Photo by Andrew Lang for TalkNats
The Nationals are back home after a three-city road trip, and they have Juan Soto and Gerardo Parra with them. Soto returned from the 10-day IL over the weekend and Parra was signed as a free agent after he was DFA’d by the Giants. While the team still has several players on the 10-day IL, it is Trea Turner who this team needs to get back to where they had hoped to be. Turner is expected back next week after recovering from a broken finger. The last time these two teams met in Nationals Park, it was Trea Turner who stroked the walk-off home run to get the team’s first win.
Tonight’s starters are part of the 5+ ERA club: Jeremy Hellickson and Noah Syndergaard. Hellickson has a 2-1 record while Syndergaard had a 2-3 record. The Nationals have several players who have hit Syndy well including Wilmer Difo (.333), Parra (.400), Anthony Rendon (.313), Juan Soto (.400) and Victor Robles (.750). It is Robles and Rendon who have 2 home runs each against this Mets starter. On the other side of the stat sheet is Yan Gomes (0-2), Kurt Suzuki (0-8), Brian Dozier (0-6) and Howie Kendrick (0-8) who are all hitless against Syndergaard. Who plays second base tonight and who plays first base? Parra probably should get another start at first base, but maybe you go off script and play Adrian Sanchez at 2nd base tonight.
In other news, Trevor Rosenthal is supposed to throw a bullpen session and could be activated off of the 10-day IL shortly. Updated news is that he is returning to Harrisburg to make another rehab appearance in a minor league game. Further down on the farm, Trea Turner is joining the High-A PNats to begin a rehab.
This is the series where the Nationals need to make some positive moves forward. They could match the Mets in the win column with a sweep in this series, and manager Dave Martinez must ramp this team up and start accumulating wins in streaks.
Fangraphs projections 5 -14-2019
New York Mets vs. Washington Nationals
Stadium: Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.
1st Pitch: 7:05 pm EDT
TV: MASN2; MLB App out-of-market
Nats Radio: 106.7 The Fan and via the MLB app
Line-ups subject to change without notice:
Adam Eaton, RF
Victor Robles, CF
Juan Soto, LF
Anthony Rendon, 3B
Gerardo Parra, 1B
Brian Dozier, 2B
Yan Gomes, C
Wilmer Difo, SS
Jeremy Hellickson, RHP
