Before the All-Star break officially starts, we have a game remaining, and it is between the Nationals and their division rival Mets. This game has huge standings implications. If the Nationals win the game, they go into the All-Star break up 6 games, and if the Mets win the game, the standings will be at a 4 game lead for the Nats.
Today’s game is the meeting of the lefties as Gio Gonzalez goes up against Steven Matz. Both managers will most likely shuffle up their line-ups.
Yesterday’s games had some unfortunate moments of poor form by the Mets crowd. Bryce Harper stole 2nd base twice yesterday. He looked ‘stealish’ and on a pick-off try at 2nd base, the pitcher nailed Bryce in the back, and was hurting after the impact. The CitiField crowd applauded as Bryce Harper writhed in pain as he was clearly hurting, and that is poor form for any fanbase to be happy about another player’s physical pain. Say what you want about the reserved Nationals Park crowd, but they would never do that. The Mets crowd all evening booed Daniel Murphy, and the boos got louder as Murph torched his former team with 4 RBIs with three hits that left him short of the cycle by only a triple.
Bryce Harper gets hit in the back on a pickoff move. Mets fans cheer loudly.
— The Sports Report (@TheSportsRPT) July 9, 2016
Speaking of Bryce, ESPN is doing a new piece on him. Here is a Jaguar commercial with Bryce that was produced by ESPN:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5h8PLzghYE
Murphy raised his season statline to .349/.388/.593/.982 and Murphy has a Ruthian type statline against the Mets of .438/.462/.875/1.337 with 6 home runs in just 48 at-bats. Without those games against the Mets, Daniel Murphy would be hitting .335, and would not be leading the Majors in batting. The good news is Murphy has and he is. He is being dubbed the ‘Mets Killer’.
“We’ve seen it,” New York manager Terry Collins said. “He’s pumped up to play against us and show us we made a mistake. It’s human nature, and it’s part of the game. We’ve just got to make better pitches. We’re giving him balls to hit. You look at the tape at the end of games and, boy, they’re all good pitches to hit. We’ve got to do a better job.”
They’re all good pitches to hit? Is that your reasoning Terry Collins? You know that this is more than that.
Daniel Murphy’s six home runs against the Mets is a higher home run total than over 140 batters who have at least 100 at-bats this season.
“Anything I’ve done is exciting because that’s a really good club,” Daniel Murphy said. “So anytime you come in here [to CitiField] and put yourself in a position to win a series, you’re excited about it.”
“He has a lot of friends over there and former teammates and probably still friends,” Nationals Manager Dusty Baker said. “Anybody that’s been traded or played on a roster and their team didn’t sign them or whatever it was, it definitely means more when you’re playing your old team.”
Here are your Nats stats against Matz:
Here are Gio Gonzalez’s stats against the Mets:
Washington Nationals and New York Mets
Stadium: CitiField, Queens, NY
1st Pitch: 1:10 pm EDT
TV: MASN, TBS, WPIX-NY , MLB.tv
Line-ups (subject to change without notice):
- Trea Turner 2B
- Jayson Werth LF
- Daniel Murphy 1B
- Bryce Harper RF
- Wilson Ramos C
- Anthony Rendon 3B
- Michael Taylor CF
- Danny Espinosa SS
- Gio Gonzalez LHP
