Photo by Andrew Lang for TalkNats
Tonight’s weather could cooperate like last night or Mother Nature could throw a curveball on a night where the Twins scheduled a late night game on a “getaway” date. In the last hour, the forecast looks better than it did earlier. If the game was postponed, neither team has an opening in their schedule until the first day after the season ends so MLB has the decision-making on this one as to the weather, and a postponed game would only be made up if needed for postseason implications. Again, the hope is that they can get the game started on-time. If not, it will be a very long night travelling for our Washington Nationals. In fact, D.C.’s weather forecast for Friday is somewhat dicey as the Nats will face the Braves, again. After tonight, the Nats only have five remaining series against the Braves, Cardinals, Marlins, Phillies, and Indians. Tonight’s game will also determine the winner of this series.
For the Nationals, they have Patrick Corbin on the mound, and most of this Twins roster have not faced him before. The Nats have had a few players who have faced the Twins righty, Kyle Gibson, in prior seasons and Yan Gomes has thirty at-bats against him with a .433 batting average and Adam Eaton has two dozen at-bats against him batting .292. Asdrubal Cabrera is a career 0-7 against him while Howie Kendrick is 2-4 with three RBIs. It is certainly a mixed bag of results against him, and Gibson has pitched this season to a 4.58 ERA.
These games are always tough to play matchup baseball and lefties hit Gibson with more success overall (.277 vs. .256),, but in the second half of the season, Gibson’s overall BAA is .292 compared to .251 in the first half of the season. The soon-to-be 32 year old has pitched his entire career with Minnesota after pitching in college at Missouri which happens to be where Max Scherzer pitched during his college years at Mizzou and helped to recruit Gibson to the program.
Of note, Corbin lines up to pitch the second to last game of the season against the Cleveland Indians, but he could also figure into the Wild Card game as a lefty specialist out of the Nats’ bullpen that used Sean Doolitte last night for the first time this season as a LOOGY.
Washington Nationals at Minnesota Twins
Stadium: Target Field, Minneapolis, Minnesota
1st Pitch: 7:40 pm EDT
TV: MASN, FOX Sports North, MLB.TV
Nats Radio: 106.7 FM The Fan; SiriusXM® ( Streaming Internet 869)
Line-up subject to change (without notice):
