Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats
The great win on Friday by the Washington Nationals was tainted by the tough blown save loss last night in the Bronx. The team has to shake that off, and win this finale on Mother’s Day to take the series. With a needed day-off tomorrow, manager Dave Martinez might have to push his bullpen or use Austin Voth and Will Harris to bridge this to Daniel Hudson who looks like the closer for this one. First things first, the Nats need a great pitching performance from Joe Ross.
The offense was not good in the middle of the lineup yesterday as there were too many 0-fers including some red flagged 0-5’s. The Nats hitting star was Victor Robles who was 3-4. What the team really needs is production in the middle of the order.
Both starters today have almost identical ERAs between Ross and the Yankees’ righty Domingo Germán. The good news is that the Yankees’ starter has been horrible at home (6.75 ERA) this season and even worse in day games (9.00 ERA) and the time to hit him is early and often. Lefties hit him better than righties and he has a .50 HR/IP in Yankee Stadium which should translate to him giving up at least 2 dingers in the first 4 innings if the Nats offense takes advantage.
The Yankees are sitting Aaron Judge for this game as the Nats have shut him down. Actually the Nats pitchers have done a great job of shutting down most of the Yankees offense. The issue is the Nats did not take advantage of opportunities yesterday with their offense.
Washington Nationals vs. New York Yankees
Stadium: Yankees Stadium, Bronx, New York
1st Pitch: 1:05 pm EDT
TV: MASN2, YES Network, MLB Network (out-of-market only), MLB.TV
Nats Radio: 106.7 FM The Fan; SiriusXM® ( Streaming Internet 869)
Line-ups subject to change without notice:
1. Trea Turner SS
2. Josh Harrison 2B
3. Juan Soto DH
4. Josh Bell 1B
5. Starlin Castro 3B
6. Kyle Schwarber LF
7. Yan Gomes C
8. Yadiel Hernandez RF
9. Victor Robles CF
Joe Ross RHP
