place.  Kicking of the week, though, will be the Yankees, who come to town to make up the suspended game from May 16.  Hopefully, the Nats can right the ship and close the gap between them and the Braves this week, so enjoy a Low Blow Blonde Ale and hope the Nats can put up better performances this coming week. 

The Nats Craft Beer of the Week

SweetDCSports is bringing back posts that it started in its infancy.  There is nothing better in the summer than watching baseball and drinking beer, so we are bringing back the Washington Nationals Craft Beer of the Week.  Get your weekly Nationals update along with a craft beer suggestion that you can buy at your local stores.  Please note that these beers are my personal choice and in no way are endorsed by the Washington Nationals, and do not buy them if you are under 21.  So, without futher ado...

The first beer chosen is in honor of the Washington Capitals winning the Stanley Cup, and how that made everyone in DC feel about themselves.  Jovial is a Belgian Style Double Ale from Troegs Independent Brewing in Hersey, Pennsylvania, and it is a great alternative for those looking for relief from the unending parade of flavored IPA's that come out in the summer.  The chocolate, toffee, and molasses flavor will make you feel better about yourself, and the cork at the top will let everyone at the party know that you are better than them.  At 7% ABV please drink responsibly as you watch the Nationals try to hit the ball a little bit more consistently than they did this past week.

Not even Alex Ovechkin could make Bryce Harper feel more jovial as the Capitals descended on Nats Park on Saturday on their Stanley Cup Drinking Binge 2018.  Ovechkin raised the Cup every time Harper took the plate, but maybe his rooting for the Golden Knights gave him some bad juju.  Harper had 8 strikeouts this week to go along with a paltry .181 average and a .217 OBP that led the Nationals to a 3-3 record over the last 6 games.  Wilmer Difo may need a jolt as well, considering he led the team with 8 plate appearances with runners in scoring position and got as many hits as I did in those situations.  It may be time for Davey Martinez to look and see if the lineup can be switched to give someone more of an opportunity in those situations, but the Nats only hit .277 in RISP situations so the grass can only get a little greener.  And pass an old Jovial to Brian Goodwin and Pedro Severino who need to forget their 0 for 7 and 0 for 12 week and try to move on.  It also may be time to see more of Spencer Kieboom as he had a big hit in Saturday's win against the Giants, and went 2 for 6 overall this week with an RBI.  The pitching situation was just as depressing as the Nats saw Strasburg, Kintzler, and Hellickson go on the DL, and even the intrepid Max Scherzer gave up three walks in a 2-0 loss on Monday.

Not all was doom and gloom this week.  Juan Soto continued his sensational season this week with a .934 OPS (including a .434 OBP), 5 runs, 3 RBI, and drawing a whopping 5 walks.  Michael Taylor and Matt Adams also gave the Nats some on base help as they both had OBP and batting average's above .400 this week, with Taylor also having an OPS above 1.  Anthony Renson also chipped in with hitting close to .300 this week, and he was 3 for 6 in RISP situations.  There was even an Adam Eaton sighting as he went 1 for 4 and scored 2 runs in Saturday's win against the Giants.  Most of the bullpen was on point, and Sean Doolittle was 2 for 2 in save situations this week, but there just needs to be more consistency across the board as the Nats continue on a tough week ahead.

First up are the Yankees, as the Nats begin a road tour of the AL as they will spend two days in New York and fly further north for a three game series against the Blue Jays.  Hopefully, Matt Adams gets the lion's share of the DH duties as the Nats try to stay atop the NL East with the Braves this week.  Pop a couple of Jovials and enjoy the week to come.

The Caps Winning The Stanley Cup Has Killed DC Fandom

What are DC Sports Fans supposed to do now?  The Capitals historic win on Thursday Night eradicated all of what being a fan of DC Sports is all about.  Pain.  Misery.  Self Loathing.  Getting high off of crazy preseason optimism knowing that it will all come crashing down in some horrible self fulfilling prophecy in the playoffs.  Doing simple arithmetic to show others how you have never seen, or were too young to remember, a professional championship in DC.  All of that is gone now.  What is left is something that will define the type of fan base this city truly has and whether it is ready to support sports teams through genuine fandom, or if their support only goes as far as frenzied feelings of FOMO.

DC Fans seemed to take the frivolous statement from Michael Wilbon, that Washington DC was a "minor league sports town", a little too much to heart, and they were a little too quick to point to the outpouring of fans at the Caps viewing party Thursday night as evidence to the contrary.  While it was amazing to see how many people came out to support the Caps, many of those people were there to be a part of the scene rather than show their enduring support for a team they have cheered for for years.  Stories were abound about how these Stanley Cup Playoff Games were the first hockey games that a lot of these people watched, and they went down to Capital One Arena on Thursday simply because they did not want to miss out on the festivities.  But winning a championship does not instantaneously turn these people into regular fans.  Just ask the Carolina Hurricanes how many interlopers from their 2006 Stanley Cup Championship are still there.  Or look at the Miami Marlins, who would kill for a quarter of the people who jumped on their bandwagon in 1997 and 2003 to still be there today.  DC Sports fans now find themselves in a similar situation.  The Capitals have drawn in multitudes of fans to their cause, but mostly due to fear of missing out on a social scene.  It will take more than that to prove Michael Wilbon wrong, and now it is time to see if DC Fandom truly has what it takes to foster a genuine "sports town" atmosphere.

The Capitals have removed the security blanket from DC Fans by winning the Stanley Cup.  For so long the narrative has been that it is hard to develop a genuine sports culture in DC because of so much ineptitude, impotence, and playoff tragedies galore from all the DC professional sports teams.  Most of that has been washed away by the Capitals victory on Thursday night.  Fans were witness to a team that was intelligently put together and mentored throughout the season.  They saw the likes of Max Scherzer, Ryan Zimmerman, and Derrius Guice show their support for the Caps on their run to the Cup.  The teams are doing all they can to create a unified sense among all the different teams and superstars, and now they have at least one championship to show for this shared unity.  It is now on the fans of Washington DC to show that they will show long term support for a team like the Capitals because they love the sport, and not because they love the number of Instagram likes they get when they post stuff with #ALLCAPS.  DC Fans now must show that they can evolve from a fan base of self loathing to one that can legitimately support their teams by watching games and becoming informed fans, and not just jump on every time a championship rolls around.  The Capitals have put the onus on DC Fans to prove that this city can be more than an event driven town that fluctuates based on the level of attention each sport will bring to the individual.  DC fans need to show that this city can be one with an informed fan base that will continue to grow in mass no matter what time of year it is.  If this does not happen, then maybe DC is just a minor league sports town, but we know now that it is not because of the nature of the teams.  It is the nature of the fans.  

The Capitals Exposed the Golden Knights

As Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals looms on the horizon, there are still some people who continue the narrative that the Golden Knights are the literal incarnation of the cosplay character that adorns their home pregame festivities.  But that Golden Knight is just a guy in a suit, and the Las Vegas Golden Knights unfortunately have to play a real hockey game against a team that showed they are not afraid of the tall tales that have vaulted Vegas into an almost mythic realm.  Washington's win in Game 2 very subtly exposed some of the weaknesses in the Las Vegas's style of play, and it showed that the Capitals have the ability to match the one thing that makes the Legend of the Las Vegas Golden Knights live.  Relentlessness.

All the Golden Knights have going for them is they are relentless.  Nothing else.  This relentlessness is predicated on a few misinterpreted qualities that have been attributed to them throughout the playoffs that the Capitals exposed as dubious in Game 2.  

First, Vegas is not fast.  They are quick.  The Golden Knights are quick in short spaces which allows them to close the distance to the puck better than the other team and cause discomfort in their opponents when they are trying to exit their defensive zone.  Their speed is questionable, however, due to the Capitals dominating them in odd man rushes in Game 2.  If the Knights are so "fast" how can they let those odd man rushes be so lop sided?  It is because The Golden Knights are not fast in the open ice, they are quick to hound the puck within smaller zones.  Their overly zealous forecheck leaves the susceptible to teams getting behind them in transition and the Capitals exploited that in Game 2.

Second, Vegas's lines are all second line quality, except they lack the skill necessary to play under a controlled pace.  Watch the 4v4 play from Game 2.  Everyone was expecting the Knights to run the Caps with more open ice in 4v4 but that was not the case.  Vegas backed off on their relentless forecheck that allowed the Capitals more breathing room in their exits out of the defensive zone, and when the Knights tried to get aggressive in 4v4 play it led to a wide open goal by Lars Eller.  The Capitals also exposed this lack of skill when they went down 5v3.  The Knights looked lost when they actually had to create plays that require deft passing and the time to develop open shots, and their lack of high quality scoring chances with a 1:09 5v3 advantage shows that their lines lack the skill to play in a controlled environment.  If they cannot generate quick chances off of their forecheck, which they are very good at, then their offense seems to sputter and the Capitals exposed that fact in Game 2.

Finally, the notion that Vegas's zeal could not be replicated (or that Washington's could not get any greater) is a crock.  The Golden Knights are seeing that the Capitals can match the vigor with which they play, and the Capitals add an extra piece of perseverance to the table that Vegas seems ill equipped to handle.  The Capitals are proving that their journey through the Eastern Conference Playoffs has prepared them for the relentless style of play that the Golden Knights bring, and that they will not be bullied by a team of lower ability and skill.  Vegas's success is predicated on the notion that their relentlessness will eventually wear the other team down to the point where they will make a mistake, but the Capitals showed that they can overcome that style of play and counter with a type of play that the Golden Knights cannot match.  It remains to be seen who comes out on top, but the Capitals have shown that the Golden Knights are no better than any other show in Las Vegas.