The Seattle Mariners head to Washington, D.C. for a rare inter-league series. It is only their 3rd trip to play the Nationals in the District of Columbia, and their first since 2011. The Nationals have a lifetime record at home of 6-0 against the Mariners.
The weather probably seems like Seattle weather with a rainy and cloudy forecast and on the cool side. The match-up tonight has Christian Bergman who has two starts this year and has also worked out of the bullpen. Bergman went 7 1/3 innings against the A’s while giving up no runs. For the Nats, Joe Ross gets another chance as he returns from Triple-A Syracuse.
The Nationals faced the right-handed Bergman in relief last year when he pitched for the Rockies. There is not much in the way of career statistics against Bergman other than Bryce Harper got him for a home run and Brian Goodwin got a hit facing him for some positive results in a sample size of one apiece. There are only four Nats who have faced Bergman with Daniel Murphy and Anthony Rendon as the other two. The strange stat is that right-handed batters hit Bergman at a .960 OPS compared to lefties at .706.
The Mariners will need to make a roster move if they activate Robinson Cano today as he is eligible to come off of the DL, and the Nationals certainly have dealt with their own injured players as they are without Adam Eaton.
The Nationals will be making a roster move to create a spot for Joe Ross. It appears to be Matt Grace will be optioned back to Triple-A Syracuse and Jacob Turner will move back into the bullpen, but with Mike Rizzo, never under-estimate a surprise.
UPDATE: Surprise! The Nationals will carry an extra pitcher and four bench players as Brian Goodwin is optioned back to Triple-A Syracuse.
Seattle Mariners at Washington Nationals
Stadium: Nationals Park, South Capitol Street SE, Washington, DC
1st Pitch: 7:05 pm EDT
TV: MASN, ROOT NW, MLB.TV
Nats Radio: 106.7 FM The Fan; SiriusXM® XM 188 Sirius 145 (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
- Matt Wieters C
- Michael Taylor CF
- Joe Ross RHP
The @Nationals reclaim the No. 1 spot, but the @Rockies are charging up the @MLB.com Power Rankings. https://t.co/uDaqBO0Rsn pic.twitter.com/0imMseipll
— MLB (@MLB) May 23, 2017
