Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats
It’s the morning of May 2nd. Do you know where your Washington Nationals are? [Looks at the NL East standings….] uh, first place. Some were counting the Nats out just two weeks ago as the media were talking seriously about trading Max Scherzer. it just shows how foolish you look today if you were seriously pushing that as a story.
Yes, the Nats are tied for first place this morning in a 3-way tie with the Mets and Phillies. Because the Mets and Phillies play each other today, one of them will stay in first place, and one will drop back as the NL East teams continue to cannibalize on each other. The Nats must win today to stay in the first place tie. The Nats will face the Marlins today to wrap up this three game series. The Nats enter this game on a 3-game winning streak.
The top rookie pitcher is on the mound for the Marlins as lefty Trevor Rogers gets the start. The Nats have some guy pitching today who has won three Cy Youngs. His name is Max Scherzer. It will be Scherzer’s job to put his team in the W column today.
Manager Dave Martinez will have to be creative today. Lefties have huge reverse splits against Rogers, but don’t expect Josh Bell to be batting left-handed in this one. Rogers against lefties this season: .316/.409/.368/.778 while righties are slashing .156/.235/.234/.469. But Davey goes with an all-righty lineup today except for Yadiel Hernandez in rightfield. The good news is that Rogers has not been as good on the road.
In an aside for the record books, Scherzer enters this game with 2,822 strikeouts and is 10 K’s away from tying Mickey Lolich at 2,832 punchies for 20th on the all-time strikeout list.
Sort of off-the-field news, Nationals’ TV analyst, F.P. Santangelo, has been absent all weekend from the broadcast. While nothing has been said publicly, we were told by a MASN source that it is a private matter, and they were told not to discuss this. We hope for the best for Santangelo that everything is okay with him.
Miami Marlins vs. Washington Nationals
Stadium: Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.
1st Pitch: 1:05 pm EDT
TV: MASN, BALLY Sports Florida, MLB.TV
Nats Radio: 106.7 FM The Fan; SiriusXM® ( Streaming Internet 869)
Line-ups subject to change without notice:
1. Victor Robles CF
2. Josh Harrison LF
3. Trea Turner SS
4. Ryan Zimmerman 1B
5. Starlin Castro 3B
6. Yan Gomes C
7. Yadiel Hernandez RF
8. Jordy Mercer 2B
9. Max Scherzer RHP
