The Nats begin a 3 game series against the San Diego Padres tonight at 7:05pm on Anthony Rendon Garden Gnome night, and face the Padres top 3 pitchers in the series starting tonight with James Shields followed by Tyson Ross who is the brother of Joe Ross, and then Andrew Cashner.
The Nats counter with Strasburg tonight followed by Gio Gonzalez and Joe Ross.
Other big change was Tanner Roark was optioned to Potomac to stretch out as a starter.
Span is in tonight's starting lineup. There is no bench listed as of yet. pic.twitter.com/GHVUO795Ns
— Jacob Emert (@JacobEmert) August 25, 2015
The last time the Denard Span played was July 6th and the Bryce Harper fanatics were abuzz with the debut of this:
Nats OF @Bharper3407: "I can squat 405. I'm proud of that." http://t.co/LWd0PhhtGg #BodyIssue available online July 6 pic.twitter.com/QWQCc75Fmn
— ESPN (@espn) July 2, 2015
Tonight Matt Williams with a healthy Span and Escobar could has penciled in the line-up he and Mike Rizzo envisioned on January 14th of this year. What is signifcant about January 14th is that the Nats traded Tyler Clippard for Yunel Escobar who was at that time thought to have been the Nats future 2nd baseman. All other players in the Nats line-up were set as Ryan Zimmerman would take Adam LaRoche’s place at 1st Base and if Jayson Werth was recovered in time from his shoulder surgery he and Bryce Harper would switch corner outfield spots and this is what the vision was for 2015.
The vision never became a reality on Opening Day or any day through 123 games played due to all the injuries, and these starting 8 could finally be written in the starting line-up tonight if Escobar’s neck is fine. If not Escobar, it will be Danny Espinosa, at 2nd base, and we will have to wait for that January 14th line-up.
This is what Bryce Harper did on his day off yesterday:
Bryce Harper hit ground balls and threw batting practice to a local youth team on Monday http://t.co/4C7Fi2TClh
— Scott Allen (@ScottSAllen) August 25, 2015
If you had this line-up predicted in the poll, you win!
- Denard Span CF
- Jayson Werth LF
- Anthony Rendon 2B
- Bryce Harper RF
- Yunel Escobar 3B
- Ryan Zimmerman 1B
- Ian Desmond SS
- Wilson Ramos C
- Stephen Strasburg P
