Nationals K St. starting pitchers. Graphics by the Washington Nationals
The weekend started with the familiar whine with the Mets roll call of players who were injured. This time their best pitcher, Noah Syndergaard, and their best hitter, Yoenis Cespedes, were on the list. Tears were falling for the Mets who were in last place. The Cespedes injury was more of the self-inflicted wound because they did not put him on the 10-day DL to be cautious with a hamstring tweak like the Nationals did with Trea Turner to be cautious. Now, Cespedes really did pull his hammy and had to be placed on the DL, but what about the report just 4 days ago that Syndergaard couldn’t lift his right arm above his shoulder?
Syndergaard is scheduled to start today in what must be a medical miracle. He refused to take an MRI days ago. Today Syndergaard will now try now to complete the sweep of the Nationals this weekend; something that seemed improbable a few days ago if you believed the health concerns. The team with the real injury problems turned out to be the Nationals. Sammy Solis has nerve inflammation in his throwing arm, Koda Glover has a hip impingement, Stephen Drew is out with a hamstring injury, and the Nationals just lost Adam Eaton with a real horrific knee injury on Friday night. But the Mets will tell you they don’t have David Wright, and that is a surprise, why? Wright has spinal stenosis and hasn’t played more than 38 games since 2014. His best days were long behind him as he only hit .226 last year, and the Mets weren’t counting on him, but they have to pay him anyway through 2020 so why not list him on the whine list. David Wright is a great guy no doubt, but putting him on the injured list is like me putting Jose Marmalejos on the Nats injured list.
Today could be the first match-up between Syndergaard and Bryce Harper after Thor decided to call the 2015 MVP a douche on Harper’s Instagram page. Syndergaard deleted the slur, but not before it was screenshoted by numerous people and went viral.
Harper was asked about Syndergaard’s comment via the New York Post:
“I don’t know, Syndergaard does what he does, and the Mets do what they do. So we are going to worry about what we do in our clubhouse and do everything we can do win ballgames and hopefully have a better record than any team in Major League Baseball. They’re a great talent over there. We are going to have some fun this year and hopefully enjoy what we do against them.’’
Noah Syndergaard is a very good pitcher, and he is set to face Joe Ross of the Nationals today.
Statline of the day: Ryan Zimmerman is tied for the MLB lead with 11 home runs and a .410 batting average. In a twist, the Nationals have just a 5-5 record in games when Zimmerman hits a home run. The Nationals are 6-0 when Bryce Harper homers in a game this year.
New York Mets at Washington Nationals
Stadium: Nationals Park, South Capitol St. SE, Washington, DC
1st Pitch: 1:35 pm EDT
TV: MASN2, WUSA9, SNY, MLB.TV
Nats Radio: 106.7 FM The Fan; SiriusXM® (Internet 869)
Line-ups (subject to change without notice):
- Trea Turner SS
- Jayson Werth LF
- Bryce Harper RF
- Ryan Zimmerman 1B
- Daniel Murphy 2B
- Anthony Rendon 3B
- Michael Taylor CF
- Matt Wieters C
- Joe Ross RHP
