It’s Easter, it’s Passover, it’s the perfect day for a Washington Nationals win, and a beautiful spring day according to Weather.com with full sun and a high of 83°F. Gio Gonzalez is on the mound today!
Last year, Dusty Baker‘s 2016 squad started that season at a 14-4 record and through 12 games the Washington Nationals were 9-3. All these 2017 Nationals need is a long winning streak. That’s all. Order it up. We wish it was that easy. You need all aspects of the game in sync where the starting pitching, offense, bench, and bullpen are at peak performance. Well, Gio Gonzalez has been doing his job, and once again is looking good in April.
Also, if you want to a teaser listen to some of the Clint Robinson interview on the TalkNats podcast, it is very candid and maybe too honest for some. Whoa, Clint laid it out. Here is a link. We will have an article tonight on it.
Clint’s replacement on the bench, Adam Lind, might get a start today. Dusty sat three regulars yesterday, and nobody can argue that Jayson Werth and Matt Wieters should be getting rest days but the issue is with Difo at shortstop, do you sit 3 more regulars all at the same time? There were some interesting pre-game comments on yesterday’s line-up, but this tied game was lost by the bullpen.
What was interesting in the new Talk Nats podcast was Bryan King’s discussion of the Joe Blanton treatment in Los Angeles. He never pitched 3 innings in a game in 2016. When he pitched 2 innings on April 10th last year, Dave Roberts gave him 5 days off. Joe Blanton won’t blame arm fatigue on his issues rather he thinks his slider mechanics need to be tweaked, and he believes he can make the adjustment.
“So we just have to go back to the drawing board and stay positive and stay confident — and keep Joe [Blanton] and the rest of our bullpen positive,” Dusty Baker said.
When the Nats score 4 or more runs, they are undefeated this year, and the team has only won once when they have scored less than 4 runs. It sounds like the Nats need to score Gio at least 4 runs today. Easy, right?
The Phillies pitch right-handed Jerad Eickhoff today, and the Nats know him well.
Philadelphia Phillies at Washington Nationals
Stadium: Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.
1st Pitch: 1:35 pm EDT
TV: MASN2, WUSA9, CSN Philadelphia, MLB.TV
Line-ups (subject to change without notice):
- Adam Eaton CF
- Anthony Rendon 3B
- Bryce Harper RF
- Daniel Murphy 2B
- Adam Lind 1B
- Jayson Werth LF
- Matt Wieters C
- Wilmer Difo SS
- Gio Gonzalez LHP
Trea Turner is running sprints in the outfield during BP.
— Jorge Castillo (@jorgecastillo) April 16, 2017
