Photo by LEGNats for TalkNats
Tell us if you have heard this story before about Stephen Strasburg returning from the DL. It’s an annual story and this year will be Strasburg’s second return from the DL. This time Strasburg believes he has his neck issue figured out after he saw a specialist in California who diagnosed the issue as a cervical nerve impingement which has been an ongoing “pain in his neck.” They relieved the pain through a scalene block injection, and Strasburg says he is now pain-free. The Washington Nationals have desperately needed Strasburg because the Nats have had to stretch the rotation to points where Tommy Milone, Austin Voth, and Jefry Rodriguez have had to fill in making the 5th spot a virtual black hole in the rotation.
To add to manager Dave Martinez‘s misery is that the Nats rotation fell apart in June after Strasburg went on the DL for the first time after June 8th. The Nationals were in first place at that point. Today the team is in 3rd place. If Stephen Strasburg could deliver a victory today, the Nationals will deliver a blow to the Philadelphia Phillies who were shocked yesterday by the Nationals ability to comeback on them from a 3-run deficit.
Strasburg has some very good recent numbers against the Phillies and it’s no surprise that Justin Bour gets the start where he has hit him at a .273 batting average compared to Carlos Santana at .200. Wilson Ramos was supposed to start today according to what F.P. Santangelo said on last night’s MASN broadcast of the game. Ramos has been nursing a sore wrist that he was hit on over the weekend.
The Phillies start righty Zach Eflin who has been a reason for their success. Eflin has a 9-4 record and a 3.70 ERA. The Nats offense has very little history against him because they have only faced him once before.
For today’s roster move to make room for Stephen Strasburg, the Nationals optioned Adrian Sanchez back to Syracuse Triple-A after he was called up yesterday in place of Daniel Murphy who was traded. The Nationals will go with a 4-man bench and an 8-man bullpen.
Philadelphia Philles vs. Washington Nationals
Stadium: Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.
1st Pitch: 7:05 pm EDT
TV: MASN; MLB.TV app out-of-network
Nats Radio: 106.7 The Fan and via the MLB app
Line-ups subject to change without notice:
- Adam Eaton RF
- Trea Turner SS
- Bryce Harper CF
- Anthony Rendon 3B
- Juan Soto LF
- Ryan Zimmerman 1B
- Matt Wieters C
- Wilmer Difo 2B
- Stephen Strasburg RHP
