The Nationals take on the St. Louis Cardinals in a quick 3-game road trip in the mid-point of the season before returning for the Nationals traditional home series in Washington, D.C. for Independence Day on July 4th.
Tanner Roark is back on the mound after throwing 116 pitches 5 days ago where he threw his final 4-innings of shutout baseball, but unfortunately gave up 6-runs in the first 2-innings to lose the game and push his ERA to 5.15. Roark had come off of a 69 pitch 2 2/3 inning outing 11 days ago and got an extra day’s rest in his Sunday start. Unfortunately, he pitched a 40-pitch 1st inning in his last start that really took a lot of him, and Dusty Baker had him go to 116 pitches.
The Nationals will face Mike Leake who was Stephen Strasburg’s teammate back in San Diego on their junior travel team. Leake is having a good year. In contrast, Leake went the same 6 innings as Roark 5 days ago, but Leake finished at only 95 pitches.
Bryce Harper has 3 hits against Mike Leake and 2 of them are home runs in the 16 at-bats between them. Adam Lind, Michael Taylor, Ryan Zimmerman and Daniel Murphy also have home runs off of Mike Leake.
We await the news of a roster move for Trea Turner when Dusty Baker arrives or one of the media members see the new locker set-up.
Washington Nationals at St. Louis Cardinals
Stadium: Busch Stadium, 700 Clark Street, St. Louis, MO 63102
1st Pitch: 8:15 pm EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB Network (out-of-market), FOX Sports-Midwest, MLB.TV
Nats Radio: 106.7 FM The Fan; SiriusXM® XM (Internet 869)
Line-ups (subject to change without notice):
- Brian Goodwin LF
- Michael Taylor CF
- Bryce Harper RF
- Ryan Zimmerman 1B
- Daniel Murphy 2B
- Anthony Rendon 3B
- Stephen Drew SS
- Jose Lobaton C
- Tanner Roark RHP
