The Nationals had to be at the park early this morning for the traditional Independence Day celebratory game on July 4th in Washington, D.C.. Just a little over 12 hours ago the Nats were celebrating their 6th walk-off winner of 2017. It was just a reminder for those who watched that game-ender last night just like the St. Louis Cardinals on Saturday that the Nationals have faced some other lousy bullpens also. The good news is that Mike Rizzo will trade for some bullpen help to improve this beleaguered bunch. It is a waiting game to see if you have enough fandom and blood pressure medication and Maalox® to withstand the pain of watching another bullpen meltdown.
If you are awake early, ESPN will be doing a live interview with Bryce Harper at 9:45AM, and they promise to ask Bryce some deep questions that have never been asked before.
The Mets are starting righty Seth Lugo today and you would expect Brian Goodwin to lead-off, right? No, Dusty Baker will go with Michael Taylor leading off as righties hit Lugo about as well as lefties. Wilmer Difo gets the 2-hole today. Ryan Zimmerman and Anthony Rendon will start on the bench with Matt Wieters. Something has to give in the random stats we have fun with because Wilmer Difo and Jose Lobaton are both starting today and each have almost polar opposite stats when they start. When Difo starts, the Nats are 16-4 in Difo starts but 6-16 when Lobaton starts.
The Mets will be resting Yoenis Cespedes to start this game. He will be available for “an pinch-hit” according to beat writer Anthony DiComo.
New York Mets at Washington Nationals
Stadium: Nationals Park,1500 S Capitol St. SE, Washington, DC 20003
1st Pitch: 11:05 am EDT
TV: MASN, WUSA9, MLB Network (out-of-network), SNY, MLB.TV
Nats Radio: 106.7 FM The Fan; SiriusXM® XM 184 Sirius 218 (Internet 869)
Line-ups (subject to change without notice):
- Michael Taylor CF
- Wilmer Difo SS
- Bryce Harper RF
- Daniel Murphy 2B
- Adam Lind 1B
- Ryan Raburn LF
- Stephen Drew 3B
- Jose Lobaton C
- Joe Ross RHP
