By Douglas Holtz-Eakin
The young drop coverage to avoid higher premiums
Jeff Samardzija will be the opening-day starter for the Chicago Cubs, who said Matt Garza will start the season on the disabled list because of an injured muscle in his side that is preventing the right-hander from throwing.
The Detroit Tigers have agreed to a one-year, $6,725,000 contract with right-hander Max Scherzer and avoided salary arbitration.
The Chicago Cubs have agreed to a four-year, $52 million contract with right-hander Edwin Jackson, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press on Thursday.
I don't feel all that badly about the Nationals' horrific loss to the Cardinals in Game 5 of their National League Division Series. No, really.
The crowd lets out a roar as the national anthem ends at Nationals Park, and the hope is that it will not be the last significant one of the day heard by Washington's embattled baseball team.
A late-night phone call summoned the playoff barber.
A record crowd ignited Nationals Stadium on Wednesday as season-ticket veterans and fair-weather fans alike swarmed the riverfront area to be a part of D.C. baseball history.
With runs hard to come by, the Washington Nationals put Michael Morse in a couple of situations in Game 3 of the National League Division Series to get them on the board.
The St. Louis Cardinals are what the Washington Nationals want to be. If we've learned anything from the first three games of this playoff series, we've learned that. Forget regular-season records. The Cardinals win when they need to win.
The biggest game in Washington Nationals history was nowhere close to that magnitude for starter Edwin Jackson, who entered Wednesday having pitched in a pair of World Series in prior years. Game 3 of the National League Division Series, by definition, isn't comparable to what's at stake in the postseason's latter stages.
The sun shines brightly on Washington's first postseason baseball game in nearly eight decades, but potential gloom also pervades the premises. One more loss to the muscular Cardinals will put the Nats on the brink of wait-'til-next-year territory.
Last winter, the man largely credited with morphing the Washington Nationals from perennial losers to the talk of the town left D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray a voice-mail message.
Stephen Strasburg knows these playoffs are different for him. He knows that his face shows up during the telecasts of the Washington Nationals' games and that his absence, one of baseball's biggest storylines, is a part of the Nationals' story, regardless of how the end is written.
For weeks, the Washington Nationals have dealt with the questions. How would the playoffs be different? How would their young team handle the increased pressure and the larger stage? Would they be able to remain the same 98-win team?
Game 1 of the National League Division Series represented meatloaf for Washington. There would be no gravy Monday in Game 2.
"Edwin could've easily said, 'I don't have it today,'" said Nats closer Drew Storen. "But he grinded it out and battled. We've all been there. We all were starting pitchers once."
SNYDER: Veteran Edwin Jackson failed to perform as advertised →
"Most of the time my problem is being behind in the count," Jackson said of the games (not infrequent) in which he struggles early."
SNYDER: Veteran Edwin Jackson failed to perform as advertised →
