Last Wednesday, Ryan Zimmerman shocked the city of Philadelphia with a come-from-behind 2-run walk-off home run off of Phillies’ closer Seranthony Dominguez. That game was started by Zach Eflin for the Phillies and Stephen Strasburg for the Nationals, and they will start this game in the same pairing to duel tonight in Citizens Bank Ballpark.
In last Wednesday’s game, Strasburg and Eflin both struggled in that game. Eflin was pulled 3 1/3 innings into the game, and Strasburg reached his 80+ pitch limit and was pulled after 4.0 innings. Strasburg gave up 5-runs and Eflin gave up 4-runs. After the game, Strasburg admitted he was still building up his endurance as we saw his fastball velocity decline a few MPH during his outing. In that same game and with his two innings of work, Wander Suero gave up a run, and Justin Miller lasted just 2/3 of an inning after giving up a home run to put the Nationals behind by a run. Later in that game, Juan Soto with 2-outs in the 9th inning stroked a double down the line followed by Ryan Zimmerman’s 11th walk-off home run of his career for the winner.
That game looked like the momentum the Nationals needed to turn their season around and take that modest 2-games of consecutive wins and build on it then the Nats got shut-out in three consecutive games. Right now the Nationals are playing for respectability and maybe a miracle to get into the post-season, but at every turn that dark cloud follows them around and as feared yesterday’s injury to Kelvin Herrera‘s left foot was a Lisfranc torn ligament which will require that he will be out most likely the rest of the regular season as the ligament generally needs 6-8 weeks to heal if no surgery is required. Ryan Madson will return from the DL to replace Herrera on the roster.
Washington Nationals vs. Philadelphia Phillies
Stadium: Citizens Bank Ballpark, Philadephia, Pennsylvania
1st Pitch: 7:05 pm EDT
TV: MASN2; 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
