The Nationals are back in Chicago, and this time is for an inter-league series against the Chicago White Sox of the American League which will bring the designated hitter into the Nats line-up and some American League strategy.
The Nats will face Mat Latos today who they know well from his National League days, and the Nats will start Joe Ross who has only faced Jimmy Rollins on this Chicago roster.
Ryan Zimmerman is back from his paternity leave, and the line-up looks about right after a weekend shakeup and some rest days. Wilson Ramos responded in the 5-hole over the weekend and raised his batting average to .350 and his OPS to .961, and both Harper and Murphy responded on Sunday with 3 hits each. Anthony Rendon has been on a 2-week run here with his past week at a 1.053 OPS and Ryan Zimmerman the past 2 weeks has a .916 OPS. The concern for Ryan Zimmerman is whether his paternity time off will ‘off his timing’ at the plate. Zim has not played in a game since Wednesday of last week.
The Nats scored 15 runs over the weekend, and unfortunately the pitching staff gave up 22 runs which was uncharacteristic for this team that is stingy giving up the runs. Luckily for Joe Ross and Max Scherzer, they were not part of that series in Cincinnati and Joe Ross is just looking to build on Sunday’s momentum, and make his statement that he is an All Star. Ross now ranks 10th in ERA, and needs to get in the Top 7 to have a good chance of being chosen.
As far as pitching probables go, it looks like the Nats will miss both Chris Sale (9-2, 2.54 ERA) who just pitched 2 duds in a row and was due to bounceback in Chicago with a gem and Jose Quintana (5-6, 2.58) who leads the Majors in worst run support.
James Shields was acquired via a trade from the Padres over the weekend and is set to pitch against the Nats tomorrow night against Max Scherzer.
The pitchers scheduled for this series are Joe Ross vs. Mat Latos tonight, Max Scherzer vs. Shields on Wednesday, Gio Gonzalez vs. Carlos Rodon on Thursday, and all games are night games at 8:10pm EDT.
Here is your Nats stats against Mat Latos:
Here is Joe Ross’ stats against the White Sox:
Washington Nationals and Chicago White Sox
Stadium: US Cellular Field, Chicago, Illinois
1st Pitch: 8:10pm EDT
TV: MASN2, CSN-Chicago, MLB.tv
Line-ups (subject to change without notice):
- Ben Revere LF
- Jayson Werth DH
- Bryce Harper RF
- Daniel Murphy 2B
- Wilson Ramos
- Ryan Zimmerman 1B
- Anthony Rendon 3B
- Danny Espinosa SS
- Michael Taylor CF
Joe Ross RHP
