The Nats just faced 23-year-old Zach Davies on June 24th which was all of 11 days ago. Much has changed since then. The Nats send Gio Gonzalez to the mound tonight at Nationals Park.
You might remember Davies as the narrow framed right-handed pitcher measuring 6’0″/155 pounds and hails from Puyallup, Washington. Davies was an original draft pick of the Orioles in the 26th round and was traded last year for Gerardo Parra.
Davies has had some success in May and June up until he went up against the Nats and gave up 3 runs in 5 innings and in his subsequent start gave up 6 runs to the Dodgers to finish out June and his overall ERA jumped from 3.62 to 4.22. Davies is a finesse pitcher who is a sinkerballer and changeup specialist. He can also throw a curve and cutter and the occasional slider. His fastball tops out at 91 and the change-up has big speed differential at 79mph. He was able to induce a lot of swing and miss strikeouts against the Nationals before they got to him.
Here are the Nats stats against Davies:
Here is Gio Gonzalez’s stats against the Brewers:
Washington Nationals and Milwaukee Brewers
Stadium: Nationals Park, Washington, DC
1st Pitch: 7:05 pm EDT
TV: MASN, FSWI – Brewers, MLB.tv
Line-ups (subject to change without notice):
- Ben Revere CF
- Jayson Werth LF
- Bryce Harper RF
- Daniel Murphy2B
- Wilson Ramos C
- Ryan Zimmerman 1B
- Anthony Rendon 3B
- Danny Espinosa SS
- Gio Gonzalez LHP
Danny Espinosa was named NL Player of the Week as he was smoldering hot during this last week. Congratulations to Danny!!!! Danny’s stats within that week: .423 batting average, 5 home runs that include 2 Grand Slams, 17 RBIs and 8 runs scored.
Tonight is the ESPN All-Star Selection Show which is being aired live at the same time the Nationals game is on at 7pm. We will be watching both!
UPDATED: The results are in and the Nationals have 4 All-Stars including Bryce Harper who will be a starter as voted in by the fans. The players voted in Wilson Ramos and Daniel Murphy who lost out in the fan ballots by 88 votes, but was also voted in by the players. Stephen Strasburg was put in by Manager Terry Collins.
