Trea Turner will start his 1st 2nd game today since Aug 28 (H/T to Section 222 for the correction) today and it will be at 2nd base as Rendon gets the day-of.
This afternoon Stephen Strasburg will pitch for the Washington Nationals in the game that will decide the season series with the Marlins as the teams are 9-9 vs each other in 2015. The Marlins will pitch rookie lefty Justin Nicolino who was supposed to pitch on Saturday and was moved back to Sunday to give him an extra day of rest.
Strasburg’s line-up will similar to Saturday’s line-up that faced lefty Brad Hand with Turner in for Rendon. Tyler Moore was the offensive hero for the Nats along with Bryce Harper, and Tyler Moore also made some slick defensive plays.
If you happen to be following Bryce Harper’s quest for the Triple Crown, Harper made some big progress on Saturday hitting his 41st HR of the season and driving in 3 runs to raise his RBI total to 95 and move him into 4th in the NL in RBIs trailing Arenado (114), Goldschmidt (100), Kemp (97), and Harper (95). Harper is in sole possession of 1st place in HRs (41) and Batting Average (.340).
THERE'S NO. 41!!! @Bharper3407 smashes a two-run HR to right to put the #Nats up, 5-2, his 41st HR of the year! #MVP pic.twitter.com/B6q1MZdl6M
— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) September 19, 2015
We can copy and paste our report from yesterday: In one mega trade that brought Nicolino to the Marlins from the Blue Jays, Nicolino is connected to Yunel Escobar in that trade on November 19th, 2012. The Toronto Blue Jays traded Nicolino with Henderson Alvarez, Anthony DeSclafani, Yunel Escobar, Adeiny Hechavarria, Jake Marisnick and Jeff Mathis to the Marlins for Emilio Bonifacio, John Buck, Mark Buehrle, Josh Johnson, Jose Reyes. Of course a few weeks later Escobar was traded to the Rays for Derek Dietrich. Nicolino was drafted in the 2nd round out of High School by the Blue Jays and as spent nearly 5 years in the Minors.
Nicolino will be making his 10th start has a 3.81 ERA but a 5.86 ERA on the road. The Nats have never faced Nicolino before. Nicolino is a finesse sinkerballer who throws his fastball at 89 – 91 mph and throws his change-up as his other primary pitch and will throw a slider as his main breaking pitch with the occasional curveball. His go to pitch when he’s ahead in the count is change-up at 82mph. Nicolino likes to pitch inside and outside on the outer 1/3 of the zone and tempt batters to rollover on his sinker as a pitch-to-contact pitcher. He of course likes to stay low in the zone as a sinkerballer. His K/9 is 3.0 where he really gives up almost as many walks per game as K’s.
The key against Nicolino is hitting his breaking pitches which are not “plus” pitches and BABIP against those pitches are .320 in September and .333 against the sinker in September. In September, lefties have hit the LHP better at a .375 pace, and of course in a small sample size.
Line-ups:
- Taylor CF
- Escobar 3B
- Harper RF
- Werth LF
- Desmond SS
- Ramos C
- Moore 1B
- Strasburg P
#Nats vs. #Marlins: Taylor CF, Escobar 3B, Harper RF, Werth LF, Desmond SS, Ramos C, Moore 1B, Turner 2B, Strasburg P pic.twitter.com/4kr7IZS8z6
— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) September 20, 2015
If you had 9/20/15 in your Trea Turner pool for his 1st 2nd career start, you win.
