Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats
As expected, it will be Joe Ross starting in this game against the Marlins which lines him up as the fifth starter behind Anibal Sanchez in the ordering of the rotation. As it looks now, manager Dave Martinez has his starters lined up in the ordering of Max Scherzer to Stephen Strasburg to Patrick Corbin to Sanchez to Ross. There is no guarantee that Ross is the fifth starter, but the other spots are set. This is the second start for Ross while Austin Voth and Erick Fedde have entered games only after the starters exited which might point to what appears to be hinting that is Joe Ross’ spot to lose. With that said, Martinez is trying to stretch out both Voth and Fedde for the team’s starting rotation depth and has been pitching them in games with multiple innings of work.
The Marlins have Pablo Lopez on the mound in this game today. With the game being played at the FITTEAM Ballpark of the Palm Beaches, the Nats are the home team, but the Marlins will provide the radio coverage for this game. This game begins at 1:05 pm, and a warm front is rolling into south Florida with climbing temperatures from the high 70°s today to 90°F on Thursday before temps drop before the weekend.
What needs to heat up is the Nats’ bats. Most of the Nats are ice cold compared to the competition who are pounding the ball. There certainly is no reason to panic at this point. Hopefully we will see Victor Robles and Eric Thames soon, but it won’t be today.
Both Robles and Thames have not been in games on the big league side for several days. While we know about Robles, it has been silence on Thames. You won’t get manager Davey Martinez to give up information voluntarily as we have seen in the past. If you ask, you will get an answer. If you don’t, you won’t.
You will also notice that Carter Kieboom is sitting today in one of those “clear your head” days.
“We’re 15 or 20 at-bats in,” Martinez said of Kieboom’s statline. “I mean, I don’t base a lot of things on spring training. There’s guys that hit .450 in spring training and are career .210 hitters. But I just want him to relax, have fun and play. I told him, I said, ‘For me, you don’t have to impress anybody here.’ He’s 22 years old, getting an opportunity to play in the big leagues already. I said, ‘You’re doing awesome, so just go out there and have fun.’ “
Kieboom has one hit this spring and two fielding errors while being fortunate that the official scorer in Jupiter awarded a hit on a ball that went through the wickets over the weekend. Relax Carter, you’re good.
Graphic from Nats PR
Yadiel Hernandez is getting plenty of playing time; Photo by Katie Moran for TalkNats
