This 10-day east coast to Colorado road trip with a sleep deprivation-type of scheduling of game times is over for now. Gio Gonzalez is on the mound today, and since he speaks some French now, we say in his honor our au revoir to Denver after this game. The awful weather that looked like a scene from a Denver Broncos winter football game will be in the past. The next western swings for the Nats will be part of 3 separate trips in warmer weather at the end of May through June 7th and then again July 18th to July 23rd , and finishing up with a San Diego trip on August 17th to the 20th. The Rockies hope the Nats will be back this year which would signify that they made the post-season as this is the final regular season game for the Nationals in Colorado.
Dusty Baker will be sitting the struggling Anthony Rendon, and also the red-hot Ryan Zimmerman in a wise move to keep him rested and ready. The Nationals also reinstated Stephen Strasburg back from the paternity list and optioned Matt Grace back to Triple-A Syracuse.
Antonio Senzatela will start for the Rockies and the 22-year-old rookie fastballer has looked like an ace so far this season in his four starts as he carries a Coors Field 1.93 ERA into this game. There have not been any Washington Nationals players who have faced Senzatela before.
In his last start, Senzatela threw fastballs over 73% of the time, and he is not a sinkerballer; these are the 4-seam variety for max velo where Senzatela can get above 98mph. His average fastball in his last outing was 94.4 mph. He will also mix in sliders 22% of the time and then mix in a few changeups.
Senzatela is really a pitch-to-contact pitcher and his repertoire looks more like a relievers. His 5.9 K9 is not strong and he really relies on weak contact. The way to beat Senzatela is to attack his mistake pitches.
On facing Senzatela Dusty says not familiar with him but then again he hasn't faced an offense like the Nats; try to break his spirit early
— Byron Kerr (@ByronKerr) April 27, 2017
Washington Nationals at Colorado Rockies
Stadium: Coors Field, 2001 Blake St, Denver, CO 80205
1st Pitch: 3:10 pm EDT
TV: MASN2, ROOT RM, MLB.TV
Line-ups (subject to change without notice):
- Adam Eaton CF
- Trea Turner SS
- Bryce Harper RF
- Daniel Murphy 2B
- Adam Lind 1B
- Jayson Werth LF
- Matt Wieters C
- Wilmer Difo 3B
- Gio Gonzalez LHP
