Last night’s win put the Nationals in a great position towards clinching the NL East sooner rather than later. It certainly will take some pressure off of A.J. Cole who pitches tonight opposite of Noah Syndergaard. Clearly for tonight’s game the Nationals are a steep underdog going up against Syndergaard, and A.J. Cole would like to remind us that on September 2nd, he beat Syndergaard by going 6.0 innings giving up only one run while Syndergaard gave up two runs.
Syndergaard gave up a single to Trea Turner on September 2nd to lead-off the game. With Jayson Werth in the batter’s box, Turner stole 2nd base then stole 3rd base. Turner scored on a Bryce Harper sacrifice fly. Trea Turner is now batting .447 as the first batter of the game with a .469 on-base mark to go with a .681 slugging percentage that any power hitter would be proud of.
The same formula has to be in-play today for the Nationals to win. Clint Robinson has started against Syndergaard in the past which leads us to ponder if Dusty Baker makes some line-up changes tonight.
Here is the pre-game quote from Dusty Baker to Bill Ladson on Ryan Zimmerman: “One thing, you are not going to do it on the bench. I’m glad we have this lead. I know a lot of people are asking why am I still playing him, but this guy is a carrier. There are carriers and there are helpers. A helper can help you for so long, but a carrier can carry you [for a long time]. A couple of weeks are all we need.”
Washington Nationals and New York Mets
Stadium: Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.
1st Pitch: 7:05 pm EDT
TV: MASN, SNY, MLB.TV
Line-ups (subject to change without notice):
- Trea Turner CF
- Jayson Werth LF
- Daniel Murphy 2B
- Bryce Harper RF
- Anthony Rendon 3B
- Wilson Ramos C
- Ryan Zimmerman 1B
- Danny Espinosa SS
- A.J. Cole RHP
