Scherzer and the Nats travel to play the Astros and Doug Fister 3/8/16

As the Nats bus arrives in Kissimmee Florida today, there is a political buzz right down the street off of Heritage Park Way as Marco Rubio is campaigning near Osceola County Stadium and currently in a diner.

Things could seem a little political for the Nats as well as they face Doug Fister who is wearing a new uniform and will start for the Houston Astros against Max Scherzer who is going 3 innings today with a travel squad type of roster.

Of special interest, Dusty has already penciled up and posted tomorrow’s travel roster going to Joker Marchant against Justin Verlander, and almost the entire starting line-up for that game looks to be the projected Opening Day starters with the exception of catcher (Kieboom) and possibly 1st base (Clint Robinson) as Gio starts that game. Batting order for Wednesday’s game stacks 3 lefties at the top, Revere, Murphy, Harper, Rendon, Werth, CRob, Espi, (Solano DH), and Kieboom batting 9th.

When was the last time you can remember a full roster like this traveling a couple of hours for a Spring Training game this early in March? The reserves are MAT, Turner, Tyler Moore, Sizemore, Bostick, Martinson, Brendan Ryan, Severino, Read, Heisey, Campana and Brian Goodwin.

While the Nats are a little short on catchers with Ramos recovering from his Lasik eye procedure, Dusty chose to go with Kieboom to start tomorrow over the other alternatives like Lobaton going 2 days in a row or Jhonatan Solano or Pedro Severino. Kieboom has impressed so far in camp.

For today’s game, here is your starting line-up vs. Houston:

Matt den Dekker RF
Trea Turner SS
Michael A. Taylor CF
Clint Robinson 1B
Tyler Moore DH
Jason Martinson 3B
Wilmer Difo 2B
Reed Johnson LF
Jose Lobaton C

Max Scherzer RHP

Other pitchers are Petit, Voth, Kelley, Rafael Martin, Lee, Laffey. Petit could also go 2 to 3 innings today based on pitch count.

Davey Lopes shares the art of base-running.#Nats are 11-11 in SB attempts this spring: https://t.co/XlZX2eKh4k. pic.twitter.com/GysqenVRpR

— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) March 8, 2016