This is the final game of this 4 game series between the Nats and Braves. If the Nats were considered hosts as the home team, they’d be considered rude hosts with the way they greeted the visitors. 2 lopsided wins so far and a squeaker walkoff that was like stealing a win that was rung up.
Last night Gio did his job in going a full 6 and gave up no runs. The only 2 runs scored by the visitors was off a Trea Turner error leading to 2 unearned.
The other good news was Papelbon wasn’t needed nor was Storen as they could both rest up.
Quote of the night from Gio on Bryce Harper’s dominance: “It’s like he’s got the cheat codes to baseball. He’s right on point with everything he’s doing.”
Pre-game weather check: 81 degrees & sunny. Let's play ⚾️, shall we? pic.twitter.com/XX1nVXubSg
— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) September 6, 2015
Manny Banuelos pitches for the Braves and he’s had 5 starts in his career prior to today. Very small sample sizes for the Nats batters with only Ramos having a hit off of him. Banuelos throws the 4-seamer 55% of the time averaging 91mph and 2 breaking pitches with the slider at 84 and the curve at 76 and he will mix in a changeup and a few sinkers. His 4-seamer have been hit this year to a BABIP of .371 and Nats hitters must take advantage of that straight fastball. Banuelos’ slider is his best pitch, but he doesn’t throw it much at only 13.36% of the time.
Interesting that Banuelos was traded to the Braves from the Yankees for Chasen Shreve and the Nats’ currently injured David Carpenter and that trade happened earlier this year.
Here’s the lineups with the change taking out RZ for TyMo.
- Werth LF
- Rendon 2B,
- Harper RF
- Escobar 3B,
- Desmond SS,
- Ramos C,
- Taylor CF,
- Moore 1B
- Ross P
