When you wake up this morning, you will find the Washington Nationals are in 1st place in the NL East thanks to a Marlins loss in Seattle. The Nationals had the day off yesterday in Atlanta. That is, all of the Nats except Jose Lobaton who spent his Monday back in Washington, D.C. at the White House Easter egg roll. Trea Turner is eligible to come off of the 10-day DL tomorrow. His status is also unknown. Speaking of the unknown, the Nationals still have not named a starter for tomorrow. As we speculated last week, we believe Joe Ross will take that spot on Wednesday. Stephen Strasburg will start on Thursday.
Later today all of those unknowns should be known. What we know for today is that Max Scherzer will start in the Washington Nationals first trip to SunTrust Park. The reviews on the stadium are good so far. The main disappointment should be that MLB allowed another new stadium to be built without a retractable roof. The other disappointment is that the Braves will continue to play their “Tomahawk Chop” music which is extremely offensive to Native Americans. The adjoining land to the stadium is all owned and developed by the Braves and will house a luxurious Omni hotel, Comcast building, The Roxy entertainment complex, and more. That area will be known as “The Battery Atlanta”.
The park dimensions play deeper they say in centerfield than the 400 feet it is measured at and there is a short porch in left field at 335 ft (102 m). The left-center gap is 385 ft (117 m). They also brought in the right field dimensions 10 feet closer in the gap and on the line at 375 ft (114 m) and 325 ft (99 m) respectively. Some say rightfield has a shorter porch for Freddie Freeman (as if he needs any additional help.)
Ticket prices go from the super affordable nose bleed seats at $6.35 to the super expensive SunTrust seats behind homeplate which will cost you more than Nats Park. The Braves claim those $456 seats are sold-out! They also have a Delta Sky 360° Club which is the Nats equivalent of the Diamond seats that the Braves sell at $205. Those are also more expensive than Nats Park. The Coors Light Chop House in rightfield behind Bryce Harper is another sold-out area.
The Braves will pitch right-handed pitcher Mike Foltynewicz. Here are the Nats stats against him:
Washington Nationals at Atlanta Braves
Stadium: SunTrust Park 755 Battery Avenue Atlanta, GA 30339
1st Pitch: 7:35 pm EDT
TV: MASN2, FOX Sports South, MLB.TV
Line-ups (subject to change without notice):
- Adam Eaton CF
- Anthony Rendon 3B
- Bryce Harper RF
- Daniel Murphy 2B
- Ryan Zimmerman 1B
- Jayson Werth LF
- Matt Wieters C
- Wilmer Difo SS
- Max Scherzer RHP
Enhanced photo from JJgraphics38 for TalkNats
