Happy birthday, Dusty! pic.twitter.com/BoW63fAra8
— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) June 15, 2017
Today is Dusty Baker‘s 68th birthday, and he will no doubt have a special birthday wish that he hopes come true. The Washington Nationals begin a 4-game series tonight with their division rival New York Mets, and Nats fans are wishing for a Nationals winning streak beginning tonight.
The series has both teams without regulars who are on the disabled list. Matt Harvey was not scheduled to pitch in this series as he was injured last night and along with Neil Walker, they will both land on the 10-day DL joining Asdrubal Cabrera. The Mets will have Yoenis Cespedes and Lucas Duda in their line-up tonight, and Michael Conforto will be on their bench with back tightness. The Nationals of course are without Jayson Werth and Koda Glover.
Speaking of Jayson Werth, he is eligible to come off of the 10-day DL tomorrow, however it does not sound like Jayson is ready to join the team. Werth has been swimming to stay in shape and taking his at-bats in the cage.
The scheduled pitchers for today’s game are Gio Gonzalez for the Nationals and right-hander Robert Gsellman for the Mets.
There are only 5 Nationals who have faced Gsellman in the past and they are Trea Turner (.333 BA), Bryce Harper (.500 BA), Ryan Zimmerman (.600 BA), Daniel Murphy (.400 BA), and Anthony Rendon (.250 BA).
The Nationals made a roster move today. Several TN commenters expected Trevor Gott to be optioned back to Triple-A Syracuse since he wouldn’t be able to pitch for 2 days and they were correct. Gott was optioned and Matt Grace will take his spot.
“I’m not a big stats guy but [On launch angle] there is — the numbers tell the story,” Ryan Zimmerman said to Tom Verducci. “I don’t go up to get a flyball each time. The simple thing is to put a barrel on the ball. That’s what my dad taught me to do. Hit the ball hard, good things happen.”
Ryan Zimmerman spoke again about good health, but he also didn’t deny that he has improved his launch angle. It’s a fact. How he improved it, he still isn’t giving that secret. He did say that Daniel Murphy speaking to him in the off-season about launch angle has been blown out of proportion, but he did not expand on that comment. For not, Nats fans just need to enjoy the results from Zim.
Washington Nationals at New York Mets
Stadium: CitiField, Queens, New York
1st Pitch: 7:05 pm EDT
TV: MASN, MLB Network (out-of-market), SNY, MLB.TV
Nats Radio: 106.7 FM The Fan; SiriusXM® (Internet 869)
Line-ups (subject to change without notice):
- Trea Turner SS
- Brian Goodwin LF
- Bryce Harper RF
- Ryan Zimmerman 1B
- Daniel Murphy 2B
- Anthony Rendon 3B
- Matt Wieters C
- Michael Taylor CF
- Gio Gonzalez LHP
