Photo by Lynn G. for TalkNats
The Nationals have been getting good starting pitching from Patrick Corbin, Stephen Strasburg, Max Scherzer and Jeremy Hellickson. In the last two games, Scherzer and Strasburg matched each other with 2-run 7.0 inning beauties only to receive no-decisions as the bullpen had meltdowns and the Nats offense fell asleep with few exceptions. The team is now mired in a 3-game losing streak. Jeremy Hellickson needs to be good enough today to give his team a chance to win. The Nationals offense has to wake-up and score enough runs to take some pressure off of the pitching staff.
The Padres send their third lefty in a row to the mound today with Joey Lucchesi. The Nationals are very right-handed with their offense and were supposed to be lefty killers, but so far, the offense this weekend has been Yan Gomes, Juan Soto and Howie Kendrick with Carter Kieboom‘s dramatic home run on Friday. This was Brian Dozier‘s and Ryan Zimmerman‘s opportunity to step-up and bash some lefty pitching, but both are hitless against the lefty starters so far this weekend.
Another issue has been Anthony Rendon who went hitless on Friday night and looked out of sync and was out of the lineup yesterday, and you have to question if he really was available as a pinch-hitter. The honest answers behind what is going on with Rendon’s health has to be seriously questioned. If he was available yesterday to pinch-hit there were spots that he should have been used and he was not. Particularly in the 7th inning with runners on third base and second base with one out — manager Dave Martinez stuck with Carter Kieboom instead of going to the Nats best hitter against a lefty reliever.
We will see what today’s lineup looks like, and the status of Rendon.
San Diego Padres vs. Washington Nationals
Stadium: Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.
1st Pitch: 1:35 pm EDT
TV: MASN; MLB App out-of-market
Nats Radio: 106.7 The Fan and via the MLB app
Line-ups subject to change without notice:
Robles – RF
Dozier – 2B
Soto – LF
Kendrick – 3B
Adams – 1B
Suzuki – C
Kieboom – SS
Taylor – CF
Hellickson – RHP
