Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats
This game is a night game and televised on MASN as the Nationals welcome the New York Mets to the FITTEAM Ballpark of the Palm Beaches. The scheduled pitchers are Max Scherzer for the Washington Nationals and Zack Wheeler for the Mets.
We are also now 16 days from Opening Day on March 29th, and the anticipation is that Adam Eaton will play in this game or on the minor league side in a controlled game. Nationals manager Dave Martinez has yet to have more than five projected starters in any game up to this point.
For most “home” games, Martinez has weaved together three to four of his projected starters, and his middle infield has lacked any continuity which has created some awkward double play turns. On Sunday, Trea Turner narrowly escaped a potential injury when he took a low feed into the oncoming runner from second baseman Matt Reynolds. It took an athletic play for Turner to hop over Jedd Gyorko in the 4th inning of that game.
The Nationals need to start playing their projected Opening Day line-up. Ryan Zimmerman has yet to play the field on the Major League side and just had two at-bats on March 2nd before he was pulled. Michael Taylor has 11 at-bats so far this spring, and of course Adam Eaton and Daniel Murphy have not appeared in any games on the Major League side this season. These players statuses were covered in an article last week.
The Nationals have played to an 8-and-8 record with 2 ties so far in the Grapefruit League which doesn’t mean much, but credit should be given to some very good pitching overall by Nationals pitchers. On the other hand, the offense has been inconsistent with some poor baserunning. Again, it is hard to get going when you are playing most days with bench and Minor League players. Dave Martinez and his staff have also been aggressive with baserunning and much of that has been to see what they have and to work some plays.
Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats
New York Mets vs. Washington Nationals
Stadium: FITTEAM Ballpark of the Palm Beaches, West Palm Beach, Florida
1st Pitch: 7:05 pm EDT
TV: MASN TV and the MLB app and MLB Network
Nats Radio:
Line-ups subject to change without notice:
- Wilmer Difo 2B
- Trea Turner SS
- Bryce Harper RF
- Anthony Rendon 3B
- Brian Goodwin LF
- Matt Wieters C
- Victor Robles CF
- Jose Marmolejos 1B
- Max Scherzer RHP
