All right, we've been telling you about Walters Bruns the last few days, but did you know that they are also open for lunch? Monday through Friday, Walters opens at noon for lunch, midday baseball watching and even the occasional European soccer match. So if you find yourself around the ballpark during the day, make sure you walk on over to Walters. You know, even though the Nats are out of town right now, there's a lot of activity in the ballpark area.

That whole neighborhood has really transformed itself the last few years.

And if you're looking for a place to go, during the day, in the evening, want to catch the game when they're on the road, head over to Walters right across the street from left field.

Finnegan's one ball.

Swinging a high drive to right.

He has got another one.

An opposite field home run, the third of the game for Guerrero.

His seventh of the year, he's driven home seven runs.

He's outscoring the Nats by himself.

It's 9-5 Toronto. A big-time night for Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

And welcome to Natschat for Wednesday, April 28, 2021, along with Nationals insider Mark Zuckerman of Massensports.com. I'm Al-Galdii host of the Al Galdi podcast. Well, the Nationals hit a

home run. They actually hit four of them on Tuesday night. The problem was the Toronto Blue Jays

hit more than their share. Three by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Max Scher struggled. And the Nats fall to

8 and 12, a 9-5 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays in Duned in Florida in game one of a two-game series.

A bandbox of a ballpark is what TD ballpark proved to be.

Another frustrating night for the Nationals mark, a game in which they do some things well,

but the ace, the most dependable person on the team, has his first truly bad start of the season, and the Nats fall to four games below 500. You wanted homers, Al. You kept saying, when are they going to start hitting for power? They hit four of them, and it still wasn't enough. And that kind of tells you all need to know about this game. I don't know for you, but for me watching it on TV, I kind of felt like I was watching a spring training game because of the ballpark, because of the, especially early on that the sun, you know, flashing right in the left fielder's eyes. It just, it had the feel of not really being a major league game. And I'm not trying to make that as any excuse. Obviously, the game counted. Everybody knew that and they're all in the same situation. But just watching it from afar, it didn't really feel like a major league game to me, and the result obviously didn't work out either. But it just, I don't know, it felt off. Everything about that game felt off to me. It did. No, it very much did. I mean, from the fact that you were playing in a minor league ballpark to the fact that you

had the cardboard cutouts in the stands. I mean, I thought we were done with that. I never want to see cardboard cutouts in stands again. Like, let's try to get away from 2020, not recreate 2020. You very clearly had piped in crowd noise if you watch the telecast of the game. It was bizarre. And, you know, with Max Scherzer not batting, you saw him in the dugout, which you don't normally see. And not that I'm a mind reader, but he came off as someone who didn't know what to do with himself in between innings sitting in the dugout. I mean, he is the ultimate pacer. He is the worst. They hate him on the days he doesn't pitch because he's always talking in

everybody's ear. Remember during the playoffs, he was begging to go down to the bullpen and Dave was like, at some point, it's like, fine, just go down there. You're like, you're not pitching, but go ahead and go down there. Yeah, he seemed out of sorts. No question about it. Now, again, I'm not trying to excuse the pitching performance. It's a it's a big league game against big league hitters. I mean, he pitches in

spring training ballparks all the time and they've made the renovations they need to down there in Dunedin. But it just from afar didn't look like anybody was comfortable. And I'd probably put Max at the top of the list. He really did not look comfortable at all. Yeah. Well, bottom line, nationals lose for a 12th time in 20 games. Their National League worst run

differential now at minus 28 on the season. And Scherzer is the headline as much as anything.

His worst start of the season so far, I know he gave up the four solo homers in that first game,

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