The early May 2016 road show continues today, down-river in Kansas City Missouri, as the Washington Nationals take on the defending World Champion Royals in the Nats first inter-league series of the season which brings the DH (designated hitter) into play here in an AL venue.
Tonight’s game at 8:15pm has Gio Gonzalez going up against Edinson Volquez. Gio is no stranger to AL baseball, and Volquez was a long-time NL pitcher.
Tomorrow’s game has a familiar face as the Nats face Chris Young who was a Nats reclamation project back in 2013 as he pitched at Syracuse Triple-A and then came back for Spring Training 2014 and looked very sharp and opted-out and signed a 1 year deal with the Mariners which he then parlayed into a multi-year deal with the Royals last year. Young will pitch on Tuesday against the Nats’ Tanner Roark. Strasburg goes up Wednesday afternoon against another familiar face as Kris Medlen who the Nats remember well as an Atlanta Brave pitches for the Royals. Medlen as you might remember developed severe arm issues and has worked his way back into the starting rotation for the Royals.
This week, barring no rain-outs will also set-up the starters for the 4 game Cubs series in Chicago which the Tuesday starter (Roark) gets the unenviable task of pitching in Chicago against Jake Arrieta. Roark is from the Chicago area, and his last start there is a game he would like to forget, and his chance at redemption comes against reigning Cy Young winner Arrieta. As of now, it would be Strasburg who won’t pitch in the Chicago series. Joe Ross would pitch Thursday in Chicago against Kyle Hendricks, and Max Scherzer on Friday against John Lackey, and Gio Gonzalez on Saturday against Jason Hammel, and Tanner Roark on Sunday. The Nats would miss Jon Lester who is pitching on Wednesday against the Pirates.
Here are your Nats stats against Edinson Volquez:
Here is Gio Gonzalez’s pitching stats against the Royals:
Line-ups (subject to change without notice):
- Michael Taylor CF
- Anthony Rendon 3B
- Bryce Harper RF
- Ryan Zimmerman 1B
- Daniel Murphy 2B
- Jayson Werth LF
- Stephen Drew DH
- Jose Lobaton C
- Danny Espinosa SS
Gio Gonzalez LHP
